Another SDCC has passed. It was at it usually is, chaos and amazing. Most things went well, a couple small things didn’t work out, but I had a wonderful time! Last night I flew back to DC, and Sunday was a busy day so I didn’t have time to make this post. At some point I’ll go with people and things will be a bit easier haha, but being at a hotel was really nice this year. One closer would have of course been better, but it was manageable. Here’s the trip!:

–

–

Tuesday (July 23rd):

Went to the airport, my flight boarded at 5:38 but took off at 7:05, a couple little delays. Landed in San Diego at 8:45pm instead of 8. And it took me a while to figure out there wasn’t a shuttle so I called an Uber to the hotel. Got there at 9:50pm. I checked in. I asked about the free daily breakfast burrito and shuttle schedule. Got that information and went to my room. I was in my room by 10:08. It was a decent room, small but had pretty much everything I needed. before sleeping, I looked at screenshots of been taking over the past month or so of exclusives I wanted to try to get at SDCC, and see which I could maybe go for.

Wednesday

Wednesday was my relax and plan day. I ended up waking at 6 or 7 each day which is always good for SDCC. I continued to figure out my exclusives before going down to get my first free breakfast item. it was a breakfast burrito. then I finally looked at the SDCC app so I could go through the schedule to arrange my own. after I finished that. I spent the rest of the day doing stuff online so I could get them done before the whirlwind of the convention hit. I then decided on ordering some Japanese food, some stuff I’d had before others I tried for the first time. It was a great dinner! Then I slept.

–

–

–

Thursday:

On Thursday I woke at 5:45 because there were exclusives that were being sold online at 6 and 7am respectively, so I had to be awake to snag those. That went well. then at 7:35am left for the convention center on the shuttle. I got there at 8 and walked in to get my lanyard and merch bag that we get every year.

–

–

My first panel was at 10:30 and it was the Avatar: The Last Airbender podcast hosted by Dante Basco and Janet Varney, the voice actors for Zuko and Korra respectively. It was exciting to be watching a Braving The Elements show live!

–

–

10:30-11:30am – Janet, Dante, Michaela (Toph), Greg (the second VA for Iroh) and Cara O’Neil (works for the publishing side of ATLA) we’re the panelists. They first chatted about Iroh and then read quotes and then read some scenes together. Those scenes included: from The Chase: Toph and Iroh meeting. From The Old Masters: Zuko and Iroh reuniting. Iroh’s speech to team Avatar. Another person arrived to the panel, Isabella Boettcher she works on current ATLA stuff that welll be getting next year. She’s been on the podcast before. She vaguely talks about upcoming things. Cara mentions the upcoming Iroh comic. Iroh’s Adventure Guide roleplaying game mentioned. We got a LOK comic reveal, the Mystery of Penquan Island. Then they asked us trivia to win prizes. The trivia questions were quite difficult! Haha.

–

–

12-4:45pm – this chunk of time was essentially my shopping day. I was at the exhibit hall exploring. I ended up getting around 7 out of the 17 or so items I was interested in. But I also found stuff I didn’t know about. I got DW stuff from Titan, CMON, the DW booth, DSTLRY, Matsumoto, Kehsuk, and finally Dark Horse. I was surprised that I got even this many of the things I’d wanted.

1:00-3:10pm – at the Unknown Comics booth, I got a photo with Alison Sealy Smith (the VA for Storm in the X-Men Animated Series and the recent X-Men ‘97). I got a photo with Cal Dodd (the VA for Wolverine in the X-Men Animated Series and the recent X-Men ‘97). And a photo and signing with Allyson Court the VA for Storm in the X-Men Animated Series and the recent X-Men ‘97).

Then I met the comic book artist David Nakayama. I’ve followed him for years and it was fantastic to finally be able to meet him! He was lovely to meet, once I showed him my IG he realized who I was (since I leave comments on many of his posts), he was excited to meet me too!

As I left that booth, I walked by others and something caught my eye. I saw some images of various X-men evolution characters and the Swan Princess. I had to do a quick google search and realized that the character designer (Steve E. Gordon) for those (and other characters) was here and is had no idea! I always loved X-Men Evolution after the 90’ X-Men animated series ended. I learned about new characters that hadn’t been in the first show and I loved the character designs. So when I realized who he was, I said hello and mentioned that stuff. He was appreciative and I had to get a few things from him that he signed for free.

Next I went back to Unknown’s booth and Lenore Zann (the original voice of Rogue) was back from lunch. I met her and told her the same I did to the others. She said Thank you Sugah to me : ). by the Marvel booth and showed a screenshot of an email that got me a Peach Momoko (famous comic book artist) variant cover of a comic. As I walked around some more, I eventually passed by another comic book person I didn’t know would be there. I got to meet Marv Wolfman! I told him that Raven and Deathstroke are two of my favorite DC characters and I thanked him for his work and his creativity. I also mentioned I hopefully would be at Baltimore Comic Con to get things signed by him. He wrote so many famous stories and created some very well-known characters.

