“We might not be alone in this hunt.” – Predator: Badlands. After a week in San Diego sightseeing, reunioning and spending late nights in loud bars, I’m feeling a little beat but must finish up strong! To conserve energy I panel hopped, starting with Superman: The Cleveland Story, focusing on the Ohio city where Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the iconic superhero. Not wanting to deal with the legalities of being named The Superman Society, The Siegel and Shuster Society was formed with efforts to push the city to embrace their one of a kind scenario which has lead to the house Supes was created in becoming an unofficial museum, an airport exhibit and state exclusive license plate design. Their focus now is raising funds for erecting a Superman statue in a local park and you can donate at https://www.supermanstatuecleveland.org/.
Special Guest J.M. DeMatteis hadn’t been to SDCC in 20 years so I grabbed a few issues from his 1980’s run on Captain America and jumped in line. DeMatteis went from music critic to comic books, animated films, television and novels. He had recently received Comic-Con International’s Inkpot award at Friday’s Spotlight panel, recognizing his contributions to the worlds of comic books, film and fantasy. Scoring writing duties on Cap was a big deal he shared and he wrote on it for nearly three years. I mentioned the scene where Cap’s alter ego Steve Rogers gets drunk with some friends, DeMatteis laughed and reflected that was probably a mistake. Maybe, but still memorable in a terrific run that often looked at the complexities of freedom, liberty and rights in America.
The SDCC Talkback panel signals the near end of another glorious year of the con. As usual it was folks sharing how many years they’d been to the show (one has attended for 50 straight years), their thanks then their grievances, usually related to access, security, or how they didn’t get selected for a random lottery. One interesting question was in regards to the 2028 Olympics being held in Los Angeles in July and would that impact travel, hotels or venues. Comic-Con International has a deal in place to remain at the San Diego Convention Center for 2026 and 2027 so we’ll see what happens. If they do move venues it would be the death knell for the show as we know it. No other proposed city like Anaheim, Los Angeles or Las Vegas could recreate the magic of SDCC taking over the town. Its estimated financial impact over the 4.5 day event is $160 million clams across venues, hotels, restaurants and the show. The former NFL team brought in $120 million over an entire season, eat it sports ball!
SDCC is so synonymous with the city and the San Diego Convention Center (also SDCC) that imagery of the building is used in much of the art around the show on shirts, pins and posters. Lego’s booth had an awesome recreation of the convention center exterior and interior. Walking the floor for the final hour, I picked up a few exclusives as lines had finally died down. When the clock struck 5:00 PM, many attendees were recording the “show is closed” announcement and we all let out a big cheer.
The masses descended into the adjacent Gaslamp District and within an hour police had reopened the streets while crews started taking down activations. The sun still shining but the light of the show setting. See you in 2026!