The heart of any fandom/comic convention will is often its main exhibit hall.
Especially, the San Diego Comic Con over the years. For 2023, the commerce, exposure, social activity is ever stronger in its Exhibit Hall of the San Diego Convention Center, with over 460,000 square feet to its 130,000+ show participants. I attended space, looking forward forward to it for my 27th year in attendence.
The whole floor here felt more packed, with not just central main booths fronting popular shows and corporate owned pop-culture properties. The small press, artist alley, merchants, gaming, indie publishers all seemed a bit more busy this year. Reasons I think were from Hall H (the largest room holding main events for over 10,000 in attendance) not having as much attention this year, due to the SAG-AFTRA strike stopping Hollywood company backed-celebrity appearances. Less time in Hall H (and waiting in its infamous line), meant more time for other panels and the Exhibit floor.
I love the SDCC Exhibit Hall. The esposure to new literature, art, ideas, and reinvention of pop-culture felt ever present. Much was in your face, to what your future obsessions could be while celebrating, sharing what brought us here…comic books and related sequential art based mediums. By partaking through samples, shipping, conversing…one can easily absorb the content beyond the SDCC trip.
Here are some notes of this year’s Exhibit Hall, with pictures.
– The Lego Booth designed as a 90’s Blockbuster Video store. Why for Legos? I do not know.
– Exclusives were a big draw instead, now more than ever as the feeling of FOMO filled the air on very limited items.
– A promotion at one booth for Sandland, a new animated film based on Akira Toriyama’s (Dragon Ball) less popular manga series.
– No Netflix, Amazon, Disney Plus booths. Hulu and Paramount remained present. Streaming as a driving force in pop culture media may have peaked, or just expanding further outside as offsite events were ever present with crowds thats were certainly too big for any exhibit floor to handle.
– A booth full of exclusive merch for the Disney Hulu family of animated TV shows (American Dad, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, and more). The line for this booth every day was nuts.
– Image Comics booth, hasnt changed in visual style presenting creator owned titles. It’s still my favorite publishing company.
– DC Comics returned to the Exhibit Floor, but now backed into the corner. But now focused more on toy exclusives, comics promotions seemed a bit more pushed to the side. Loved the movie props on display, especially this suit for the upcoming Blue Beetle movie.
– Funko has expanded its convention space to include it’s other acquired brands including Loungely, Mondo. The setup was impressive, but I avoided further exploration.
– The Square Enix booth did not offer much beyond its few new games released this year, yet the Ifrit statue promoting Final Fantasy XVI was damn impressive.
– I am always impressed with the figure displays of the NECA booth.
– You can meet anyone in cosplay form on the Exhibit Floor, even Walter and Jesse!
= Artist Alley, still an essential area of any comic con to meet indie artists promoting self published work, or offering prints and other creative goods for sale. Here, Leia Doodles is among that section, proudly showing of some cool fan art with a sweet smile.
Some artists are open to paid commisions, and one of my favorite things to observe is seeing fresh art done live at a comic con. Ryan Odagawa takes a moment to politely pose for the camera, before continuing his latest work of the show.
– Some artists and creators here have already made a name for themselves as legends to the world of comic books. I have enjoyed the work of Arthur Adams since I was a child. Now taking a selfie with him, feels like a priceless honor.
– I love checking out original art for sale, which is always in abundance for sale at the SDCC, even though I can’t afford it this year.
– Catbus, at the Ghibli booth!
– At the Entertainment Earth booth, I met Darryl McDaniels, legendary rapper of the group Run-DMC (DMC), very down to earth in chatting with good advise to share. Also, a comics writer!
– Straight outta Cybertron!
– Getting Even More Outrage, an annual exclusive sketchbook from comics artist Frank Cho!
– Meeting Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama and Street Fighter 6 Producer Shuhei Matsumoto at the Udon Booth!
– More cool merch! The hardest part when traveling is working out how take much of this home when spending a lot.
– Impressive Dungeons and Dragons cosplay with animatronic features, from @theos_fight.
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Thats all for now. Every year at the San Diego Comic Con, there are never enough words and pictures to complete cover the immerisive the ever expanding event truly is. But, sharing the little I have passes the experiences on, in a fun light where we can be there again. To those going to these grand comic cons, always take time out for the Exhibit Halls!
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