S1: Hey , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. You may have seen a little something happen in downtown this week. Yep. We're talking all about Comic-Con. We take a look at how the pop culture gathering has evolved over the years , and what it's bringing to fans this year.
S2: I often tell people who are sad that they didn't get badges for for Comic-Con. Just come down to downtown San Diego and just walk around. You'll have fun.
S1: Then we hear from an online personality on why she loves fandom so much and how it shapes her work. All that , plus a Comic-Con themed roundup. That's ahead on KPBS roundtable. The cosplay is on. The trolleys are wrapped and the exhibit floor is bustling. Comic-Con 2025 is finally here. What started with a crowd of hundreds in the basement of the U.S. Grant 55 years ago , has grown to become an international event , drawing over 100,000 fans , creators and celebrities today. Joining me now are two Comic-Con veterans who've been covering the convention over the years , who also share a love of the fandom that surrounds it all. Aaron is the creator of the Hall H show podcast , where he highlights indie creators working in comic books and art in general. And by day , he's the award winning senior business reporter with the San Diego Union Tribune. By night , he's a pop culture fan and con devotee. Philip molnar. Thanks both of you for being here. It's always fun to talk Comic Con , and what's interesting to me about this conversation is that although you both cover Comic-Con , you cover from different perspectives. And , Philip , I want to start with you.
S3: I am the economy and real estate reporter for the Union Tribune , but I've been going to comic conventions since I was extremely young , starting with the Motor City Comic-Con in Detroit. My dad used to take me , so I've been going to comic cons for , what , probably about 30 years now. So I kind of wiggled my way into covering Comic-Con every year , and now they just let me do it.
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S2: Um , to my first ever comic book that I picked up at a 7-Eleven spinner rack. It was a tie in to the OG Battlestar Galactica TV series. And so that's what got me hooked on comic books. Um , being a latchkey kid , my my parents worked hard. I was , you know , left , left home , and , you know , I was able to , uh , be entertained by comic books. Uh , hours on end. Um. Fast forward. I'm also a military brat. My dad was in the Navy. So we ended up in San Diego , home of the famous San Diego Comic-Con. So here we are.
S1:
S2: Um , that I had , uh , happened on a free badge from a friend of mine , uh , Saleem Crawford. He was an inker at the time , and he said he had an extra badge that he could give to me , so I went and took it. And I said , wow , finally I'm here. And , uh , this was when the Comic-Con , when the convention center was half its size. So I believe the expansion was in 2001. So this was 1995. And I remember my first purchase. Um , the Crowe movie had just come out a year prior. So I had bought a Crowe poster that was my first ever purchase at a Comic-Con. And , uh , also significant that year was I was able to pick up the iconic Wildstorm promo poster that that depicted all the characters from the Wildstorm Studios. And , um , yeah , I still have that on my wall. Wow.
S3: Wow. I still have a bunch of old Wildstorm stuff myself. Signed by , uh , J. Scott Campbell and Jim Lee. And then a few years ago , I got he's now the head of DC comics , but I got to interview Jim Lee , and I sent him a picture of me and my little brother. My dad took a picture of us at the Motor City Comic-Con with him , and then they got him on the phone for me after I sent that picture. He's so great.
S1: So , I mean , again , you can hear it there. You guys are both , you know , started as fans , you know , before kind of covering it. Aaron , your podcast is called The Hall H show. It's a reference , you know , to the main hall where the biggest Hollywood panels go each year. But it's I don't know , the title is pretty ironic. I'm wondering if you can kind of break down a little bit more about your show and , you know , the , the origin of that.
S2: Sure is most people that go to the San Diego Comic-Con know. They know about Hall H. Uh , the , uh , the hall in the convention center , which holds about 6000 people. Um , I was doing my time up in Orange County doing my corporate thing. I'm a graphic designer , and I had moved back down to San Diego back in 2012. I , you know , started reconnecting with some of my friends. Uh , fast forward to 2014. It's June. I was hanging out with my friend , uh , Alex Benedicto and my other friend , Ed Santos , and we were just talking , and all of a sudden , uh , Alex blurts out that , hey , I have the domain name Hollywood.com. And there was , like , a few seconds of of shock.
S1: That's a good domain name to have.
