CHU was in attendance for San Diego Comic Con 2024. The days of covid apprehension and writer’s strikes are over, SDCC was back to 2019 levels of madness. While I loved the high energy that came with it, some were definitely struggling with the crowding, especially those who started going in the last few ‘rebuilding’ years.
Marvel was back with a vengeance with both a screening of Deadpool & Wolverine plus their Hall H panel with all of the big announcements. By now you have probably seen the big Dr Doom announcement and watched Infamous Iron Man 1 , among many other books, shoot up in price. While I didn’t have it in me to battle for the Saturday panel, I did win the lottery to attend the Deadpool and Wolverine panel which is now one of my top SDCC experiences of all time.
The panel started off with a few words from Kevin Feige, Shawn Levy, Ryan Renolds, Hugh Jackman, and Emma Corrin. Then we went straight into a screening which included the cast coming down to watch with us. Couldn’t ask for a better experience than watching with 7k die hard fans. Afterwards, they brought out other Marvel superstars and we all took home a Wolverine popcorn bucket.
Made it to the Teacup panel which is an upcoming October horror series on Peacock, produced by James Wan. The panel included: James Wan, Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman, and Ian McCulloch. This is going to be a hit for horror fans, especially if you like James Wan’s movies. The show is about a small town that is haunted by a nefarious force, and it’s supposed to take place over the span of 48 hours for quick pacing. They played some clips for us and it didn’t pull any punches, you can expect gore!
It’s not all about Hollywood, there are so many comic book panels that it can get overwhelming. DC, Marvel, and Image panels actually get capped due to popularity. One that I am really excited about is ONI Press bringing back EC Comics. They are starting with Epitaphs from the Abyss, and went all out on the variant covers. We can expect more EC titles in the future that will keep pushing boundaries.
Plenty of panels just to discuss comics such as Covrprice’s panel to raise the question of whether or not we are in the variant age. I had not thought about it before, but fair to say that it’s time for a new ‘age’ of comics as those are usually every 15 years or so. Maybe we are past the modern age? And what would the new age be called? I think ‘variant age’ makes sense.
The game has changed on offsites with the crowds back. While offsites are a great way for non-badge holders to participate, you still need to grab a reservation if you don’t want to wait in a standby line for possibly all day. These reservations drop mid-morning when I am working so I didn’t really get to do offsites like I have in the past. I think many just grab whatever they can to trade them later.
The best offsite for me is Funko Fundays! Last year it was at The Shell by the harbor which was not the best, but now it’s back at Manchester Grand Hyatt and usually my best night of SDCC. This year was pirate themed and the final year with Mike Becker, the creator of Funko. He is retiring from Funko for other endeavors, not sure how that will impact the creative direction of the company. The crowd intensity is high, the party is loud, and we get showered with prizes for winning games!
Den of Geek came in this year with a large presence with several offsite parties and meet ups. They were promoting several upcoming Netflix shows, Netflix has been buying up properties to invest heavily in anime in the next year. Can’t wait to see what they do with Terminator Zero. There will also be a Tomb Raider adaption and a Zack Snyder series called Twilight of the Gods.
The exhibit floor is the most sensory-overloading place on earth and I love it! It feels almost endless and unique things on every aisle, here is some of the sights:
Comics! Comics! Comics! Seems like vendors are more flexible on prices this year.
Coffin Comics is constantly one of the best stops for independent publishers. They were back in their prime location on the convention floor, and selling out of exclusives. Brian Pulido never sleeps as he is creating new characters and expanding the Coffinverse. Coffin has a upcoming Lady Death Kickstarter plus they just announced a licensing agreement with Sideshow. We can also look forward to J. Scott Campbell’s iconic Lady Death cover coming to life as a statue.
Nothing but respect to Bandai for what they have been doing at SDCC for the last few years. Bandai has stepped up with dazzling displays and SO MANY amazing collectibles to bring home. Riding the popularity of Godzilla this year, they brought the biggest Kaiju booth I have seen. But that’s just one of their many booths and product lines, you can spend hours just browsing their displays. I remember their one tiny booth back in 2011, now they own the exhibit hall.
Hasbro is back to selling exclusives in-person! I can see the benefit for all when they sell online and less for them to bring to the con, but there is something special about walking away with that item you fought so hard to get.
One of my biggest surprises was seeing that the Marvel booth didn’t sell any of their usual exclusive comics, shirts, and pins. DC was happy to fill the void with a huge list of limited edition collectibles, including several McFarlane Toys with signature plates. Not unusual to walk by and see the line capped.
First time seeing Tehani Farr at a convention and had been building a collection of her covers to get signed. You can spot her work a mile away, she was signing throughout the weekend at the KRS Comics booth.
Here are some more sights from the floor:
(Yes, the are cosplaying as what you think they are cosplaying as)
(Demon Slayer is on fire this year)
(Kevin Hart signing for Borderlands)
Biggest regret of this year was not dedicating more time to make the Alien panel. The panel created a lot of buzz by bringing the cast, showing more footage, and even had a staged alien chest bursting scene on stage. Then ended the panel by giving away face hugger masks to the entire audience.
Comic-Con International really does an amazing job of managing such a large and chaotic event. Open registration is already set for October 26th if you are interested in joining in on the madness!