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.

This Ink Runs Cold and the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con

 

Well, hey, I guess it's time for my yearly "yes, I'm going to Comic-Con" post. This year seems like it'll be a return to the enormous shows of 2019 and earlier, with lots of star power and big, flashy events both on the show floor and outside of the convention center. And it looks like Marvel will bring their Fantastic Four cast to Hall H in anticipation of next year's film. Am I excited? Yes! Do I think I'll be able to get into Hall H to see the Thing? No! But you never know what Comic-Con magic will be in play.

Unlike most previous years, I won't be stationed at a specific booth for this show, but I will be making a few stops to sign books on different days.

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Z2 Comics is debuting their new Motörhead graphic novel, No Remorse: The Illustrated True Stories of Lemmy Kilmister and Motörhead at Comic-Con, and I...somehow? have a story in the book that I worked on with artist Jeff McComsey. I'll be signing copies of the book with other contributors on Sunday at 2pm at booth 1529.

 Sister Powers: Summer Vacation will also debut at Comic-Con this year, from Keenspot Entertainment and artist Mario Wytch! Keenspot has booth 2635 on the show floor, and I'll be at their booth most days to sign copies with Mario.

Artist Scott Morse recently announced This Ink Runs Cold, a sci-fi/crime anthology that he'll be drawing, in part, on the show floor at Comic-Con, while the convention is taking place. I submitted a story and found out earlier today that it made the cut when Scott posted the above image. Don't worry that my last name is misspelled (or perhaps we're just using the historic spelling). It's...it's me, I promise.

We're still working out the details, but Scott has asked those of us who'll be at the show to stop by while our pages are being drawn. This'll happen between Friday and Sunday at the Allen Spiegel Fine Arts booth, #4701 on the show floor. I'm hoping that there'll be a livestream or some other documentation happening as the pages are created, because this is a really fun idea and I hope others want to watch it come to life.

My contribution will be a story titled "Blood Brothers." There are plans to publish the book shortly after the convention, so I hope to see it in print before too long.

I've got about 24 hours before I have to head out to the airport, so I'm glad that I'm using some of this precious time to update the ol' blog. It's important!! I believe it! See you in San Diego!

"Sister Powers" miniseries from Keenspot - and an Inktober mini-comic!

Hey everyone. Did you realize that I wrote a series that's out now from Keenspot? I will admit that it kind of caught me by surprise, too.

"Sister Powers" is a book that I wrote quite a number of years ago under the title "Faith and Charity" (after the two main characters) with artist Mario Wytch. Mario and I have known each other for a while, and we've worked together on a few stories that have been published - FUBAR and a short Teddy and the Yeti story among them. Faith and Charity was a story that I enjoyed, but had filed away for some time. I never really expected it to go anywhere. So I was surprised when, earlier this summer, I got a message from Mario letting me know that not only was he drawing it, but that it was going to be published as a three-issue limited series from Keenspot.

Mario was kind enough to let me go back through the script and make a few pre-publication edits. It had been about 13 years since I wrote the story and I was worried that not everything would've held up in the time that had passed. I was happy to see that I still liked most of it, and what I didn't like (mostly melodrama) could be fixed with a new line or two.

I met Mario in person - for the first time in my life - at Comic-Con in July. He had a booth with Keenspot, and a banner for the book under its new title. I do like the logo, which does, of course, take some inspiration from DC's "Super Powers" book from the '80s. Keenspot had a preview book to hand out with a short introduction to the characters in it that I was able to snag.

The first issue of the series came out in September, and it's (probably?) still available through Diamond. The next issue comes out in December, and the final issue of the miniseries follows in March (I think).

Mario and I worked on a new short story with the characters that we're releasing a panel at a time for Inktober. Should I use the hashtag for that? #Inktober? Sure.

We're posting the panels to various social media, and if you'd like to follow along, you can start here with this Twitter post:

For #Inktober this year, @MarioWytch and I are creating a six-page, 31-panel comic where we work on and release one panel per day for the entire month! Here’s the first installment of our story titled “We All Wear Masks”: pic.twitter.com/PRzpCSlJ38

— Jeff McClelland (@JeffMcClelland) October 2, 2019

Here's the Diamond Previews information for issue #2, out in December!

Pictures from the 2019 Comic-Con International, part 2 (Wednesday, 7/17)

Let's look at Wednesday's pictures at Comic-Con 2019!

Preview Night started early for me this year, as I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Conan O'Brien taping that took place before the convention officially opened. This means getting up early and waiting in line - a Comic-Con tradition! - to officially get the tickets you had semi-reserved. I got in line at about 7:30am; there were several hundred people in front of me. But I got my tickets and was set loose at around 10:00.

From there I hopped back over to the convention center to complete the booth setup...and to see some of the displays while there was time.

The Comic-Con tarp thing that hangs outside of the convention. Still looking good after another year in storage!

One of the nearby parking garages was dressed up in an Avengers promotion.

I saw a few interesting things on the show floor. This Marvel Two-in-One cover caught my eye, for some reason.

And, oh, this Action Comics #1, graded 8.5, as well. That's a $2 million book right there. Sheesh. The other ones aren't bad, either.

The Conan taping started at around 3:45 that afternoon. The Spreckels Theatre looked snazzy, as always.

Here I am with some friends! I'm apparently showing off my bracelet.

The guests on this day were from the It sequel. Bill Hader giggled through most of the interview. It was a weird show - more raunchy than I had expected. I know that Conan recently moved to a new 30-minute format, but this show ran an hour. Everyone was excited to be there! And when the show ended, we burst out of the theater and galloped toward the convention center. It was great to be able to see the show without having to miss any time at the convention.

I got inside about a half hour before the floor opened. It's always fun to see things right beforehand - there's a nervous energy going through the crowd of exhibitors.

And here's the Dark Horse staff getting those yellow bags ready...

...and I saw Robert Kirkman walking around the floor...

And then it was open! And it got crowded fast.

One of my first stops was the Marvel booth. I'm a sucker for SDCC comics and Marvel has had some interesting ones the past few years.

Some Captain Marvel costumes and props were on display by the booth!

I passed by Grae Drake, former Rotten Tomatoes gal and current Ms. Moviefone, and we got this very natural picture together.

In years past, I was able to do most of my shopping on this night (to be fair, I shop every day, but I get the bulk of my "must have" items on Wednesday if I can). This year, for whatever reason, the lines seemed to move more slowly than I remembered. I stood in the Marvel line for quite some time, and when I got out, there wasn't a lot of time left to see and do other things. But I did see this Alien statue!

So, I apparently have a three-issue comic series coming out this fall from Keenspot? This was interesting to see. I'll write more about it at another time, but a lot of this was unexpected.

Here's my friend and collaborator Mario Wytch, who I met for the first time in person, despite knowing him online for about 15 years. I also learned at this show that his last name is not pronounced "witch".

After the show ended for the night, I stopped by the Chuck Jones Gallery in the Gaslamp district, one of my go-to locations every year. It's always a fun place to stop and see.

There were some neat Fantastic Four prints on display among the other items.

NBC's The Good Place had a pancake diner right in the Gaslamp, which seemed to be one of the more popular attractions during the show.

Super7 once again had a neat offsite pop-up shop; this year it was called the "Boodega" after being Skeletor and Hordak's Lair for the past few years. The line was just as long as it always was, though, and because I don't have any particular affinity for the Universal movie monsters, this was as close as I got.

It was a pretty low-key night all around, but it was a big day with Conan in the morning and early afternoon. After getting some pizza, I was ready to head back and get ready for Thursday. We'll look at those pictures soon!