I know it’s way too late to be writing about SDCC ‘26 but just in case some wide-eyed child someday asks “Dad, what was San Diego Comic-Con 2026 like?” here are a few thoughts.
First my colleagues:
David Harper: (Congrats on the Eisner!) on how DC won the show (subscription req’d):
I could go on and on, but it just was a dominant showing from the publisher, who kept everything comic-centric and thrived because of it. That was a clear contrast from the Marvel booth, which basically was a museum for movie costumes and little more. And it wasn’t just me saying this. Conversations with other observers echoed my sentiment. The perception seemed to be that DC owned Comic Con this year. It’s very difficult to see that run ending any time soon.
Rob Salkowitz on the stuffed nature of the event:
Racing out of the gate. When the doors opened on Preview Night, the crowds flooded into the exhibit hall, as they do, but this year it felt like they just kept coming and coming and coming. Hunger for show exclusives led to some confrontations, including one reported physical altercation, as well as intense jockeying for wristbands and places in line.
That momentum continued into Thursday, as attendees opted to shop and explore the floor despite a full program of panels across the extended SDCC “campus” (which this year included the Marriott, Omni, and San Diego Public Library, with a few unsanctioned events nearby).
Me at Publishers Weekly:
Elsewhere, most of the energy at the show was taken up by publishers and toymakers frantically selling exclusives and collectibles—as one art dealer put it, “People are spending money on original art like drunken sailors.”
Kalai Chik at Forbes noting the absence of anime and manga:
Japanese anime came off its strongest theatrical year in the U.S. last year, but was noticeably absent from the halls of North America’s largest pop arts convention.
Last year, Demon Slayer held a prime spot in Hall H on the Saturday of Comic Con, a slot occupied by Marvel Studios in 2024 . In contrast, Crunchyroll noticeably scaled back its operations inside and outside the convention center. Even some manga publishers—such as Dark Horse Comics and the rebranded HarperCollins’ imprint KAZÉ—seemed to take a step back, expressing that they’ll save their announcements for next month’s AnimeNYC.
Germain Lussier and Cheryl Eddy at Gizmodo:
The best things at Comic-Con come to those who wait. And, often, those waits are very long. So when hundreds of people who put in the time to wait for highly popular parts of the con such as Hall H or Funko feel like they get screwed, it’s a problem. And when they get screwed by people claiming to also be fans, it’s unforgivable.
Though we have yet to see any concrete proof, rumors at and around San Diego were that people made counterfeit wristbands to skip the lines at both Funko and Hall H, leaving lots of people who had legitimately gotten them out of luck. Standing outside Hall H on Saturday afternoon, it was disheartening to see so many people with wristbands—which supposedly guaranteed them entrance—locked out because, somehow, the room was already full. The convention did its best to accommodate some, allowing many to stand along the walls, but it was a major problem that was handled poorly.
I should note that the counterfeit wristband thing is just a rumor and I haven’t seen any evidence for it – probably just disgruntled rationalization – but clearly something got messed up at some point.
Thank you!
I saw a lot of kvetching on Reddit last year about prices and crowds, but oddly, aside from the Hall H problems, even Reddit seemed to (mostly) have a good time in 2026. I think people went in expecting the high prices and long lines, and there was less sticker shock.
All that said, the show floor was PACKED, probably because hundreds of people weren’t waiting in line for the missing activations behind the convention center. My understanding is that FX will probably be back next year, but Hulu moved from next to Adult Swim to the area in front of the Hilton Gaslamp, so there’s a big space waiting for whatever studios are left standing in ‘27.
I call SDCC the end of the fiscal year for comics. People start planning in January, race pell mell from May to July, take August off to sleep, and then, oh hell, NYCC is coming right for us, and then there’s a holiday break and it all begins again. 2026 found comics in a pretty triumphal place, as Harper wrote. DC has pulled it off, by Gawd! They are bringing in new readers! Marvel’s shake-up was something people have been expecting for a while, and they are getting the benefit of the doubt. Image also had a huge triumphal display, and they are going strong. Even companies going through their own reorgs – Boom, Dark Horse – got dressed up and showed off. Dungeon Crawler Carl should really be called Dungeon BLASTER Carl, because it’s coming on strong. And yeah, anime and manga were a weak point – no more Dragonball Z behind the Marriott? – but they don’t really need Comic-Con.
The bigger question is still where does this go from here? Every studio showing off its films in hall H is a thing of the past, but selected properties still know how to put on a show – so many people talking about Spaceballs and Lanterns. This is THE pop culture confab of the year. I had to curtail my panels this year, but the extra one I was on included a best selling fantasy author, a guy who made his own superhero series, a guy who was a producer on Lost, someone who teaches game design, a comic book publisher/producer, and a producer from Tongal, a kind of crowdsourcing platform for content. And that was just seven random people at Comic-Con. You could mix and match to your heart’s content.
In these uncertain times, everyone is hustling, and SDCC seems to be the place where everyone wants to do it. Toys, games, wallets shaped like cats, wrestlers, comic books, Spaceballs, you name it.
But how do you fit it all in? I feel like David Glanzer’s threat to turn Hall H into exhibit space should be duly noted. Sure they make threats about leaving San Diego and never do, and sure, maybe it was just to shut up all the complainers at the Talkback panel. But the convention center really does need an expansion. That’s the only way to fit in more anime and manga and the many companies that have been on the waitlist for years.
SDCC’s budget crunch is real. With costs spiraling, their only way to make more money is to charge more for everything, but the CCI folks also don’t want to totally price out ordinary fans (yes some still attend). With Hollywood reeling from its own disruption, finding someone to sponsor the wifi – or even a few extra pots of coffee in the press room – is like getting blood from the proverbial stone. They need to pony up!
There are so many parts of the con that are very old and traditional, but the way of life around them – and the attitude about fandom that informed them – has changed entirely. The con is staying in San Diego until 2030, with a new time slot for the Olympics in ‘28, but we’ll inevitably see more evolution and more changes until we get that convention center expansion.
Yet, as I like to say where fan events are concerned, water finds its level. We’ll all be jostling into the convention center next year, with all the same hopes and fears, and noting the little changes that keep it fresh.
The truth is Comic-Con is an experience like nothing else. I had an all time best SDCC last year – winning an Eisner, seeing Franciso Lindor’s luggage – so I knew this year it wouldn’t be as good. And it wasn’t. Instead of moderating a panel on stage in Hall H (which I did in 2025), I got kicked out of Hall H before the Marvel panel. But a few hours later I was sitting on a yacht in the marina arguing about Arika Toriyama. Highs and lows, man. But no experience on earth crams as many highs and lows into as short a space of time as SDCC.
I’ve never missed a show in 40 years. Even allowing for COVID, I’ve spent about five months of my life in San Diego. From the moment you get in a car to the airport, until the moment you drag your luggage up the stairs to your apartment, it’s one experience, an experience that’s outside the boundaries of time. It’s like living through Richard McGuire’s Here, the same place but a different experience, but somehow the same.
Or maybe it’s like a video game. You start playing it when you arrive and there are missions, tasks, survival packs (Ralphs), bosses, NPCs, and the game never stops until you take off your badge and start heading home. And then you think “I made it,” and look at the calendar and start planning the next one.
I dunno, man, it’s magic. I’m very lucky I get to experience it this way.
