The Return of Comic-Cons?

Back on the last weekend of February I was sitting at my artist’s alley table at C2E2 in Chicago, listening to people discuss this new virus that was raging through China and speculating if it would affect us in any way here in the US.

Oh, what innocent little lambs we were.

Little did I know that was the last time I’d be at a comic con, or any other gathering of more than about 20 people, for the rest of 2020. We take so many things for granted in life, and it isn’t until we lose something that we realize it. With the advent of vaccines for COVID-19 it’s just a matter of time before we all get our world back. All of which begs the question, when will huge crowd events like comic cons be able to return?

I seriously doubt we’ll be seeing an actual comic con of any real size taking place anytime soon. Those are shoulder-to-shoulder no chance to social distance seas of humanity, and it is those types of events that will be the last to come back in any normal form from the pandemic. I don’t think we’ll see any huge crowd-type events like comic cons, music festivals, state fairs, or major sporting events taking place until mid-late summer at the earliest. I am not sure that San Diego Comic Con happens in July, although it’s scheduled at the end of that month so maybe the vaccine will have been available to all by then and had time to take effect. C2E2 and Emerald City Comic Con both have announced a change of dates from the late winter/early spring to December, so while those cons should happen they are still a long way away. I think the first really major comic con of 2021 with a real chance of happening on its usual dates will be New York Comic Con, which is typically on the second weekend of October.

I plan on going back to attending the handful of cons I do once they start happening again. I don’t think I can do both Emerald City and C2E2 in December… they are happening too close together. We’ll see. I’ll be in for SDCC if it happens. NYCC too. I plan on doing another “Virtual Artist’s Alley” event in March of this year.

I hope to see some of you in person at a comic con in 2021. These virtual comic cons are fun and all, but I do miss getting to meet and chat with people at conventions. Here’s to 2021!