S2: Oh , yeah. And he's been squatting on that for for a few years. And I kind of thought , you know what ? I'm back in town. You know , let's do something with it. And mind you , this was June. Comic-Con takes place in July , so we only had a month to really put something together. So I quickly learned the basics of WordPress , put together a basic site , and then we started scrounging around and trying to find out what could we do as coverage as a blog. And Comic-Con , for us , has always been about Artist Alley. You know , we enjoy walking down and , you know , checking out what Ron Lim is doing or you know , what other , you know , content creator that we grew up with is up to. So that was that's that's always been our Comic-Con. And we kind of thought we're going to we're going to use whatever notoriety and that , that the term Hall H has , and we're going to turn it on its head and use that and put the spotlight on artist alley and , and small press. So independent creators basically. So that was what we were all about. And then we transitioned into a podcast in 2016 because we kind of thought we're recording all our interviews anyway. It makes sense just to turn them into podcast , because podcasts were starting to blow up at the time.
S1: So yeah. Can you tell us about some of the artists you feature ? Sure.
S2: Um , our first our first guest. His name is Tony Kim. Uh , he goes by , uh , crazy for Comic-Con. And , uh , he had just started out in 2016 , uh , transitioning from a content creator to , uh , to an entrepreneur , basically a pop culture entrepreneur. He had gone into the what you call the sophisticated geek apparel space , and he had gotten licenses from from DC. And he started making all these pretty cool , you know , apparel , shirts and jackets , stuff you can wear to , you know , business meetings and , and have subtle , you know , Batman or Superman icons. And you'd have to really look and say , oh , hey , that's pretty cool. Some , uh , some pop culture , uh , you know , references there. Um , so he was our very first guest , and he's still going strong today. He's doing a lot with , uh , with Star Trek these days. Um , another awesome guest that I had. His name is David Peppers. Um , he had a comic book called Spenser Locke. If you can imagine , you know , Calvin and Hobbes. Uh , sort of , you know , that , that sort of thing. But , uh , he came up with this , this pretty cool concept , and I got to interview him. This was probably back in 2017. And he just blew up after that. Uh , now he's writing for Marvel.
S1: Uh , that's probably. I mean , that's one cool thing about some of the conversations you feature. It's some really , you know , established artists , some up and comers that are , you know , going through crowdfunding or , you know , and telling their stories. Right.
S2: And , uh , and , and we , we , we interview much more than , than comic book creators. We even had , uh , you know , tattoo artists. Uh , there's a few film , uh , indie film creators. One of them is , uh , Caitlin , and she , she does these. She writes for Quinto Comics , which is an all female run comic company , and they're going to be at San Diego Comic-Con. They have an awesome comic book called The Mask of Julia. So we're looking forward to connecting with them as well. Um , but yeah , you know , I mentioned David Peeples , there's Rylan Grant. Uh , you know , Keith and Jones , he's a local comic book creator here. Uh , he owns , uh , uh , a kid comics. Um , so , yeah , there's just so many people that we've gotten to know over the years , and , uh , it's been a really fun ride.
S1: And so , you know , aside from that , that indie side , that artist alley side , Philip , there's also the big Hollywood , you know , the Marvel's the big ticket ones. What can you tell us about what Comic-Con looks like this year from that sort of like larger Hollywood perspective ? Yeah.
S3: So this year , you know , if you're an attendee or someone that's aficionado of Comic-Con , you're not going to notice it as much. But what tends to get the most press and attention for San Diego is those big panels at Hall H. 6500 seats in Hall H. People line up for eight hours longer overnight. They used to do it.
S1: A-listers come in.
S3: Oh , yeah. A-listers , you name it. So back there was , like a real time where that was huge. About 2000. I would say 2016 to 2019 , when you had Marvel and DC sort of fighting it out to who they have comic book movie supremacy , and there was billions being poured in. So you had so many panels going on. It was so busy that like shows that were coming out that were popular got pushed to say Sunday or sometimes Thursday , like really big properties that could probably command called Hall H. This year , with the schedule , one thing happening this year that's big is Marvel Studios , isn't there ? It's a bit strange when they're not. They usually take a year off here and there , and then they come back roaring the next year. But in addition to Marvel Studios , there's a few big ones that we're used to seeing that have once again taken time off. HBO used to be a gigantic presence with their Game of Thrones shows. They were huge. Even , you know , in the age of streaming , when we had from like 220 , 22 to about , well , 2022 was the big year when all these companies are coming out with their new streaming channels. So you had Netflix , you had Apple TV+ , Prime Video , everybody was jamming and just trying to get into that , those channels. So , you know , from a San Diego tourism perspective , you can't really buy that kind of press that you're getting. You have so much from The Hollywood Reporter , all these national sites reporting on San Diego , just total free media for San Diego. So even though people like Aaron and I that have been to a lot of Comic-Con and we're not like , it's not make or break for us for the big tourism push for San Diego , it is sort of noticeable this year that there isn't as much of a push from Hollywood studios.
