One of the most visually stunning activations I’ve seen outside Comic-Con 2023 so far was put together by Bandai Namco Entertainment. They are showcasing their ever popular Tekken fighting video games.
I didn’t even know this Comic-Con offsite existed until I walked down MLK Promenade a day or two ago. Well, today it is open. I stepped inside and my eyes almost popped out of my head!
Right as you enter, four actors portraying classic Tekken characters pose on a platform, and the lighting inside the darkened room makes them look unbelievably awesome–almost unreal. They slowly shifted their poses as I took several photos.
Nearby, visitors could play Tekken at many stations. There are also cool photo ops like the one you see above, free refreshments (thank you for the cold can of Sprite on a hot day), and face painting!
Keep your eyes peeled as you walk down Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade across from the San Diego Convention Center. This small but very cool Tekken activation is not far from Camp Snoopy.
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
Enjoy these photographs of cosplay spotted outside Comic-Con 2023 on Thursday!
Every year San Diego’s epic Comic-Con has some of the best costume play to be found anywhere. I’m sure I’ll see many, many examples the next several days…
Davy Jones cosplay.Star Wars dark side cosplay.Victorian era Starfleet officer cosplay.Peter Parker and Miles Morales cosplay.Batwoman cosplay.Dragon Ball cosplay.Marge Simpson cosplay.Cobra cosplay.My tired brain is drawing a blank. Leave a comment!Roronoa Zoro cosplay.Harry Potter cosplay.
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
I took jillions of photographs today while walking near the San Diego Convention Center and Gaslamp Quarter. It’s the first day of Comic-Con 2023!
I’ve already posted blogs about two different Comic-Con offsite activations. More of that is coming. However, my little camera captured so many miscellaneous images today I thought I’d present some of them now. Most of these were taken while walking along Harbor Drive. I started near the Interactive Zone at Petco Park.
There are smiles, creativity, cosplay, and plenty of people seeking attention. Comic-Con is not only a fun pop culture convention, but it’s a humongous marketing opportunity for those who are shrewd. (Feel free to follow my blog. Wink-wink. Oh wait, I gain nothing but an inflated ego!)
Ready? Here we go. No captions. Just absorb all the wonderful craziness!
Incidentally, this morning I also enjoyed a very special two-hour tour at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. Busy day!
I’ll blog about some truly famous and amazing art at the museum right after Comic-Con concludes.
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
The Comic-Con Interactive Zone is worth checking out this year!
The lines this morning weren’t too horribly long to get into what is officially called the Interactive Zone at Petco Park. It’s called that because a variety of activations are set up in one of the ballpark’s nearby parking lots. I waited maybe 15 minutes to get in.
Once inside the Interactive Zone, fans will be met with three huge, completely awesome sculptures based on characters in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. On the other side of the entrance is another super cool sculpture, called Attack of the Metallic Menace, that was created to raise awareness about the harm of vaping.
That guy vying with Captain America for weightlifting prowess was posing inside a GNC activation, where I got a sample of a scrumptious muscle-building milk shake. (Watch out Captain America! I’m feeling stronger already!)
What else did I find? A fun activation that celebrates the 30th Anniversary of the coming-of-age movie Dazed and Confused. There’s pinball game and a pool table where you can play. Of course, there’s a photo opportunity, with the expected reference to rockers KISS!
And, as you might hope and expect, there’s plenty to eat from several food trucks and stands, and shady picnic benches galore. It’s a fine place to rest and get a bite while exploring all the cool stuff outside Comic-Con!
You might spot some cosplay, too!
The Interactive Zone at Petco Park, located near the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge, will be open right through Sunday.
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
There’s a super fun offsite activation at Comic-Con 2023 that pop culture fans streaming through the Gaslamp might miss. But you shouldn’t! It’s called Roseanne Lanford Days!
Whether or not you’re a fan of the Roseanne TV show, you’ll find lots to do and lots of cool swag to win!
The activation is loosely based on the town where Roseanne and her sister Jackie worked as waitresses. Once you walk through the activation’s archway, it looks like you’ve stepped into an old-time carnival. Shoot a hoop, knock over pins, toss a ring on a bottle and you can score DVDs, Roseanne bags and shirts, magnets, stickers, and other cool stuff. There’s free popcorn, photo opportunities and live entertainment. And there a big screen TV sweepstakes you can enter, too!
Roseanne Lanford Days is located on Sixth Avenue at E Street. Look for the signs on Fifth Avenue. It’s will be open Thursday and Friday from 10am to 6pm.
