San Diego Comic-Con Is 125,000 Conventions in One
- by Valerie Thompson
- Aug 6, 2018
- 3 min read
This is the third year in a row in which three generations of nerds attended Comic-Con: Maggie Thompson, Valerie Thompson, and Devon Jaruk. Although the crowds are enormous, each of the 125,000 attendees is focused on something different. Because it’s impossible to see everything that’s of interest, fans feed their passions, enjoy reconnecting with friends, and make new friends along the way.
Smiles! That’s the other thing Mom and I couldn’t help noticing, as we dashed from place to place. Everyone’s smiling. Folks don’t do that in amusement parks, but they do it at Comic-Con, even when they’re camping out in line for hours to enjoy something they came to the show to experience.
We come away each year with new stories to add to memories from past conventions—favorite panels, conversations with dear friends, treasured purchases, photo opportunities, parties, and chance celebrity encounters that make each show stand out.
Burying the lede here, but, for Devon, the chance to interact with voice artists makes a successful show. Although these actors aren’t household names, the characters they play in animated shows and video games are. Devon’s spent hours creating a wide variety of original character voices with the goal of animating them and uploading them to his YouTube channel. Because he introduces these characters into conversations in daily life, I’d been less enamored of them. That was before spending time with voice actor Fred Tatasciore last year at Comic-Con. After listening for a few minutes to Devon demonstrate a wide variety of characters in rapid succession, Fred told me that the voice box is an instrument and Devon’s is a Stradivarius. So I’ve changed my “tune,” even if that does mean putting up with a demon or computer asking me for more juice during breakfast.
Take a look at this overview of the convention center at Comic-Con, 2018. Our room was near Conan’s head in the hotel in the background.
Three generations of pop-culture fans got ready for Preview Night at Comic-Con in 2018. Maggie Thompson co-edited Comics Buyer’s Guide for 30 years (and has been a fan for more than 70 years). She and Don Thompson won the Inkpot Award at Comic-Con in 1976. Although Valerie grew up surrounded by comics, she was fortunate to have son Devon late enough in life that she embraced her inner geek, rather than rebelled against it, when raising him.
On Saturday this year, Comic-Con earned Devon’s seal of approval yet again, when he realized that he was going to sit next to his idol, voice artist Fred Tatasciore, during Mark Evanier’s “Quick Draw” panel. Although probably best known for voicing Hulk, Fred has almost 700 voice credits on IMDb and is one of the sweetest people at the show.
Gregg Berger was sweet, as well. That quality is apparently a prerequisite for voice artists, because he warned Devon to take care of his vocal cords and then delighted him by demonstrating Odie and Grimlock, two of the many characters for which he’s known.
Here’s Devon posing with voice artist Dino Andrade. Best known for his extensive videogame voice work, he’s also been Speedy Gonzalez since 2015. During Mark Evanier’s Sunday “Cartoon Voices” panel, Dino discussed the importance of voice actors’ receiving residuals for their work on streaming services.
After personalizing a couple of 8x10s, Dino directed Devon to strike a dramatically angry pose, as he pretended to be a pest.
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