When it comes to comic cons, there is no show quite like The Big Show – San Diego Comic Con. Every year a hundred and sixty thousand nerds descend on downtown San Diego to see the latest and greatest nerd stuff the major studios and manufacturers are cranking out for the next year. It’s an experience unlike any other, and consequently deserves a post of its own. From getting tickets, to getting a hotel, to getting to SDCC, to what to do when you’re there, it’s an adventure from start to finish that I’m pleased to share my experiences with.
I’d always wanted to go to SDCC. I followed the coverage of the event every year, because that was when all the new trailers dropped and all the new toys got shown off. I never thought I’d actually go, until one of my friends said “Hey, we both make good money, so let’s sign up for tickets and see how it goes.” So, we did. Open Registration (which I’ll explain later) came, I got in and got our tickets, and that July I was in San Diego for my first SDCC. Now, my experience is exceedingly rare – some people try year after year and don’t get in. However, it’s a bit like being in an exclusive club – once you’re in, you’re in. A fellow SDCC’er friend of mine calls it “keeping up the membership”.
So, how do you get there?
The first step in getting in to SDCC is signing up for an account with Comic-Con International (CCI), who put on SDCC every year. That gets you in to Open Registration, which is where the real fun begins.
Every year there are about 160,000 badges available and a million people trying to get them. That means that a bunch of people won’t be going to SDCC every year. Even if you’ve been before, there’s no guarantee you can go the next year. Your chances are better, for reasons I’ll explain later, but they’re still not 100%. Consequently, getting to your first SDCC will mean braving Open Registration, where you’ll be competing against all of the other people trying to get tickets in a randomly drawn zero-sum lottery. If you know someone that’s been before and has a badge buying group (people that group up to buy badges for everyone in the group), you have a much better chance than most, but still not guaranteed. This year’s Open Registration was on November 10th – some years its later, some years it’s much later, but they try and do it far enough in advance to give people a chance to save up for hotels, plane tickets, and spending cash.
When you do Open Registration, there’s a lot of panicked waiting followed by a little bit of panicked buying. If you get in to the registration lobby, you can pick which days you go based on what’s available. Preview Night (a limited engagement on Wednesday evening) sells out first, followed by Saturday, then Friday, then Thursday and Sunday. Get picked early enough and you can go every day – get picked late, and you may only get one or two days. Honestly, if you’ve never been, Thursday and Sunday are fine. My first year I got Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, and having Saturday off was a welcome break. It does, however, mean that you can’t enter the convention center for those days, unless you borrow someone’s badge for the day, which is very risky and can get you and the badge holder kicked out of the rest of the con. Tickets aren’t that expensive – between $40-$60 depending on the day, which is about what you pay at any other con.
Let’s say you’re one of the Chosen Few that won the Open Registration lottery and you’ve got your tickets to SDCC. Congrats! You won the first of three-plus lotteries you’ll be participating in over the next few months as you fight with everyone else that has a badge for a place to sleep and exclusive swag.
A few months after Open Registration takes place, Hotel Registration, aka Hotelpocalypse, will kick off. It’s nicknamed Hotelpocalypse because there are only about 40,000 hotel rooms in San Diego, many of which are booked at full rates by studios, artists, etc. long ahead of time. Hotelpocalypse exists because otherwise the hotels would charge $600+ a night, making SDCC out of reach for all but a very privileged few. Similar to Open Registration, hotels downtown in the Gaslamp District or next to the convention center sell out first. After that go the outer downtown hotels, and finally everything between San Diego and Los Angeles. The difference is that if you strike out during Hotelpocalypse, you’re not out of luck. Plans change and people drop out all the time, so availability varies. This past year I didn’t get anything at Hotelpocalypse and booked my room in June. If you like living dangerously, you can even wait until July.