Check it out!
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
Early this morning, I took a long walk through downtown San Diego this first day of Comic-Con 2023. As the minutes passed, I noticed more and more Comic-Con attendees arriving by bus and by foot. Most were lining up outside the San Diego Convention Center.
I spotted some cosplay and captured other fun pics!
Putting up barriers in the Gaslamp Quarter in anticipation of huge crowds later on.Ed Lenderman of KUSI News gives a silly blogger a smile!Lines forming outside the San Diego Convention Center early Thursday morning.Dedicated fans make their way down MLK Promenade toward Comic-Con.The standby line for the Interview With the Vampire offsite was beginning to grow.Almost ready!Many wait for the opening of the Dragon Ball offsite.Obi-Wan Kenobi is ready to take me down!A line has formed for the FX offsite.One Piece cosplay on the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge.More fans heading to Comic-Con early Thursday morning.Shuttle buses are arriving from San Diego hotels.Getting a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles activation ready.Seems I’ve arrived at Grand Central-42 Street Station!It’s the 25th Anniversary of That 70s Show.We had a station wagon similar to this when I was a kid.A street artist was displaying his cool artwork on the Fifth Avenue sidewalk.Not sure what this is, but looks like fun!Lots of Comic-Con related donuts can be found at the Donut Bar Pop-Up Shop inside the Pendry hotel.Witcher cosplay in the Gaslamp Quarter!
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
Here we go! One of the biggest parties in San Diego has begun! It’s Preview Night for Comic-Con 2023. For the next four days massive crowds will descend upon downtown San Diego to celebrate popular culture!
Late this afternoon vendors and fans were converging on the San Diego Convention Center. The exhibit floor opens at 6 pm. Those with Preview Night tickets will be able to get an idea of the cool stuff they will see when Comic-Con begins in earnest tomorrow.
Meanwhile, areas around the convention center and the Gaslamp Quarter were nearly ready for the big crazy party. A few pop-ups and offsite activations are being readied at the last minute. A huge line of people was waiting to enter the Dragon Ball offsite near the Marriott Marina. The Lodge offsite by Paramount was already open, too.
Many members of the media have arrived on the scene, too, as Comic-Con 2023 will receive international coverage.
Enjoy some fun photographs from a mid-afternoon walk!
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
Comic-Con 2023 officially begins tomorrow in San Diego. This evening thousands will converge on the San Diego Convention Center for Preview Night.
Is San Diego ready for the big event? Almost!
This morning I noticed how most of the outside activations are in the last stages of completion. I also saw groups of vendors and other participants streaming through the Gaslamp heading for the convention center. Walking about, I even spotted some cool cosplay!
Shops in the Gaslamp have superhero displays in windows for Comic-Con.CVS created a unique Comic-Con 23 display using soft drink boxes!The Lodge now has snowy trees around its entrance. Perhaps it snowed overnight.SpongeBob is hanging out inside The Lodge!Are those guys in black vampires from the Immortal Universe?Quantum Leap HQ is ready to transport visitors through spacetime.Before you travel through spacetime, grab some grub at the Quantum Cantina.Live shows overlooking Gaslamp Square will be held on this balcony. Watch for celebrities!Promotional graphics are everywhere.The Abbott Elementary wraps on Petco Park are finished.Another wrap promoting Abbott Elementary.The Petco Park Interactive Zone is setting up. Every year they seem to finish at the last minute.What more cool stuff is in these crates?OMG! Check out these huge Transformers: Rise of the Beasts sculptures!A big banner is being hung today on the Hilton Bayfront parking garage advertising Heart of Stone .Mario and Bowser cosplay!Last minute work at the FX offsite. That water dispenser should prove very popular!The gigantic Shogun wrap on the Hilton is completed.A big crowd will be enjoying Adult Swim on the Green starting tomorrow!Salty’s has quite a few eyeballs.The IMDb yacht has returned for Comic-Con 2023.The Voodoo Ranger “pirate ship” is now behind the San Diego Convention Center.The Dragon Ball offsite at the Marriott Marina Terrace is still setting up. Looks cool so far.That electrical lightning is making some hair stand on end!Dragon Ball graphics above the front entrance of the Marriott Marquis hotel.Some street artists are already setting up on MLK Promenade.All sorts of colorful graphics decorate Hero House.Check out this cool sculpture promoting Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon!Snoopy has arrived! Let Comic-Con 2023 begin!
