I had a nice Comic-Con. That’s all. The end.
No, I did. The week started early for me with a trip downtown on Monday (7/16) to have dinner with a friend, followed by another dinner on Tuesday (7/17) with yet another out-of-town friend (yes, I do have friends), after badge pick-up. Since I had a panel this year, I had access to some guest badges, only one of which was actually printed when I got there, in addition to my own. Not quite sure why that happened since I had email receipts for every one of them, and everyone involved had also gotten emails about them. Oh, well. It’s not like I had a lot planned for the day before the night before (Preview Night), and it all got fixed, eventually.
Click on the images to see them larger on your screen! All photos by me.
Preview Night was a bit too much for me, to be honest. The floor was packed (there was only one major program in Ballroom 20 scheduled against it), and I’m finding as I’ve gotten older that crowds are not for me—they pretty much never were, but it’s worse now—and Preview Night was wall-to-wall people. I lasted only about two hours on the floor.
To be honest, I hesitate to be critical of Comic-Con. I’m—obviously—no longer employed by them, but I do feel a certain amount of loyalty. They provided me with a decent living and a career that I—for the most part—enjoyed (minus a person or two who tried to make it difficult for me). But I’ve found over the past three events they’ve done—Special Edition in 2021, Comic-Con 2022, and this year—one area where they’ve really fallen down, and that’s line control on the front drive of the San Diego Convention Center on opening night (or in the case of Special Edition, opening day). While I’m certain that people that work at the event think they know exactly where every line is out there and what purpose each one fulfills, in practice that’s not the case. When it comes to entering the show for the very first time, no one seems to have a clue as to which line they’re in and where they’re going. I felt this year was particularly bad, because there was an absence of green-shirted line control people (I saw none) directing people into the lines they needed to be in. There were—I’m assuming—supposed to be separate lines for badge pick-up (attendee and industry, the latter meaning press, professionals and programming participants), and people who already had badges and were in line to enter the Exhibit Hall. None of that seemed to be properly delineated. The lines seemed to form into one big mess, with basically nobody knowing where they were going and worse yet, no one around to tell them where to go. I can’t tell you how many times I heard people ask, “Which line is this?” only to get the reply, “I dunno.”
I dunno—sorry—I don’t know if there was a lack of volunteers for line control staff or if not enough were scheduled for Wednesday night, but there seemed to be no one directing anyone out front and it all seemed overly chaotic. There was no Hall H line for the next day to worry about, so I would think (and this is NOT necessarily a learned opinion; even though I worked for Comic-Con for over 20 years, I was never part of line control, except to do the original designs on all the room line maps, some of which they’re still utilizing in the Quick Guide), but I feel it should have been all hands on deck on the front drive for Preview Night. Maybe it was, and I just didn’t see it, but it sure seemed like a big mess that could’ve been avoided.
Speaking of no line for Hall H … I didn’t miss the lack of Hollywood programming at all. While I probably would have attended a Marvel Studios panel in H, if it was available as originally promised by Kevin Feige, I will admit to being someone who is suffering from “Marvel Fatigue.” Other than Hawkeye, I have yet to watch a Disney+ Marvel show that I really liked. The current one, Secret Invasion, is tedious and cheap-looking, and the last few movies, especially Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness each had their moments, but were way too long, with too much reliance on the multiverse. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was good, but not as good as the first Black Panther film, although losing its star to cancer certainly had a terrible impact. I also suffer from Star Wars Fatigue … haven’t even gotten the urge to watch The Mandalorian Season 3 yet, even though I currently have a free six-month subscription to Disney+, but I digress.
What I’m trying to say here is that I did not miss the lack of Hollywood programming one bit. I think the Comic-Con programming staff did an incredible job of rolling with the punches—and there were lots of them; at one point I saw 30-some cancelled panels, the bulk of them movie and TV-related—and even scheduling some new things onsite on the fly, like Robert Kirkman’s panel with Entertainment Weekly in Hall H. None of that is easy to accomplish.
Some of the different activations and building wraps at Comic-Con this year, including the Hulu AniMayhem village out back, the traditional Omni Hotel Fox “Animation Domination” wrap alongside the Showtime/Paramount+ Yellowjackets wrap on the Hard Rock Hotel, and the Shogun TV series wrap on the Hilton Bayfront.
