Sixteen years of San Diego Comic-Con. Oy.

An "in my days" post. Sorry young people.

I just attended my…ok I’ll say it out loud: 16th year of San Diego Comicon. Ooh boy.

I don’t like adding up years. It gets upsetting, because in my head I’m the same age as I was in 2007. That was the year that froze my sense of self, because I finally felt like I’d made an impact with my work (It was the year I started “The Guild”). But, sorry to say, the world doesn’t exactly agree that I’m frozen, lol. When someone calls me “Ma’am” at a checkout, or the assistant at the dermatologist looks like a child to me but is a degreed professional, or when legal adults come up and tell me they “grew up with my work” I realize, girl…you gettin’ OLD. (Although TBH I still look good. Indoor gamer kids ROCK their 40’s in skin elasticity. :D)

Nothing measures time for me more than attending SDCC. In 2008 I went there for the first time with the project “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”. We did a Hall H panel in front of five thousand of people, which was a high debut standard to set for a girl who made videos in her house. I introduced a lot of the Geek world to social media by admitting on stage I was “Twittering” under the table. Totally did NOT understand what it was later misinterpreted as. I promise.

Nathan and Neil and me. Love these guys.

I felt so good about the event and the place and the vendors and the vibe with the fans that I wanted to live that moment for the rest of my life. After that, I devoted myself to making every SDCC as EPIC for me and my fans as possible.

The following year, as Season 3 of “The Guild” was about to roll out, I planned a music video to release with it. JUST to premiere the video at Comicon, lol. We got our first “Guild” panel assignment, in a small three-hundred seat panel room upstairs, and I convinced the cast to attend in our Avatar outfits. There was much resistance, but our sponsor Xbox got us a “stripper bus” with a pole and party lights to save us from walking over in cosplay. It made a most memorable trip from the hotel to the convention center EVER. There were a thousand people waiting to get into our panel (and after that, the people in charge assigned me the Indigo Ballroom every year afterward, thank you!) and we premiered our music video in a splash that was incredible. Here’s a video of us walking out in our outfits.

Again, at that point, I wanted to make EVERY year at SDCC bigger and better than the last.

The next year we got a booth on the floor where we assembled Ikea shelving ourselves and I cried because it was so frustrating. During the con, our signing line for the “Guild” cast interfered with the Sony booth’s line and we got in a fight with them (and won :D). And for three more years after that we rolled out our “Guild”
season with a new splashy premiere video (without the Ikea shelving. After two years of that I called it quits on the booth, lol).

At that point I knew I needed to up my con game. So in 2012, I formed a company, Geek and Sundry, with the sole ulterior motive of being able to throw big parties for the fans. (the 1000 videos we made every year were just a bonus ;) ) Our first year, we had a SDCC event in a venue that was so hot it felt like a sauna, but hundreds of people came together and sweat and played games and danced together anyway. It was GLORIOUS.

Disco nap fresh, about to sweat!

Once the company was sold to Legendary, we had three more amazing years of bigger and better parties, culminating in taking over the whole PetCo park stadium area with a DJ and drinks. I would take a disco nap from 7-9pm and stay out until 4am, then do a panel the next day at 9am. One year I even lost a tooth. Long story I won’t go into, suffice it to say I smiled weird at the panels the next day. Can I say my ego was involved in all of this? Yes! Because my ego had FUN! :D

Understandably, after I quit my company and had a baby…things got DIFFERENT. I took my kiddo to Comicon in 2018 with the “Mystery Science Theatre 3000” reboot and was so scared I broke her brain with overstimulation from the con floor because that night she rocked back and forth strangely on the bed, not being able to sleep. I knew then that this was NOT a place for her until she was older. So I decided to go solo to San Diego from then on. Leaving my kid at home made me visit the con as briefly as I could instead of enjoying the five day bacchanal like before. It was…not as fun. Le Sigh. But good mom award, right? :/

Since then, every year I’ve had a project or two to promote at the con with panels and press, but it’s nothing compared to the months of planning I’d do to make a huge event worth remembering for me, my staff and my fans from 2009-2016. So every street, every venue downtown, has a memory when I walk by it. And it’s kind of bittersweet.

