What do you really want from San Diego Comic-Con?

 19 JULY 2026

Hopefully today is a lazy calm before the storm Sunday for you - everything organized, packed or semi-packed, prepared, listed, arranged, and understood. It's not like Comic-Con is a surprise so you should be in good shape at this point (though no judgement if you're not.)

But assuming you are, today is a good day to think deep thoughts about the Con. Namely - what do you really want out of it?

Not a specific Mattel item or conquering the standby line at the Lanterns offsite, but on a deeper level. I find that almost everyone gets something emotionally from SDCC. It might be time with friends (the usual answer) but it's often validation too - being admired as a cosplayer, being praised in portfolio review, or some kind of parasocial dream made real by interacting with a celebrity. Sometimes it's a more amorphous feeling like you're living at last in a city populated by your own kind. Sometimes you're able to make a connection that advances you professionally. Some people just go off leash away from their spouse and kids and indulge themselves in any way they can.

It's good to know what you really want from Comic-Con for 2 reasons:

1) You can stave off disappointment. Many of us who attended and loved it "back in the old days" (everyone's Old Days is different) felt a sense of loss when it changed. Most of my favorite creators stopped coming. Someone important to me who I met at SDCC and developed a deep two-decade friendship with stopped exhibiting. My ex who went with me for the first 10 years died. My favorite booths got priced out. I'd still go but a deep melancholy would descend on me every Preview Night afternoon. 

Finally, I got a grip and realized I had to let go of those ghosts. Once I accepted I wasn't going to ever have the same experience, I was able to accept SDCC for what it is. Sometimes it still feels like a funhouse mirror, showing me a grotesque reflection of my past, but it passes and I know how to focus on what feels positive and gratifying.

Other people go through something similar - not just complaints about "Why doesn't CCI do THIS anymore?" but a rather gutting annual revisiting of things they've lost. An ex-spouse, an abandoned career, a fandom that disintegrated around them - SDCC is important to attendees so it makes sense that we have to say goodbye to important things there. 

Every now and then a former attendee will email me to explain why they don't go anymore and they'll list all their grievances but also mention the things they loved at SDCC. I think those mixed feelings are pretty common among veteran attendees. Disappointment and bitterness can ride side by side with intrigue, curiosity, and fixation. 

If that's you, my advice is to be brutally honest with yourself about what you want to get psychologically and emotionally from the Con - even if the answer makes you squirm - and map out a way to get it. Not necessarily from SDCC, but in another way in another area of your life. After that, it's much easier to take SDCC for what it can offer.

2) You'll make smarter choices. I cringe whenever I see attendees passively drifting around the Con, following their friends' lead or letting social media tell them where to go. Especially when they then say they didn't get what they wanted from the Con - even though it was right there.

SDCC only comes once a year. Get clear with yourself on what you're looking for and go after it even if it's not what your friends want to do. They who travel alone travel fastest - and time is of the essence at the Con. 

SDCC is also a great place to take your first steps into a dream. There are creative workshops, advice on breaking into various fields, and meetups. No one knows you there - show up, take a risk, and put yourself out there. 

The same goes for meeting people. I used to get so many questions asking "How do I meet someone at the Con?" - mostly for dating, but often trying to make friends - and while I don't so much anymore, I think people are still keen to make some kind of connection. And for first-timers or anyone showing up alone, making friends is a major gift. On a practical level, it's someone to team up with in the pursuit of hotel rooms and badges but on another level, it's someone to share some of your most joyful experiences with.

What do SDCC first-timers dream of?

On your first go-round, I wouldn't expect you to correctly anticipate how SDCC will affect you emotionally - your job is to explore and discover and identify the potential you could have there. You'll be better prepared in 2027 but right now, keep your goals simple, listen to the buzz, and pay attention to the booths, panels, and events making waves. Be open to everything washing over you. 

But don't feel you have to approach Comic-Con a certain way - this is your Con and you can architect it exactly how you want. Sometimes people will groan, "You don't even do Hall H or Her Universe? You're missing all the good parts!" But there are a hundred little corners of SDCC precisely because we're all into different things. Every person who's glued to a tournament in a gaming hall or sitting through film after film or collecting every Peanuts item possible is just as valid as the people in Ballroom 20.  

Just some thoughts in our last moments of downtime before the mouth of madness opens wide and swallows us.  I apologize if this was depressing. I spent the afternoon watching a 1971 British occult cheesecake horror film I bought at the Bud Plant booth 12 years ago and my nostalgia and philosophizing kicked into gear.

And I do think a little pre-Con reflection is good for everyone. As Confucius said, there are 3 methods for gaining wisdom: reflection, which is noblest, imitation, which is easiest, and experience, which is bitterest. So it's not surprising that the wisest attendees do all 3.