S1: But it's still sold out in a flash. Right. Oh , yeah.
S3: Still , everything about Comic-Con this year is bigger than ever. Sold out practically instantly. People are trying to resell their tickets right now. They're not supposed to , but on secondary sites , some are going for like $800 for just one day. All the hotels in town are sold out. I was able to find some hotel rooms last week. There was one I found that was available. It was like $2,000 a night. It was crazy. Wow. Of course , advertisers are going bonkers this year. There's about 30 building wraps , which is about the same as there were last year in downtown San Diego. And for the first time , the San Diego Trolley sold out of its available space for advertising. So they had 45 cars that they set aside to be wrapped for Comic-Con for everything this year , from Nintendo to Crunchyroll , the anime station , you know , that sold out. So everything about it's bigger and just as large as ever. So you wouldn't really notice if you're there , that anything's different.
S1: So , Aaron , you know how how much do you pay attention to that side of it ? That sort of Hollywood. The studios here this year , they're not the next year. I mean , you highlight , you know , more of this kind of indie creator space.
S2: I mean , it's always nice to know those , those , those things that are going on. I mean , especially when you're walking outside and you see these awesome activations , you know , and , you know , I'm an anime fan and , you know , Crunchyroll having a more increased presence is definitely , you know , something that's , you know , something to keep an eye out on.
S1: And Crunchyroll is another streamer that kind of specializes in anime.
S4: Right , right , right. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. They went crazy this year.
S2:
S3: Oh my God. It is covered with a gigantic Demon Slayer poster that wraps around inside. Normally that's Fox Animation , but this year it's Demon Slayer and there's a trolley wrapped with the Demon Slayer movie that's coming out Infinity Castle in September. So you. I was trying to get a photo the other day where the the Demon Slayer trolley would go by the Omni Hotel , and it was just getting too hot and it wasn't happening. So I'll have to wait for this , you know , a couple days now once the convention starts.
S2: That's also important to know when these , you know , big properties decide not to come. You know who's going to fill that void. You know , I mean , even just just looking at how Funko has sort of changed throughout the years , you know , back in the day , they used to have so much of a big presence. But now , um , I think the president has sort of diminished. And even just looking at their space , uh , there's another company called , uh , Rocky Moto who started by , uh , the person that started at Funko. Uh , he goes by phone maker Mike , but , uh , yeah , he's starting to make some , some headway , and I expect that they're going to grow and sort of , uh , compete with with Funko and the upcoming years.
S1: So I mean , that kind of ties in Aaron to just , I don't know , like the wide scope. Obviously we're not just talking about comic books , we're not just talking about Hollywood films. It's just sort of everything from , you know , food to , you know , like fashion. I think you talked about earlier.
S2: I mean , if you if you look back , you know , everybody that knows comic books knows about Jack Kirby , the King. And back in the day , he even sort of prophesized. I mean , he's attributed with the prophesying that one day San Diego Comic-Con is basically going to grow and encompass , you know , much more than what it is. You know , Hollywood's going to be here , basically , is what he said. And it sort of came true. But now , you know , I think there's some sort of air of uncertainty because , you know , especially when it when it comes to even like the people that I cover , the indie creators , um , there's a panel that I'm gonna be covering that I'm gonna be moderating on Friday noon in room four. It's called , uh , you know , indie , independent , uh , Independent Creators United , and we're going to be discussing in that panel , you know , a lot of the things that have happened in the last five years , and there's been a lot of turmoil , especially when it comes to comic books. There's a distributor called diamond , and they've sort of been going through these , you know , bankruptcy proceedings , you know , getting , getting sold to another company. So there's a lot of uncertainty when it comes to comic books these days.
