Category: SDCC

I was going to write a post today about how I failed, yet again, to get tickets for next year’s San Diego Comic-Con. But then I saw the news about John Rogers passing away. I hadn’t ever met him, but he’s been president of Comic-Con for the whole time I’ve been going to it (and/or trying to go to it). Thinking about it now, he seems to have kept a pretty low profile over the years, considering his position. So there’s not much I can say about him. But the con has brought me so much joy over the years, and I’m sure his work was a big part of that. So, thank you for your work, John, and rest in peace.

As I said in yesterday’s post, I am not at SDCC. But I am following the news. Or at least some of the news. So here’s a post with links to a few things I found interesting today.

Spotlight on Maggie Thompson panel: The panel I would most like to have attended today. I was a long-time subscriber and reader of CBG, and it’s nice to see Maggie get a spotlight panel. I learned a lot about comics (and a bunch of other stuff) from Maggie and Don Thompson, and I really miss CBG. (The linked article from The Beat is a little… off. I get the feeling that maybe it was written in a rush, at the back of the panel room, and uploaded to the site without any editing. Oh well. This is one of the reasons I miss CBG so much: well-written and well-edited articles!)

The Comics Journal returns to print: Not exactly SDCC news, but related, and probably timed to coincide with SDCC. I never subscribed to The Comics Journal, but I did pick up a number of issues, back when it was a regular monthly magazine. TCJ always seemed a little too self-important and serious to me, but they ran some great interviews and articles. The new print magazine will only be coming out twice a year, though, so it’s not going to be quite the same as it was in its heyday. But it’s still a welcome return.

Doctor Who Series 11 Trailer: Yeah, I’m looking forward to this! The Doctor Who panel today would be my second choice for “panel I would most like to have attended.”

DC Universe streaming service: I’m curious about this, but not sure I want to pay $8 per month for it. The Titans trailer is… interesting. I’m not sure what to think about it really. It could be a great show or it could be a train wreck. Hard to tell. You can pre-order a one-year membership for $75 right now, but I’m not sure I’d do that without having more of a clue about the new shows.

Grant Morrison on Green Lantern: This is a book I’m going to want to read.

Once again, I’m not at SDCC. Sigh. Tonight is preview night, and there are a few things going on, but maybe nothing too exciting (to me, at least). I see that they’re actually closing Harbor Drive during the con this year, which has got to be a pretty big deal. (They probably should have started doing that a few years ago, honestly.)

I’ll be keeping an eye on the news from San Diego during the con. There’s usually some interesting and fun stuff, and I could really use a break from serious news right now. The Union-Tribune has a landing page up with links to all of their con coverage. The local coverage of the con is usually pretty interesting. (They even have an article up about recreational marijuana use for con attendees! Pair that with the free Taco Bell, and you’re all set.)

I’ll probably also be spending some money over at Comixology this weekend. They generally have some pretty good sales going on during the con.

Today is the day for open registration for San Diego Comic-Con. It’s a good day for it: it’s snowing outside, I have a cold, and there was a derailment on the Raritan Valley tracks yesterday. So going into NYC would have been difficult even if it wasn’t snowing and I didn’t have a cold.

I turned on my desktop computer early this morning and made sure it was current with Windows updates, Firefox updates, and any other updates I could think of, so hopefully nothing will get in the way of working through the registration process. I also am all stocked up on ramen noodles, herbal tea, and cough medicine.

I’ve completely failed to get tickets for the last few years, and I’ll probably fail again this year, but hey, I have to try!

Once again, I am home in NJ instead of enjoying San Diego Comic-Con, since I (again) couldn’t get a ticket. I was entirely OK with this, up until this week, when the weather here in NJ got really hot and humid, and I started thinking about that beautiful San Diego weather. It’s been pretty brutal in NJ this week, and I could really use some nice moderate San Diego summer weather. I shouldn’t complain though; my air conditioning is working fine.

