These guys are the very first in line for Hall H, at 2018 San Diego Comic-Con. They were super friendly, excited and ready to go!
The big one is almost here!
I’ve taken even more photos of 2018 Comic-Con preparation around San Diego. I walked all around this morning–Wednesday–and observed that workers are frantically getting the many offsites around the Gaslamp, Petco Park and San Diego Convention Center ready for tomorrow.
Tonight is Preview Night.
Let the party begin!
At Dead Quarters, they have a lot to do. At least according to some ragged signs that are being created!Cartman’s Escape Room at the Comedy Central offsite appears about ready!The Convention Center trolley stop has been converted into a weird, very cool promotion for Stranger Things.This morning they were testing the Jack Ryan Experience. A test subject was carefully lowered from the mock helicopter.A creepy jacketed mannequin now stands in the Children’s Park fountain, with a cage looming among the trees behind him. Part of the Castle Rock offsite.What I called a castle has turned out to be more like a brick palace, created by Bandai at the Marina Terrace.Getting the entrance to the Lyft Lounge at Comic-Con Village ready on Wedsnesday morning. You’ll find it at Embarcadero Marina Park South, near the San Diego Symphony’s outdoor summer location.The IMDb yacht gets a boat wrap!The Starbucks at the Hilton Bayfront has been converted into a small Jurassic World.A BBC film crew gets ready to cover 2018 San Diego Comic-Con on the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge.Graphics at the entrance to Rotten Tomatoes suggests that possibly Your Opinion Sucks.Someone has appeared in one of the round windows of The Good Place.Looks like a good place to me! Let’s get this party started!
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You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Rampage George has arrived on a truck bed near the Omni and Petco Park for 2018 San Diego Comic-Con!
We’re down to just two days until the official start of 2018 San Diego Comic-Con!
My last blog post titled 2018 Comic-Con getting ready in high gear! included a huge number of photos that I took while walking around the Gaslamp, Petco Park and the San Diego Convention Center on Sunday and Monday.
Well, today is Tuesday, and this morning I discovered lots more cool stuff popping up!
Equipment for the Conan O’Brien show during Comic-Con is being moved into the Spreckels Theatre.Snoopy graphics on the windows of Bubbles Boutique have transformed it into the Peanuts Pop-Up Shop!A photo of construction progress at The Good Place near the Tin Fish.Petco Park’s Whiskey Cavalier wrap is still being applied.This wrap on Petco Park showing Nathan Fillion promotes the ABC show The Rookie.Getting a tree ready at the Experience at Comic-Con, near the Sacred Lies activation.Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger on Freeform will also have a cool activation at Experience at Comic-Con.A photo from behind the Cloak and Dagger structure.The unusual Legion structure is being finished at FXhibition.FXhibition also includes a cool graphic depicting Archer Danger Island.It appears the courtyard area next to the Hilton Bayfront will be used to promote Mayans MC.In the FOX section behind the convention center, small rooms have appeared featuring Family Guy and The Simpsons.Yikes! The Griffin home is on fire!Walking along the bayfront toward the Adult Swim offsite two days before the official opening of 2018 San Diego Comic-Con.Rick sculpture now stands over a miniature golf hole.Looks like the archery range of Adult Swim State Park.Bandai is building a castle-like structure on Marriott’s Marina Terrace.Some awesome Bandai figures are now being set up at their offsite.SDCC2018 exhibitors and fans are arriving in San Diego! Two days to go!The Mellow Tiger Bar will occupy part of Hulu’s Castle Rock offsite.The Castle Rock bed and breakfast is getting a paint job!The New Children’s Museum now has yellow Syfy umbrellas and signs ready, including one for the Human Claw Machine.Comic-Con paintings by the artist Suzka can be found inside Simon’s Cafe, just north of the Jack Ryan Experience. This piece is titled The Joker Card.One guy wearing cammies is relaxing at Amazon’s Jack Ryan Experience offsite.Looks like Kenny died yet again outside the South Park escape room.That big slide at Dead Quarters will be mounted here.Taco Bell was getting their Demolition Man pop-up ready in the Gaslamp. Everyone smiled for some free publicity! Nacho fries will be served.A couple of building wraps promoting Disenchantment on Netflix are being applied to the Hard Rock Hotel.
UPDATE!
More stuff is appearing early Tuesday afternoon as 2018 San Diego Comic-Con rapidly approaches! Enjoy these brand new photos!
