This is the time of the year where news about San Diego Comic-Con starts to filter in and anticipation grows day by day. We’d like to tackle some of your favorite SDCC topics here at the San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog and to kick it off, we are looking back at 2017 – and what our favorite memory from last year’s convention was. If you’d like to suggest a topic, you can either send us a tweet or email! Each week we will pick a topic and a few of the staff will give their answers. New for this year we will have our Attendee of the Week participate in Con Flashback as well!
Pete Salisbury
For 2017 I had no expectations so made no plans except to meet up with my friends Dennis and Beverly. We met more than 20 years ago in some autograph line at one of the many conventions we have attended. With Dennis, it was the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention, and Beverly it was definitely a Star Trek Creation Show. SDCC is now our show and it’s like our yearly family reunion. The family once was bigger, but with the difficulty of getting a badge each year along with old age and deaths leaves just the three of us.
For 2017, Dennis wanted to meet the cast of Syfy channel’s Wynonna Earp, Beverly wanted to do as many outside events as possible, and I was interested in getting autographs from the Syfy channel’s Dark Matter cast and the voice actors of Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants. As a team, with some effort and a little luck we completed our wish list.
When I started reminiscing about last year, I knew that being with my friends had been my favorite moment and as I reviewed all the pictures I had taken the last one showing all my Comic-Con SWAG spread out on my bed reminded me how fun it had been and how sad I had felt that it was over for another year.
Kerry Dixon
On the last day of San Diego Comic-Con 2015, my original Comic-Con BFF (and first-ever-roommate at the convention) Sarah and I realized we still had some leftover items sitting around our hotel room that we needed to give away. We loaded up an oversized bag with prizes and strapped it onto Sarah, who said, “I feel like a pack mule.”
“No,” I told her. “You’re a PRIZE mule.”
That whole day, we wandered around, doing the dumbest things imaginable while giving away small prizes and meeting fans, and it was the most fun we’d had the entire convention.
Our prize mule is taking a break. Come find her in Sails! First one to find her and say "pretzel" gets prize! #SDCC pic.twitter.com/PJQquopdQr
— SDCC Unofficial Blog (@SD_Comic_Con) July 12, 2015
Find the Prize Mule at #NerdHQ and say #IWantMyNerdHQ and get a prize! #AdventuresOfPrizeMule #SDXX pic.twitter.com/v1Ekm4PVve
— SDCC Unofficial Blog (@SD_Comic_Con) July 12, 2015
Prize Mule's exhausted. Find her and answer an Adventure Time question for LAST ONE. #AdventuresOfPrizeMule #Omni pic.twitter.com/LDWwe2zfXE
— SDCC Unofficial Blog (@SD_Comic_Con) July 12, 2015
Then, in 2016, Sarah couldn’t make it to the convention — and I damn sure wasn’t taking selfies of myself all around Comic-Con. So, I came up with an idea: A stand-in. Of course, it had to be a mule (or a unimule, let’s not judge) to honor the original #AdventuresOfPrizeMule, and Clackifus the blue and yellow prize mule was created.
In 2017, everyone on the UBlog wanted in on the action, so we expanded our herd (and added some asshole dragon, maybe you’ve heard of him). If we’d been impressed in 2015 that we could tweet a location and people would show up in seconds, it had nothing on 2017. You guys were everywhere. I got to meet so many more of our readers than ever before, all while working with brands and companies I genuinely like, and watching this silly, stupid thing my friend and I had created one afternoon on the last day of con two years before with my friend grow into something huge and amazing. It was kind of magical.
Shawn Marshall
My favorite thing about San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) has always been the surprises. I know many revel in the planning, but it is the random amazing moments at SDCC that are what have always stood out to me. I remember long ago having that experience at my first Comic-Con while wandering the floor and finding Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) signing away at some indistinguishable booth on the floor.
That level of surprise and excitement hit again in 2017 as I stumbled across Dave Gibbons signing at the 2000 AD booth.
Although it wasn’t a surprise to some, it was an announcement I missed that the iconic artist would be a special guest of the comic publisher… and I couldn’t have been happier. Although there were more exciting moments at the Blade Runner 2049 offsite or when Kevin Smith took the stage at Funko Fundays, it was this moment that was my favorite because it was an unexpected time to meet one of the more prolific creators of my lifetime. From Doctor Who to Superman to Green Lantern to Watchmen… Dave Gibbons is an icon and one I had not previously met.
As we near SDCC 2018, I know there will be so many things that will excite me in the announcements leading up to the con, but I anticipate that it will be the things I don’t know that will be my favorites. There is so much noise at SDCC, but it still offers powerful, quiet, pop culture moments that I appreciate greatly.