4:36-6:00pm – On the way to a panel, I passed by a hall that sometimes has celebrities at booths for signings. And I hadn’t realized that Michaela Jill Murphy (Toph) would have a booth up there! I thought she was supposed to only have signings down at the Nickelodeon booth in the exhibit hall. I had enough time before my panel that I decided to meet her. Eventually, I met her!! Took a photo with her and told her how much I love Toph and love her portrayal of her. And said I was at the panel and thanked her for being here.

7-8pm – the panel was held by BatInTheSun to promote the movie Legend of the White Dragon. This is the final project that the late Jason David Frank (the most famous and popular Power Ranger) was a part of. He’d wanted to create something in his own vision with his PR character Tommy for years but never was able to by any of the companies who owned the rights to the Rangers. So, this movie was his dream creation. It’s been in the works for a few years and we got to see a scene from the movie. That was the end of that day, I waited for the shuttle and went back to the hotel.

Friday:

Friday was an interesting day, because this year, there were no panels in Hall H on Sunday. So, some panels that would have been there on Sunday were moved to Thursday or Friday. One of those was the Doctor Who panel, which as most people know, is my number one franchise that I follow. So I had to get into Hall H on this day. But I also had to get into the wristband line for Saturday’s Hall H too. So, when I got to the convention center, I got in line for Friday’s Hall H, got in after two hours, and happily got to see that panel along with two others.

The others were The Boys and The Rings of Power. Both great panels.

12:30pm-1:30pm – The Doctor Who panel itself was wonderful. Seeing Ncuti and Millie there was fantastic. And their personal chemistry on stage was delightful. They really did seem like best friends. And Russell T. Davis was there too. He’s the person who successfully brought the show back, in 2005, from its long hiatus. And he’s been brought back again for his second era of running the show. They talked about the season that just ended recently, the upcoming Christmas Special, a little bit about the next season of the show, and an official announcement of a spin-off miniseries.

1:30-10:23pm – Then back outside I went to get into the wristband line. The wristbands essentially are supposed to guarantee that you get into the first panel of the next day. As you can see in that timing, I was in line for a very long time. I have gotten into Hall H in the two previous times I’ve been to SDCC without a wristband, but this time I really wanted to get to that first panel of the day. Finally, at 10:23pm I GOT A WRISTBAND! Now, the only problem with going for the wristbands, is that you don’t have much time to sleep between getting a wristband and needing to get in line the following morning. I slept just after 2am and woke up at…

–

–

Saturday:

3:30am!! – So, I had a whopping 1.5 hours sleep! Because I was leaving so early, I couldn’t take the shuttle, so I Ubered.

5:26am-9:00am – I waited in line to get into Hall H with the other wristband people. Many of them had chosen to sleep in the line so the line was already pretty long. But, it wasn’t as far back I it could have been. While I was in line, I happened to see MiniSuperHerosToday ! I was a bit slow on realizing who I was looking at so he passed by and left before I could say hi.

–

By 10:30am I finally got into Hall H!!

• 11:15-12:15am – The first panel was the Superman & Lois panel. This is the last CW Berlantiverse/Arrowverse show that’s still airing. This was its final season’s panel, so I had to attend. The actors for Clark and Lois were there and the showrunner was there. We were the first people to see the trailer for the final season. And it was a fantastic trailer. We also got to see, I think the opening scene of the season. I’m very glad that I got to see this panel.

• 12:30-1:30pm – Next was the BRZRKR panel, which is the comic that Keanu Reeves created. I haven’t read it, but I know it’s been very popular and it’s his passion project. The panel itself was pretty good. Seeing him in person was wonderful. He was joyful over this comic series and was announcing a number of things to come with his creative team. Plus he was awarded an Inkpot on stage!

• 1:45-3:15pm – Next was a longer panel because of was the collective Star Trek Universe panel. This includes all the current Trek stuff that is coming out or has come out recently. We saw trailers and scenes and it was pretty fun. I didn’t take many photos since I’ve not remotely gotten started on Star Trek. But I do enjoy Rebecca Romijn.

• 3:32-4:32pm – I always forget that this panel happens, but it’s always an amazing panel. EW’s Bold School panel which was exemplifying women in storytelling. There were female showrunners and actors who are all very well-known that get chosen to be on this panel each year. And they talk about the industry and their lives and experiences and how things have changed and have gotten better and what needs more changing. I enjoyed it a lot.

• 4:45-5:45pm – Spinning out of Matt Reeves The Batman, The Penguin is getting his own series on Max. I was already excited for this show, but the panel certainly increased my excitement. We saw a trailer and a scene. Colin Farrell was at the panel via video chat. And some of the other cast members, showrunner and Matt Reeves were all on stage.