I’m not sure I’d want to buy a plane ticket from these nice ladies.I wonder if there is an arrival time? NBC show Manifest has all sorts of cool graphics in the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel.A new Star Trek Discovery Mirror Universe Exhibit will be inside the Michael J Wolf Fine Arts gallery in the Gaslamp.A sneaky peek inside the Star Trek Discovery offsite before it opens on Thursday.USA Networks’s Purge City store is setting up at the Padres Team Store, in the Western Metal Supply Co. building at Petco Park.That big black thing will be the screen of a huge Dell laptop. I learned people will be able to interact with an LED image using arrow keys.A Mr. Mercedes wrap is being applied to the entrance side of the Omni Hotel.The History wrap on Petco Park this year promotes Project Blue Book.I was told this is the robot torso of the Iron Giant! A cool Iron Giant sculpture will be placed atop the building at Sixth Avenue and L Street, where the Ready Player One activation will be during Comic-Con.Pushing an old school arcade game along the sidewalk.Rotten Tomatoes has their own location at Comic-Con this year, right next to the Hard Rock Hotel.Mr. Mercedes advertised on something less than a Mercedes.A good photo of one Disenchanted wrap now on the Hard Rock Hotel.AT&T’s Mr. Mercedes offsite is getting ready in the Gaslamp on Tuesday afternoon!
ANOTHER UPDATE!
Here come pics that I took late Tuesday afternoon!
I spotted the legs of Iron Giant near the Ready Player One offsite!The Mobile ESports Touring Arena is set up over the kids’ baseball field in Park at the Park.A huge banner on the Marriott Gaslamp Quarter promotes Star Trek Discovery.Taco Bell is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the movie Demolition Man.Various NBC posters have been placed about the Gaslamp trolley station.The Good Place offsite is getting a paint job!More graphics have appeared at the entrance to the DC Universe Experience.That slide and a building have materialized inside Dead Quarters.And so has an armored SWAT vehicle! The walking dead can’t be far away now!Rampage George looks disinterested in this nearby human.Petco Park’s Whiskey Cavalier wrap is done.The Rookie wrap is almost done.At FXhibition, I saw a graphic for American Horror Story on some sort of structure.Lots of colorful graphics have popped up in the grassy area in front of the Hilton Bayfront.Here are some more.People can sit in front of a green screen at the Cosmos activation. Perhaps they’ll fly through space. I don’t know.As I walked past, the Camp Store at Adult Swim State Park was being stocked.Helmets are ready for the crazy canoe races!Flagship’s California Spirit is being transformed into the IMDb yacht.The Mayans MC wrap on the Hilton is now complete.Logos are on the fence around The Experience in San Diego, which I’ve been calling the Experience at Comic-Con. I had read that somewhere.Here’s what you can expect each day during 2018 Comic-Con at The Experience in San Diego.Looks like DC Comics will be serving Wonder Woman Golden Lasso caramel and vanilla ice cream!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
A car appears to have mysteriously crashed into the Childrens Park fountain! It’s part of the Castle Rock offsite for 2018 San Diego Comic-Con. Surprises await visitors around every corner.
Four days to go until 2018 San Diego Comic-Con! There’s so much cool stuff popping up around the convention center, I can hardly keep track of it all!
This afternoon I walked around the entire area, checking out some of the building wraps and offsites that have begun to appear. Construction hasn’t begun on the Experience at Comic-Con or Deadquarters yet. I was told Comedy Central will occupy the same space at the Broad City indoor coloring book last year, but I could see no indication of activity there, either.
Check out these photos and read the captions for more information. It seems Comic-Con gets bigger and more exciting every year!
