Corona-Con 2020
Well, it's official. San Diego Comic-Con has been cancelled for 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Other conventions all over the nation have already been cancelled including Wonder-Con, Gary-Con and Emerald City Comic-Con and it seems like 2020 won't have any other conventions until the CDC deems it safe again. Of course it's the right decision to keep everyone safe and try to eliminate the danger of the virus, but I can't help feeling more than a little bummed that I won't go to a single convention this year, something that I haven't done in 15 years. There's always next year.
It's easy to look at news coverage and photos of San Diego Comic-Con or photos of the halls of Gen-Con and think, "Look at all those weirdos in costumes," but first of all, it's called Cosplay, and conventions are more than that. Going to a comic or gaming convention is an opportunity to be surrounded by hoards of like-minded people and celebrate all the things that we love to geek-out over. Are you into Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Starfinder or Star Wars Legion? You can find some people to play with or learn from. Are you a fan or comics, movies or video games? You can complete your collections and get recommendations on new things to check out from people who work in the industry. You can find out about all the awesome new movies and games and books that are announced and if you're lucky you might run into a celebrity or tw...Oh look it's Nathan Fillion!
There's something for everyone at conventions. You may want to see a panel with your favorite actors or artists, where you can ask them questions about their upcoming projects. You like toys collectibles and comics? You can shop until you literally drop through hundreds of vendors in the dealer hall, a lot of them with exclusive items only available at that specific convention. The real reason I love going to conventions is the people. I love that for 3-4 days I can pretty much guarantee that there is a person within arms reach who is into all the nerdy things I am. For that short window in time I'm surrounded by people who can quote all the movies I can quote, who get my obscure references, and who know, like I know, that Bucky Barns should be the next Captain America instead of Falcon (I mean he grew up with Cap!).
If you've ever considered going to a convention I would urge you to take the leap and go. You don't need to go all out on your first Con, the behemoths like New York Comic-Con and San Diego Comic-Con are beyond difficult to get tickets to, but smaller conventions are just as awesome and way less crowed! Just do some googling and find out what conventions are nearby, get a couple buddies to go with you and buy yourself a ticket, I promise you, you will have an awesome time, and maybe even make some like-minded friends along the way. Now's the perfect time to start planning for next year when hopefully all this craziness will be over. I won't be going to Comic-Con this year, but that's the great thing about conventions: there's always next year.
