The world has waited long enough: here are some pictures from the 2024 Comic-Con International

I've had this blog since 2008, which is a long time in blog years, and also, I guess, the last time the Steelers won the Super Bowl. Sometimes I post a bunch of pictures from Comic-Con in San Diego, and I wonder what kind of Google Image search results they show up in, and if they make any sense without the context of this wonderful blog. I guess we'll never know, but here are 22 more pictures for Google to sort through. Here are some of the things I saw in San Diego this past July!

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

This year's offsite events were as big and immersive as they've ever been, especially along the harbor, behind the convention center. ABC's Abbot Elementary had a carnival with rides and a drum line and a line to get in that went for hours each day.

This must have been fun for two people to go as Batman and Alfred in tandem. Did they ever separate over the weekend? Would it have made sense just to see a guy with a phone and an umbrella? Did they feel the pressure to stay in character the whole time?

Comic-Con is fun for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons is that you can walk down an aisle and see a to-scale Mechagodzilla walking toward you.

You can also see the Statue of Liberty with a chicken man, but I guess you can see that anywhere.

The Hulu booth had a number of signings on the floor over the course of the weekend. Here's the cast of What We Do In The Shadows!

Hulu's offsite event was also a big deal throughout the weekend. I'm not sure why Bender is being shuttled along this conveyor belt, but I am apparently very concerned about it.

My friend Jennie Wood had a panel and a rooftop book signing at the San Diego Public Library one afternoon during the show!

The Young Avengers!

Just don't...don't turn around, Hank.

This might be the best costume I saw all weekend. Kudos to this guy for pulling it off expertly.

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to Paramount's offsite Lodge event, and this is the best picture I took inside. They had a TMNT arcade machine and free pizza, too.

I'm not sure if this vehicle is street legal, or if you are allowed to drive it wearing a Muppet mask, but we'll make an exception for Comic-Con.

If it's a mashup, I like it. These were great.

I was somehow able to get into the Futurama cast signing on Saturday at the Hulu booth.

I recently watched both Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra for the first time, and suddenly these costumes make sense.

A new issue of Sister Powers came out for the show, and I got to spend some time with my friend and series artist Mario Wytch signing over the weekend.

The show isn't limited to the convention floor. These poor souls died, presumably, waiting in line for something.

At some point, it's time to go home.

Public transit has its perils, but it's cheaper than Uber and sometimes you've just got to make do.

This felt like the first "normal" Comic-Con since 2019. It was expansive and intense and I slept very little. I'll be back next year.

Palisades Park and the Batman Slide

 

Let me tell you all a little about Kennywood Amusement Park. Wedged somewhat uncomfortably into the Homestead area of the greater Pittsburgh region, Kennywood is nevertheless a premiere amusement park for Western Pennsylvania. With more than 120 years of history, Kennywood has roller coasters both old and new, from wooden rides like the Jackrabbit and the Thunderbolt to steel coasters like the Phantom's Revenge and the Sky Rocket. And, like any self-respecting Pittsburgh-area institution, there's also a healthy Steelers presence in the new-ish Steel Curtain ride. It's a destination attraction for the area, and a great mid-level amusement park all around.

When I moved from Pittsburgh to the eastern side of the state a few years ago, I knew that I wanted to visit some of the nearby New York City-area amusement parks, namely Luna Park at Coney Island and Palisades Park. I had Coney Island in mind because it's a world-famous park and a real slice of Americana; why not visit somewhere that's been immortalized in different forms of media over the last several decades?

I've since checked that off my list. I've rode the Cyclone and enjoyed it, though I've yet to ride the Wonder Wheel. It's a park that's quaint and quite overpriced, though it's a place I'd recommend seeing at least once, and it's directly off of NYC's most popular beach, south of Brooklyn. I bought a hot dog there! I got the whole experience.

Palisades, New Jersey is located near the George Washington Bridge, across the river from northern Manhattan. It's definitely a town for people who want to live in the city but don't want to pay a million dollars to get a condo there. The commute across the bridge is a relatively easy one.