A photo of the Castle Rock sign from across Harbor Drive.These mannequins will be part of Hulu’s surprising Castle Rock experience!A guy working on the Castle Rock offsite said this is the bed and breakfast.Picnic tables have been placed in Childrens Park, which will become a spooky Castle Rock forest.At Amazon’s Jack Ryan Experience, more progress is being made.Visitors to the Jack Ryan Experience can enjoy shade under camouflage netting!The big Conan wrap on the Marriott Marquis is almost completed!Another photo I took walking around the Gaslamp four days before 2018 San Diego Comic-Con.The prominent DC Universe wrap is wrapped up!A Doom Patrol sign on a temporary structure inside the DC Universe Experience. This must be Chief’s (Dr. Niles Caulder) Lab.A Marvel building wrap is being applied above the Lou & Mickey’s sign.Inside The Chuck Jones Gallery in the Gaslamp you’ll find a bunch of cool Star Wars art.Plus some super cool Alex Ross artwork depicting DC’s most popular heroes.The line for LAIKA LIVE San Diego is growing as Comic-Con approaches.Lots of construction activity around the hub of Comic-Con’s outdoor campus.An ice cream vendor crosses Fifth Avenue. The Gifted wrap on the Omni appears above the offsite for The Good Place, now under construction.Some guys are working on NBC’s The Good Place offsite at 2018 San Diego Comic-Con.On Friday I spoke briefly to a guy putting The Good Place stickers on the Tin Fish’s outdoor tables.Turning back for another photo as I walk along.Here comes a restored PCC streetcar on the San Diego Trolley’s downtown loop Silver Line. I love riding these old trolleys, but not today. More stuff to see!Crossing the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge, I see the tents outside the San Diego Convention Center are already set up.There’s that Jack Ryan wrap on the Omni Hotel that I photographed a couple days ago. It’s nearly finished.The FXhibition area is under construction now. Those shady canopies when seen from above spell FX.I learned this interesting structure will help promote the FX show Legion.Looking across the grass of Hilton Waterfront Park. Lots of Comic-Con offsite construction activity!FOX and National Geographic will be previewing Cosmos Possible Worlds.That big wrap on the Hilton San Diego Bayfront is in fact for the upcoming FX television series Mayan MC, a spin-off of the popular Sons of Anarchy.I believe this winding blue track will be Adult Swim’s lazy river, where go-kart “canoes” will race. I imagine those races will be visually funny!Another Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan building wrap, this one on the side of the Marriott Marquis. Amazon Video is promoting their upcoming show in a very big way at SDCC2018.A colorful Dragon Ball Super: The Movie wrap on the Marriott’s recent meeting room expansion.
UPDATE!
I walked around Monday morning and got lots of new pics! More wraps and offsites are appearing!
Manifest, an upcoming NBC television series, promoted on a building wrap being applied to the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego for 2018 Comic-Con.Another graphic promoting Manifest on the convention center side of the Hard Rock Hotel.The symbol for Marvel hero Iron Fist in a building wrap near the Gaslamp Quarter landmark sign.Construction continues on The Good Place offsite near the Tin Fish.Getting video screens ready at NBC’s The Good Place offsite.Looks like Comic-Con fans might be served yogurt.It would be really, really hard to eat yogurt with that gigantic fork, however!The upper story of The Good Place.The Experience at Comic-Con in Petco Park’s adjacent Lexus Premier Lot is barely getting started on Monday morning. Better get to work in a hurry!Behind the San Diego Convention Center, near the Hilton Bayfront, the FXhibition is under construction. I saw these graphics which I believe will be used to promote the FX show Archer.I see FOX will be promoting The Passage in their section of Hilton Waterfront Park.I believe this is part of the Adult Swim lazy river. Workers would tell me nothing. Top Secret, apparently!Another photo of the Adult Swim offsite under construction.Comic-Con exhibitors were unloading their stuff as a small fleet of forklifts zipped about.Bandai is setting up an offsite in the terrace by the Marriott Marina, where Conival was last year.The left portion of that big Dragon Ball Super wrap is done. Very cool!The Jack Ryan wrap on the Marriott Marquis is about half finished on Monday morning.Syfy wraps are being applied to The New Children’s Museum.Getting ready for 2018 Comic-Con–just three days away!In Hulu’s Castle Rock forest, some sort of structure is being set up.The South Park Escape Room is just getting started.Dead Quarters is also just getting started. It’s going to feature a slide!And a zombie meat grinder!With a bloody conveyor belt!Purge City is starting to set up at Petco Park.Another photo of Comic-Con preparation in front of the Western Metal Supply Co. building.I learned this lot at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Island Avenue will feature a gigantic 20 foot tall Dell laptop!A peek into the space where the Mr. Mercedes Immersive Experience will be during 2018 San Diego Comic-Con.
ANOTHER UPDATE!
I walked all over the place on Monday afternoon, and even more Comic-Con stuff is appearing around the San Diego Convention Center, Petco Park and the Gaslamp!
Here comes yet another batch of photos!
