SDCC 2025 is over! I will miss it even with all the walking. I always enjoy the experience and some things are always the same, and others are sometimes different. I flew back yesterday afternoon. I was at a hotel again this year, though not the same one as last year. I did like last year’s better, but this one was fine. This year, there was a much reduced presence in Hall H, and therefore, I didn’t need to do any late night wristband line-waiting. Here’s the trip!: 

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Tuesday (July 22nd):

Left for the airport at 6:18am, took off from Dulles at 8:35am. And landed in San Diego at 10:20am and was in my room by 11:26. It was nice to arrive early in the day so I could check in and just have the full day to relax and get to know the hotel. I caught up on social media and started checking up on the SDCC exclusives I wanted, organizing my schedule more and just enjoying the time before everything started. I ended the night with a nice dinner at the hotel and ordered a pint of ice cream from Salt & Straw (as the brand came highly recommended (IYKYK). 

Oh also, I loved the ceiling in my room!

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Wednesday (July 23rd): 

I had breakfast at the hotel, then I spent 7 hours throughout the day looking at SDCC 2025 screenshots I’ve been taking for months, to see which you can maybe make. Also typing up my schedule here took longer than I thought it would. I only ended up typing out Thursday’s schedule. That trend kept going each day, I had to find time to type it out for each day, on each day before.

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Thursday (July 24):

I ended up waking up at 5:30 each day of the convention. And on this day, there were a couple exclusives that were available online, so I got those before I left. I took the 7am shuttle each day. I got there at 7:30 and walked in to get my lanyard and merch bag that we get every year. 

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My first panel was in Ballroom 20 (one of the large halls) at 10:0am and it was the Avatar: The Last Airbender 20th Anniversary panel. It was moderated by Janet Varney (VA of Korra) and the panelists were the two creators of the Avatar franchise, Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. The others on the panel included Jeremy Zuckerman (the composer of all the music from both shows), Zach Tyler Eisen (VA of Aang), Dante Basco (VA for Zuko), Michaela Jill Murphy (VA for Toph), Dee Bradley Baker (VA for every animal voice and random other characters from both shows), Jack De Sena (VA for Sokka), and Jennie Kwan (VA for Suki). It was great seeing so many of them on one panel! It was also nice that by now I’d met three of them before.

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10:00-11:07am – ATLA 20th Anniversary panel. They chatted about the anniversary itself of course. Each person gave a little intro. Then talked about what they’re all doing currently. We always got a video message from Mae Whitman (VA for Katara) saying she was sad that she couldn’t be there but was excited for the anniversary. Similar to last year’s Braving the Elements panel, we got some table-reads of some scenes from ATLA! The first was the Sokka and Suki scene from the station when they tried to enter Ba Sing Se the first time and then after that at Serpent’s Pass. The next one was at the Western Air Temple when Zuko wanted to join the team. Differently than last year, for each scene there were new sketches to go with the scenes drawn by Bryan. He also mentioned that he was working on something watercolor-related for Avatar Studios. Zach talked about his time after the show and how much the show means to him. Janet talked about Greg Baldwin and Mako (both the VA’s for Uncle Iroh)for a bit, before Dante reminisced about Mako. Each of them talked about which characters they related to most. The last table read was from the Sozin’s Comet finale, right after defeat of Ozai and up to Zuko’s speech at the end. Mike Talked a little bit about merchandise coming out. We were reminded that the day of the Aang movie is Oct 9, 2026. And finally, we got to see the first promo image from their next animated series (Avatar: Seven Havens)!! And lastly, Jeremy gave us a musical preview of the 20th Anniversary concert tour via Secret Tunnel! And Dee (and the others) were singing with all of us. This was such a fun panel! 

There will be blurry photos just because a lot of the panels had low lighting.

