The real start to Comic-Con happens weeks before it officially begins with random drawings and ticket grabs happening in the blink of an eye. This year we continued our luck and were able to secure tickets to ScareDiego and the Conan taping on Saturday.
ScareDiego is in its 3rd year and is dedicated to horror movies that are about to come out. This year it was all about the future blockbuster—It Chapter 2. We saw the world premiere of the trailer, 2 exclusive clips and got a full-interview from the cast and director. It was interesting learning about some of the behind the scenes aspects including how they used fake blood. A fact I didn’t know— the blood has to be cold otherwise it putrefies and begins to smell like vomit.
The first real day of Comic-Con was on Thursday and it began by going to the Amazon Prime Activation. They were promoting three shows— The Expanse, The Boys, and Carnival Row. I decided to spend the majority of my time trying to get into “The Boys” activation. The premise behind this show is that superheroes have run amok and they are crooked as can be. Comic-con is nicknamed “Line-Con” and for good reason, as sometimes it takes forever to get through anything. The great news was that Amazon provided food including pretzel bites, churros, fruit, etc, which made the waiting more tolerable. Eventually, I made my way up to the front and got to participate in an interactive room escape with a cool smoking car.
Later that day, I attempted to go down to the convention center, but I was stopped on the street when a live band began to play right in front of me. I recorded a bit of their session, which is below.
After stopping multiple times to admire some of the cosplay, watch the live entertainment, and eat free food— I went to the Indigo Ballroom to watch various panels. I saw a table reading of the upcoming second season of Netflix’s The Order, two episodes of Amazon Prime’s Endure, the pilot of ABC’s Emergence, and some clips from Stumptown. This was all well and good, but the highlight was to see Crank Yankers. Grant made his way down for this one panel and it did not disappoint. The panelists were hilarious, we saw/heard various prank calls and even witnessed the panelist turn on the audience. They proceeded to make fun of certain audience members including calling out “an obvious cat lady.” We found it hysterical and are both thrilled for the upcoming season.
Friday was the opening of the Epic’s Pennyworth Activation, which found us in the basement of Oxford Social Club. The club had been completely transformed into 1960’s London with multiple actors and sets being brought in to sell the effect. Afterward, I made my way into Ballroom 20 where I saw the premiere episode of Hulu’s Veronica Mars and stayed to watch the panel for The Boys. After wandering around the convention floor I took off back home for a restful night sleep.
Saturday was the day that we were going to see a taping of the Conan O’Brien show with special guests from Carnival Row. Everyone loves going to these tapings because we are awarded a limited edition Pop figure, which we always turn around for cold hard cash. This year we received the Woody figure, which was sold in a matter of seconds for $80. This year I was joined by Tarina, Emily, and Lara as Grant had run off to San Francisco for a show. After the taping, we ate at Sushi Deli and made our way to see “Baby Trump.” This year the balloon that has been flying over various parts of the country to mock President Trump landed in San Diego. We made it just before they started to deflate him so we got a few pictures and were happy!
Sunday was the last day at Comic-Con and I was burned out. Jake, Grant’s brother was still going strong, but I wanted to do something different. Since San Diego is no longer a sports town with the recent departure of the SD Chargers render the Hall of Champions Museum a bit obsolete. San Diego Comic-Con was awarded the museum to bring about a new place to highlight pop culture. They had a pop-up Batman Exhibit that Tarina, Jake and myself attended. It was cool, but I was hoping for a bit more. They had a unique “Her Universe” design section, which had some really neat outfits made out of legos.
The day and con ended with a visit to Mona Lisa for some obligatory pizza. It was a great convention and I hope to go again next year. :)