• 6-7pm – Next is the biggest panel, the Marvel Studios panel. So much happened. We got a trailer for the next Captain America movie, a scene from it and from Thunderbolts*. We also got a kind of themed promotional trailer for the Fantastic Four. The main highlight was the casting for (a) Doctor Doom. We were all going crazy over this big reveal on the room. I always enjoy the Marvel panel, though since Marvel splits reveals between SDCC and D23 as of a few years ago, essentially since Disney+ started, it’s always felt like we want more from both.

• 7:30-9:00pm – and as always, Kevin Smith’s panel is the last panel of the day. I always love Kevin’s panels. By the end of them I’m always laughing and feeling heartfelt and happy about things. He is a person truly living almost every aspect of his dream life. It’s wonderful to experience.

• I slept around 1:30am.

–

–

–

Sunday:

As I said before, there was no Hall H this time, so I didn’t need to worry about that. But I did have a couple panels to get to and some people to meet.

–

–

8:12am – got in line for Exhibit hall

9:00-9:13 – I went to see Steve E. Gordon again to ask him to sign my Marvel poster and to tell him how much I loved his designs of Magneto, Wanda, Sabretooth etc. since I’d forgotten to on Thursday.

9:50am – I got into the room for my next two panels (as they were in the same room and one after the other). But before those, there was another panel.

–

10:30-11:30am – Stargate’s 30th Anniversary panel. I think I’ve seen maybe one or two episodes of Stargate SG1. I remember the shows being on the air, but I never really got into them. But this was still a nice panel to watch.

11:45am-12:45pm – The first of the panels I was on that room for was the World of X-Men 97 and X-Men TAS. This was a wonderful time with a few people who had worked on the original show and one of the people who worked on X-Men 97. It was celebrating the past and looking forward to the future. We learned so much about what was happening during the original show! I think the last time this panel was happening at SDCC, I was also on the room, because that was when 97 had been announced but they only had concept art really for the show.

1-2pm – The second panel was the X-Men Fandom panel Celebrating X-Men 97. This had the whole main cast of the show present minus maybe one or two people. Season 1 was talked about a lot and season 2 was mentioned a bit. But mostly it was just us hearing about the experiences that were had by the old and new cast. Some of the actors from the original show reprised their roles and others just didn’t sound the same, so they were recast as other characters in the show and mostly new actors took those places. It was such a fantastic panel!

3-4pm – My final panel of the convention was the Jurassic World Chaos Theory panel. It’s a sequel series to the JW: Camp Cretaceous animated series from around when the pandemic first hit. The first series took place after the first Jurassic World movie and this second one is 6 years later, between the second and third JW movies. It was so lovely to see the cast together. Season one was talked about a lot and season two was hinted at a bit. And the panel ended by us, and the cast and crew watching the first episode of season 2 together! The season won’t drop until mid October, so it was really great to see the episode now.

4-5pm – For the last hour of the convention, I went back down to the exhibit hall to meet a couple people. First, I met Larry Houston (the director of the X-Men The Animated Series and consultant on 97). He had been the moderator of the first X-Men panel of the day. I got my Marvel poster signed and thanked him for all his work on X-Men and his other numerous animated projects over the decades and for his continued work on 97. He was very grateful. And when the photo was taken, he commented that he liked my lenticular kamehameha phone case. It was so nice to meet him. He fought so hard for that cartoon to be everything it was without the sensors or studios from from making changes to the show that he felt were wrong. That show, and certainly also 97, wouldn’t be anything close to what they were if not for him (and of course many others).

The next person I got to meet, was a podcast host of a podcast I’ve watched since March 12, 2015. Though this host hosts a secondary version of the podcast. His name is Christian. He’s a wonderful person who I’ve enjoyed chatting with over the years. I’ve always had good experiences with all the hosts of the podcasts I started watching back then and I’m glad that this show is still going whereas the others stopped a while ago. It was great to finally meet him! We talked about what I’d been doing at the convention and that he’d be mentioning my live-tweets from being in Hall H on Saturday on the next day’s episode of the podcast. I’m happy we were able to meet, I wasn’t sure it was going to work out.

The final person I met was back at the Unknown Comics booth. I had to meet Catherine Disher (X-Men TAS’ Jean Grey, X-Men 97’s Dr. Valerie Cooper). I told her I always enjoyed her voice as Jean and thank her for her hard work in both shows. She was so nice! I also had her sign my Marvel poster.

5:05pm – On the way out of the exhibit hall, I saw X-Men ‘97’s Sunspot’s voice actor told him I loved his take on the voice and that I couldn’t wait till more from show.

–

–

5-5:30pm – As usual, the last thing I do at SDCC is go to Hyatt to exchange the tickets I got from Hall H for whatever items they have for me. I got some posters and a fan. While leaving I saw Tom Taylor (a famous comic book writer) and I thanked him for all his hard work.

I got back to the hotel, showered, ate, packed and then slept. After that, I checked out the next day and headed to my Aunt’s house before I will be leaving tonight.

As always, I had an amazing time at San Diego Comic Con, there were chaotic times and pains of my body and my wallet haha, but I always love attending and can’t wait to hopefully get in again next year!