“Come on, meow” – Super Troopers. Construction crews were still at it Wednesday, transforming the historic Gaslamp District into San Diego Comic-Con central. A snow covered facade was revealed to be the A Christmas Carol update, Johnny Depp starring Ebenezer with him making an appearance in costume and character. A flame filled storefront heralded Super Troopers 3 while the photo worthy archfront has been draped in Avengers: Doomsday green and black. A standby line had already started for the Paramount+ Lodge where attendees checked out everything from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dutton Ranch and the UFC. With Star Trek: Strange New Worlds providing the bar, a holodeck photo moment and an impressive DJ spinning galactic hits and occasionally playing the saxophone, all while wearing alien prosthetics.
Inside the Convention Center for Preview Night, displays for Masters of the Universe, Lucasfilm, Funko, Image Comics and DC caught my eye. It’s Matt Dinniman’s year as his book series Dungeon Crawler Carl is all over the place with merch and photo moments while he’s appearing on multiple panels and Audible’s Level Up Lounge. My scavenger hunt for the night included Shout! Factory to pick up John Woo Hong Kong classics The Killer and Hard Boiled as well as Titan Books who had a plethora of titles celebrating Highlander, Aliens, Dogma, The Fifth Element and Star Trek IV: The One With Whales. The Weta Workshop booth was packed as Gimli the first live action Kingpin, John Rhys-Davies was doing a signing.
Thursday marked the first full day of the show and I bounced around the exhibit hall and panel rooms. Producers on Producing had Simon Kinberg (Deadpool, The Martian, X-Men), Andrew Form and Brad Fuller (The Purge, A Quiet Place, Anaconda ‘25) talking the amorphous nature of their jobs, sharing production stories from their long careers and technology advancements. It’s funny to hear how Fox was hoping 2016’s Deadpool would make back its $50 million dollar budget at the box office and live on through DVD. Three movies and nearly $3 billion later, it seems like they did okay…San Diego resident and Comic-Con regular Scott Williams went through his career inking comic books, how some artists leave room to add a little personal touch while others draw so tightly it becomes a version of tracing. Having inked seminal titles like Marvel’s Punisher War Journal then X-Men in the 90’s, going the independent route with Homage/Wildstorm for Wild C.A.T.S. then to DC with Batman and Hush storylines, Williams talked about the style of ink and lines for different genres, smooth and sleek for sci-fi, thicker and rougher for Batman. Comic-Con International bestowed him an Inkpot award, celebrating his vast work along with regular attendance and participation at the show.
With so much to do at the show and outside activations, you have to stay a bit fluid, make lots of plans and not lock into too many “must have” appointments. This helps manage expectations and your schedule. Sadly I opted not to stay late and check out Rob Liefeld’s solo panel or a preview of Adam Windgard’s (The Guest) upcoming action-horror flick Onslaught to hit Hasbro’s “Celebration of Life” concert celebrating 40 years of The Transformers: The Movie, the awesomely action packed yet dark animated film from 1986. “VIP” tickets were a joke as check in took 45 minutes and all the “perks” were nowhere to be found. At least I got to hear the Jem theme song performed live and it was another opportunity for Vince DiCola and Stan Bush to take the stage for “Dare” and “The Touch”.