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
Check out the above very cool sculpture. It represents an epic battle from My Hero Academia, the “Historical Battle in Kamino.”
This sculpture is the centerpiece of a new exhibition that opened today, just in time for Comic-Con 2023!
I’m not all that familiar with this manga series, but the colorful displays definitely caught my attention this morning as I wandered about the lower level of the museum. Around the statue are action-packed graphics that depict various characters and scenes that fans love from My Hero Academia.
If you’re a fan of manga or anime, and you’re going to Comic-Con this year, jump on the shuttle from the San Diego Convention Center to Balboa Park. It stops a very short distance from the Comic-Con Museum!
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, Black Widow, Doctor Strange…
Given the immense popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films in the past 15 years, who on the planet doesn’t recognize at least a few of those names?
What do these iconic superheroes all have in common? Their famous co-creator, Stan Lee.
An excellent new exhibit opened today at the Comic-Con Museum in San Diego. It’s titled Excelsior! The Life and Legacy of Stan Lee. Those attending Comic-Con 2023 this week have the opportunity to jump onto a shuttle at the San Diego Convention Center and head to Balboa Park to enjoy this exclusive exhibition!
Visitors to the Comic-Con Museum will see how Stan Lee, over the course of his 78-year career, not only influenced the evolution of comic books, but as the creative leader of Marvel Comics, helped build the company into an international multimedia powerhouse. Fans can view rare comic books, original art and paintings that were born from his seemingly inexhaustible imagination.
Many of the used comic books on display, including dozens of superhero origin and Marvel landmark stories, come courtesy of exhibit co-curator Michael Uslan, originator and Executive Producer of the Batman movie franchise! They have been selected from his vast boyhood collection. You can tell how his comic books were well read! Michael was a good friend of Stan Lee, who was described as endlessly energetic. (I learned Michael is the one who suggested to Stan that he write alternative stories concerning DC Comics characters!)
Stan Lee‘s enormous accomplishments merited induction into the comic book industry’s Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995. He received the NEA’s National Medal of Arts in 2008.
Personally, I loved viewing the exhibit with its many decades of artwork. It revived pleasant memories from my own past–particularly those years long ago when I collected comic books. I amassed hundreds of issues in several long boxes, which to me were vaults filled with treasure.
Fans of anime visiting the museum might also enjoy two other exhibits that opened today just in time for Comic-Con: the Cowboy Bebop 25th Anniversary Art Exhibition and an incredible sculpture inspired by My Hero Academia.
If you haven’t already experienced the Comic-Con Museum’s ongoing exhibit The Animation Academy – from Pencils to Pixels, that is also a definite must-see. From animation’s rather crude beginnings to today’s high-tech computer generated graphics, you’ll experience it all. You even have the opportunity to create your own animated stories!
Learn more about Excelsior! The Life and Legacy of Stan Lee and the many other wonders that await you at the Comic-Con Museum by visiting their website here!
An extensive new exhibit on the bottom floor of the Comic-Con Museum celebrates the life and legacy of legendary Stan Lee.Today’s huge Marvel Universe was co-created by Stan Lee. The name “Marvel Universe” was suggested by a fan in 1966. This year Stan Lee would have celebrated his 100th birthday.Marvel Tales Annual, No. 1, published in September 1964, features the artists and writers who comprised The Marvel Bullpen back then.Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, co-creators of many iconic Marvel characters, pictured together at different times.Captain America, No. 3, 1941. 19-year-old Stan Lee’s first writing in comic books and first use of the pen name “Stan Lee.”The Marvel Age dawned in 1956, with the resurgence of superheroes. In an increasingly stressful modern world, readers enjoyed escapism, much as they do today. As time went on, characters became more complex and believable, displaying ordinary human emotions.One of many iconic comic books on display. The first appearance of the Fantastic Four, November 1961, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.Just Imagine, by Stan Lee with Chris Bachalo. A reimagining of DC character Catwoman in 2002.A new Stan Lee Universe is soon to appear! It’s called Stan Lee’s Workforce. A major announcement is forthcoming!Kill-Switch by artist Greg Hildebrandt. Part of the upcoming Stan Lee’s Workforce!Stan Infinity, by artist Rob Prior. Very cool!Members of the media get a first look at the new Comic-Con Museum exhibit, Excelsior! The Life and Legacy of Stan Lee. It opens to the public today, July 18, 2023
If you’re attending Comic-Con 2023 in San Diego, you don’t dare miss this!
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 