My very first Con.
I didn’t have this website until this year (2017), but I wanted a place to collect my Comic-Con memories, something I could look back on and enjoy.
San Diego, Thursday, July 22, 2010 – Sunday, July 25, 2010 — SDCC 2010 was my very first Comic-Con. I had no idea what to expect, so I planned my entire day with back-to-back panels and events. Naturally, that plan went out the window the moment I arrived. There was absolutely no way to get from Hall H to the other side of the convention center in five minutes. And casually walking into Hall H whenever I wanted to? Definitely not happening.
That said, getting into Hall H was much easier in 2010 than it is now. Waiting to see Angelina Jolie at the Salt panel took maybe 2 hours. And getting in on Saturday morning for both Green Lantern (Ryan Reynolds!) and Harry Potter, which were back-to-back, didn’t require an overnight slumber party on the marina sidewalk. I woke up at 6:30 a.m., walked a mile from my hotel (shoutout The Westin San Diego on Broadway), and arrived in line by 7:30 a.m. I waited only 3 hours to get into the panel.
That first year, I also wanted to watch the Masquerade. I didn’t know how the tickets worked or what the lines were like, so my friend Ces and I showed up about 1-2 hours early, assuming there would be a huge line. It turned out there wasn’t one at all. We stood there for nothing, but honestly, it ended up being fun and one of my fondest core memories of SDCC because we got to watch all the cosplayers walk by, and Ces managed to take photos with pretty much everyone who passed by. Here are just a few:
I also won a raffle that year to get Charlaine Harris’ (author of True Blood) autograph. It took about 2.5 hours of cycling in and out of the line before I finally pulled a winning ticket for the 2:30pm timeslot. Then, amazingly, my friends Ces and Steve, who weren’t even fans until they met her, also pulled the same winning ticket timeslots. What luck!
I didn’t do any off-site activations that year. Maybe I didn’t know about them yet, or maybe there just weren’t many back then. But I walked the exhibit floor countless times, did all the onsite activations inside the convention center, and saw so many panels (Hawaii Five-0, The Walking Dead back when it was in Ballroom 20, Spartacus RIP Andy Whitfield 😭). I got Robert Kirkman’s autograph, spotted tons of celebrities, and even had a moment where I walked past a very handsome man, realized it was Blair Underwood, casually asked if I could take a photo with him, and he enthusiastically said yes while complimenting my Nikon camera and telling his wife, “That’s a cool camera!” I also rode an elevator with Daniel Craig (!!) at the Hard Rock (at Con promoting Cowboys & Aliens), and I passed Stan Lee on the escalators as he yelled “Excelsior!” and caught a panel where he made a quick appearance. I had the best time my first year at SDCC.
Little did I know it would be the first of many Cons I would go on to attend.
Looking back, 2010 was a very manageable con. The floor wasn’t crowded; celebrities just hung out at their booths without being swarmed, and getting an autograph was much easier than it is now. Attending panels was completely stress-free. Buying a ticket to SDCC 2010 was also easy. I purchased my 4-day badge for $100 (Preview Night was sold out) in October 2009, months after they were released. It wasn’t until 2011 that things started to get a little more challenging.
