An Ode to San Diego Comic Con

I moved to California back in June of 2000 from my tiny hometown in Pennsylvania, so I didn’t attend San Diego Comic Con that year because, quite honestly, I didn’t even know it existed. After spending a number of months in Los Angeles, getting settled – eventually – into an apartment with my roommate (at the time) and landing a decent clerical job at the Warner Bros. Studio Lot in Burbank, I started to learn about the many TV-based events that happen in and near Los Angeles. One of those events was San Diego Comic Con.

So, when it came time to get tickets for the annual event – when you could still simply fill out a form and send in your money – my roommate, a mutual friend of ours and I ventured to San Diego for one day to attend the convention. Boy, did we have A LOT to learn about the event. We were extremely ill-prepared, missed the panel we specifically wanted to see that day and were very overwhelmed by it all.

All that being said, I was a little deterred about attending again especially when my roommate moved back home about 18 months after moving out here; and I had no interest in attending all by myself. Luckily – at least at the time – I made a good friend through one of my TV fan groups, who joined me in attending San Diego Comic Con (and many other local TV-based events like Paley Fest and WonderCon) from 2003 through 2011 until our friendship massively imploded.

By that time, however, I had been a regular contributor here at NiceGirlsTV for a little over two years and had a wonderful group of friends within our staff, who joined with me in staying at a great rental house about a mile from the San Diego convention center. From 2012 to 2017, our merry band of writers joined together, splitting the cost of the rental house and having a great time attending the annual fete. In what little spare time we had, we enjoyed playing Cards Against Humanity, sharing our daily experiences at the con and working hard on all of our coverage.

Sadly, as the old adage goes, “All good things must come to an end.” That was very true for me because I had changed professions – yes, each of us on the NiceGirlsTV staff have “real” jobs outside of our writing – and I simply couldn’t afford to attend Comic Con or any of the other TV-based events anymore.

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At first, I really missed not being able to attend Comic Con, and the other events, because they had become such an integral part of my life for the previous 15 years. Despite the overcrowding, the distance that had to be traversed to get to-and-from the panels each day and even the Twitards (the Twilight fans) who made it necessary for CCI, the folks behind San Diego Comic Con, to construct areas outside of the convention center for those people who just HAD to camp out for days before the event even started and then every day of the event to get into Hall H (and some of the other larger ballrooms), I had enjoyed attending every year.

But, I quickly learned the joy of being able to report on Comic Con from the comfort of my own couch, sharing details on the panels that most interested me all thanks to the larger outlets (such as TV Line and Entertainment Weekly) that provided reports very quickly after the conclusion of each panel. This, of course, segwayed into the virtual panels that had to take place during the COVID pandemic.

All in all, I truly valued my time attending Comic Con in person, spending time with my friends and seeing countless TV and film personalities and even getting some opportunities to interview some really cool people. Maybe one year I’ll finally make it back to Comic Con in person, but for now I’ll enjoy it from afar.

For those of you heading off to San Diego Comic Con 2023 next month, have a great time! For those of you staying home, please join us here at NiceGirlsTV for some coverage on the annual event.