The 2025 International Comic-Con got revved up on Thursday, July 24, and I was lucky enough to explore the San Diego Convention Center’s main hall and meet some participants.
I’ve been to several previous Comic-Cons, and Thursdays have a “calm before the storm” vibe — though it’s more of a “calm before the swarm,” given how packed the main hall gets on Fridays and Saturdays. I let the relaxed Thursday environment be my guide, roaming to soak up pop culture at a light pace.
Hello, All You Talented People
My first stop was the upper lobby, where people get their lanyards, bags, and events guide. In an autograph area I met the very mirthful Charlie Schlatter, an actor and voice actor with more than four decades of credits. He was there with his supportive daughter, and we talked about his work doing the voice of E.T. for a Comcast Xfinity commercial (alongside E.T. actor Henry Thomas), quite an honor even if doesn’t mean being directed by Steven Spielberg and receiving a lifetime of residuals. I tried to compliment Schlatter by telling him how much he resembles E.T. — okay, not the alien’s giant walnut head and extendible neck, but the blue eyes are a match. I’m not sure he was having it.
I also chatted with the upbeat actress Jackie Dallas, whose credits include Stranger Things and a just-released Netflix show called The Hunting Wives. Dallas has a supporting role opposite Malin Ackerman, Dermot Mulroney, and Brittany Snow. We talked a bit about Stranger Things and the high-traffic set, with the young actors constantly on the move from one scene to another.
Heading downstairs to the Artists Alley (east end of main hall), I met the cheerful Samantha Béart, famous for performing the vocals and motion-capture acting for the character Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3. I asked her about some of her other favorite games, and we talked briefly about Assassin’s Creed. Many of the voice actors and screen performers charge a reasonable fee for selfie photos, autographs and such, but finding out I’m way out of my depth talking about immersive RPG video games is free.
Many booths away, I stopped to admire the pencil illustrations being created on-site by Abigail Jill Harding, an artist whose comic titles include Parliament of Rooks, and Ask for Mercy, published by Ablaze Comics. Who am I kidding? I really stopped to admire her impressive plumes of smartly coiffed, two-toned hair. And her terrific artwork. But also — the hair.
At a corner booth in the Artists Alley, I had to stop to say hello to Peter Kuper, the accomplished cartoonist and illustrator who took over the reins of the Spy vs. Spy series when the Cold War-satirizing Cuban migré Antonio Prohias departed Mad Magazine (and this earth) around 1998. Kuper remains a contributor to Mad Magazine, but also creates scathing editorial cartoons for Charlie Hebdo and other publications. I’d met Kuper over a decade ago at the Comic-Con, and he looks almost exactly the same other than his salt-and-pepper hair. This time, we talked about various topics, and I think he got a kick out of my theory that the entirety of the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is just an extended version of Spy vs. Spy. I mean, Steve Martin always wears a white hat, Michael Caine is always in black, and Glenne Headly eventually turns out to be the female spy (who turned up from time to make fools of both male spies). Plus, Steve Martin can be seen reading a Spy vs. Spy Mad special early in the film. Kuper, who illustrated a Mad Magazine cover while I explicated, said he liked my take on the film; so I got that going for me.
At a nearby booth I met Michael Schwartz, a North County San Diego writer who works for a small comic book publisher named Clover Press. One of his latest titles is Armored, which has a fun-sounding premise and some solidly stylish artwork. Talking to Schwartz, he seemed too nice to be from North County San Diego (especially those petulant Poway-ans), and it turned out he’s from Toronto, Canada. Which made much more sense.
I felt like I’d talked to some excellent performers and artists, and I had. Then I stumbled upon the motherlode: William Stout. At the time I walked up, he was just sitting there, nobody around, with a table full of amazing books and artwork. He politely excused himself to get a coffee, so I browsed his works while waiting. Then he came back and said the line for coffee was too long. In that time, I’d learned that William Stout is a legend, and I’ve seen his art all my life. Stout created posters for Monty Python movies such as The Life of Brian, the Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, the cover art for the soundtrack to The Empire Strikes Back, and posters/art for several of the albums by a comedy team I dig called The Firesign Theatre. And that barely scratches the surface of his brilliant career. We spent a good amount of time talking about his recent book Legends of the Blues (along with his friend Robert Crumb, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of blues history). Then I mentioned my fondness for the Firesign Theatre album “Everything You Know Is Wrong,” and when I referenced the album’s mock-ad for a product called “Bear Whiz Beer,” Stout quoted the ad’s tagline: “It’s in the water — that’s why it’s yellow!” So now William Stout is my favorite artist.
