San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
COMIC-CON FAITHFUL PAY HOMAGE AT IMPROMPTU SHRINE FOR EVENT
Gone was the crush of pop culture groupies dressed as their favorite superheroes. Dark were the giant exhibit halls stretching along San Diego Bay.
Instead, on a day when Comiccon 2020 was supposed to be harnessing the world’s attention and showcasing what’s next in global entertainment, Jesus Piza was walking in front of Exhibit Hall D on his way to a makeshift memorial for what was supposed to be.
“This is just four of them,” said Piza, a warehouse worker from City Heights, pointing to the cluster of Comic-con entry passes from previous years. “I have more but I’m not going to bring them all here — there are too many. I’ve been doing this for 20-plus years.”
Piza had donned his customary all black: a Comic-con Tshirt from 2017, jeans and a Warner Brothers backpack from a long-ago convention. His beanie featured former professional wrestler Mick Foley and the mask across his mouth and nose honored the Lucha Libra star L.A. Parke.
The face covering was a nod to COVID-19, the infectious disease
that has hobbled American life in 2020 and forced San Diego’s most popular convention online.
Where 150,000 or more conventioneers would otherwise have been attending workshops, collecting autographs, soaking up previews of upcoming movies or TV shows, and snapping up coveted memorabilia, small groups of joggers and dog walkers strolled by instead.
“For me, it’s a break from real life,” Piza said when asked why he was there. “I get to meet people, see celebrities. This is my vacation. I was bummed out this year, though, because I’m not going to see my old friends.”
Piza was not alone. Dozens of other Comic-con faithful turned out Saturday to pay homage to the San Diego tradition.
In a public courtyard across Harbor Boulevard from the convention center, diehard pop-culturists visited the memorial set up days ago — 2,000 square feet demarcated by dried carnations and gladiolas with well-meaning messages scrawled in chalk on the ground inside.
“When can I get 2021 tkts to Comic-con SD?” one visitor wrote. “We don’t have Comic-con,” advised another, “so we have Tiktok.”
Like most Comic-con attendees, Luis Torres booked his trip to San Diego long before convention organizers canceled the event to help stop the spread of COVID-19. But the hospital worker from Ventura kept his vacation plans intact anyway.
“It’s not the same, but we appreciate it,” said Torres, after his wife, Melissa, snapped some photos at the front of the Comic-con memorial. “I wanted to catch some remnants, some sign that it still existed.”
As always, the annual convention featured scores of discussions related to the business of comic-book publishing.
This year, however, many of the web-based presentations focused on racial and social justice — two themes that have emerged as critical issues in the wake of the killings this year of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, among others.
During one session titled “Diversity and Comics: Why Inclusion and Visibility Matter,” comic book writer David F. Walker said he is constantly challenged to find new jobs because of his ethnicity.
“I’m so tired, and so worn out of the struggle of just trying to get that work that I know I’m qualified for,” said Walker, who writes the “Bitter Root” comic. “I’ve reached that point where I’m not just dealing with racism, I’m dealing with ageism, which is a crazy concept to think about.”
Syndicated artist Christina Steenz Stewart, one of the few Black female cartoonists published in mainstream media, talked about how comics can be used to show people they are not alone in confronting their racial identity.
“There’s something about comics because it is a visual medium attached with writing,” said Stewart, who took over writing the “Heart of the City” syndicated cartoon earlier this year.
“People are able to look at comics and feel something,” she said. “If you make a comic about being the only Black person in your D&D group, someone hundreds of miles away is going to feel that and it’s because they are able to visualize it and to see it.”
Other online discussions focused on women of color, Latinx and Native Americans in the industry and drawing while Black.
The free online attractions also featured a steady diet of traditional panels, including “Blast Off with Disney+’s ‘The Right Stuff,’” a Youtube talk moderated by former NASA astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison on the new original scripted series about the early days of the American space program.
There was also “Picard 2020: A Literary Retrospective,” in which viewers were invited into a deepdive look at the most bookish captain in Starfleet ahead of the latest Star Trek series.
And for less highminded web browsers, a “Family Guy” panel hosted by cast members Seth Macfarlane, Alex Borstein and others offered an expository of the past 18 seasons and a sneak peek at the upcoming season premiering in the fall.
On the south end of the San Diego Convention Center, Patricia Waldron was performing walking lunges and other maneuvers at the direction of her personal trainer, Katherine Tyler.
The two women — neighbors in a nearby highrise — took a break to reminisce about what they would be doing if Comiccon had been in full bloom.
“Comic-con is part of the complexion of San Diego,” said Waldron, who runs a marketing agency. “It’s not just the convention center. The whole of downtown turns into a pop-up celebration.
“Usually I’d be on Fifth Avenue parked somewhere, having a drink and watching the people.”