Comic Con: Not just for nerds, but also for people who love to drink!
First and foremost the title is a bit of a lie. I am in fact a nerd. I'm not going to try to qualify that for you. I've been going to SDCC since 2013, that is 6 years for me. It's gotten to the point where my friends no long ask "are you dressing up?" but "what are you dressing up as?"
I've struggled to explain to people what I find fun about giant crowds, 90+ degree weather, huge lines, and expensive hotels for awhile so I thought, maybe I could write a blog about how I do Comic Con. I may not be the most qualified person to write about a HOW TO COMIC CON piece because I don't spend it rushing around trying to do/buy/see everything. I don't have a press badge, I don't have special access, and this year I didn't even have a badge for most of the conventions. BUT I do manage to have fun. So here is a glimpse at Comic Con from my perspective.
I usually take Thursday and Friday off for the con, however this year I have a more demanding job and since I don't have passes I opted to just go down on Friday. My two best friends departed on Wednesday so I take the train by myself.
I've never taken Amtrak before, and despite warnings to get there early I stayed up late packing and arrive only 10 minutes before my train departs. I stop for coffee because I am cocky and I think I'm savvy with public transportation. (I've been to New York afterall.) I get directed the wrong way twice, and run to the platform where I find a bunch of 20-somethings like myself looking for a train that doesn't seem to exist. We are told our tickets will get us on any train going to San Diego and so we board the one that is there. Our trip time is estimating 4 hours.... it should be 2.5.
I end up next to the one person on the train NOT going to comic con, and also a family I'm not sure is amish, or in cosplay or mormon. It's okay because I have my headphones, and a charger and 2 scripts I have to get through for work.
After about 30 minutes the guy next to me orders a mimosa. I've got a good seat companion, this makes it acceptable for me to go to the bar cart at 10am and get a beer as well. It's fairly affordable surprisingly and they have bomber bottles of IPA for $9. At the bar on the train 3 old army guys stop a mother dressed as wonder woman and force her to take pictures and brag to each other about it. #CosplayProblems.
Despite the time it takes the Surfliner is a beautiful ride along the ocean. I enjoy the scenery a lot and 2 beers, one from the bar cart and one I brought myself.
The train finally arrives in San Diego and for the last 30 minutes I've been texting back and for with my friend Erin planning how to drop my bags a the hotel. It's a classic mission: We've got 5 people staying in a room which is only registered for 4. And the rooms not ready for check in yet so I have to drop my bags off and meet them at the con. However I can't tell them I'm staying there as they've all already tried to check in. I get frustrated and tell them I will figure it out.
Figuring it out involves walking about a mile to our hotel. I arrive sweaty and holding a huge duffle. I play dumb and say I don't know the name of my friends room, they take pity on me and my sweat. I check my bags.
It's time to meet my friends for a party! I hop on a lime bike and ride to Gaslamp. (On the way there I get on a full on crash with another lady on a bike who doesn't realize I'm turning.) I arrive before my friends and lurk outside the snapchat party that is still setting up. A man in the street slips me a note. it's the weirdest / worst way I've ever been hit on so I decide to go in even if I'm one of ten people inside. I get a plate of food and a drink and my friends finally meet me and we enjoy free food, free drinks, and a TOWER of guac. While posting everything on our instagram stories instead of snap chat, oops. Despite the fact I don't use it anymore, Snappy Hour is actually pretty cute but I hate networking. I talk to no one but my friends.
Our hotel is finally ready so we hustle back to get freshened up and changed for SDCC: Nighttime. Our first stop is the CW/Buzzfeed party on a roof top. We arrive early. (Yes the infamous comic con lines can extend to parties.) It's hot and no one wants to wait. We go inside in shifts and take shots at the lobby bar. Soon we decide we are too old to wait in lines and opt to go to a different place. Wired Cafe has about an hour and a half left of an open bar so that's our next stop.
Wired is pretty lit, we stay until they close the bar, quite literally by sliding the doors shut foot by foot as people try to reach in like walking dead zombies for one last drink. We started double fisting on drink 2 so we are doing pretty well. At this point the group all has different obligations leaving Erin and I to fend for ourselves. Someone told us there is a Jurassic Park bar so we go on a hunt, via Bird scooters of course.
We are rewarded with amazing themed drinks in Dino eggs, amazing food (my first meal of the day) and great theme-ing. My friend Nat meets us here. I met Nat at SDCC in 2013 on the street at night and the next morning I took a blanket from our hotel and camped out in line for Supernatural's Hall H panel with her friends because none of my other friends watched the show. We've stayed friends since. These are the cool things about Comic Con.
We finish our food and make a pit stop at BUBs because it's a comic con tradition. Two shots and a beer later it's time to for our next party. IGN is also on a hotel roof. We get there just in time to meet back up with friends. Nat leaves us to change out of her handmade Westworld cosplay and into party clothes. Again there is a line. Three of us chug beers across the street and note that the bar Coin-Op seems awesome. Not to long after we ditch the line entirely.
Coin-Op ends up being the hit of the night. Completely 80's themed with music and video games and drink specials to match. I have a second weird encounter with what I think may be a cult of tall people in San Diego who try to bring me into their group. We meet up with some more friends, drink alcoholic capri suns, cheat at Skee-ball, get our fortunes told by Zoltar, and play DDR despite our feet being on fire from the day. My credit card whines loudly as we all trade off round after round, but I don't think I've ever found a more perfect bar.
Eventually it's time to go home. But if you're in San Diego and you don't get mexican food you're stupid. If you've made it this far in my blog I hope I can give you this one grain of wisdom. Go to Valentines. Order the California carne asada burrito. Live your best life.
We go there and do exactly that.