So, you’ve got your tickets, you’ve got your hotel room, you’re ready to go. But, what about swag? Well, SDCC is where you can get swag unlike anywhere else. Exclusive autographs, toys, and other items are big draws, which means you have to endure yet another lottery to get them. Fortunately, CCI has introduced a new lottery system for exclusives. Brands like Lego, Funko, Hasbro, etc. will all have exclusive stuff for sale that you can only get at SDCC, and depending on how in-demand it is, can fetch serious money on the secondary market. This lottery system involves going to a site provided by CCI, ticking off what you want, and crossing your fingers that you get something that A) you want, B) is on a day you can attend, and C) is still available when you go to get it. Last year I lucked out in getting an exclusive poster from Mondo, but that was about it. Having friends here helps – the more you enter, the better chance you have to have someone get something.
One of my favorite lanyard badges says “I had to win the lottery three times to get here!”, and it’s absolutely true. While not quite one in a million odds, getting to SDCC is not terribly far off either.
So, you’ve got your badges, your hotel, and your exclusives. Now what? Well, now you go to the con.
I recommend arriving on Wednesday to check in and get settled, because you’ll want to get rolling early on Thursday. That means going to the convention center, picking up your swag bag, guide, etc., having a decent meal, and getting a good night’s sleep, because on Thursday, the con doors open at 10am, and SDCC begins.
When you first step on to the con floor, the sheer size is overwhelming. It’s two football fields-worth of nerd stuff. Anything you could possibly ever want is there. Everyone even tangentially related to nerd culture has a presence. It’s like being Augustus Gloop under the chocolate waterfall in Willy Wonka – completely overwhelming. But hey, you’re at SDCC, so drink up!
After you’re done gawking at the size of the con, you’ll see people standing in lines, everywhere. There’s a reason that SDCC vets jokingly refer to SDCC as “Linecon”. It’s because you’re going to stand in lines for everything, everywhere. Food, bathrooms, buying stuff, swag, whatever. You may find yourself in a line for no reason. If you think a line is short, make sure that it isn’t just wrapped halfway around the con. You’ll hear people say a line is “capped” – that means they’re not accepting anyone else, so don’t hang out around the line. Security people will constantly tell you to keep moving – no stopping and gawking unless you want to get run over by an orc.
Thursday and Sunday tend to be the most low-key of the four days. Friday and Saturday, meanwhile, are jam packed and completely insane. Pro-tip: save your standard buying for Sunday – whatever you buy is something the vendor doesn’t have to ship home, so they’re more likely to cut you a deal.
When it comes to getting around the con, just keep walking. That may mean shuffling in tiny increments as well, but if you’re moving you’re ok. That being said, sometimes you end up trapped behind a giant mass of people trying to gawk at Jason Momoa or the new Doctor Who or whoever happens to be wandering around.
The con floor, while certainly a main attraction, isn’t the only attraction. The other part of SDCC are the panels. This is where luminaries from all over nerddom come to speak to their adoring fans, in rooms ranging from a few people to a few thousand people. Panels can be everything from making your own props with 3D Printing, to upcoming toys from Hasbro, to Steven Spielberg introducing the trailer for his newest movie. They go on all the time, all over the con, and are just as much of an experience as anything else.
Most of the “main events” at SDCC are free. Once you’ve got your badge, you can come and go as you please, go to any panel (if there’s room), go to any off the offsites (more on these in a bit), pick up swag, whatever. Moreover, any talent you run in to will sign (if they’re willing) your souvenir program for free. Not a bad deal, right?
Well, sort of. See, SDCC affords people opportunities they’d never have elsewhere, but is also a little old school. The opportunities for autographs are more akin to a con in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and photo ops are nonexistent. You’ll get a few people, but very rarely will you have a “name” star.
That being said, everyone that goes to SDCC has at least one “celebrity encounter” story. A friend of mine saw DJ Qualls from “Man In the High Castle” wandering down the street a few years ago. I literally ran into Chloe Bennett two or three times last year. My first year, Rahul Kohli from “iZombie” randomly got on an elevator as I was getting off. Last year I also went to a party with Olivia Holt (“Cloak and Dagger“) and Tom Felton (“Harry Potter“). While I was waiting in line at The Orville exhibit my first year, the whole cast showed up, including Seth MacFarlane and Adrienne Palicki. Last year, while waiting in line early in the morning, the whole cast of Star Trek: Discovery showed up and handed out doughnuts. Point is, you never know who’s gonna show up where.