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11:15-12:15pm – Panel two was The Dragon Prince: The Next Arc panel (also in Ballroom 20, so I didn’t have to leave the room). The panelists included Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond (the creators of the show), Jack De Sena (VA for Calem) and Dante Basco (VA for ___ (don’t want to spoil that reveal from last season). They spoke about the next arc. Which included a big surprise. The next guest dropped in and it was the director of product at Kickstarter. The third arc of the series is called: Azymondias: The Last Archdragon!! And we got to see a mini teaser! The title of the next version of the show is: The Dragon King!! And we got to see a promo image of adult Zym and Ezran!! The next season will be funded via Kickstarter!! The pre-launch page is open and available to follow. It’ll launch soon, not sure when. Then we got a sneak peak of the opening title card. It looks great! And we were introduced to one of the new actors, someone from Critical Roll who will play a dragon. We ended off with a Q&A time. Regarding some of the questions: The creators have known what the last minute of the show’s story would be from early on in the first season. There will be call-backs from throughout the show in this next season. They may look into how Calem and Ezran’s powers work within the world’s rules. I loved swing at this panel! I was very surprised by the kickstarted aspect. I can’t wait for more from this series! 

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Before this next part, I had tried to go to the ATLA 20th Anniversary signing, but I didn’t realize that it was a ticket distribution activity, and tickets of those are given out in the morning. 12:35-1:30pm – So then I went back upstairs and got in line for The Dragon Prince autographs. I met Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond!! I told them all how amazing their show has been and I’ve been waiting since last year’s panel to learn more about the future they have planned. Last year they suggested that they had ideal for future. 

I also said that I’d only recently finished season 7 so I was ready for the next arc! I asked about if we’re going to get another art book! They hope to get one made. Justin asked where I was coming from and when I told him DC, he mentioned family that went to AU. If someone hadn’t scheduled both show’s signings at the same time, at least Jack and Dante could have at this signing too. 

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I was a bit early for my next signing. 2:00-3:23pm – I waited in line to meet a podcast host I’ve followed for over a decade, Maude Garrett! I told her I was a Jedi Alliance fan (the first podcast she co-hosted that I saw her on) and I showed her my Twitter in case she recognized it from back when I’d live-tweet during the podcasts. She remembered, which was nice. I started watching JA in March 2015, caught up on all old episodes by February 2016, and was there for the end of the show in August 2017. We talked about the Popcorn Talk Network (the YouTube channel network that those podcasts used to be part of. The network went under when the pandemic hit. And we chatted about some of the other hosts and and what things they’ve moved on to do. She was excited to know where I knew her from, it was a very fun conversation!

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3:27-6:00pm – For the next few hours I was wandering around the exhibit hall.

• 3:35-3:40pm – got a kid Goku figure at Tamashi Nations
• 3:50-3:54pm – got a 3D bag clip set that was themed on the Lilo and Stitch animated series. 
• 4:00-4:20pm – I met Robert Timothy Smith! The young actor who played Neel in the Star Wars series: Skeleton Crew! And I was wandering around looking for a particular SW poster. 
• 4:26-4:28pm – got a copy of the Daily Planet produced by the DC booth. It’s styled like a newspaper and includes information about comic history, present and future. It was vey creative of them.
• 4:40-4:42pm – I met the comic book artist Chrissie Zullo-Uminga!! Got some stuff and told her I love her work and style and I love when I see her animal themed variants. She appreciated that. 
• 4:50-4:52pm – stopped by artist Jason Palmer’s booth and saw his Superman print. Loved it. I have one print from him from 2019’s SDCC. 

Then, I was back at the hotel by 6:45pm. I ordered dinner and then also some cold sandwiches for breakfast the next morning. 

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Friday (July 25):

This year’s Friday was different than previous ones. The major studios didn’t have big Hall H panels as they normally would have. So, I didn’t need to attempt the dreaded Hall H wristband line for Saturday! Since I was free, I did a bunch of other things. One of those things is something I’ve wanted to do since my first SDCC in 2019!

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7:33-7:40am – I got my wristband for a signing later that day. This was one of the two exclusives lottery things I got. This was a signing by the showrunner (Noah Hawley) and cast of the upcoming series: Alien: Earth. 