I’ve been following the news out of San Diego, but in a very scattershot way. The Beat and Newsarama have had some good coverage. I’ve watched some of IGN’s video coverage on my TiVo and on the web. And I’ve set up the TiVo to catch SyFy’s nightly show and Conan’s show from the con. All of this is a very welcome distraction from the usual barrage of disheartening political news. I even added “comics” and “comic con” as topics under Apple News on my iPhone, so now I’m seeing stuff about Batman and DuckTales in with the usual Trump news. I plan on continuing to nerd out on Comic-Con news through the rest of the weekend. If anything important happens in the “real world” I can wait until Monday to find out about it.

Much like last year, I gave the SDCC open registration system a shot, but failed again to get tickets.

I could have gone to WonderCon last weekend, if I’d really wanted to. I’d done some research on it a few months back, but didn’t really like the airfare and hotel costs, so I decided to punt on it.

It’s not a bad day out today, so maybe I should stop sitting in front of the computer now, and go out for a walk.

Remember the good old days, when SDCC selling out before the first day of the show was a big deal, and a surprise? Yeah, me neither. (OK, I do remember those days. I even remember when you could buy tickets at the door!)

I just stumbled across this ad while reading an issue of CBG from June 2008. So the issue would only have been published a couple of months before the con. And there still would have been tickets available. And you could just go on the web site and buy them. Imagine that!

Between the Republican National Convention news and San Diego Comic-Con news, I’m feeling overwhelmed. I should really shut my laptop down and read a book or something. Such a weird combination of horribleness and wonderfulness. I need a break from all of it, or I’m never going to be able to sleep tonight!

There’s plenty of SDCC coverage up at the San Diego Union-Tribune site. Tonight is preview night. I’d love to be there, but alas I am here in NJ instead.

There’s an outdoor IMAX premiere showing of Star Trek Beyond tonight that would have been fun to go to, but I probably wouldn’t have been able to get a ticket for that, even if I was at the con.

I bought the “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Ultimate Edition)” Blu-Ray today. I haven’t seen the movie yet, and I may regret buying it instead of renting it. Reviews are mixed. Now I just need to find a three-hour block when I can sit down and watch the thing. I think I’m probably going to have to watch it in two (or three) sittings. I want to go into it with a positive attitude too, so I might need to have to have a beer (or two) before I start watching.

I signed up for Comic-Con HQ today. It’s a paid video streaming service that’s a co-venture of San Diego Comic-Con and Lionsgate. In theory, they should be streaming panels and stuff from Comic-Con this weekend. The service costs $5 per month, and it doesn’t look like there’s really much content up there, so I may cancel the subscription pretty quickly after the con is over. The sign-up process said it was a 30-day trial, but then it said the first billing would be July 25th, so I’m not even sure about the trial period.

In addition to the content from the con, they’ve got some original shows that (in theory) will be releasing new episodes regularly. Plus some random old movies and TV shows. It doesn’t really seem like enough to justify $5 every month.

A number of the shows look to be similar to stuff that was on the old G4 channel, or some of the stuff from Revision3 (before they got bought out). There are a few interesting people showing up. Chris Gore and Robert Meyer Burnett were guests on a movie-related show that I started watching, for instance. The stuff I’ve watched so far seems kind of cheesy, but I haven’t watched much. And their news shows seem to focus on film, TV, and games, with little to no coverage of actual comic books, so that’s a bit disappointing.

I’m wondering if they’ve got enough infrastructure to keep the site up during the actual con, when (I assume) a lot of people will be signing up for trial accounts and trying to watch panels. It’ll be interesting to see how that works out.

Right now, you can watch the content through a web browser or an iOS app. It looks like the iOS app is iPhone and iPad only; I couldn’t find a version for Apple TV, which would have been nice.

You can buy a subscription to the service through their website, or as an “add-on” to Amazon Prime Video. The Amazon option was tempting, since that would have let me watch it via the Amazon app on my TiVo (I assume). But I went the direct route for now and signed up on their site.

I’m really wishing I could be at Comic-Con this weekend, but watching some coverage on the internet is as close as I’m going to get this year.