By Mike Lera
Suited up and ready for action, superhero fans and pop culture junkies from across the globe converged for a four-day sci-fi/fantasy/fright fest July 25-28 at San Diego Comic Con International, and in the wake of last year’s entertainment industry “hiccups”, the weekend was like a huge “dam” being lifted with a tidal wave of “cool stuff” flooding the convention center floors.
Marvel Studios’ presence was certainly felt throughout the event, Robert Downey, Jr. announcing his return to the MCU as “Doctor Doom” in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday (2026), along with an unveiling of Harrison Ford as “Red Hulk” in Captain America: Brave New World (2025).
Godzilla groupies were especially excited as SDCC commemorated both the big G’s 70th birthday and his recent (and first) Oscar win with Godzilla Minus One, entailing life-size figures, photo ops, memorabilia and panels of actors, mocap artists and filmmakers from past and present Godzilla flicks.
Ultraman was another kaiju legend to grace SDCC’s halls, the Japanese icon’s showcases including action figures, interactive games and cosplay. A panel for the recent Netflix animated movie, Ultraman: Rising, featured directors Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima discussing the film with actor Christopher Sean (who voiced Ken Sato/Ultraman) serving as moderator.
Dexter: Original Sin, a new 10-episode series premiering this December, was amongst the con’s hot seats, several of its cast members paneled before fans, including Christian Slater, Patrick Gibson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Molly Brown and, you guessed it, Michael C. Hall. The series will be a prequel to Dexter Morgan’s story, set in the early 90’s, with Gibson as the younger version of the blood splatter analyst and Hall as his “inner voice”.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man was also a highlight amongst SDCC’s horror film crowd, with actor Jack Kesy (“Hellboy”), director Brian Taylor and Hellboy creator/comic illustrator Mike Mignola as panel guests.
“It’s now a horror movie!” exclaimed Mignola. “It’s been thirty years, and [Hellboy] still feels like it’s something that hasn’t quite made it into the top tier of comics, as if it’s homemade and a unique character, despite its three other movies. Like a little guy playing in a big field with that slight underground feel to it, and I love that.”
At a panel titled Putting The Horror In Comics, actor/comic book writer David Dastmalchian (Late Night With The Devil, The Last Voyage of the Demeter) and award-winning comic illustrator Scott Snyder (Batman, American Vampire) spoke on ways a novice writer and filmmaker can utilize horror comics as a way to break into the entertainment industry.
“Write what you know,” suggested Dastmalchian, whose comic book works include the Dark Horse titles Count Crowley and Headless Horseman. “Yes, there’s werewolves and vampires in some of the things I create, but at the heart of my stories, there is a question I’m trying to wrestle with, and that is addiction. I’ve been on this twenty-two-year journey of sobriety, battling every day to stay clean, and so underneath the zombies and samurais, there is my own struggles and journey.”
At another panel, Indie Horror Comic Explosion, publisher/film producer Sandy King Carpenter, film producer/writer Justin Beahm and writers Bill Field, Jim Ousely, Mel Smith and Scott Chitwood discussed both the hardships and successes on working for and starting an independent comic book publishing company in hopes to help others seeking this path as a means to break into a competitive industry.
“The reason I became a publisher was because of all the bull[crap] I encountered when looking for a publisher,” stated Carpenter, an established name in Hollywood who has worked with some of the industry’s finest (including her husband, John Carpenter), and who had founded the renowned horror comics company, Storm King Comics, in 2012. “Indie publishers would say to me, ‘If you give us fifty thousand dollars, we’ll make an ashcan version of your work.’ I was like, ‘Really. Do you think I’m stupid because I’m a woman, or because I come from movies? No thank you’.”
San Diego Comic Con 2025 will take place next July 24-27, with this year’s attendees having their first chance to secure badges on September 21, 2024 during returning registration. Open registration, available to anyone and everyone, will begin on October 26, 2024. Miss it not!
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