SDCC ’24: Is it going to be Covid-Con forever?

I know at this late date talking about SDCC ‘24 is as appealing as yesterday’s bologna sandwich but it took me a week to get the energy up to write this, so buckle up. It’s well known that San Diego Comic-Con is exhausting, and that con crud is a real thing, but the number of folks who came back from Comic-Con with Covid – or even worse tested positive AT the show – is positively staggering. 

I am not among those who caught Covid, but not for lack of trying. The above photo shows me with my old pal Rick Parker at the Eisner Awards. Rick is a dear old friend and a bit of a close talker and we had a good chat before the ceremony kicked off…and the very next morning I awoke to news that he had tested positive. I figured I was doomed from then on but…my lucky number held. 

Or maybe a combination of a pretty good immune system (I very rarely get con crud) and being up to date on my booster shots held tight. I have only had Covid (or only tested positive for Covid) once – after last year’s NYCC, when I was unable to get my annual booster shot before con because they ran out of vaccines. It was awful and an experience I hope not to repeat. 

The 2024 post-SDCC Covid outbreak follows a similar outbreak at Anime Expo a few weeks before, and ALA a few weeks before that, all held in Southern California, which is experiencing the highest summer Covid rates since 2022. Basically whenever there’s a con, people get Covid. 

I’m not going to get into all the immunology and infectious disease debates here – I’m no scientist, but I am a regular con-goer. The unfortunate truth is that this might just be part of going to conventions from now on. Covid is now endemic and not as deadly but it’s still no fun and long covid is still a real thing. Comic-cons are going to be super spreader events from here on out and we should be prepared for that. 

I personally masked up at SDCC this year when I was in the convention center, and in places that I thought were poorly ventilated, and tried to mostly socialize outside or in places with good ventilation. That’s just part of my lifestyle now, along with frequent hand washing and hand sanitizing. I don’t like getting sick! Masking and hand washing slow the spread of all kinds of germs and illnesses, and as I said, I very rarely get con crud. 

I think we all learned that social isolation is also no fun, so my personal choice is to keep attending mass events to connect with my community – but to take common sense precautions to protect myself and others. Unfortunately there are many immunocompromised individuals who have to make more difficult decisions and take more precautions. I would urge members of the community to be mindful of those who need more protection. And also just be realistic: Covid is here to stay. 

As for the rest of the show…well, it was fun! I rounded up a lot of my impressions and newsbites in my piece for Publishers Weekly. It’s a time of change, and everyone is launching something new. These “throw things against the wall to see what sticks” times usually lead to a lot of experimentation and are often looked back at as exciting times. I think we’re headed for one of those periods. We’ll see. 

But a confession: I spent most of my time at the show working on Con Daily, The Beat’s collab with ElectricNow to produce a daily round-up of news and interviews at the show. This was a lot of work, but it was fun, if by fun you mean exhausting but rewarding. The results will be rolling out over on the Beat’s YouTube channel for the next few weeks with ADDED content and a lot of stuff that didn’t make the daily show, so keep checking back and smash that like button! 

I’ve noted in the past that my annual SDCC schedule is almost written in stone now. Between traditional panels and parties and awards and scheduled meet-ups and dinners, my agenda is packed for weeks before the show. This time, I had to forgo a lot of things that I usually do and dedicate my time to what one might call Hall H culture: celebrities and media panels and so on. It doesn’t mean I’ve left comics behind, but mixing things up gave me a greater appreciation for my real home, Comics. As someone who thrives on new experiences, this reset my expectations. I learned, for instance that the smoothie/froyo place at the Hilton, Sweet Things,  is one of the key components of the show, and their staff works with military precision to make sure everyone gets their peanut butter açai bowl in 15 minutes. This was pretty much my salvation every day at the Con. 

Stepping outside my comfort zone also reinforced my opinion that Comic-Con is like a Wrestlemania or the Academy Awards – or maybe Sundance or Cannes, although I haven’t been to those. It’s so damned intense. I actually started physically training for SDCC in April. It takes endurance and strength to survive. Everyone I know in comics starts going into prime SDCC planning mode in June and by July, forget it. It’s all Comic-Con all the time. 

Moving over to the showbiz side of things for 2024 made me see how it’s also a huge event for publicists, marketers, studios, activation designers and celebrities. This is their big show, too, and douchebags aside, I respect their hard work. I know that the ‘23 show was sort of fun because the comics took over again, but SDCC has become such a lollapalooza of pop culture that seeing all the tribes come together for one big drone show is an essential part of the experience. 

