What Comic-Con Has Planned for COVID-Era ‘Special Edition’

Comic-Con will return to the San Diego Convention Center this November, marking Comic-Con International’s first in-person con because the 2020 and 2021 editions of each SDCC and Anaheim’s MarvelCon had been scrapped as a consequence of COVID-19. This “Special Edition” of San Diego Comic-Con, which is being held over the Thanksgiving vacation weekend, will likely be a scaled down occasion in comparison with the summer time staple that’s drawn roughly 135,000 annual attendees for many years.

However, it’s not likely the scale of Comic-Con Special Edition that issues to the mini conference’s guardian group, a lot as the dearth of “@Home” within the occasion’s identify.

“I think what kind of surprised all of us was how fast things started opening up. We were so used to being at home and Zooming everything and ordering groceries and food in. And then all of a sudden this year, we started seeing people venturing out a little bit,” Comic-Con International Chief Communications and Strategy Officer David Glanzer informed TheWrap Monday, following final week’s second annual Comic-Con@Home, the pandemic-forced digital version of San Diego Comic-Con.

“And then all of a sudden you could meet people outside and then all of a sudden you can meet people inside, if you are vaccinated,” he continued. “And we thought, maybe we could have an in-person show in the fall. And sadly, the only weekend that really worked was the Thanksgiving weekend. And we thought, let’s go ahead and try to do that. So we know it’ll be at the San Diego Convention Center. But all the details really still haven’t been finalized because we’ve been so focused on the Comic-Con@Home version. But now also, we have our fingers crossed because we’re hearing more stories of the Delta variant and all this stuff and these different considerations. So we’re still moving forward, but we’re always listening to health officials and trying to make whatever decision we do make based on the safety of our attendees.”

See TheWrap’s full Q&A with Glanzer about Comic-Con International’s present plans for the Comic-Con Special Edition conference, which runs Friday, Nov. 26 – Sunday, Nov. 28, and the subsequent full San Diego Comic-Con, which is ready for Summer 2022, under.

TheWrap: What did you study from final yr’s inaugural Comic-Con@Home that you just introduced into your second digital con final week?

David Glanzer: One of the issues that we discovered, which could be very worthwhile, is that placing on an in-person present could be very exhausting, placing on a web-based model is much less exhausting — but it surely shouldn’t be confused with being straightforward. We tried to, truthfully, do as a lot as we might that might have interaction individuals who would usually come to Comic-Con. You can’t duplicate the in-person present. I at all times inform folks, even earlier than COVID, I inform folks you possibly can see images of Comic-Con, you possibly can hear tales or see video, but it surely’s nothing in comparison with strolling by way of these doorways. There’s simply the power and pleasure. So we tried to deliver a few of that to folks all around the globe. So I believe, in some small manner, we a minimum of saved our neighborhood, however we’re wanting ahead to having the ability to do the in-person exhibits transferring ahead.

Do you will have the streaming viewership knowledge again from Friday, Saturday and Sunday but to check to final yr’s Comic-Con@Home? And do you even care what the numbers are?

It’s much less of a priority. Years and years in the past, we used to do a press launch for the way many individuals attended our present as a result of it might simply develop by leaps and bounds from yr to yr. And then unexpectedly, we stopped doing that as a result of folks would equate that with how profitable the present was. And positive, I imply, having extra folks at a present does imply that extra folks wish to attend, however then there could be different conventions that might say, “Oh, we had 5,000 more people.” OK, properly, perhaps they did, perhaps they didn’t. But all…