SDCC 2023 Recap
I can’t believe that it’s already been almost 2 months since Comic-Con. Every year it goes by in slo-mo, until suddenly, it’s over. This year, like last, I was pretty much at the con for the entire time except for Sunday. I had a great time even though it ends up being quite exhausting. I didn’t get outside to see any of the outdoor exhibits or activations this year, unfortunately. I was just too tired every night to do anything besides go back to my hotel and collapse. I’ll try to keep this to the highlights since this post will be way too long if I go into everything I did this year.
Wednesday/Thursday
I only spent a little bit of time on the floor on Wednesday night. Preview night is usually a great time to try and grab any exclusive items you want before the madness begins on Thursday. However, this year, the floor seemed especially crowded. I tried to hop over to Loungefly to grab a bag I really wanted but the line was already capped. Luckily I was able to grab it online the next day, but I was a little bummed not to be able to get it in person.
The next day was Thursday, my first full day of the con. A lot of people have asked me if the event seemed less crowded due to the strikes and the fact that some of the panels and exhibitors pulled out. Truthfully, it didn’t feel all that different to me. I don’t usually go to the big studio panels so I didn’t really miss them. I was bummed about some of the TV panels that got canceled (like Gen V) and I missed the Archer panel completely because they changed it from a Q&A to just a screening and changed the time (which I didn’t notice until it was too late). The exhibit floor also seemed more crowded than usual throughout the weekend, which might have been a result of less people camping out for Hall H and deciding to shop the floor instead.
My first panel of the day was the Welcome to Fantasy Land panel that included Darcie Little Badger (A Snake Falls to Earth, Elatsoe), Terry J. Benton-Walker (Blood Debts, Blood Justice), Rachel Griffin (Bring Me Your Midnight, Wild is the Witch), Adalyn Grace (Foxglove, Belladonna), and Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Squad, The Siren, the Song, and the Spy). The authors discussed how they approached world building and shared other insights. I was only familiar with a couple of authors on this panels it was fun to hear from them and some new to me authors.
Next up was a panel focusing on the ComiXology original comic, Barnstormers. The panel featured writer Scott Snyder and artist Tula Lotay. I’ve been a huge fan of both for awhile now and was excited to see them on a panel together. I loved hearing them discuss the process of creating Barnstormers. Snyder says that he’ll often create projects around the artist that he wants to work with and said that this one was specifically meant for Lotay. The series went on to Best Digital Comic at the Eisners that weekend.
Later in the afternoon I went to the A Different Type of Romance panel featuring Holly Black (Elfhame, Curse Workers), Becky Cloonan (Gotham Academy), Linda Šejić, Stjepan Šejić (Blood Stain, Swing), and Rachel Smythe (Lore Olympus). This was another really great panel discussing the ways in which each of these authors and artists craft what some might deem unconventional romances. This reminded me that I really need to read Lore. I tried to catch Smythe at a signing but I wasn’t able to.
Friday/Saturday
The day started off with more shopping on the exhibit floor but then I popped over to Ballroom 20 for the panel The Continental: From the World of John Wick. Luckily, since I don’t think any actors or writers were originally scheduled to appear, this panel was not canceled or revised.
The panel featured Albert Hughes, director of “Night One” (101) and “Night Three” (103); Marshall Persinger (producer), Larnell Stovall (action director), Drew Boughton (production designer), and Ron Rosen (editor).
I love the John Wick franchise so it was super cool to hear about the new limited series. They showed quite a bit of footage (which looked awesome) and it was very interesting hearing from various members of the production team about designing the action sequences and set pieces. I don’t have Peacock currently but I may have to sign up for the free trial when this drops.
Later in the day, I got to go to the panel with tokidoki’s Simone Legno and Pooneh Mohajer. I’ve been a longtime fan of tokidoki, from their very first collab with Le Sportsac. Their booth is always super popular at SDCC but this is the first year that they’ve had their own panel. Simone spoke about the brand’s beginnings and where he gets his inspiration. They were also promoting a new book featuring the artwork of Simone that looks great. It was so cool to learn that Pooneh was one of the original founders of the beauty brand Hard Candy (with her sister). I loved Hard Candy as a teen. That sky blue polish was everything! I hope that they get to do a panel again next year – also in a bigger room because it was packed!
I also popped in to the Mysteries, Magic, and Mayhem panel on Saturday. The panel included Holly Black (Book of Night), Johnny Compton (The Spite House), Philip Fracassi (Boys in the Valley), Catriona Ward (The Last House on Needless Street, Looking Glass Sound), Martha Wells (Murderbot, Witch King), and moderator Liz Kerin (Night’s Edge) in a discussion about how the approach genre and tropes in their writing.
There is always so much to see an do a Comic-Con. Even with the strikes going on, I felt like there was a ton of great programming and really awesome booths. I got to meet some cool authors and grabbed some fun books as well. Overall, super fun con, and I can’t wait to go again next year.