But comics are still at the heart of it. I can’t think of a better tribute to the genius of Jack Kirby than having a giant Galactus rise over the city, a few blocks from where we celebrated his 70th birthday in the basement of the Hotel San Diego (still one of my greatest con experiences.) First timer David Harper’s observation that there are still lots of comics at Comic-Con has a lot of truth to it. 

Long ago at Emerald City Comic Con, someone told me that SDCC was not a comics show. It’s all movies and shows and Hollywood. It is not for comics at all. That idea stuck with me, to the point I always brushed SDCC off as something I could possibly go to.

My first experience was not like that in the slightest. While the Hollywood presence is there too, it’s a comic show at its core. All the publishers are there. Tons of creators are there. Key industry people are there. Really, everyone is there. I’ve never been to a convention that attracted more comics people, many of whom were not “guests” in the traditional sense of the word. For example, at one point, I just happened to run into Ram V, Sanford Greene, Wyatt Kennedy, Luigi Formisano, and Ian Bertram as I walked to the press room, none of whom were formally announced as attending guests. That’s just what happens. Comic book people are just bursting at the seams of the show.

Yes, we’ve all seen many beloved comics folks drop out of SDCC because “it’s not about comics anymore,” and I understand where they’re coming from. The evolution from a bunch of people sitting behind longboxes of back issues to Robert Downey Jr ripping off a Doctor Doom mask isn’t something we could have predicted back in 1984 or even 1994…or even 2004. One of the biggest activations in 2024 was an Abbott Elementary carnival with rides and stuff and that doesn’t seem very Comic-Con-y, but somehow it all comes together. 

I think the question has shifted from “Are there still comics in Comic-Con” (yes) to “Can Comic-Con stay huge” and the answer to that is…unclear. I read a bunch of interesting posts on the Comic-Con Reddit that suggested that Comic-Con peaked (for showbiz) back in 2015-2017.  Some of this may be the usual diminished returns kvetching, but a lot of studios that once went whole hog were nowhere to be seen. Several areas that once had elaborate activations were just parking lots this time. 

For instance, on Tuesday before con I walked by the parking lot 1st Avenue and Island, which has had many a memorable activation over the years – including Blade Runner 2049 and Jack Reacher. This time there were some trucks being unloaded. I peeked inside and saw what appeared to be some Clash of Clans characters. I figured something would be going up there, but it looked like a parking lot for the whole show: turns out there were some toilets set up with Hogriders. To quote James Bond in Skyfall, it’s not exactly Christmas, is it?

Hollywood’s woes – especially the money problem at Warner Bros Discovery – have really cut back on the spectacle. Gone are the character hotel room keys. Gone are the offsites that spread all the way past Broadway. In the Reddit thread quoted above, the rising costs of setting up are mentioned several times. One Redditor wrote: 

As someone who designs offsite experiences including multiple large and small ones over the years at SDCC, the cost of everything had literally doubled post COVID, from fabrication to catering. What used to cost $1-2m, now costs $3-4m. I imagine if Amazon wanted to restage the Carnival Row thing they did a few years ago, they’d be looking at $6-7m. Unfortunately it’s much harder to justify that in terms of ROI, especially when the entertainment industry is still in recovery from strikes.

That’s a pretty flabbergasting reminder of how expensive these events are. Fans who go to SDCC to see media panels and see offsites have now entered the “it’s not as good as it used to be” phase along with the rest of us:

1000% agree. I heavily disliked this year and I’ve been going since 2007. I came home today because I just needed to go home. The floor was too hot and too crowded. I miss the big studios and the fantastic swag. I really miss the swag. I loved coming home with bags of buttons and freebies. Unless you go to preview night you miss out on a lot of that. Plus the exclusives aren’t really exclusive anymore if so much was available online to the general public. I missed the marvel shop this year too. Ive said it before but I think this may be my last year. I walked the hall today from A to H one last time so if I never return I got one last good walk to take everything in.

The heat this year in the exhibit hall was just misery. I heard ballroom 20 was like a sauna on Friday. I also miss the offsites being inside the con. Not having the big studios is really destroying the experience of SDCC. I don’t think we’re ever going to return to pre covid SDCC. SDCC is also an expensive experience and this year was so meh I’m truly debating going back for the first time ever. The stress over tickets, hotels, and exclusive portal is just miserable to go through every year. Maybe I’m just getting old but SDCC is no longer the special event it was.

