For those who have been waiting for any sort of details on the smaller, in-person November event being planned for Comic-Con International, your wait is partially over.
CCI revealed that the convention will be called Comic-Con Special Edition, and it is being planned as a three-day event on November 26-28, 2021. The Friday-Sunday event falls immediately after Thanksgiving.
Attendance size, cost, and all other information is still TBA — but it’s important to note this is not the same thing as San Diego Comic-Con, which has been postponed until 2022 (though this year’s virtual Comic-Con@Home event will return on July 23-25, 2021). We expect this to be a smaller event — though how much smaller, we’ll have to wait and see.
[UPDATE March 29] Comic-Con International has released an updated and expanded statement about this year’s November event, presumably in response to criticism of the Thanksgiving weekend dates and widescale questions. As of now, much is still in question — but Comic-Con International did confirm that due to a packed winter convention schedule (thanks to so many rescheduled events), “Friday through Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend seemed to be the best balance of available space and our envisioned event”.
That envisioned Comic-Con Special Event event is NOT “intended to be the large gathering reflective of the summer event” (no matter how many outlets refer to this as San Diego Comic-Con, the are wrong), and as CCI notes, it’s difficult to announce capacity at the moment until we see how California state restrictions (as well as USA and global restrictions) shake out further into the year. However, the event is planned to be “open to all” and “with the hope that [they] will be able to accommodate fans from all over”, all of this is still subject to potential travel restrictions. Basically: Have patience. CCI doesn’t have all the answers yet either.
“Currently we do not know whether having this event in November is even feasible as we are still in the midst of the pandemic and while we are optimistic about Q4, we have not been privy to any specific information on large gatherings,” Comic-Con International’s statement reads. “However, it was our desire to have something in place for our fans who have longed for an in-person event. We truly hope that you will join us for this entry back into the world of in-person celebrations of the community we so love.”