Characters from South Park are readied outside a Comic-Con escape room being prepared at the Comedy Central offsite.Cool mural for Mayans MC in courtyard by the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.Some big teepees and wooden bridges over the lazy river canoe track have appeared at the Adult Swim offsite on Monday afternoon.Left side of the Adult Swim entrance.Welcome to Adult Swim State Park!Wraps on Petco Park are appearing. The two I spotted promote Whiskey Cavalier on ABC. (UPDATE! I was wrong! As it turned out this first one promotes The Rookie on ABC.)The second Whiskey Cavalier building wrap is farther along.I believe this will be a big stage in one corner of the Experience at Comic-Con.Sacred Lies, an upcoming show on Facebook Watch, will be promoted near one entrance to the Experience at Comic-Con.Erecting the huge stage in a Petco Park parking lot.Spherical shrubs at The Good Place match circular windows.I believe that’s Harley Quinn in a window of Toscana Cafe & Wine Bar in the Gaslamp.Alita Battle Angel promoted on a pedicab on the Embarcadero.The Team Coco House on Fourth Avenue is being prepared.Dell will be building that huge laptop here.At Dead Quarters, they must realize that blood meal makes for great fertilizer.The Syfy wrap on The New Children’s Museum is looking good.So is the facade of the bed and breakfast at Hulu’s Castle Rock offsite.Props are being placed in the Castle Rock forest, otherwise known as Children’s Park.Lawn chairs face a stage.Part of a Middle Eastern bazaar on MLK Promenade beckons people to head up First Avenue to the Jack Ryan Experience.A huge bazaar is about ready at the Jack Ryan Experience offsite by Amazon Prime Video.I learned visitors will climb to the helicopter, descend by wire to a top floor, then head over to the zip line. Once on the ground, there’s more training to do involving some sort of vehicle.The Dark Ops emblem is ready on the bunker-like escape room.I was told the escape room will be pretty intense.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
An astronaut gives a Hang Loose hand signal as he hovers near a satellite high above planet Earth!
Head into Imperial Beach along Palm Avenue and you’ll be treated to colorful art!
Here are some photos that I took yesterday!
A very cool space mural on one side of the AT&T building on Palm Avenue in Imperial Beach. By artists Todd Stands and Dave Frink.As drivers head west down Palm Avenue, a mural featuring a gray whale welcomes them to Imperial Beach.Art on fence between Palm Avenue and the old salt ponds of south San Diego Bay, now part of the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Reserve.One side of the AT&T building at 13th Street has colorful, spiritual jellyfish that seem to communicate electrically!The mural on the front of the AT&T building includes a big whale.And lots of super colorful shore birds.Beautiful public art welcomes visitors to Imperial Beach.Another whale in the mural.A pod of dolphins swims across an electrical box.More beautiful street art.I spotted a couple of native Eastern Pacific green sea turtles across Palm Avenue near 12th Street!Carly Ealey painted Cosmic Tides in Imperial Beach for Pangeaseed’s Sea Walls Murals for Oceans.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Superman enters a phone booth. When he comes out, who will he become?
Today I headed down to Imperial Beach to enjoy the Sun and Sea Festival. The annual summer event is famous for its popular sand sculpture contest near the pier. You might’ve seen photos I took in past years.
In 2018 the theme for the sand sculpture competition was Superheroes In The Sand.