My only concern about the lack of Hall H and Ballroom 20 programming was how it would affect the Exhibit Hall, and for sure things were a bit more crowded in there for the duration of the weekend. Not having two gigantic rooms that take about 10,000 people off the floor has to have an impact. When John Rogers first proposed Hall H back in 2004 or so, his intent was to not use that space for more exhibitors, but to have it be a giant programming room that would take close to 6,000 people per day and sit them down someplace other than the Exhibit Hall. I left a bit earlier than usual on Preview Night—when it’s always crowded, due to the lack of competing programming—and lasted only about three hours onsite on Sunday, when I had just had enough for the entire weekend, and, to be honest, was broke. I walked almost 50 miles at Comic-Con, which is not easy when you’re taking tiny baby steps in the Exhibit Hall, due to the crowds and so you don’t step on anyone in front of you (one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone nails the back of my shoe when I’m walking).
That pirate ship was some beer thing that let you drink and shiver yer timbers at 10:00 AM, if you so desired. It kept almost bankers’ hours, closing at 6:00 PM each day.
One thing I did learn this year is how wrong the local TV stations’ view of Comic-Con is. They were all over the Adam Vary article in Variety pre-Comic-Con that opined that the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild strikes provided an “existential crisis” for the event, one that may end it forever. The irony of this is that both strikes do provide an existential crisis to both Hollywood and the dinosaur-like magazines that cover it. Vary’s article was just giant click-bait, and the local TV stations bought it, hook, line, and sinker (or stinker, if you prefer, as I do). Everyone I saw at Comic-Con seemed to be enjoying themselves. Outlets like Variety and the local news operations of San Diego TV stations seem to think Comic-Con is only about movies and TV and cosplayers and nothing else. I saw so many local stations jump on that Variety article like it was some kind of prophecy from above and an indication that Comic-Con’s future is doomed. The show’s attendance is healthier than ever, and I think the lack of Hollywood programming proves that it will last beyond the studios and TV networks and streamers involvement. Towards the end of Comic-Con weekend, the local TV stations started to spin a couple of different stories: Will Comic-Con stay in San Diego when their contract expires after next year’s (2024) event, and what was the economic impact of this year’s show, information that won’t be available for months to come. Once again straying towards some of the negative aspects of the show (such as would the economic impact be less without Hollywood’s presence and the extremely slight possibility of the show moving), the local TV stations continue to lean into negative reporting on what is a huge boon to the city. They have absolutely no concept of what Comic-Con is; to them it’s just nerds in costumes and Hollywood stars, and that’s sad and wrong.
Obligatory signs photo from the escalator near Hall H on the left; Dragonball Z display in the area behind the Marriott Marquis and Marina hotel on the right.
Exhibit Hall wise, I was excited to see both DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics back on the floor, but incredibly disappointed to see both of their booths. Dark Horse used to have a large sales presence, with multiple books and other items for sale at Comic-Con. This year, it seemed to just be a handful of items and a space for lines for signings. And DC’s booth was laughable at best, compared to the anchor it used to be on the show floor. It seemed like a leftover corner from their horrible 2019 booth, when the comics-publishing division was shoe-horned into a corner of the Warner Bros. booth solely to satisfy the ego of one exec, who was one of the first to be laid-off when Discovery took over. DC had a bunch of high-priced junk for sale, and was hardly worth the walk back—which was like hacking your way through a jungle, minus a machete—into Funkoville to visit it. Anything, though, is an improvement over Warner Discovery’s presence at the show in 2022, which amounted to a Shark Week blimp circling overhead at the Convention Center. I also still don’t get the IDW booth, which seems to have just a couple of small areas set up to purchase a limited amount of items; it’s like visiting a teller in a bank. Marvel had it’s usual giant booth of madness and an additional nearby space to sell things, again high-priced junk in my eyes. So for the most part, a lot of the publishers’ booths seemed disappointing to me.
Comic-Con and the Comic-Con logo are registered trademarks of San Diego Comic Convention.
I did have my Tales From My Spinner Rack LIVE! panel on Friday, 7/21 in Room 29AB and it went okay, marred by a disturbing incident that I’m trying to put behind me, so I’m not going to talk about it here (don’t ask). I had about 45 people there (a smaller room would have been nice) and I wasn’t thrilled with my delivery; as usual too monotone and lacking in emotion (that’s me, folks!). Thanks to everyone who attended, even though the bulk of the audience were people I know (and a few I love). I have a plan to record a recreation of the panel utilizing my Keynote (PowerPoint) presentation and script and upload it to YouTube so I can link to it here on my blog; if that works out, I’ll also do the WonderCon one. I did not record either of them as they actually happened, so these would be newer versions, with some edits and maybe some additions, too. Hopefully it will also sound more like I want it to, and most certainly take place without any annoying interruptions.