S1:
S2: I , you know , there's still there's still a lot of independent comic book creators there that are still using , you know , Kickstarter or Indiegogo to fund their comic books. So from that standpoint , I think it's , uh , the momentum is still there. I don't think the market's saturated yet. Um , and , you know , it's all about maybe just how you market yourself , you know , how do you how do you position yourself in that regard ? So I expect big things. I think there's still a lot of potential for independent creators out there.
S1: One thing that , you know , it's come up in conversations we've had is , is just the experience of Comic-Con for San Diegans versus , you know , maybe folks from out of town. I'm wondering , you know , Philip , how do you think Comic-Con is experienced differently by locals as opposed to , you know , people coming down from LA or wherever ? Yeah.
S3: You know , San Diego Comic-Con has an interesting aspect to it , where there's a lot of buy in from locals. There's all sorts of things around town. December nights , pride festival , these sort of things that I hear from a lot of people that say , oh , I'm getting out of town this week cause it's too crazy. Or , you know , the there's too much traffic , so I'm not going to go there. I mean , I even have friends that haven't been to the beach in like two years , but with Comic-Con , there seems to be more of a buy in when it comes to it , because it is like you could see it down in the Gaslamp Quarter because everyone is getting involved , even the restaurants. Sometimes it just cracks me up. Like even last year , the CVS pharmacy at the Gaslamp had all these like Deadpool posters up. It was like , at least they're trying something. It always does bug me out when you see the one Gaslamp Quarter district that , like , doesn't have anything. But there is a real buy in , you know , and for people that are in the know about the financial impact of Comic-Con , it's a huge thing. You know , I put this in my My Sunday story , but the latest impact for the financial sort of aspect of it is it has $160 million impact over the four day event. Now , I put it in as context and I didn't adjust for inflation , but one of the most generous economic impacts of the San Diego Chargers the year before they left , put them at $120 million impact all year. So if you consider four days of Comic-Con bigger than San Diego Chargers , and that's because of the millions in hotel and tax revenue that the city gathers from this event , not to mention all the , you know , dollar spent. Because the cool thing about San Diego Comic-Con , we've kind of touched on it before , is , you know , it wasn't some masterstroke of a San Diego city planner. It was sort of like San Diego kind of screwed up where they couldn't get to the convention center bigger. So New York Comic-Con can hold 100,000 more people than a New York Comic-Con can hold 100,000 more people than San Diego Comic-Con. So there's always been this push to extend and make the conventions that are bigger. San Diego as a region , as voters. We did not pull that off. But what has happened is everything gets spilled out. There's events in three other hotels and it goes all through the Gaslamp. All the activations are everywhere. So it's it's really fun. If you don't have a badge , it's even funnier if you have a badge. But I think locals like to come down and see that , bring their kids all the cosplayers , and it's not like there's this convention center that's way out of the way that nobody , you know , you have to drive to , and there's maybe a little bit of stuff going on inside. It is like downtown San Diego becomes transformed. And I think that's why you get this sort of buy in from locals every year.
S1: Aaron , what do you I mean , do you agree with that kind of local buy in ? Definitely.
S2: Um , especially , you know , looking at downtown , um , you know , I'm actually just a shameless plug. I have a , uh , my my , uh , the convention that I run , uh , film production. We've teamed up with a few of the vendors who will be here this year. A kid Hero Productions , they produced this movie called The Lumpia Movie and lumpia , lumpia with a vengeance. Um , anyways , we're teaming up with them to sort of take over , uh , Gaslamp lumpia factory. It's a restaurant in , uh , in downtown San Diego. And , uh , Saturday night we have this mixer. So we're inviting pretty much anybody who wants to come meet , you know , some of your favorite , uh , Filipino American creators will have a DJ there , and we'll have a performance by Win Love , a local musical artist and a vendor. Uh , Water Moon Studios. So , yeah , uh , downtown goes crazy , and there's so much to do. Um , I often tell people who are sad that they didn't get badges for for Comic-Con. Just come down to downtown San Diego and just walk around. You'll have fun.
S1: Just the people watching alone.
S4: Right , exactly. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So much. Stuff.
S4: Stuff.
S1: We'll try to have some links up to that. I mean , a lot of stuff to check out. I've been speaking with Aaron from the Hall eight show podcast , and also Philip molnar has been with us. He's a reporter with the San Diego Union Tribune. I want to thank each of you and have a great Comic-Con this weekend.