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8:00-8:30am – For 30 minutes I got to finally hang with Bella while she waited in the exhibit hall line

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My next panel was the Lucasfilm Publishing panel. Which was about the next bunch of books, comics and audio in the franchise. 

10:00-11:07am – Tessa Gratton, Soo Lee, George Mann, Ian McCaig, Cavan Scott, Charles Soule and Harvey Tolibao were the panelist authors and artists. For me, the biggest thing they announced was that regarding the High Republic, this (5-year) initiative is over but they’re not done with the HR Era yet!! They talked about stuff from the second volume of art of THR. Talking about novels. 

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11:10-12:30pm – Waiting for this next panel took a while. This year there were a lot of MTG (Magic the Gathering) collaborations both inside and outside the convention center. And some MTG wanted the promo cards to resell. So, the lines for any of these panels or activities were very long. 

 

12:32-1:27pm – MTG Spider-Man first look panel (Room 7AB, a VERY small room). We saw a bunch of Spider-character card reveals, learned about new mechanics and stuff. It was enjoyable. Though, there was no free promo card at the panel. That’s one reason why there were so many people lined up, almost every MTG panel had some kind of social media post suggesting that there could be cards at the events. 

– Another panel with very low lighting.

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1:35-1:53pm – Went to the exhibit hall. Went to Hasbro and got marvel and MTG stuff. Went to TokyoPop booth 1837 for Amphibia prints.

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Sometimes while walking through the exhibit hall, you see unexpected people, famous or not. At 1:48pm, I saw the actor who plays the geologist Bert Kibbler in The Big Bang Theory, Brian Posehn!

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2:48-3:35pm – I got in line for my first signing via the exclusives lottery. I did get a signing one other time in my first year, but it was on Saturday and I was in Hall H all day. This was the aforementioned Alien: Earth cast and showrunner signing!! I met the cast of the show, and I let them know that I saw an early test version of the pilot last year and I was hooked! They were visibly very excited that I’d seen the episode and that I liked it. 

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3:40-3:44pm – I chatted with comic book artist David Mack. He remembered me from Baltimore Comic Con last year and from AwesomeCon earlier this year. 

3:50-4:08pm – I saw the wonderful Amy Jo Johnson (original US Pink Power Ranger) at David Nakayama’s booth. I met him for the first time last year and I always am commenting on his Instagram posts, so he remembers me. Amy Jo was there because one of the BOOM! exclusives was a slipcase for her Pink Ranger comic volume which as art from David on the front. I said hi to him and chatted a bit, mentioning that I’d be there tomorrow wearing his shirt design. 

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4:24-5:00pm -I then made my way to the Geekscape network’s booth to meet up with a couple people. And on the way there, 4:28pm I briefly saw and chatted with Markeia McCarty, another former Popcorn Talk network host of a podcast I watched!! She remembered me by name! 

4:35-5:00pm – I met with Christian Bladt (who I finally had met here at last year) and Katie Hampton, another co-host of Christian’s!! We chatted about various things, Marvel and otherwise . I showed them what I got that day and Christian showed me his items too. We took some group photos.

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5:06pm – On the way back to the shuttle, I saw Ashley Ekstein at Lego booth! I was on my way back to the hotel early because I had something to go to later in the evening. 

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7:34-7:50pm – I was back near the convention center after having gone back to the hotel to shower and change into some new clothes. I walked to the Hilton. 

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8:00-11:00pm – I attended the 37th Eisner Awards!! All SDCC attendees are allowed to attend these awards each year. Normally, I’ve always been in the Saturday Hall H wristband line and was never able to attend this ceremony. I was very happy to be able to. The Eisners are the big awards for writers, artists and such in the comic book world. We are kept separate from all the big names of course, but it was still an enjoyable experience. I learned about some new books and celebrated some artists and writers I know of who won awards that night. Then I went back to the hotel to sleep. 

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– Stuff I got during the day

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Post 2 to follow!!