On September 3rd, Comic Con’s Twitter account announced that 4-Day and 1-Day passes will become available on Monday, November 1st at Comic-con.org. for the 2011 Comic Con event!
My first thoughts were wow, that’s pretty early but then again, considering the crowd size and all, this early of a date seems appropriate. If you think about it, the 2010 Comic Con event sold out pretty early, at least for the tickets folks wanted.
As I was sitting down to write something up, I went back to their twitter site to double check if they’ve added anything else to the information and they posted the reminder that the “4-Day passes that include Preview Night” were already sold out!
(Check out my exclusive, Bruce-shot panoramic of downtown San Diego and the bay!)
If you’re confused, let me remind you that 2011 Preview Night passes sold out back on July. What happened was that 2010′s attendees were allowed first access to pre-register for tickets for the upcoming 2011 event. With Comic Con limiting attendance to Preview Night, passes went like cheap, discounted gold bars! Hence, why no Preview Night passes available. Wow.
As it stands, Comic-Con has a contract with the city of San Diego that expires in 2012 and other cities are starting to drool about the recession-proof event that brings in over $150 million annually. Los Angeles and Las Vegas are nipping at the contract as we speak but the city of San Diego has already made a contract extension offer to the event.
Downtown San Diego during Comic Con
I like San Diego and in theory I also like the appeal of both Los Angeles and Las Vegas. But I have my reservations about L.A. in as much as I am not sure they can offer an event that offers such a wonderful environment as the Gas Lamp District next to the San Diego Convention Center. With Vegas, what worries me is that attendees stand in very long lines for periods of time that wind outside the convention center. San Diego in July is quite bearable but even if it’s a dry heat, Vegas could be a test of one’s durability in the heat and if you drink sufficient quantities of water to survive the long lines.
In the above pictures (click on the panoramic for a larger version), I took these walking back to my hotel room and it gave me a fantastic vantage point for a reflective image. The city is on the left and in the close-up below the pano, you can see the Comic Con Viral advertising for Scott Pilgrim. (A viral which didn’t pan out so well for the studio!)
PARENTS:
Last year I chatted up some folks outside the event at different locations. A few parents, after chatting with me and telling them about some of the things at the event pondered if they could get in that day or the next. I have to say, if you think your children would love to attend the event for the games, the huge collection of comics that are for sale, interacting with some select stars who show up for autographs, the toys or the huge section of gaming previews, you really need to consider buying tickets early enough for one of the days.
Sunday is a pretty popular day because traditionally the popular television shows hold their panels then… if you’re interested in attending panels. If not there are a ton of things for everyone to take a gander at on any of the days. The static displays are in-place for the duration of the convention so nothing will be missed:
Spider-Man at Comic Con (He claimed he was smiling for the pic!)
-
-
Toys from movies not out yet, like Disney's TRON
-
3 Huge Franchises as display neighbors!
-
But check it out, this bad boy 1/60th scale Gundam was on sale!:
-
And dad’s, this isn’t all that bad of a day to take the kids to… there are things from yesteryear that we would enjoy and various other “aspects” to check out during your visit to Comic Con:
(I’m just sayin’! Actually, what I’m really sayin’ is don’t get caught with 500 pictures on the camera that all look like that!)
SO ANY WAY!
Comic Con 4-Day passes will be for sale starting November 1st at 9 a.m.. Comic-Con 2011 is scheduled for July 22-25 at the San Diego Convention Center
An FYI:
At the time of this writing (9/4/10), Comic Con Preview night begins in 10 months, 16 days!
[Special thanks to Collider for the Preview Night tickets info]