One word about the heat: I never remember it being so humid in San Diego. I’ve been to many Hall H panels and I’ve never seen the casts so sweaty, as seen on the giant screens anyway. The Thunderbolts cast was positively GLOWING, and these people have make-up squads dusting them down right up to the minute they walk out. 

Anyway, it’s entirely possible we passed “Peak Con” back in the Before Times and despite that one con-goer’s love of swag, studios long ago figured out that what is a hit at Comic-Con will not necessarily be a hit at the box office. With the costs of everything soaring – this was easily the most expensive Comic-Con I ever went to from flights to hotels to a single cocktail at the Marriott pool – more and more companies might decide it’s just not worth it, and not just comics folks. 

Throw in the concerns over hotel costs and I’m not sure where Comic-Con is going. I was a bit shocked to see that the price of my room at the Marriott was nearly $100 more a night than the quoted costs due to a bunch of fees and taxes and that seems to have been universal – show organizers’ worries about hotel price gouging are well founded, although hotel rooms everywhere are mad expensive for those on the budget of a comics journalist. 

So yeah, will the spectacle fade? Marvel had to go big after the Phase 4 problems, but will WBD ever do something spectacular to promote their new DC movie slate? Can they even afford it? Does it even make sense?

One thing is certain: if the studios do fade away, the comics will still be there. Comics are too big to fail now. 

A couple more notes before we put it in the books:

• Despite the costs, both IDW and Mad Cave threw awesome anniversary parties! I had to leave IDW early because I needed sleep, but it was such a great gathering I really regret not being able to stay longer. I arrived LATE at the Mad Cave bash and missed the lamb sliders, but it was the first rooftop SDCC event held (to my knowledge) at the still mysterious developments to the north of the convention center (out past the Midway.) Put even more steps on the old Fitbit!
• All that said Thursday night’s CBLDF party, sponsored by Oni this year, is always the bash of the year.  
• I’m secretly pleased that I cleverly persuaded David Harper to write a San Diego diary, because he was unwittingly taking part in a tradition as old as fandom: the con report. Over the decades I’ve always loved reading these accounts that inevitably begin “Our trip to the airport turned into an adventure when a moose jumped into the road,” and continue with “I had made plans for dinner with X, Y and Z but we couldn’t get into the Brazilian steakhouse so we had to settle for burgers,” and end with “I arrived home tired but happy. See you next year!” My own con reports have evolved into a bunch of iPhone snapshots, but that’s technology for you. 
• 
• I’m also touched that David named me and the Beat team as one of the Winners of the con. Doing a daily TV show, announcing K-ComicsBeat, (now live) AND celebrating the Beat’s 20th Anniversary meant this was, indeed, my biggest Comic-Con ever, and the most arduous. I couldn’t have done it without an amazing team, though. Work with good people and problems get solved. So my hugest thanks to Brigid Alverson, Deb Aoki, Humberto Saabedra, Tiffany Babb, Jacq Cohen, Zack Quaintance, Riccardo Serrano Denis, Kelas Lloyd, Ani Bundel, Kay-B, Beau Q, Diego Higuera, Gemilee Memije, Nancy Powell, Victor van Scoit, Gabriel Neeb, Avery Kaplan, Rebecca Oliver Kaplan and the home crew of Deanna Destito, Christian Angeles and Samantha Puc. They honestly did all the hard work and they were spectacular. As for Con Daily, the team of Patrick Meaney, Yael Tygiel, Jordan Rennert and Stephen Giordano was simply amazing. I reserve special thanks to Thea Pulido who has been relentlessly editing shorts for our YouTube channel. And the biggest shout out of all to Taimur Dar, who did our scheduling, which was the most mind boggling job of all and somehow he did it. He is a true American hero. AND huge thanks to Global Comix and Zero Zero for sponsoring our coverage and making it all possible! 
• And of course, thank you for reading this, and supporting the Beat. We made it to 20 years! That’s wild! I always say that each year’s San Diego Comic-Con ends the fiscal year for comics, and this ended one era of the Beat. With all the changes in the comics industry, the Beat is going to be changing too. For just how and when…stay tuned.