Back at the big show! CHU attended San Diego Comic-Con 2023 over the week of July 19th. COVID who? SDCC was back to pre-pandemic levels of crowding with no restrictions. The exhibit hall was the most consistently packed it’s been in the Hollywood era. Likely due to the writer’s strike which announced that actors would join the strike not even a week before the show started. I estimate that celebrity attendance takes probably 30K attendees off the exhibit floor at any given time; whether they are in many of the large panel rooms or waiting in line to get into one of those rooms.
I love Preview Night, it often leads to some kind of unexpected memory. The doors kicked open and I bee-lined to the Spawn booth for the limited signed Gunslinger posters. I hear some commotion behind me and Todd McFarlane is going through the line and personally greeting each person that came to the Spawn booth first. He had a sharpie in hand too. Normally we would need to wait a few hours in line for this experience, so amazing to see him taking time with dedicated fans. Show just started and already a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
Spawn madness continued all weekend, especially when the Puppeteer Lee Spawn 1 variant dropped along with 3 gold foil blank covers. Coffin Comics sold out of several of their SDCC exclusives on the first night. Speaking of Coffin, they are still KILLING IT with their Kickstarters. Don’t sleep on their next Lady Death launch on August 9th. DC was back at SDCC with merch this year. In my opinion, they outperformed Marvel in every way. Better merch, nicer looking booth, and much better customer service. The Skottie Young pins at Marvel are always awesome but given how slow their lines move, I see no reason why you wouldn’t just save the time and buy off of ebay.
I kept hearing from multiple exhibitors that sales were way up this year from the increased foot traffic. I think the strike is a blessing in disguise. Trinity brought some red hot exclusives (from Adi Granov, E.M. Gist, and Peach Momoko) and created a very orderly system for wristband distribution for Peach Momoko signatures and commissions. Peach seems really nice and offers a reasonable price for sketches.
Boom Comics came back with a refreshed booth and brought some killer books, every purchase gave a free signing ticket to meet the likes of Jenny Frison and Lee Bermejo. Dark Horse returns with one of the biggest comics booths and awesome giveaways. Of course many great comics vendors attended like El Rey, who were hosting several of their own artist signings, these are usually shorter lines and better managed than big booths but don’t tell anyone that!
Bandai and their properties took a massive amount of floor space and grows by the year. While I may not be as familiar with all of their content, I try to pick something up from one of their many booths every year. Why do I keep showing Bandai so much love? I appreciate how they have continually expanded their presence every year while companies like Mattel and Hasbro are investing less into the con experience (Hasbro doesn’t even sell merch on-site anymore). They create a special experience for attendees and I hope they are being rewarded financially for it.
Funko’s footprint somehow expanded again and who knows what chunk of the exhibit floor space they may take up in the next decade. New lines they brought this year were Blockbuster video style figures, Bitty Pops, and more Funko games. Funko Fundays took place at the Rady Shell, so attendance was about 3 times bigger. The energy brought by Funko Fans is through the roof. Louder than most concerts. We were treated to a night of games, prizes, and surprise celebrity appearances.
Got to see some rock band presence this year with Lacuna Coil promoting a comic and Twin Temple appeared at the Stern Pinball booth
Outside Con is an experience all by itself, but once again much busier in 2023 as all the Hall H Celeb fans have to go somewhere. First I visited AMC’s Immortal Verse (promoting Mayfair Witches and Interview with the Vampire Season 2), a truly immersive experience setup to look like New Orleans and filled with actors guiding you through it. First, you are taken to a room to drink a youth ‘elixir’ then you are free to walk the town where various performers entertain you. All throughout there are townsfolk walking around and whispering rumors to you about people disappearing. Merch included a tote with some posters and one free month to AMC+.
Paramount Plus Lodge had a brutally long wait but a truly generous offsite once you are in. Takes place in a restaurant and you are given a token for a free slider and 2 free drinks. There were several stations for photo ops, games, and free caricatures.
Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary offsite had some of the best photo ops with theme park level decorations. After the short walk through the installation, guests were given free dino nuggets and there was a gift shop with displays of some awesome Jurassic Park merch that could be purchased through a QR code. Kudos to the merch actually being somewhat reasonable prices but the 20min+ walk to arrive left some questioning if the offsite was worth it.
My big miss this year was not making it to the Marriott Marquis for the Junji Ito exhibit. Thought I might wait until Sunday then it turns out it was closed on Sunday (rookie!!). Hope it will be back next year but I picked up some of his books from the Viz Media booth including a pre-release.
Artist alley was popping all weekend, it could be overwhelming to brave walking down those aisles. Not only do I hope the artists had their best year ever, I’m hoping some former Hall H attendees discovered some artists or comics they can follow going forward. Not that the alley was without drama, one artist who was selling AI art actually got called out and booted from the show. My understanding is that it is in the contract with CCI; no usage of AI art is allowed.
Another great SDCC in the books and already looking forward to next year. Not sure why I enjoy this chaos but always have a great time, part of the fun is not knowing what to expect. If you live in the Southwest or plan to visit sometime, it’s worth checking out SDCC or their sister show Wondercon.
awesomesauce