Review of San Diego Comic-Con International 2014
On Saturday, July 26th, 2014, Comic-Con International was in San Diego for the long weekend. Preview night was held Wednesday, and lasted on through Sunday afternoon. I felt honored to have gotten a ticket to Saturday because the entire nation were fighting just to get into the intense arena that is the epic waiting room. I was fortunate to beat traffic and arrived at 10 am in San Diego to find over 150,000 people showed up as well. There must have had over 20 different lines to march through to get the badges and programs of the day’s events. Half of the downtown area, along with the huge Convention Center, was shut down to provide enough room for Comic-Con goers to gaze among the city and the multiple set-ups from upcoming television shows such as Constantine and Sleepy Hollow. One of the most captivating events that people were drawn to were the people riding around on bike-buggies with music bumping carrying travelers around the city for a small fee.
History of Comic-Con International
As Comic-Con is a comic convention that occurs once a year during the month of July in San Diego, CA, it is so much more to us “nerds” who aren’t afraid to let loose during this comic extravaganza. Tickets generally start out as priced for $45. They are also sold available as 1, 2, 3, or even a 4-day pass for really dedicated Comic-Con fans. It starts as a preview night Wednesday, and goes up until Sunday evening. This national event started out as a tribute to comic books back in 1970 and was founded by the Golden State Comic Book Convention with it’s members including Shel Dorf, Richard Alf, Ken Krueger, and Mike Towry. As the name has had some variations, the most known is simply the San Diego Comic-Con International. Since then, it has become so much more. It is now dedicated to pop-culture, movies, television, video games, and is every nerds dream to snag a ticket to this international phenomenon.
Crafty Costumes at Comic-Con
There have been trends for the past few years, that shows the best costumes, get the best exposure among the media. While I was there on Saturday, I happened to see particularlya ton of Deadpool, Harley Quinn, and Joker costumes. If that’s not enough of a reason to show up in costume, even celebrities are getting into the action. Daniel Radcliffe (a.k.a Harry Potter) showed up in disguise as the friendly neighborhood Spiderman. As was Peter Jackson (director of Lord of the Rings/Hobbit series), was spotted in disguise in costume during Friday’s Comic-Con day. Some people I interviewed in costume said it took them over a year to make their costume. They would carefully plan out everything from which materials would work best, to which character best represents them as a personality, and also they factored in which would best impress of course.
Vendor Giveaways
The vendors inside the Convention Center were limitless. In this gigantic space, over 1,000 vendors showed up to showcase their merchandise for nerd fandom and pop-culture items for purchase. There were also booths that provided lots of free giveaways. These included everything from posters, t-shirts, pins, and even stickers. Discounts were offered to badge holders for specific items in numerous booths set up around the convention. New unreleased video games were being tested by whoever showed up first. I was fortunate to get to test Kingdom Hearts II.5, which is a highly anticipated game for the PS4. From what I got to see, it was not a disappointment. There was also a Walking Dead booth set up close by, where people could go through a maze of zombies and do whatever it took to get out alive and survive.
Movie and Game Premieres
While walking around the city, I unexpectedly ran into the Mutt Cutts van courtesy of Dumb & Dumber To. I even got to receive a Free Lloyd Christmas orange tux t-shirt. Back inside the Convention Center, there were promotions for the new Spongebob movie, which also included the signing of the man behind the voice of Spongebob himself: Tom Kenny. There were also promotions around the convention for the most anticipated television seasons and movies including Walking Dead, Sin City 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Arrow, and Constantine. The panels were interesting and entertaining to sit through for an hour each. Producers and stars showed up to promote their movies/tv series. Gotham, the hit new show coming this fall, was being highly praised as there were real Batman suits on display for viewers. Sin City 2: The Dame to Kill For had it’s own booth and was giving away free posters and t-shirts. There was a sneak peak of The Flash and Sleepy Hollow: two new series being aired later this year. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and the last of the Hobbit trilogy saga were also involved in panels of their own with stars in appearance for a quick Q&A.
Concluding the Day
To conclude the day’s events on Saturday, the ever-popular Masquerade Ball lasted from 8-11 p.m. There was an intense costume contest where the contestants got to show off their fantastic abilities of making their own costumes and which methods they finalized with. There was a variation of winners that received different amounts of prize money. The event ended at 11 p.m. sharp, and there must have been over 90,000 people leaving the hall from the Masquerade. As exhausting as it was with all of the walking, picture taking, and melting in the San Diego heat, it was so worth it to be a part of Comic-Con International 2014.
By Andrea Montoya
