I'm getting a lot of questions about Comic-Con Special Edition, which is scheduled to take place November 26-28 (i.e., the weekend after Thanksgiving) at the San Diego Convention Center in that town they named the convention center after. Here's a brief Q-and-A about it and as you'll see, there are many Qs and I don't have many As. In fact, you can skip this entire post and go look at the con website and know pretty much everything about it that I do…
Q: Is it still on?
A: It would appear that the folks who stage this thing are pretty determined to stage this thing.Q: Might it still be canceled or postponed?
A: We live in a world now where anything might be canceled or postponed. No one can say for sure if The Pandemic will be better, worse or about the same 86 days from now when the con is scheduled to open.Q: What should I do if I need to book travel soon in order to get a flight on Thanksgiving Weekend?
A: I don't know.Q: When will badges or exhibitor space be made available?
A: I don't know.Q: How big will this thing be? Will we have the run of the entire convention center?
A: I don't know. I don't know.Q: Will all the hotels that are usually available for Comic-Con be available? Will the convention offer deals for them? When will we know about this?
A: I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.Q: Will attendees have to mask and/or show proof of vaccination or a recent test?
A:I don't know.Oh, wait. I can answer this one. Or at least direct you to this post which the convention released yesterday.Q: Won't these policies make things rough for cosplayers?
A: Yes. And while I love cosplayers — or at least the ones who don't crash into me or stab me with props — I could support a policy that anyone who thinks their cosplaying is more important than protecting others should be tossed out and banned from all future Comic-Cons. The con hasn't said they'll do this but if they do, I'm behind them on it or some similar action.
Q: But I really want to cosplay at this convention and this mask thing will ruin whatever I come up with. What should I do?
A: Go as Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H.Q: Are you going to attend?
A: I don't know. I mean I really don't know. I have some time before I have to decide and I intend to use it.
I keep having to remind myself of my own advice, which is to accept and deal with the fact that life is way more unpredictable than usual because of COVID-19. No one knows when this thing will end. No one knows how bad it will get before it does. Advance planning is very difficult and it may be for quite a while.
San Diego Comic-Cons are usually wonderful things that I greatly enjoy. I miss them. But there are many things that I miss that I understand would be dangerous at the moment…and maybe you and I disagree as to how dangerous. Maybe I'm being too cautious…but given the choice of being "too cautious" or "not cautious enough," I'm going to opt for "too cautious" every time. After all, I'm going to be seventy years old next year and I would like very much to be seventy years old next year.