San Diego Comic Con 2018, Last day. Until next year…

Posted by A Middle Aged Geek on

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First, here are my previous entries on my Comic Con 2018 experience to date:

San Diego Comic Con 2018: Preview Night megapost…

San Diego Comic Con 2018: Day One Megapost…

San Diego Comic Con 2018, Day 3 Mega-Super-Duper post…

And now?  The big goodbye.  Sunday, July 22nd was the 4th and final ‘official’ day of Comic Con.  The final day of SDCC is usually a bit less hurried for me, and more of a sentimental final look around until next summer.

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Usually by the end of the convention I have a half dozen or more autographs, but this year my goals were a little different.  The only autograph I sought was from actress Kathy Najimy from “Hocus Pocus.”  She loved my Fred Flintstone costume, and I asked her a goofy fanboyish question; how did she manage to keep her mouth so consistently askew during the shooting of “Hocus Pocus”?  She teased that it was strategically-placed velcro (hehe), but then jokingly admitted that she was “paid a lot of money” (of course, that always works too…).

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I’m an unapologetic fan of “Hocus Pocus” (even though I’m not exactly within the movie’s target age demographic).  Anything remotely connected to my favorite holiday of Halloween usually has my money…

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Speaking of Halloween, I also came this [ ] close to getting “Sandman”/”Coraline” creator Neil Gaiman‘s autograph on Saturday night after the “Nightmare Before Christmas” panel, but I was the second person past the cutoff point in the improvised line cue that formed after the panel, so … them’s the breaks.  No use crying over spilt milk.   Comic Con is a lesson in moving on; don’t relish on what didn’t happen. Focus instead on what did.

Anyway, enough philosophizing; on with the photos for the final day of SDCC 2018:

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Two Malificents, both of them strikingly well done!
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One of the gorgeous but nightmarish sculptures on display at the Cinemaquette.com booth…
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The reimagined “Pennywise” from 2017’s remake of Stephen King’s “It.” 
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The reimagined “Pennywise” from 2017’s remake of Stephen King’s “It.” 
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The Amphibian Man (as played by Doug Jones), from Guillermo del Toro’s Best Picture winner of 2017, “The Shape Of Water.” 
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The Pale Man (also played by Doug Jones) from Guillermo del Toro’s dark 2006 fantasy “Pan’s Labyrinth.”
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A celebration of the talents of both writer/filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and actor Doug Jones at the Cinemaquette.com booth…
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Recreation of the T-800 endoskeleton Terminator from the Terminator films.  It wasn’t until much later that I noticed the… ahem…strategic placement of the “Please Do Not Touch” sign.
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From the Anovos costumes/replicas booth: Starship USS Shenzhou from the CBS-All Access series “Star Trek: Discovery” 
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From the Anovos costumes/replicas booth: The titular starship from “Star Trek: Discovery.”
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From the Anovos costumes/replicas booth: The subtly reimagined classic USS Enterprise from “Star Trek: Discovery.”
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From the Anovos costumes/replicas booth: The subtly reimagined classic USS Enterprise from “Star Trek: Discovery.”
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A brave conventioneer carries his “Chucky” doll from the “Child’s Play” horror movies…
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This took my breath away!  One of only two original ‘Lawgiver’ statues from the original “Planet of the Apes” movies (1968-1973).  Rumor has it that Quentin Tarantino owns one (I can’t verify that).  This was the original, widely believed to have been once owned by the late Sammy Davis Jr.   It was on loan to this particular booth, celebrating the works of the current pop artist Shag.  Shag was recently afforded license from Fox Studios to do Planet of the Apes-related artwork.
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Cosplayer doing Jim Carrey’s “The Mask” (1994); I caught him at a food line, but he was a great sport.
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Three Flashes!
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Cosplayer doing Ed Harris’ version of William (aka the “man in black”) from the reimagined “Westworld” TV series.
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KFC’s Colonel Sanders and Wendy’s Wendy…together, they were making me hungry!
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In these times, hers was perhaps the most important cosplay of them all…
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The Laika Studios Exhibit that I never got into; even on Sunday, the wait was several hours.  I’m a big fan of their movies (“Coraline” “Boxtrolls” “Kubo and the Two Strings” “ParaNorman”) but this was yet another Comic Con hill I just couldn’t quite die for…
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Westworld’s “Dolores,” X-Men’s “Beast”, a Disney princess and a few other fine cosplayers assemble in the Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego…

The ENTIRE Comic Con 2018 Flickr album HERE.

San Diego Comic Con 2018 is over now, and it was (as usual) a complete and total blast. When you’re at San Diego Comic Con, you feel as though you’re at the gravitational center of pop culture.

Over the past five days, I’ve met dozens of creative and colorful cosplayers, as well as talented writers, artists, technicians & performers.  My wife was part of a parade and received an award (!).   I shot a segment for the SyFy channel.  Took photos of many unique and priceless pieces of pop culture memorabilia.   I saw a few terrific panels, including two for favorite movies of mine; “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”  Saw the first half hour of author Marc Scott Zicree‘s promising new crowdfunded series, “Space Command” (http://spacecommandmovie.com).   I received innumerable compliments on my costume, which considerably boosted my often-lacking self-esteem.   I even had time for lunch with an old friend of mine.

All in all?  It was a hell of a great week, and I hope that these posts somehow vicariously share some of that experience with my valued readers.  These are for you.

Thanks again!

Coming soon; the annual Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas, August 1st through August 5th.   Stay tuned…

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  1. Pingback: Doctor Who’s “Shada”; a reassembled Douglas Adams classic finally materializes in the US… – Musings of a Middle-Aged Geek
  2. Pingback: San Diego Comic Con 2020 has been cancelled. Here’s to Comic Cons past… – Musings of a Middle-Aged Geek

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