Speaking of lining up early in the morning, it’s time to talk about Hall H. When people talk about the quintessential SDCC experience, they’re talking about Hall H. Hall H is the multi-thousand seat auditorium where all the big studios hold their biggest panels – it’s where Marvel first introduced the Avengers, it’s where DC introduced the Justice League, it is where everything new is released to an army of slavering fanboys. A Saturday seat in Hall H is one of the biggest “gets” at SDCC, so if that’s your thing be prepared to wait for it. People frequently camp out overnight to get in to Hall H – the aforementioned run-in with the cast of Star Trek: Discovery was when they were handing out doughnuts to people early in the morning that had basically slept on SDCC’s lawn all night. Even that may not be enough to get you in to Hall H – people frequently do waiting groups, similar to buying groups, where you hang out in line for two hours and someone takes your place. When it’s time for you to get in, everyone in your waiting group shows up and you all go in together. I personally avoid Hall H because I’d rather be doing other things, but it’s still a good time if that’s your thing.
Now, Hall H isn’t the only thing to line up early in the morning for. There are frequently giveaways and random drawings for stuff that take place as the con doors open – to get these, you’ll be looking at lining up VERY early in the morning – think 6am or earlier. For these, you’ll start outside, then move to the Sails Pavilion (the upstairs area where they do registration), wait a while, then the instructed to WALK NOT RUN onto the con floor. If you run, you get thrown out. They do this to prevent a stampede and a trampling, because if they didn’t that’s exactly what would happen. When you get to wherever the drawing is being held, you’ll get back in line and draw for a chance to get whatever you lined up for. If you don’t get it, you may be able to redraw from the back of the line, or you may be out of luck. SDCC is trying to do away with this, but some companies *cough* Marvel! *cough* still do it.
One of the great things about the con is that even if you do everything inside the con, there are still a thousand things to do OUTSIDE of the con. These are the offsites. Every year, the big studios rent out space around the con to set up an experience for fans. These are generally available to anyone with a badge of any kind, and sometimes even without a badge at all. These can range from staggeringly complex and involved events (“Blade Runner 2049” had a live action skit, VR, and shots of Johnny Walker and noodles; “Jack Ryan” had an escape room/obstacle course) to something much smaller like Star Trek: Discovery‘s art gallery. It’s worth taking a day to go and do a bunch of the offsites, but be warned – the lines for these can be multiple hours long and are often capped for the whole day before breakfast.
While SDCC is the main draw for that week, that’s not all there is to do. After the con floor closes, that’s when the parties get started. Companies like Fandom and National Geographic all have parties throughout the week that they open to a limited number of con attendees. These parties usually have booze and food and celebrity appearances for whoever is affiliated with that company. There are also industry parties, for companies like Marvel and Entertainment Weekly, who have talent coming in to town to promote their new movies. These are generally closed to the public, but if you know someone maybe you can get in.
All of this is predicated on knowing what’s going on, where to go, and where to sign up – the easiest way to do this is through social media. There’s an entire ecosystem of websites dedicated to Comic-Con: Friends of Comic-Con, Unofficial SDCC Blog, Englishman in San Diego, etc. These sites all have exclusive invites to parties, shows, merch, etc. throughout the year, and are invaluable during SDCC itself. They’re worth a follow on Twitter, and during the con it’s worth turning in notifications whenever they tweet, since it’s usually something good.
All told, San Diego Comic Con is a unique experience, unlike any other con in the country. It does things its own way, some more idiosyncratic than others, but all with a purpose. It’s one of the best run cons in the country, and never disappoints. Just come prepared to be overwhelmed, come with a plan, and be flexible because you never know what’s going to happen next.