There were two reasons I wanted to check out Palisades Park: the first is, okay, the 1962 Freddy Cannon pop bubblegum hit of the same name:

Can I just say that "I gave that girl a hug/In the tunnel of love" is a pretty awkward attempt at a rhyme? Anyway, the second reason is that I've gotten used to seeing the following ad in old copies of certain DC Comics:

Any amusement park that's good enough for Superman is good enough for me, right? So I thought that the park would be fun to check out.

This particular ad comes from 1967's Green Lantern #56, which features the second appearance of Charlie Vicker, the actor who played Green Lantern on TV and was deputized as a real GL when his brother was killed (revenge being a central tenant to wielding the ring). This half-page ad also comes with a coupon for the park to (gasp) cut out and use for a free admission:

The coupon was also good for one trip on the Batman slide! Now, one might wonder why Superman is the only figure in this ad and not Batman, if the ride was named after the Dark Knight, especially since the extremely popular Adam West Batman show was on the air at this point. But I suppose you just have to accept that Superman is a world-renowned character and just go with it.

One thing I learned while planning a trip to the semi-world-famous Palisades Parks is that...it's been closed since 1971. Over 50 years! In its place now sits, would you believe it, a high-rise apartment complex, which, okay, now that I type it, I can very much believe it. I'm sure it remains prime real estate.

So what WAS the Batman Slide at the forever-closed Palisades Park? From the information you can find online, it seems like it was a pretty standard slide tower, rising to heights of about 20 feet; kids would take a burlap mat up a flight of stairs and slide down while riding it, just like...you know...just like Batman. I found a video that briefly shows the slide, complete with the Batman logo. Here's a grainy screenshot!

I suppose my dream of riding the Batman slide has been forever dashed by the fact that this park closed down before I was born. To be honest, though, they probably wouldn't have accepted my coupon, anyway.

Interestingly enough, right after I snapped the picture of the ad, I sat down to read a copy of Marvel's Sleepwalker #1, a new and possibly masochistic purchase. Where does Rick and his best girl go on date night? To Coney Island, of course. Let me know if the Wonder Wheel is worth it, Rick.

pictures from the 2021 Comic-Con Special Edition, part 1

Having Comic-Con return in November was a big deal for me. The timing - the weekend after Thanksgiving - was criticized by a number of people, and I get why, especially considering the large circumstances surrounding COVID and the holidays. But as soon as the convention was announced, I knew that I was going to try and be there, so on Thanksgiving day, I got on a plane for the first time since 2019 and flew to San Diego. The next day I went to Comic-Con Special Edition, and here are some pictures from that weekend! 

For the first time, I took the trolley into San Diego. In previous years, I had always rented a car, mostly because I was transporting others and so I could use it as a place to dump all of my many convention purchases while at the show. This time, I went by myself and I knew I wouldn't be buying as much, so I decided to give public transportation a try. It went pretty smoothly! And the train is a common sight around Comic-Con, so it was about time that I took a ride myself. I'm glad that I did.

I realize that the convention center is just a big concrete multipurpose structure, but I love its distinct look. It was great to see this place again.

Unlike most previous years, I attended this show as a professional and not an exhibitor, so I had no early access or special privileges. A few hours before the show floor opened, I made my way to the convention center, where I had to get a wristband that signified that I had been vaccinated. This was a very easy process, after which I went to pick up my show badge.

There were quite a few people walking the sidewalk in front of the convention center, but the number was vastly smaller than in recent years, where the closed-off street in front of the building would be swarming with people.

I picked up my badge in Hall H. I had never actually been in Hall H before! This was also the first show in a long while where people could just walk up and buy badges and enter on the same day. 

Here we are in Hall H. I followed the blue line on the floor to pick up my badge. Look at all of this space! It was incredible to see.

They pulled the Comic-Con photo background out of storage, I see.

I got in line about two hours before the show opened on Friday. There were probably a few hundred people in front of me, and soon the lines grew to the point where the hall was filled. This is the view behind me at around 11:30, a half hour before the show began.

Once the doors opened, I did my best brisk walk (no running!) through the aisles. It was markedly calm.

It probably took over an hour before it started to feel at all similar to Comic-Con. No one was in a rush to enter on Friday. The whole thing reminded my of my first year attending, in 2006. If you wanted to go somewhere and see something, you could do it without a crush of humanity standing between you and your destination.

