Welcome to another edition of Con Flashback, your regular trip down San Diego Comic-Con memory lane with the Ublog. This week we discuss meeting new people at SDCC and becoming friends. If you want to suggest a topic, make sure to send us a tweet using #ConFlashback
Lisa McDowell
My friendship story doesn’t exactly start with the Comic-Con convention itself, but it does begin by being Comic-Con related. In 2012, back before I even had a Twitter account, I was reading through the Comic-Con Facebook page and writing some comments about Game of Thrones and SDCC (I know, Game of Thrones again, go figure right?). Well, it didn’t take long before another person named Christy was chatting it up with me. We both loved SDCC and Game of Thrones and were excitedly hoping for some GOT action at that years con.
It didn’t take long before Christy decided to send me a Facebook friend request. Normally I only accept requests from people I know personally. I was wary about accepting. However, when I checked out her page and saw cat posts and Guns-n-Roses posts I knew we had more than just Comic-Con and Game of Thrones in common, so I accepted. We met up at the con that year and we have been good friends ever since. We try to meet during the con at least once every year to hang out. Last year we did the Vikings booth together. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for us this year!
Kerry Dixon
Two weeks in a row I’m actually writing about the same person: The lovely Sarah Lacey, who helped design this site, designs our t-shirts every year, and was the OG Prize Mule. She’s kind of awesome, if I do say so myself. But back in the summer of 2010, we’d never met, and we’d never been to San Diego Comic-Con before.
This was back when badge re-sales were still a thing, so I graduated college in May, bought a badge shortly after, and then started looking into hotels. Like most first-time attendees, there was some sticker shock. But I was determined to go, mostly because I knew the cast of Psych were going to be there, and there was no college to tie me down. Long ago, before Livejournal was owned by the Russians, it was where all the cool kids hung out, and I spent a lot of time there — and happened to stumble upon a comment by Sarah on a Psych Livejournal, mentioning that she had one extra spot in her room that she was looking to fill to save money. And so, the stars aligned.
About two hours after we’d gotten to the con, we had dinner at maryjane’s (We miss you, Eureka Cafe!), and as we were leaving, Sarah suddenly grabbed my arm and started going, “It’s David Hasselhoff, it’s David Hasselhoff.” As he walked past, he definitely heard her – grinned – and said, “Hello, ladies” to us as only David Hasselhoff can. We were hooked, and a friendship was born.
I’ve made a lot of friends through San Diego Comic-Con. All of the people creating this blog for you now, people I’ve met randomly in line, or sat next to in panels. But there was something special about that very first year, and definitely something special about Sarah. We spent the entire weekend hanging out, lining up at stupid hours (we were fast learners), laughing, and taking it all in. Eight years later, and I’m still very proud to call her one of my best friends. I hope we get to dance with some pineapples again in 2018, Sarah.
Andy Wagner
I’ve honestly never tried to go out of my way to make friends when I go to Comic-Con. Every year, I think of it as spending the week with 129,999 of my already closest friends. But if I really need to narrow it down, the opportunity to write for the SDCC Unofficial Blog has allowed me to meet some really great people.
When I first started going to Comic-Con, I kept seeing friends posting tweets and photos at these really great happenings I had no idea were taking place. When I asked where they were getting all this juicy insider info, they pointed me to the SDCC Unofficial Blog. I got so involved with the blog, I wanted to actually get involved with the blog. I’m so glad I asked if they were looking for writers. I can’t imagine a better group of people with whom to experience Comic-Con every year.
Robert Warners
Anyone who has met me probably knows I am not the most social person when I am surrounded by people I don’t know but I have managed to actually meet some awesome people in my years of attending SDCC. In 2014, I made the decision to sleep in line for Hall H and I was going to be doing it solo. Luck was on my side as I had some great line neighbors which made the whole 13+ hour wait much easier to handle. My biggest advice to anyone attending the convention for the first time is that waiting in line is inevitable, make the best of it and strike up a conversation with someone around you, it could be one of the best decisions you make during the con.
