Tag: Comic-Con 2015

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Uh-oh! Red Shirts!

What an Uglydoll way to go. I wonder how long these will last? Star Trek Uglies are this year’s San Diego Comic-Con exclusives. Just beam me up some, would you? But Preview Night wasn’t their time for big sales. Long lines queued elsewhere.

Each day of SDCC has its own distinct character. Preview Night is the big geekfest. It is not the pretty people gathering. The group fulfills a wide range of stereotypes that says nerd. The fewest cosplayers are seen of any day, also. You would think Star Trek would appeal to these types, and perhaps it does. I observed more of a Dr. Who, Orphan Black, and The Walking Dead crowd. 

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Flickr a Day 189: ‘Comic-Con’

San Diego Comic-Con officially begins at 6 p.m. with Preview Night. I will be there. and at the Convention Center for the next four days. Two-thousand Fifteen marks my seventh attendance and first as paying participant. For reasons unknown to me, my press pass wasn’t renewed this year. The circumstance is in some respects a relief, as I will be there more for me and less the task of reporting.

Today, and the next four, this series will feature cosplayers and Conners, along with some information and history about SDCC. We begin with the appropriately self-titled “Comic-Con”, which Eric Neitzel shot on July 23, 2011, using Nikon D200 and the fantastic 50mm f/1.8 prime. Vitals: f/2.5, ISO 100, 1/320 sec. You can see more in his Comic-Con 2011 album/set. The dispatcher by profession is a local—from Rancho Penasquitos but lives in Escondido. He joined Flickr in August 2009. 

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Comic-Con Heroes Enters the Public Domain

Timing is deliberate. As the big pop-culture convention starts here in San Diego, I release my ebook Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth into the public domain. You can grab the PDF here, or click on to Smashwords for more formats, including epub. I relinquish rights, believing the content remains evergreen valuable even if dated. The book published in September 2013.

During SDCC two years ago, I interviewed attendees, choosing one-dozen to profile. My contention about the convention: The fans are the stars, not hollywood, which gets the glory. The concept started from a recollection posted during Comic-Con 2010: “The Roles We Play“. Yesterday, I published a followup that I planned to title “The Roles They Play” but last-minute changed to “The Heroes Are Us“. 

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The Heroes Are Us

Tomorrow night begins my seventh sojourn to the greatest geekfest and pop-culture event on the planet. Imitator shows are everywhere this Century, but none commands character and class like the original. San Diego Comic-Con is an amazing amalgamation of hopes and aspirations—and the grandest storytelling—where, for four days and a Preview Night, tens of thousands of people can be themselves—fit in, rather than feel oddball—or be whom they would want to be by dressing up as beloved superheroes or villains and by adoring the storytellers and actors behind them.

The first, full three-day event took place from Aug. 1-3, 1970, at the U.S. Grand Hotel, with about 300 attendees and sci-fi luminaries, including Ray Bradbury and A.E. van Vogt. This week, 130,000 attendees will storm San Diego Convention Center to enter an alternate reality, where the social rules binding them everyday no longer apply. 

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Comic-Con Heroes: The Heroine

It’s Saturday, and that means another excerpt from my ebook Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make The Greatest Show On Earth, which profiles one-dozen attendees from SDCC 2013. One week ago, the Con held Open Registration, where participating for the first time I was fortunate enough to obtain passes for all four days and the Preview Night. From 2009-2014, accredited press status assured access.

Without press accreditation, I expect San Diego Comic-Con 2015 to be my last, as obtaining passes one year is no guarantee of getting them the next. Judging from social network responses to last week’s 59-minute ticket sales, many people who attended last year couldn’t purchase passes for the next one. Attendance is capped at 130,000. 

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SDCC 2015 Open Registration Success!

In theory, I will go to San Diego Comic-Con this year—as a paying customer. For that I am most grateful and for the ease of the Open Registration process. From 2009 to 2014, I attended as registered press, but for some reason my status wasn’t re-certified. There was no formal rejection, just no approval during the typical “within 6 weeks” period after verification document submission.

SDCC’s streamlined process is a grabbag of chance. If you have an active ID on the system (before a cut-off date) and attended the previous year, you receive a code to participate in the registration process. That means using the number and last name to enter the waiting room between 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. PST. Anyone in the room when sales commence at 9 o`clock can be randomly chosen to purchase passe(s). Chrome refreshed me to the buying queue about 20 minutes after sales started.