I dreaded this day but mentally prepared—or so it seemed. San Diego Comic-Con 2017 Early Registration commenced this morning. Passes sold out in about an hour, and I got none for any of the four days or Preview Night. I attended continuously, starting in 2009—the first six years as registered press. For reasons unknown to me, SDCC did not “verify” my media status for 2015 or 2016, but I was able to register and pay for the entire event.
Open Registration is still to come, and the convention changed the press submission schedule for the July 19 (Preview Night) – 23 event. Past years: December. Now it’s end of April. Before the new week starts, I will resubmit legitimate materials that, if my luck isn’t exhausted, might lead to press certification and attendance.
Eye surgery during SDCC 2016 reduced my participation to Preview Night and the weekend, even though I had paid for all days. It’s also why I didn’t photographically document the Convention, like previous years. I was purely paid attendee and in no shape to function as reporter storyteller. But I’m back in form, and anxious to tell the stories of the most important participants—attendees.
I have written regularly about SDCC over the years, including, in 2013, ebook Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth, which is now in the Public Domain and serialized from the link.
Some select essays you might find interesting:
- “The Roles We Play“, July 23, 2010
- “Comic-Con Heroes: The Departure“, SDCC 2013
- “The Heroes Are Us“, July 7, 2015
- “Comic-Con House of Worship“, July 15, 2015
- “Look Who I Met at Comic-Con“. July 23, 2016
Here are my past photo galleries. I will change the links later, when closing down my Flickr, which I see as a major casualty of Yahoo mismanagement and impending sale to Verizon.
- San Diego Comic-Con 2009, Olympus E-P1
- San Diego Comic-Con 2010, Leica X1
- San Diego Comic-Con 2011, Fuji X100
- San Diego Comic-Con 2012, Galaxy Nexus
- San Diego Comic-Con 2013, Fuji X100
- San Diego Comic-Con 2014, Nokia Lumia Icon
- San Diego Comic-Con 2015, Fuji X-T1
The Featured Image reflects my solemn, abandoned mood this Saturday. I captured the moment, using Fujifilm X-T1 and 18-55mm kit lens, on July 11, 2015, at 1:46 p.m. PDT. This morning, I re-edited and re-cropped from the RAW original in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and applied Cross Processing filter in Color Efex Pro 4 from the Google Nik collection.
To everyone who got a pass, or passes, to SDCC 2017: Congratulations!