More wraps, offsites rise before Comic-Con!

Now six days to go before Comic-Con 2026. During my final walk of the day around downtown San Diego, I spied two new building wraps and two new offsites that are just beginning to rise!

First, behind the San Diego Convention Center, the big stage for Adult Swim on the Green was being tilted up into place!

I then noticed the Hilton Bayfront’s big building wrap was being applied. What will it be? FX show American Horror Story?

Turning around, I saw a new wrap being applied to the Marriott Marquis, next to the ESRI wrap, which will be coming down very soon. Looks like Star Trek…

After crossing over to the Gaslamp trolley station, look what I found. They’re getting ready to put up this year’s Percy Jackson offsite!

I then noticed the Rings of Power wrap on Fifth Avenue is done and features Sauron. (Those balloons are from a street party for the ESRI convention, which concludes today.)

Finally, I observed the Yaga wrap on the Hilton Gaslamp is about done! There are The Vampire Lestat graphics, too.

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Original art by Chuck Jones to be displayed before Comic-Con!

This coming Wednesday, July 22, 2026, during the evening of Comic-Con Preview Night, lovers of Chuck Jones art have a very special opportunity.

Craig Kausen, the grandson of legendary animation director Chuck Jones, will be visiting the Chuck Jones Gallery in Seaport Village.

He’ll be showing rare, original artwork from the Chuck Jones archives between 5:30 and 9:00 pm!

I learned about this super special event during my visit to the gallery this afternoon. I took a photo, too. As you can see, the gallery is getting ready for Comic-Con, now less than a week away!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Mortal Kombat painted outside Comic-Con!

The windows of Sweet Things Frozen Yogurt are being painted for Comic-Con again!

Shirish Villaseñor (@shirishtheartist) decorates these windows every year with a different pop culture theme. You can find Sweet Things outside the Hilton Bayfront hotel near the San Diego Convention Center.

For 2026? Images from Mortal Kombat!

Shirish was just getting started today. How many Mortal Kombat characters do you recognize?

Once these windows are done, she’ll be painting the windows of nearby Starbucks with a different mystery theme!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

The Rings of Power trolley for Comic-Con 2026!

The Rings of Power will be starting another season, which is made clear by a San Diego trolley wrap that has appeared for Comic-Con 2026!

I caught sight of the trolley today and captured these photos.

Amazon Prime Video has invested a lot in The Rings of Power series, but I’ve heard Tolkien’s many Lord of the Rings fans have mixed views of it. Not having watched, I can’t form an opinion, but the graphics on the Comic-Con trolley look pretty cool…

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Meeting of Styles art before Comic-Con: Day 2.

Meeting of Styles is an international gathering of street artists in San Diego before Comic-Con. They’re painting pop culture murals all around the city!

Today is the second day graffiti artists have been out spray painting cool graphics on approved walls.

I documented the first day of Meeting of Styles in a blog post yesterday. See those photos here.

I returned today to Commercial Street to view some of the artists’ progress…

First, at Millionaires HQ, Jubilee has joined the X-Men wall!

Gambit appears to be finished…

Around the corner, on a nearby wall, a group of artists from Hawaii are painting images from Dragon Ball. Bulma isn’t quite dressed yet!

Progress has been made with the Transformer mural I photographed yesterday…

East of 14th Street, near the 12th and Imperial trolley station, a big long mural has been repainted with pop culture characters every year before Comic-Con. They’re at it again!

Much of the wall is devoted to Marvel comics superheroes and villains.

Working on Ghost Rider…

Miles Morales looks a bit odd right now…

Black Panther with the Infinity Gauntlet from Secret Wars…

Storm…

Ultron is reaching for Storm!

Another section is reserved for DC characters. Behind a fence, it’s just getting started. That’s Cyborg…

Back at the Marvel section, early sketched art for Doctor Doom…

And here’s Thanos!

A big wall nearby will contain Star Wars street art. Right now it’s just black space!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

One week until Comic-Con photographs!

Just a week until the official start of Comic-Con 2026 in San Diego. I walked around downtown and the Gaslamp Quarter late this morning to see how everything is progressing outside the convention center.

Most of the preparation right now concerns putting up huge building wraps. Regular San Diego Comic-Con goers will see similarities with past years.

