Comic Con 2022
Its been 3 years since Comic Con has last hosted itself so like a lot of people, I was itching to go back and when I did, I have to say it turned out to be one of the best years period for it. I’ve also not done a blog post on Comic Con before, so I thought I’d make my first blog post on it.
The actual convention was pretty much the same as last time although it wasn’t quite as many people and of course most people had on masks. perhaps a smaller less noticeable change was that there wasn’t as many cosplayers. I did some walking around to explore the floor and checked out a few booths. What caught my eye first while exploring were the Funko booths. I was like nah, I’ll probably pass on them since I wasn’t a fan and didn’t want to have to bring back a bunch of stuff on the plane, but my mind changed the moment I saw Pokémon (I profess, I’m still a big nerd over it). What a surprise that turned out to be because I ended up spending not only a good amount of time basically studying the booth with a few hundred funkos there, but I ended up purchasing 4 of them! For those wondering, it was Lapras, Caterpie, Pikachu and Piplup.
Now funny enough I’ve owned BB-8’s Funko for a few years when I worked for EA Games and it was the first Funko I’ve owned, although I didn’t think anything of it at the time besides it just being some weird bobble headed looking toy that people liked collecting. When I saw the Pokemon ones, I then understood why people are so into collecting them haha. I would’ve brought more surprisingly, but I only had so much cash on me as I wasn’t planning to buy much of anything and I prefer not to give my credit card info right there on the spot considering just the sheer amount of unknown people walking past you.
Often times when I’m at Comic Con I like to attend to the portfolio review. Getting a job at one of those events is pretty much the main goal of everyone who attends them although there are some reviewers I go to sheerly for an actual review. The advice tends to be pretty good most of the time and it gives me a chance to connect with other creatives whether I end up with a job out of it or not.
Back on the convention floor, I noticed this year they had a lot of sculptures that were pretty life like. I’m not sure how they did it although I assume Zbrush played a role just because of how prevalent it is when it comes to sculpting. I probably took more snapshots of those sculptures than everything else I did on vacation combined. The Chun Li and Captian America ones in particular were pretty striking because of how realistic they looked. I overheard a few people next to me wondering what was the point of the sculpts as if to say they had no real purpose beyond just to look at. I kind of wondered that one myself, although I suppose its art and that’s all the purpose it really needs. Its not that different from going to a museum and looking at a sculpture someone made. Sure Chun Li might not have any historic importance unlike a typical museum sculpture, but its still a work of art.
Additionally, I got to meet/see some famous artists. Stephen Silver is one of them which was surprising and of course I had to chat for a bit first, then get some feedback on my work since I’m also into doing character design. I also got to see RossDraws in person which was a huge unexpected shocker. Granted I’ve checked out his YouTube channel a lot, but I had no idea he went to Comic Con or if this was his first time setting up there. I didn’t get the chance to introduce myself as he was busy selling products, but atleast I got to say I seen an artist who I followed on YouTube in person. The last artist I noticed there was an even bigger shock and it was Jim Lee. He was busy doing commission art and signing work, though it was still neat to see him in person. Its these types of moments that make me want to push harder so maybe I’ll get to be in a similar spot.
Beyond that I got to walk around in the Gas Lamp Quarter a bit and grabbed a bite to eat, explored the Grand Marina hotel and a few other places. As always I tend to get so many freebies that half the time I forget I have them until I get home to unpack. For the most part it pretty much continued on like it always has before although I had a lot more fun this time.