San Diego Comic Con 2019

I did it. I survived going to Comic Con this year. As you would expect, it was jam packed with people. Everywhere you went it was an ocean of people, but this year the folks of San Diego Comic Con seemed to be a little more organized. They still had the unusual badge out of one door, just to come in at the door next to it, to access certain areas; but they also made it so a lot of the exclusives were lottery based, which cuts down on major lines and such around various vendors (though not all of them agreed to these terms, so you would still run into a random long line of people where the traffic of people would suddenly choke).

One of the people I got to see (she’s been there the last few years) is Colleen of Wyng’d Lyon Creations, who is a good friend whom I love dearly. She was rock a wonderful and amazing Bat Woman costume that she made herself. She’s extremely talented and very passionate about what she does – so if you like what you see, you really should check out her webpage, and follow her on her business page and Instagram while you’re at it. She does commissions, so if you’re looking for a costume to be made and lack what we call the “skills” to make it happen – she just might be the person you’re looking for! (I admit I don’t know what her currently schedule is with costume making; but she’s one of the kindest folks you can meet and she can work with you!)

Now, next month I am going to Power-Con which is all He-Man related, but I was glad to see that Mattel brought their He-Man stuff with them to San Diego Comic Con. There was a lot of stuff I wanted to buy that I saw in regards to He-Man stuff, but sadly Mattel wasn’t selling anything (my wife is probably very thankful for that), they were simply displaying things. I do love that for some reason, He-Man has made some kind of resurgence in popularity these last few years. There’s constant whispers of a new, updated, movie in the works. I am looking forward to seeing what’s at Power-Con and how much money my wife is going to let me spend at Power-Con…

Sideshow Collectables, as always, had some great displays. (My only issue is some of the costs for their status… I got an R5-D4 from them that was a touch over $100, but made of plastic) and had another R5-D4, roughly the same size (not as “brushed up”) from Target that was $20. So I am always a little leery purchasing Sideshow stuff unless I can get my hands on it first, as I had thought that the R5 would be resin and not plastic for the cost I was paying. But they did have an incredible Gambit statue (along with many of the other X-Men represented… the Colossus and Juggernaut are both massive and mind blowing). But the Gambit one made me think of my podcaster co-host, Maico, as that’s one of – if not his favorite – character of all time. The Sabretooth was incredible as well.

One of the cool things they had was a Venger piece… Last year at San Diego Comic Con they had previewed all of the other characters from the Saturday Morning Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. I am not going to lie… I would probably drop money to own Venger and the others, because that cartoon was pretty fundamental to my childhood, and as I said, despite the sometimes steep prices for Sideshow Collectables, there are exceptions to the rule and sometimes you just gotta pay for it…

And this one – this one is for my mother. I see these two I think every year at San Diego Comic Con, and I think I’ve got their picture at WonderCon too.. Do you know the name of the show where the guy is from? To my memory, I don’t remember a female dressed as the character – but I love that he got his wife/daughter/neice/whoever she might be to get dressed up for the part also!

A pretty big one for me was finally getting to meet “Uncle” Walt Simonson. I never realized how much Walt Simonson had done before I became familiar with him. I “first became” aware of Walt’s work when he came aboard Thor. Thor was always a favorite of mine… but when Walt came onboard as both the writer and artist he launched Thor into such an amazing direction of mixing Norse mythology lore, with Marvel comics lore, plus creating his own characters (Malekith and Kurse, to name a few) who fit so perfectly into the Thor mythos, that they became staples to me. I knew Walt was going to be there, but by the time Comic Con rolled around I had completely forgotten… I have a 30 pound version of Beta Ray Bill‘s hammer that would have been epic to have Walt sign the front face of. But I did get him to sign the newest issue of Ragnarok #1 and picked up the 2014 Comic Con (yes, 2014) exclusive, which he also signed.

Next, per tradition, I got to see and get Marc Silvestri’s signature. Marc is one of the coolest cats you can meet, and one of the most down to Earth and humble guys. The only complaint I would have had this time is that he was doing art commissions at his booth (he was there from 12pm to 7pm) so myself and others had lined up in hopes of a quick signature; and waited, and waited, and waited, while he drew this absolutely amazing piece for this gentleman. Now, I say we were “waiting, and waiting and waiting” like I expected anything else… Ideally, it’d be easy to pause the drawing and knock out a few signatures, but as someone who writes; to stop and do something else, and lose that focus can impact the work that you’re doing. So what I ended up doing is visiting Marc’s booth three times, and on the third time he had escaped quickly to use the restroom and when he got back he knocked out a few signatures before starting the next art commission. So when I say “only thing I’d complain about” – I meant in that moment, standing in line, I was being selfish and not considering Marc’s thought process of drawing. As always, he was able to knock out some signatures, snap a picture and keep going. I absolutely appreciate Marc’s dedicate to his craft, but also his fans.

Upstairs, I ran into Ming from Comic Book Men and asked if I could snap a picture with him. He stood up and said, “Only if you tell me about your podcast.” (I had worn my Comic Relief Podcast shirt to promote it, but honestly forgot beyond the morning after I put it on that I was wearing it). So he and I talked about the podcast for a bit, then he asked if I brought a mic, and I said I hadn’t – then he said, “Let’s use your iPhone and knock something out!” I was totally floored he was willing to do an on the spot interview and even did a bumper for the show! I am on travel at the moment, but when I get back, I plan to sit down and do a podcast about San Diego Comic Con.

And one other cool thing was running into these ladies – dressed up as Jubilee and Storm from the X-Men: The Animated Series which was also a very big part of my childhood. The X-Men theme song for that cartoon is so iconic and the cartoon has been closer than any and every attempt by FOX and their movies… I wish FOX would have taken notes from the cartoon and how it worked… especially the Phoenix storyline… Granted nothing is exactly like the comics, because the comics have been running for so long, and the Phoenix story took some serious building up – but I feel like FOX was always just going for the “money shot” rather than giving us the foreplay we wanted to see the Phoenix movie done right.

Anyway… There’s more photos on our Facebook page.

Here’s a few of them, just to lick them chops..

• Tawmis

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