A big crowd turned out on a sunny summer Saturday in Imperial Beach to enjoy the annual Sun and Sea Festival.Poster looks like a comic book cover! A surfer wears a cape for the 2018 Sun and Sea Festival in Imperial Beach. The original sandcastle competition!A big sand sculpture near the event’s entrance greets one and all to the Sun and Sea Festival. That caped hero seems to be holding a surfboard.I found my first superhero on the beach. It’s Wonder Woman!Here’s a tribute to a young superhero. A young lady named Angela had her wish made true by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.Titans Collide, a sand sculpture by the Sculpintures. Thanos and Hulk are ready to do battle. I hope Thanos doesn’t have that gauntlet on.Watch out Thanos! Hulk is finally really angry and ready to smash.The Coastal Carvers were creating the IB Bears. I’m not sure how exactly this fits with the superhero theme.Howie’s Crew was creating Gotham City out of sand. I see the Bat Signal and the Bat Cave!And I see Wayne Manor, too!Scooby Doo is a superhero, right? The Guardians of the Sandlot had scenes from that favorite cartoon. Here’s the Mystery Machine!And here’s a super scary creature! It’s probably an old disgruntled lighthouse keeper in a yellow slicker somehow cleverly disguised as a big monster. Just my wild guess.According to the San Diego Sand Castles, you don’t need a cape.Wonder Woman has no cape, nor She-Ra.A local guy working on sand art that celebrates She-Ra. You’ll see why, shortly.A variety of heroes gathered in Imperial Beach the week before 2018 San Diego Comic-Con.Archisand was crafting a sandcastle fantasy and a beautiful sleepy face.There were sand sculptures on either side of the Imperial Beach Pier. Lots of surfers out today, too.Sandytales was creating Dreaming, an imaginative sand sculpture with another sleepy face and whimsical castle.Here’s the castle and a smile. Creating that looks like fun!Team Sandstorm was creating their sand sculpture just north of the IB Pier.Forever Heroes. It’s a big Purple Cross.Sand spheres are sculpted to become helmeted war heroes.Many heroes behind the medal.The Sandcastle Man Team was creating a fantastic Star Wars setting.A sand sculpture rendition of a far distant world. Rebels and Resistance.The I.B. Posse created a new chest emblem for Superman. It features a firefighter’s helmet.Superman entered a phone booth in my very first photo . . . then emerged as a true hero firefighter!Here are some hero lifeguards.Why do several local sand artists like the heroine She-Ra?This sculpture by the Sand Squirrels honors a former member. I believe her name was Shera. Her surviving brother works with sand for the first time.My Heroes, by the I.B. Family Posse, has Batman and Spiderman ready side by side.A kid is surrounded by Superman and other imaginary superheroes. He wears a fireman’s helmet.My Heroes.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Dozens of amazing stop-motion puppets can be viewed inside LAIKA LIVE San Diego at 2018 Comic-Con!
Wow!
If you thought last year’s Laika Experience at Comic-Con was great, you’ll be absolutely stunned by LAIKA LIVE San Diego in 2018!
Not only are there lots of detailed puppets, models and scale movie sets, but during the tour visitors can meet and talk to an actual working armaturist and an animator! Anyone interested in how Laika produces their films can ask any sort of question, and the friendly guys explain everything–from how puppets, their armatures and costumes are created and manipulated, to how scenes are conceived and filmed.
Visitors to LAIKA LIVE San Diego also get a preview of the upcoming funny and heartwarming movie Missing Link.
If you can, visit this Comic-Con offsite before Comic-Con actually begins and the lines get really, really long.
Here are some photos. Read the captions for more info. I’m no expert, so I hope I’ve described things correctly.
There’s a lot more to see than what I cover here. Many detailed displays that visitors can view during the tour explain the complicated process of making a Laika movie!
Before beginning the tour, visitors can pose with various Laika characters, like Other Mother, for a photo.While we wait to begin the tour, we watch a video explaining various aspects of Laika’s animation and how their fantastic movies are produced.Visitors are encouraged to vote for this LEGO model of Coraline’s house by photographing a QR code. Given enough votes, LEGO will produce the kit!A board contains Laika fan art and letters.Examples of one letter and some fan art.Visitors to LAIKA LIVE San Diego get character fans as free swag.The tour has begun. Here we see a large model of Coraline’s Other World House Exterior, or Pink Palace. The 1/16 scale miniature was used to film several exterior scenes.A closer look, with models of Coraline characters on the porch.A friendly LAIKA armaturist describes how puppets are made, manipulated and repaired at his workstation, dubbed the Puppet Hospital. He answered every sort of question!Two of the puppets, I believe from ParaNorman.A look at the Puppet Hospital and some of the tools used to make, modify and repair Laika’s many puppets.Once a puppet’s physical posture is slightly altered, the turn of a key tightens up the armature for another camera shot.Next we see how this Laika animator captures images of Kubo on a small set of his village using a camera on a running rig.One camera shot is analyzed.Software allows many frames to be merged and edited into a completed film.Some puppets have many faces that can be attached, each with a slightly different expression.The tour continues to a large set that is being used to film Laika’s upcoming funny movie Missing Link. The detail of the Pacific Northwest forest is extraordinary.The friendly LAIKA tour guide poses for a fun photo!Near the end of the tour, there is a life-size replica of Coraline’s Other World Living Room.A fantastic set and puppets used in the filming of The Boxtrolls.More cool sights during an amazing tour of LAIKA LIVE San Diego at 2018 Comic-Con!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