There were also more than a few empty booths, where vendors hadn't set up yet. 

As you can see, there was no carpet this year at Comic-Con. I'm sure this was a cost-saving measure.

Before too long, though, more people made their way in, and things started to pick up just a little bit.

This show had more displays than, say, the New York Comic Con from October, though they were often more scaled back. I think I've seen this Iron Man before, but I don't care. It was still fun to see some of the Comic-Con extravagance I'm used to!

Some updated Special Edition banners hung from the ceiling.

These hallways are usually packed with people in costume. 

The Comic-Con lines made a modest return, and I did my best to get in some of them. This one is for autograph tickets and wound around the back of the convention center!

There was a total of one big outside banner this year, for the HBO show The Peacemaker.

Perhaps the most important vendor of all returned for 2021 - THE TACO TRUCK! I was so glad to see this food truck. It was like seeing a friend. I ordered a burrito.

I took a lot of pictures of the signs. I do not apologize.

Friday wasn't a big day for costumes, but there were still some to see. Dr. Strange's floating cloak was well done.

Hall A was the most sparsely populated area of the convention center. To fill up some space, the convention set up these canvases to take pictures in front of.

There were still a number of big, impressive displays on the show floor. I have no idea what this one was for, but still...there it is.

Star Trek actor Brent Spinner had an autograph signing for his new book! I was able to get a ticket by getting in line and then going back through the line three times. Spiner remarked at how stupid he felt getting pictures taken when you couldn't see most of anyone's faces. But this was my first Comic-Con in over two years, so hey - we're taking the picture.

There was a big and impressive Pac Man booth on the show floor, there to promote the upcoming Pac Man Museum video game.

The booth had a few displays, but was mostly set up as a way to let attendees play the new game!

This was a popular booth for the duration of the show, and one of the few booths with long wait times to enter. I did get to play the game for a while at the end of one day.

Are...are these...more Stranger Things "Scoops Ahoy" costumes? After all this time? It's like going home again.

For the first time, I finally found enough time to volunteer at the California Browncoats booth while at the show. They're a constant presence at this convention and they had an enormous booth this time around. It was a lot of fun spending time with these folks.

Here's a vaccinated Rosie the Riveter!

Look. I like taking pictures of these signs.

The Funko booth took up the most space on the show floor without question. They had a big chunk of Hall A to themselves, and they made the most of it, with two big display booths, long lines, a gameshow activity area and a DJ that played really loud music nearly the entire time (you could hear it all the way on the other end of the convention hall). I never tried to get a wristband to get some of the more hard-to-find exclusives, but I did manage to sneak in line on Friday, near the end of the day.

And here's a place where you could...slay...some demons. I think.

There was absolutely more Squid Game paraphernalia at the show than anything else. I can only imagine what it would have been like if this were a more normal year. Maybe there would have been actually Squid Games, with actual murdering.

I went to a few panels this year! This one was a Family Feud game hosted by the San Diego public library. I guess I was sitting behind Wayne and Garth?

Here's a guy who kept his mustache, just as Cesar Romero would have wanted.

The weather this weekend was, as you might expect, lovely. It was in the 70s and mild every day. The big difference from this and the July shows is that it was already dark by the time the show ended on Friday and Saturday.

I took a walk through a much quieter Gaslamp district on both Friday and Saturday. The streets were still blocked off most of the way, and there was a lot more outdoor dining happening, which I believe is a new permanent fixture.

Bait, which had the giant Squid Game display on the show floor, also had an offsite shop open during the convention. In true Comic-Con fashion, the line for this place was outrageous and the main store feature was buying things, so I waked by and didn't attempt to get in.

But I did get a picture of this Batman thing in one of the windows!

One of the few outside exhibits was a promotion for the NBC show "La Brea." It was closed by the time I walked by, but here it is, all lit up. I would get to go through the exhibit on Saturday.

This Klingon looks familiar. Maybe he's part of my house? It's always possible. This noble warrior waited for the train like all of us as the first night of Comic-Con came to an end. It was noticeably smaller than in years prior, but I still had a lot of fun (and bought a bunch of stuff, proving that some things never change). There'll be more pictures to come soon!