Workers were putting the finishing touches on the Pendry hotel wrap promoting The Vampire Lestat…

One of the hotel’s ground floor windows is wrapped, too.

The Lodge wrap is up for Paramount+ at Happy Does…

Wraps are starting to go up on the Fifth Avenue side of the Hilton Gaslamp. Words indicate that Prime Video’s Rings of Power is being promoted…

AMC shows are represented on the hotel side facing the San Diego Convention Center.

The Walking Dead: Dead City…

Also, what I believe is Yaga…

Turning toward the Omni hotel, I noticed the Marvel’s Wolverine wrap is done…

The hotel’s Funko POPs wrap is nearly done…

Meanwhile, The Rookie’s big wrap on Petco Park is finished, but not quite the smaller one…

Abbott Elementary’s big wrap on Petco Park is looking good…

I can’t wait to see what develops next!

UPDATE!

Look who I spied after lunch…Alvin!!!

UPDATE!

By late afternoon, the Funko POPs wrap had added Star Wars characters, the Rings of Power wrap was making headway, and the Yaga wrap was more than halfway on…

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

The Walking Dead invade San Diego’s Gaslamp!

During San Diego Comic-Con, for many years, Anne Rice’s vampires would gather at the Hilton Gaslamp hotel. For Comic-Con 2026, it’s zombies!

Cool building wraps are now going up on the hotel’s exterior. I see the prominent tagline “Run This Town.” That’s associated with AMC’s upcoming season of The Walking Dead: Dead City.

The city of San Diego will be very much alive in about a week! Pop culture fans will fill the streets during a con that promises to be epic this year!

On another part of the Hilton Gaslamp, a face materializes…

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Street artists paint all around San Diego for Comic-Con!

About 100 street artists from around the world have converged on San Diego before Comic-Con 2026. They’re painting a bunch of pop culture murals all over the city!

This special international gathering of artists is called Meeting of Styles.

The aim is to finish the murals before the start of Comic-Con. Some of the artists were already getting started today.

Colorful murals will be painted in Logan Heights, Barrio Logan, National City, San Diego International Airport…

I caught some of the action with my camera along Commercial Street, east of downtown.

These first photos are of the X-Men wall, at Millionaires HQ. Red Bull was there with a DJ providing cool beats during the big event.

As you can see, this wall includes Rogue, Deadpool and Gambit already. I was told Wolverine, Phoenix, Cyclops, Beast and other X-Men are on the way!

This is graffiti artist SEEKS619 working on Gambit…

Another wall several blocks to the west has a mural on the way. HERT1 was working on a cool Transformer…

KOOLS was there, too, making his own spray painted contribution…

I might return in a couple days to check on the progress of several murals!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Clash for the Stache at cool Comic-Con offsite!

There’s a super cool offsite activation at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 that has opened a week early! It’s called Clash for the Stache. It promotes the popular mobile game Clash of Clans.

I checked it out this morning!

The offsite, located in The Headquarters near Seaport Village, is super fun. Comic-Con fans can reserve a time online in order to participate here.

So, what is it all about?

After a 3 minute briefing, enter the field of play–a room with LED touch sensitive walls and floor. And for 8 minutes, enjoy a physical romp, following paths with your feet, tapping potions on the walls, stomping goblins that scamper about like a swarm of cockroaches…all the while accumulating gold and glory! Can your team end up tops on the leader board?

The folks I met running the activation were super nice, allowing me to take these photos. The game developer, Lee, explained that it took him 6 weeks to develop this super fun concept.

(Incidentally, you don’t have to buy a ticket to visit their merch store.)

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Addams Family artist exhibit at Comic-Con Museum!

Attending Comic-Con 2026 in San Diego? Got some extra time? You might want to head up to Balboa Park, where the Comic-Con Museum now features a number of cool exhibits, including a big one all about Doctor Who.

The Comic-Con Museum’s newest exhibit showcases the art of Charles Addams, who is best known for his popular creation The Addams Family. It’s titled Chas Addams: Family and Friends.

You’ll see a huge selection of his artwork. His wry, dark, humorous images might bring back memories of the Addams Family television show or the movie.

A variety of other subjects in his art might give you a chuckle, too!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!