Anyone who’s been around as long as I have will say that SDCC is NOT the same as it used to be in its heyday. Back when there were tons of fancy exclusive parties and non-exclusive parties stacked on top of each other at every venue downtown, and you could party hop all night. Back when there was a crazy popup event for every new movie coming out, and you could stuff a whole bag with free schwag being given out by just walking down the street. Covid and all the Hollywood studios having their own events during the year really put a dent in the spectacle of it all. But that’s NOT A BAD THING!

In fact, last year, when there was an actor’s strike and no one could promote TV or film, I thought it was the funnest in a long time. Because smaller panels and artists and subcultures got celebrated in a way that they hadn’t been in years past. This year felt similar, albeit with Hollywood coming back a little, too.

This year, my sixteenth in a row, I went to preview night and nabbed two big bags of swag for me and my kid. I saw two adult men fighting over a Rainbow Brite figurine, and did a panel for my new indie movie that was well-attended. I went to one party that had costumed ladies on stilts for some reason, and I left as soon as the DJ got there. I was in bed by 10pm. If old-school Comicon ever makes a comeback, I’ll still be in bed by 10pm. That’s who I am now. That’s getting old (and growing up.)

(In this video I am at the only party I attended this year. You will notice it’s daylight. I was home by dark.)

I walked by PetCo park this year and remembered how hard everyone at G&S worked to make the events so amazing. But then I also remembered the incredible stress of coordinating cast travel, satisfying sponsorships, creating shows, shooting them in time to premiere them at the panel, appearing everywhere for press, getting two-hundred text messages from people the week before the con saying, “HEY FRIEND HAVEN’T SPOKEN TO YOU IN A YEAR, CAN I GET AN INVITE TO YOUR PARTY +20?!”

And I thought, “Meh. You know what? SDCC for two nights and no obligations isn’t THAT bad. As long as I can still go shopping and nerd out over friends and new stuff, I’m good!”

So this 10pm sleeping middle-aged mom will see you down there next year, and every year I can make it in the future. Things change, and people do too, but deep down we’re always the same. And deep down, I will always love SDCC. :)

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Interesting Links:

• This article on how people experience their “inner voice” differently freaked me out. Like, raise your hand if you’re in the “constant word monologue in brain, please stop talking so I can sleep” camp?

• SAG/AFTRA video game VO artists are on strike, so I can’t stream any games I perform in for a while. :( Please support artists in fighting for their rights. I want to work again!!! And check out this indie game Horticular that I’m addicted to now. It’s like Viva Pinata and sadly it’s…very good.

• I’m not sure else needs this, but if you want a medieval sampler for those LARPING nights, grab this EP 1320 with ALL THE MEDIEVAL SOUNDS AT YOUR FINGERS.

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Personal Links (Also Interesting):

• My 2024 convention schedule is on my website for autumn dates in Toronto, Liverpool, Orlando and more!

• My Undressing Podcast with Tom Lenk is finally wrapping up season 3! We are releasing on YouTube as well in video form. Next: Queen Charlotte?

• It’s been a great summer for my projects at film festivals. My short “Ugly Chickens” produced by George RR Martin, premiered at HollyShorts Fest in LA, and my indie “Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox” keeps playing all over the country, catch it at a festival near you!

• AXIS OF ANARCHY minis are now available on my FeliciaDay3D page!

  

  And the cutest mimic you’ve ever seen! Check out my update post on all my new 3D Models for August! And reminder: You don’t need your own 3D printer! Check this directory of Maker Spaces to see if there’s one near you that you can bring a file to and print something up!

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See you next month, and on my Discord channel in between for chatting and friendship! <3

oxxo
Felicia