A heartwarming badge story & some thoughts on Comic-Con spirit

 23 JUNE 2022

So it's Comic-Con season, our favorite season, and we're furiously stalking vendors and social media and studios for... announcements that haven't really been forthcoming, for the most part. It's late June. Programming and panel announcements are right around the corner and all the special guests have been posted. Yet somehow it all feels very ghostly. 2022 just doesn't feel like it's going to be a banger of a Con.

That sense of forthcoming tepidness seemed confirmed when we began receiving our badges. The luxurious boxes and pins of yesteryear badge delivery are gone. These arrived in regular mailers, so nondescript I blew right past them when sorting through my mail. Some attendees were offended. 

Look, I agree that SDCC 2022 probably won't go down in a blaze of glory. But I think that's okay. We've had great Cons before and we'll have great Cons again. And given the economic ravages of the last 2 years, I think we need to cut CCI a break. Lots of us lost major income in the pandemic. I'm sure they're putting on the best Con they can.  And I'm equally sure most of us would rather they spend budget on something other than a badge box.

I don't mean to scold or lecture. I totally understand why some people are experiencing a Comic-Con lassitude right now. I know I've spent more time on Grandin Road planning my Halloween display than planning out my SDCC attack plan. 

But I do hope that everyone can focus on finding the magic in this particular Comic-Con, in whatever it offers us, because comparing it to past years is just going to be a joy-killer. We might not get all the big splashy activations or cool swag (actually, that's been drying up for a while) but there will be plenty of fun to be had. Even a middling San Diego Comic-Con is still pretty incredible.

And let's not forget - we will be there, experiencing that SDCC community (in full) for the first time in 3 years! And SDCC attendees are the best! Here's proof:

Because the badge sale was a ways back, some badges are showing up at old addresses or being delivered to people who forgot they had them. In one case, my friend used his wife's brother's house for a shipping address. The brother sold his house in 2021. No one remembered about the badges going there - until they got a Facebook message from the new owners of the house. They received the badges, saw they were for SDCC, and knew how important they were - because they went to SDCC in 2018! So they went on a social media hunt for the names on the badges, tracked down my friends, and were able to get the badges to them. That's just one example of how SDCC attendees go to great lengths to help each other out.

Okay, I'm done with the pep talk. I'm going to begin covering SDCC moving forward and will be highlighting all the potential intrigues and rewards of San Diego Comic-Con 2022. Because Comic-Con is what you make it (in part) and we're going to make it great.