I resisted the temptation to learn more about the pin-up art of Lorenzo Sperlonga, whose large-scale, fetishy images of femme fatales remind me of the busty women on the side of flashing-light Vegas slot machines. But I did spend way more time than I’d expected talking to a technician from Garner Holt Animatronics about the freakishly realistic macaw songbird that she’d painstakingly covered with colorful feathers.
Nice Costume! Let Me Take Your Photo!
I’m a shy person by nature, but can’t help but want to stop everybody I see in their fancy Comic-Con cosplay outfits and ask for a photograph. I’m putting together a gallery and will try to post it on this site (probably as a video) when the convention ends. Oddly enough, people who spend hours or days (or weeks, or months) making elaborate costumes don’t seem to mind posing for a picture.
Movies, Shows, Comic Books, Toys, Games, Stuff, and Other Stuff
This year’s Comic-Con feels slightly transitional in the sense that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is no longer the entertainment juggernaut that dominated years of the convention. The revived Superman movie, with James Gunn at the helm, indicates that a new era of the DC Universe in films might emerge, but it hasn’t happened yet. Plus, the new Fantastic Four movie might give the MCU some extra momentum. So the convention feels a bit more like an individualistic, choose-your-path-to-fandom event. So far. (Be sure to read the Screenopolis review of the new Superman.)
Meanwhile, on the far western side of the main hall, the old-school comic dealers are still showing off their voluminous inventories. You can browse Golden Age and Silver Age comics for years and still discover new titles and artists, and it’s fun to just stand and gawk at the walls of vintage comics not just from Marvel and DC, but long-forgotten publishers like Quality, Nedor, Fox Feature Syndicate, Ziff-Davis, AGC, and Avon. Not to mention EC Comics, who gave the world both Weird Science and Tales From the Crypt. Plus nothing beats that old-comics smell — mmm, stale aged paper.
I always enjoy looking at the booths of dealers like Metropolis, who had Action Comics #1 and other comics worth literally millions of dollars in a display case. This time, I particularly liked talking to a dealer from Sacramento, named World of Wonder, who came across as collectors first and not dealers second. They exuded a real love of the twisted wit and inspired art to be found in comics like Herbie (early 1960s), or the amazing figure-drawing skills of Matt Baker (1940s/’50s), or the bizarre genre niches of comics with titles like Cow Puncher, or Crimes by Women.
Twenty Years of Bravely Robot Chicken-ing Out
After being led out of the main convention hall (it shuts down at 7 p.m.), I wandered to the bay side of the Convention Center and found an outdoor celebration for Adult Swim’s silly, stop-motion parody show, Robot Chicken. With a combintion of free-association, crass irreverence, and pure pop-culture joy, the show has been mocking the likes of Star Wars, Barbie, and anything else for 20 years.
On a stage set up partly for podcast-like couch discussions, beneath a screen for showing favorite video clips, the show’s creators took turns sharing their favorite Robot Chicken sketches while intermittently shooting a T-shirt gun toward an eager and rowdy crowd.
On the stage were the show’s longtime writers and voice actors Seth Green, Matthew Senreich, and Breckin Meyer. Other comedians showed up to join them, including Donald Faison (voice of Mace Windu for Robot Chicken: Star Wars), who announced an upcoming Scrubs revival show (I know next to nothing about Scrubs, but people in the crowd cheered, so I guess it has a following). His Scrubs co-star Sarah Chalke also hopped up on stage, very lively. (Chalke is a key player in the Adult Swim program Rick & Morty.) The breeze almost inadvertently caused Chalke’s skirt to recreate the Marilyn Monroe scene from The Seven-Year Itch while she commandeered one of the T-shirt guns and commenced blasting it toward the audience like Ripley from Aliens.
After all that, it was time to go. Getting dark. I noticed a large gathering of conventioners in a nearby grassy area, lining up to maximize their chances of getting into one of the main exhibit halls for Friday — which will feature cast appearances for the latest Tron, Alien, and Predator movies. I hope they all get good seats.
Not a bad Thursday at Comic-Con 2025.
