Comic-Con 2015 Report!

Holman had the great pleasure of going to San Diego Comic-Con 2015 to promote Star Wars Epic Yarns. Here’s his report:

Wow! What a thrill to go to San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend! Let me give you a quick visual tour of my whirlwind Thursday to Saturday trip.

When I arrived, it was impossible to miss that Comic-Con was happening. Conan O’Brien made sure of that, since he filmed his show all week at Comic-Con, and his marketing materials were plastered all over the airport (not to mention on entire downtown buildings!):

01 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Airport Arrival

My first stop was my hotel, the Horton Grand, a charming Victorian-style boutique hotel that was more than worthy of a future Cozy Classics shoot! Here’s the exterior:

02 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Horton Grand Hotel 1

Here are some public spaces:

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And here are some pictures of my charming room, complete with a Victorian-style pull chain toilet!

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After settling in, it was time to head off to the San Diego Convention Center to catch the last few hours of Comic-Con on Thursday. The first stop was the Chronicle Books booth, #1506. Now, I knew that our Epic Yarns images were going to be featured on the Chronicle banner. What I didn’t know was that the banner was massive!

08 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Chronicle Books Booth 1

And here’s a Jeffrey Brown sighting (he’s holding the coffee) at the booth:

09 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Chronicle Books  Booth 2

There was so much going on at Comic-Con that I’m not even going to try and capture the entire experience through photographs. The cosplay alone would take up dozens of shots! So I’ll just show you two things from Thursday afternoon. First, there was a giant banner of Eren from Attack on Titan at the Funimation booth. I recently discovered Attack on Titan quite by chance on Netflix, and I’ve become a big fan.

11 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Attack on Titan And in a totally unrelated highlight, I got a Family Circus cartoon (a Star Wars one, no less!) autographed by Jeff Keane, son of the legendary Bil Keane.

10 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Jeff Keane

Thursday night was a free evening for me, and I did what I always promised myself I would do if I ever found myself in San Diego: eat at the restaurant that honors the late great singer-songwriter Jim Croce. He has always been a favorite of mine. Jim’s wife, Ingrid Croce, runs Croce Park West, and she was there to confirm for me that Croce is pronounced “Cro-chee”, not “Cro-Shay”. There’s a great painting of Jim in the restaurant, and many of the cocktails are named after his songs:

12 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Jim Croce - Croce Park West 13 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Croce Park West 2

In the end, the bartender sold me on his special variation on a Manhattan with Grand Marnier, and it was literally a knockout drink! And I only had one!

Friday morning started early with a Star Wars breakfast at the Edgewater Grill, where dozens of enthusiastic Star Wars fans gathered. I would have gone just for the door prizes, which were amazing (including one of our books — look closely and you’ll see a corner of it):

14 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Star Wars Breakfast Door Prizes

During breakfast, I had the great pleasure of sitting with some Star Wars luminaries such as Jeffrey Brown, Steve Sansweet, and Daniel Wallace. If you don’t know, Steve runs Rancho Obi-Wan, which is self-described as:

…a California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation whose specific purpose is to serve the public through the collection, conservation, exhibition and interpretation of Star Wars memorabilia and artifacts, using the collection to provide meaningful educational, aesthetic, intellectual and cultural experiences for a wide array of audiences and to carry out other charitable and educational activities associated with this goal.

Basically, it’s the world’s awesomest Star Wars collection, and thankfully our books are there! Here’s me and Steve:

15 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Steve Sansweet

And here’s me and Daniel Wallace, who’s the author of a number of Star Wars books, including The Jedi Path and The Bounty Hunter Code.

16 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Daniel Wallace

After breakfast, I was off to work in earnest! First, I made a stop at the Chronicle Books booth to set up a number of Star Wars felt figures on a rotating turntable. The moving figures were incredibly eye-catching:

17 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - felt figures

Then it was off to join an 11:00 am panel on Star Wars Publishing. Just as I was heading on-stage, I met another Star Wars luminary heading off-stage: Tom Angleberger of Origami Yoda fame! Here’s our author selfie:

18 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Tom Angleberger

Here are some shots of me getting ready for the panel, the expectant crowd of hundreds, and the panel:

19 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Panel Presentation - Holman Wang 20 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Panel Presentation 21 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Panel Presentation

The panel consisted of other Star Wars authors (including Star Wars rock stars like Adam Bray and Christie Golden) and a number of editors from Lucasfilm. But don’t let me tell you how much fun the panel was. See for yourself! Check out these bootleg videos of the Star Wars Publishing Panel by SW Action News:

 

 

After lunch, it was on to a book signing at the Chronicle Booth, where I met dozens of fans and those discovering Epic Yarns for the first time.

22 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Chronicle Booth Book Signing

Early Friday evening, Jeffrey Brown and I also did a signing at Kitson San Diego, where they had a generous display of all our Star Wars books:

23 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Kitson

I had another book signing on Saturday, and then some more free time to explore Comic-Con. I had a chance to meet Jackie Huang of Woolbuddy, who’s a kindred spirit in the world of crafting:

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And I also picked up some souvenirs, including this great drawing by Diana Levin of my kids — made creepy cute:

25 - San Diego Comic Con 2015 - Star Wars Epic Yarns - Diana Levin

Comic-Con was an amazing experience that I won’t soon forget. Truth be told, I enjoyed it even more than Star Wars Celebration (heresy, I know!). You can definitely get your Star Wars fix at Comic-Con, but there’s so much more to explore in terms of comic books, anime, movies, television, original art, etc.

A big thanks to Julia, Lia, Sarah, April, Naomi and others at the Chronicle Booth for all their help. It was a pleasure to work with them. I really hope I have a chance to go back one day. If you’re listening Chronicle… pretty please with a cherry on top!