We make it back to our hotel, where we find part of our squad passed out and the TV blaring a home shopping show on vibrators. Day 1 is a success and I haven't even made it to the con.
Way too soon morning rolls around. An important thing to understand about Comic Con is if you want to do an activation, you need to pick which one you want and get there early. Or you will wait 4 hours in the hot sun and by the time you get in all the good swag will be gone and so will your day. We've all decide we want to do the Purge offsite. Which means we wake up and head to petco park. It's a bit of a wait till it opens, but we're in the shade and we get coffee and breakfast, plus they give us free water, SCORE. We have smart phones so we watch an endless slew of the In My Feelings Challenge videos and then the entire Bee Movie But It Gets Faster Each Time They Say Bee. We may be delirious from lack of sleep.
The Purge City activation is one of the best I've experienced. It's essentially a store where you can go prep for the purge and they give you fake money/ Purge bucks you can spend on real items! Everything is completely in theme down to the workers who constantly ask you "What are you planning for this years purge" as you shop. At comic con getting free swag can sometimes feel like grabbing the last can of beans in a apocalypse, at Purge City you could leisurely shop around and decide which items you wanted.
Around 11:30 we checked out of the store and survived the purge which meant it was time for drinks. Which means hustling to WIRED and dowing 2 IPAs because it's also almost time for our 12:30 escape room! The Escape room is in Petco Interactive Zone, although they call it something different this year, we literally run there. We signed up online which means we get to skip the line. As coincidence would have it we signed up for the same time slot at two of our friends. It's for a show called Sacred Lies which we know nothing about. Turns out we are not about to escape but instead about to join a cult.
The activation is lot of fun and so well done, one of the better escape rooms I've been in which is impressive since it's built in a trailer. The actors are creepy and we work well as a team even if we are frantic and I accidentally b-line right for the clues before awaiting the introduction. We make it out/ into the cult and I'm left feeling like I would actually like to watch this show. Which as an activation means it's incredibly successful.
Our friend Anna also has a freeform activation in the same area. We become stunt doubles for the day and get to experience a special effect from the new Marvel show Cloak and Dagger. We cut the line and get harnessed up and then yanked into the air. It's a lot of fun. Even after a few beers.
We've spent a lot of time outdoors at this point and it's the hottest part of the day, so it's back to Wired with our friends we ran into. Anna and I mange to score some VIP bands and sneak free food across the ropes while we all proceed to get quite drunk.
Once we've eaten and drank it's time to hit up another spot. We opt for a Tomb Raider Bar we've walked past a few times that promises we can eat bugs and touch snakes for prizes. It's at Moonshine Flats which is my favorite bar in San Diego (non Comic Con times), and it is hot competition for my favorite activation/offsite since they also server beer at it.
After the initial concern that it's too loud and dangerous for the snakes we are reassured that they are 'working snakes' and they are used to this environment and they are monitored closely. I'm reassured by that and the fact that if the snake was indeed unhappy it could just kill me.
I've always been chill with snakes but at a certain point I've had enough drinks that I think it would be cool to eat a bug. You don't get to pick what bug though.
Flash forward 20 minutes later and I'm about to eat a scorpion with the chance to win an Xbox. I down it like a champ, swallowing is a bit worse... After a lot of cheering and chewing and cameras in my face I manage to get it all down. I spin the prize wheel and win a t-shirt. Somehow the high is worth it. I ate a scorpion, I'm a legend in the bar.
If you're wondering, it was very, very crunchy, and the legs kept breaking off so I had to eat them separate. Because you have to finish every last bit to win. SO. MUCH. CHEWING. Our other friend eats a scorpion and gets raffle tickets, my friend's boyfriend gets the dreaded Water Bug, he takes it like a champ, and gets raffle tickets.... neither of them win anything in the raffle. I find scorpion in my teeth.
From here it's back to Jurrasic Park bar for some real food because bugs just aren't that filling. After that we've got a Nerdist party to go to. We meet up with Anna's boyfriend who is able to get us all wristbands to cut the line. The party has pizza and tarot cards and the most amazing Photo Booth for Lost In Space. It's in an art gallery and we are all way to drunk to be there. I break a friends beer to prove that point.
Sooner or later we have to go pick up my badge at the Bayfront front desk. If you know Comic Con you know that's a trek from the Gaslamp. We make it. And get wristbands for Hall H. We're dead tired but it's not a comic con if you don't get drinks at Tin Fish. We all have one last beer. It's the closets I get to the Good Place activation but it's enough.
It's time to go home, but like I said, if you don't get Valentines in San Diego, you're doing it wrong. I take a bike there one last time. Yes. By myself. (It's that good.) I inhale a burrito (California Carne Asada with beans) in bed while I dread both waking up tomorrow and the fact that it is the last day of Comic Con.
In the morning, it's time to line up for HALL H. We take our time a bit and end up WAY far back in the line. But we have wristbands so we know we'll make it in. We are way back on the marina, past adult swim state park. We pass the time in line with waves of hangovers, starvation, and some quick naps on the grass once we are in the tents.
In line we discover people will chant anything. It's a bonding experience. I hope our line friends are doing well out there now. Once we finally make in inside we order a traditional Comic Con breakfast. Hot Dogs, Nachos, and a Frito Pie. It's almost become tradition for me to watch the Supernatural panel at this point. I've only missed it one year. I've stuck through 13 seasons and now it's on 14. It's a fine panel, but we all know there is no way they can live up to last years live Kansas performance, I've got chills thinking about it.
We also stay for Riverdale. Shut up. It's amazing. Then its time to blow this scene and get the fuck back to LA. You know, after traffic, and all that.
See how this just ends? That's sort of how Sunday at comic con is. It's an amazing weekend, and then it's just -time to go home and back to the real world.