I bought some old comic books. Big surprise.
The bulk of my time at Comic-Con was spent looking through long-boxes and digging for gold … or in my case silver, since the majority of the old comics I’m interested in are from the 1960s, the Silver Age of Comics. I bought quite a stack—around 48 or so books, most of which I had as a kid and which are now long-gone from our (my brother’s and my) original collection. Luckily most of them were in the $5-10.00 range, but some I paid quite a bit more for but still viewed them as bargains. Here’s a dozen of them—roughly 1/4 of what I bought at Comic-Con 2023.
That Fantastic Four #72 was a bit of a Holy Grail for me and difficult to find at a decent price, so I was happy to pay more than I wanted to, but not a crazy amount. I also love the Crystal cover on #81 and I’m very fond of the 25-cent giant Not Brand Echh issues. All of these books are fodder for more Tales From My Spinner Rack posts, of course!
I’ve recently fallen back in love with DC’s 80-Page Giant series, and here are the first three issues from the mid-1960s, all featuring the core of the Superman Family. There’s something about those segmented covers (two on the left by Curt Swan, Lois Lane by Kurt Schaffenberger) that makes me feel a warm flood of nostalgia … either that or I spilled my tea again.
I love all three of these covers, and I was curious to re-read “The Death of Lois Lane” story in Superman #194. That Jimmy Olsen cover is so unusually and beautifully colored, especially the Kryptonite rocks at the bottom, and the Lois Lane cover by Neal Adams is a classic, and one that I mentioned in my Tales From My Spinner Rack panel presentation.
Another classic Curt Swan Superman Annual cover (#2); the first appearance of the Inferior Five in Showcase #62; and the last Roy Thomas-Gil Kane Captain Marvel I needed, which is usually a pretty pricey affair since it’s the issue where Carol Danvers gets her powers, but I found it for pretty cheap.
I also got some of the latest books and mags from TwoMorrows, including their two newest, Pacific Comics Companion and Working with Ditko, along with the latest issues of Back Issue (#s 46 and 47) and RetroFan (#s 28 and 29). I picked up Bill Griffith’s new graphic novel biography on Nancy cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller, called Three Rocks, from Abrams ComicArts, which made me also want to get Griffith’s Invisible Ink from Fantagraphics, which concerns the artist’s mother’s clandestine affair with a cartoonist.
Me (far right) with Peggy and Tom from Drawn & Quarterly, after their Comic-Con panel on Saturday.
All in all, it was just a nice, sort-of mellow Comic-Con for me. It was great to see friends like Charlie from Abrams ComicArts, Jacq from Fantagraphics, Peggy and Tom from Drawn & Quarterly (I still miss your booth!), along with some of my former Comic-Con workmates, like Eddie, Laura, Tommy, Adam, Amy J.L., Meg, Chris, Justin, Rod, Alex, Sam, the other Sam (I’ll let the two Sams figure out which is which), my Toucan columnist, Maggie, and a number of my Downtown Book Club compadres, too. And finally, it was great to see my friend from across the pond, Lisa Wood (aka artist Tula Lotay), win the Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic alongside writer Scott Snyder for their Barnstormers series.
It all seemed like a vacation week for me, to be honest. I haven’t traveled anywhere this year, except for a short weekend hop to Anaheim for WonderCon at the end of March, so traveling back and forth across the bay on the Silvergate ferry ever day was like a little escape for me. And yes, I bought way too much, but I also haven’t been traveling, so blowing some cash on comics seemed like a much-needed present to me. And I’m all about presents to ME. How’s that for rationalization?
Here’s a present for you: Tales From My Spinner Rack! returns on Wednesday, August 9th, with the first in an all-new series of four posts featuring the great Marvel Comics annuals of my youth.
That’s my Comic-Con 2023 report. Hopefully I’ll see you at Comic-Con next year, July 24 through July 28, at the San Diego Convention Center, a little bit later than usual. It’ll be here before you know it!
@innocent-bystander.com 
Have to agree the floor was so busy every day ! It was even a crush trying to walk small press. Still a great con and your panel was a fun dive into the whackiness of the silver age.
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