SF Comicon

[thatguy]

I went a few years ago. Saw a teaser for "Cowboys and Aliens" followed by a Q&A with the director. I think Janet Leigh's double from Psycho was there signing autographs. It was quiet, compared to the stories I've heard from LA Comicon. 

Here's the poster for this year's event (it's a link from FB, not sure if you all can see it...):



--tg

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I remember the last time I was in SOMA when it happened. Watching mostly overweight pasty white dudes in black t-shirts with superhero logos walking around Folsom St mixing with uneasy hipsters and somewhat confused homeless and users. Good times.

[Drunk Monk]

SF Comic Con is new.  First time.  It's a new marketing ploy from Imaginarium, a promo company that has coat-tailed on Comic Con, which never trademarked the title.  They produce these events all around the country...well Tampa Bay and Indiana.

You guys are thinking of WonderCon, which was a genuine subsidiary of the real San Diego Comic Con.  WonderCon was in SF from the late 80s to 2011.  I went to the last one to interview a young starlet named Saoirse Ronan for a forgettable film called Hanna (see http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/arti...rticle=956).  She was lovely, and has since been nominated for 2 Oscars.  WonderCon was huge, held in the Moscone Center.  This new Comic Con probably won't be nearly as big; it's in the Marriott.  It will pale in comparison to the new Silicon Valley Comic Con, which I went to earlier this year.  

So yeah, I was one of those overweight pasty white dudes in a black t-shirt with a superhero logo.  No wait.  How could that be?  

[King Bob]

DM technically you aren't a white dude

[Drunk Monk]

I don't wear superhero T-shirts either.

[King Bob]

So you say

[Drunk Monk]

I might be wearing a superhero logo-ed thong... 

[King Bob]

Don't we all?

[Drunk Monk]

Wow, is that another DOOM thing?  Or rather, a DOOM thong? 

I'm wearing Wonder Woman.  Not the Gal Gadot WW, the Lynda Carter WW.  



What's everyone else wearing?

[Drunk Monk]

Fan Expo to launch S.F. comic convention in 2022

Roland Li April 29, 2021Updated: April 30, 2021, 7:11 am

Fans at a Fan Expo event in Canada before the pandemic. Fan Expo San Francisco has booked Moscone Center in the fall of 2022.Photo: Fan Expo HQ

San Francisco is expected to get a new comic convention in 2022, the first such event since 2017 and a sign of recovery for the city’s battered tourism industry.
Fan Expo HQ, the biggest comic convention organizer in North America, has committed to hosting the event for five years at Moscone Center. The first edition of Fan Expo San Francisco, which doesn’t have a finalized date, is scheduled for three days at Moscone West in the fall of 2022. It will have capacity for up to 50,000 attendees, assuming public health restrictions have been lifted.
“San Francisco is the sixth-largest U.S. market. There’s a huge population that can support events like these. It’s a very creative and innovative city,” Andrew Moyes, vice president of Fan Expo HQ told The Chronicle. “We’re also creative and innovative. We celebrate fandom … we see a great future.”
Plans for the event — which celebrates all things pop culture including comics, anime, gaming, and sci-fi and horror genres — include a show floor with merchandise for sale, an artist’s alley, cosplayers, autograph signings with creators and celebrities, and panel discussions, Moyes said. Celebrity appearances and ticketing information will be announced at a later date.

A greeter helps people navigate the entrance to the mass vaccination site at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on Thursday, February 25, 2021.Photo: Nick Otto, Special to The Chronicle

Moscone Center hasn’t hosted a convention in over a year and is currently being used as a mass vaccination site. But Fan Expo’s convention is now one of Moscone’s first confirmed events in the next two years, along with the American Society for Surgery of the Hand’s annual meeting in September.
“Now, more than ever, we’re proud to welcome partners providing safe and inclusive spaces for people to build vital community connections,” said Bob Sauter, general manager of Moscone Center, in a statement.
San Francisco’s tourism industry suffered an unprecedented loss of $8 billion in spending last year. While Moyes did not have an estimate for the Fan Expo event’s economic impact, he expects it to be a major boost.
“We expect it to ripple significantly through the economy,” he said. “This will grow every year.”

Attendees browse comic books at the Comic Madness stand during Silicon Valley Comic Con at San Jose Convention Center on Saturday August 17, 2019.Photo: Cody Glenn, Special To The Chronicle

The last major comic convention in the city was San Francisco Comic Con in 2017, which moved to Oakland a year later.
Another comic convention known as WonderCon started in the Oakland in 1987 and grew to become a major attraction by 2003 when it moved to San Francisco. It eventually moved to Anaheim in 2012 because of Moscone Center renovations. Event organizers wanted to return to San Francisco in 2014, but were never able to secure a date as other conventions competed for the space.
SiliCon, formerly Silicon Valley Comic Con, had been scheduled in San Jose last October but was canceled because of the pandemic.

Cindy Tsai and Michael Boehm of Foster City pose in front of Silicon Valley Comic Con in San Jose on Sunday, March 20, 2016.Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

Fan Expo HQ’s next events will be Fan Expo Boston and MegaCon Orlando in August, followed by events in Dallas, Canada and Denver.
The company is owned by Informa, which organizes conventions including Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
“There’s definitely room for another awesome experience,” Moyes said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that San Francisco Comic Con was the last major comic convention hosted at the Moscone Center in 2017.

Why hasn't SF been able to sustain a major comic-con? 

SVCC has converted to SiliCon hosted by Adam 'such a dick' Savage. They've announced dates for 2021. I plan to attend, assuming the pandemic is mellow enough by then.