It’s that time of year again. San Diego Comic Con is upon us, and for gigantic nerds all across the land…it’s like Christmas. This is where a lot of nerd news is broken each year. New television, movie, toy, and comic projects are announced and shown off to be analyzed, debated, and discussed by neckbeards for ages before it even releases.
Cosplayers who spent all year perfecting their getup waltz around having their photo snapped as if they are models on a runway. Celebs mingle and promote their big upcoming blockbuster. Cool promotional swag is given around every corner…after parties, exhibits, exclusive merch…I can go on and on, but this year I’m sitting it out once again and will be soaking in the news like an Average Joe on the sidelines.
It’s tough after attending for 15 straight years from 2003 through 2018. It was second nature. I knew all the tricks and shortcuts and made the most of my attendance at the world’s coolest pop culture event. But in the later years, things got a bit tougher. The swag was more sparse. Most of the tricks and loopholes I learned for over a decade prior, were being squashed. Exclusives were a bit tougher to land. I was more exhausted and frustrated than ever before.
That’s why I decided to take 2019 off. It was supposed to be just a one year break. But then Covid happened…and that altered everything for a bit. 2020 was cancelled completely and last year was a smaller scaled down show. This year seems to be back on track, but I am still sitting it out as I am just kinda tired of conventions. The time off made me realize just how difficult this show is if you are trying to check off a bunch of boxes.
I’ll get back to it at some point, but whenever that happens, it’s going to be a much more relaxed version of me attending. We were always there for work…for the shop. It was a business trip. Score as much awesome shit as possible before the show wraps. The end. That was the goal. That meant long lines, poor sleep, achy body, terrible eating habits, and alot of other sacrifices.
I think about how in the 15 years I attended, I only got into one panel. That was the Breaking Bad panel that had the entire cast (minus Odenkirk) to promote the upcoming Season 5 . With BB being my favorite show…I HAD to get it. We ended up finagling our way into Hall H at the tail end of Joss Whedon’s Avengers panel, and just kept out seats for the BB one. We couldn’t really do panels as they can be extremely time consuming. Not the panel themselves, but securing the position in line prior to it. Hours upon hours which we could not sacrifice.
I miss how good we were at making friends at various booths, networking, scoring passes to after parties and closed events. One of my favorite Con memories still stems from chilling with Mark Hamill at the Sony Online Entertainment party at the Hard Rock. We weren’t supposed to be there, but we worked our magic 2 years in a row and ended up chilling at their closed event.
I miss my friends that I only got to see once a year there. My belly misses the delicious grub at my favorite spot, Phil’s BBQ. I miss lounging at Coronado Beach the day before the madness started. I miss the beautiful city of San Diego and all it has to offer. But I do not miss the stress I felt in the later years while trying to secure exclusives. I don’t miss just how badly my body was banged up after attending all 5 days and lugging those oversized bags of heavy ass merch around.
I look forward to heading back in the next year or two, but it’s definitely going to be a different me attending. I want to be more of a fan, soaking it all in and less of the “must do this” robot mindset that was embedded in my brain. So for now, I’ll be reading up on the latest news on the sidelines here in Jersey…dreaming about taking it as easy as one possibly can on my next visit out to my favorite city.
Until then…
Blewitt