See You In San Diego

My pulse pounds a little quicker every July.

It's a sea of people anchored by corporate branding as far as the eye can see

There is only one Comic Con. After three years of attending small press expos, zine fests and local comic conventions, I can quite confidently declare there’s nothing else like SDCC. And while there are many downsides, like the difficulty in securing tickets (it’s almost as tough as a Taylor Swift concert), the unfortunate incursion by Hollywood (to the point comics seemed pushed out) and the sheer tonnage of human beings present (150,000 attendees over 5 days!) it’s still irresistible.

I go to SDCC every few years whether I need to or not. My first trip was in 2003, for a single day visit. It’s a 90-minute flight on Southwest, the convention center is a 25-minute bus ride from the airport, and two decades ago it was a short wait to pick up tickets. That visit was enough to get the lay of the land, and wash away the stink of my only previous visit to “America’s Finest City” (where I had been sent in the early ’80s for training purposes during a misbegotten stint as a microfiche copier repairman. Yikes!)

That's a lot of comic book-adjacent stuff

My next visit, for three days in 2006, was a much happier experience, as I was traveling in cahoots with Los Bros. Sikoryak, brothers Bob and Steve. Our youngest sibling was part of a panel on Nickelodeon Comics, and it was just a fun opportunity for the boys to play in “R. Sikoryak's” professional space. (We would also take a fateful detour to Bob Burns' Basement in Burbank—but that's a tale for another day...) A followup in 2009 was also a celebration, as our brother had published his first (of 5) graphic novels with Drawn & Quarterly and I wanted to see him autographing copies of Masterpiece Comics.

Joe, Steve and Bob look up in the sky! No, not there...

At that point, I thought I'd had my fill of the event. The next decade was spent trying to break into filmmaking, first as an animator and later with short live-action movies. I didn't think much about flying further than Hollywood in those days. The convention had grown, from a humble 300-person event in the basement of a small hotel, to the corporate behemoth of today. It began in 1970 featuring a few illustrators, comic book artists and a science fiction author or two, but 40 years later the con had morphed into a pop culture market place dominated by toy, game and especially film companies.

George Lucas helped fuel that change when he sent Charlie Lippincott to promote Star Wars a year before its premiere in 1977, because he liked comics and recognized THAT audience as potentially being HIS audience as well. He was right, of course, and it started the slow but inevitable process of fanboys inheriting the Earth. Over the decades, Comic Con has become THE launchpad for genre films, blockbuster games, high-end collectibles, and oh yeah, comic books too.

Looking like a professional at the film fest, with Scotty Cornfield and Luis Ochoa

That transition actually brought me back into the fold, when I submitted two films to the Comic Con International Film Festival. Amazingly, both As Seen On TV! and Snaggletoothwere selected for presentation, and I got a fistful of free passes for the event. Those tickets, which retailed for $250 apiece and normally required fanatical efforts to acquire in the days of overwhelming demand vs. slow wi-fi/glitchy websites, were more than a treat— they felt like recognition that I had arrived to a next level. I was a “Professional” attendee, an honor that I would enjoy a few times in the future, but never again as a filmmaker (that too is another story.)

I’ve had some lovely experiences at the shows, including quiet moments with heroes and inspirations like Ray Harryhausen and Leonard Maltin, shared events in big halls with movie stars and comics creators, cab rides and countless conversations with fellow artists and fans. I guess it’s the scale and intensity of the show that makes it different. The venue is three times the size of our Moscone Center in San Francisco, and all those bodies spill over into the adjacent Gaslamp Quarter, where restaurants, galleries and storefronts cheerfully rebrand themselves for the occasion and billboard trucks circle the streets to promote upcoming TV series.

Bob signs the first of FIVE graphic novels with Drawn & Quarterly

This year my brother is back at the D&Q table, signing copies of Declaration/Emancipation Illustrated, the followup to Constitution Illustrated. I'll be visiting on Thursday and Friday, before Saturday’s Tsunami of casual attendees arrive. I'm looking forward to walking the exhibit hall to see what's new, and diving more deeply into the Artist’s Alley to connect with old friends and make a few new ones. No, I won't be selling any of my work (but I'll have postcards with QR links to my shop if anyone asks.) And it’ll be nice to spend some time with sister-in-law Kriota Willberg who has her own graphic novel in the works for next year.

Fun, friends, family, and cosplayers galore. What more could I ask for? See you next week, thanks for reading!

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Watch Instagram for posts from the show, and my daily Stanley Kubrick sketches as well!