S4: Oh , yeah , that'll be fun. Thank you for having us.
S1: Up next , how one internet personality developed her love of pop culture. Growing up right here in San Diego. That's ahead on roundtable. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. You just heard from one local journalist and a podcast host about their own insights into Comic-Con and the pop culture juggernaut it's become. My next guest is also a longtime Comic-Con devotee. Her name is Tiffy Starchild. She's a creator who makes online content about nerd and pop culture and for TV. That content comes in a lot of different forms skits , makeup and fashion food. Even it all comes back to her love of fandom. Tiffy , welcome to roundtable. Hi.
S5: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
S1: Oh , it's great to have you. And thanks for joining us. You know , today in the midst of it all. So you refer to yourself as a content creator. I'm wondering if you can break down what that means and explain that. I mean , I think we hear the term influencer a lot.
S5: But for me , the baseline of what I do is creativity. Like I'm here to create. And if people vibe with that , if they align with what I am creating , then then that's excellent. But that's that's the goal was to just share what I love. In doing that , I happen to build an audience of people that liked the same things and wanted to know more. I wanted to know more about my opinion and that to me is what a content creator is. They create content is everywhere , but they are creative and the creativity is what drives them. On the flip side , an influencer which which I also fall under the umbrella of my goal is not to influence anybody , if that makes sense. I don't necessarily want you to buy anything. If I can convince you to watch a show that I love , that's great , but that's not the goal of what I started my platform for. So I think both are very valid , but I think to me that's what the difference is. A content creator is focused on the creation of creativity of art , and an influencer is going to share some dope stuff that they love. And hopefully you love it too. I think that's kind of the difference if I didn't mess that up.
S1: Yeah , and you know , like you said , I mean , you really get that sense of passion. It all comes back to love , kind of like you said there. So I want to take it back a little bit to your origin.
S5: So that's in southeast San Diego , and it's what might call that the hood , you know ? But but , uh , I think growing up in Encanto , it being a diverse area for me , there wasn't a whole lot. There weren't a whole lot of people to share my love of fandom with. As a matter of fact , growing up , you know , black in San Diego , there's a stereotype when it comes to black kids and fandoms and that we don't belong. And if you're nerdy , you're weird. All kinds of things. So I'm not sure that growing up in Encanto specifically fostered any sort of love for fandoms. But I think once I discovered the internet and I and I value the neighborhood I grew up in , but really getting onto social media and the internet and discovering that there were people like me that loved Sailor Moon and Disney , and you could go to conventions and dress up in costume and that that's a thing. So that's really more getting outside of my neighborhood exposed me to , to more of , of of what I aligned with , actually. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And earlier you mentioned the importance of community and how that plays a part here. And obviously that online space , like you said , really kind of opens things up. But you , you know , decided to become an online creator , which is different. You know , we can consume social media , but it's much a different thing to kind of put yourself out there. What made you want to create that content ? Because , I mean , just from my perspective , that seems , you know , to be a pretty courageous thing to do , and you have to have some confidence to be able to do that.
S5: Oh yeah. Well , it just started literally with my love of Disneyland and and food. So I , I'd go to Disneyland and I would just take pictures of what I was eating and what I was doing. And somewhere along the line , I noticed that people outside of my immediate friend group cared , and they were starting to follow , and they wanted to know more. They were they were actively asking me like , oh , what are you doing ? What are you going to do next ? You didn't show us what you did last time. I'm like , oh , what you want to know ? Okay , so it was never a goal. Like , I want to be a content creator. This is what I'm going to do. There was no strategy , no nothing. Um , and then somewhere along the way , it was like , oh , no , people are paying attention. And when I would see other content creators , the people that had been doing it on YouTube for , you know , a decade , things like that , it was like , oh , no , if I focus on this , I can make this into a career. And so around , uh , 2019 is when I quit my job , actually asked the casino , and decided to go full time content creation. Um , but it was , it was after being in that field for a while and just kind of seeing it as a viable option of an outlet for my creativity.
S1: You talked about , you know , your passion for Disney. Sailor moon. You know , a lot of different things. Tell us more about the content you make online and some of the videos.
S5: Um , it was varied and you kind of covered it like I've started off with , with just like , let me see , just makeup. And if there was , say , Sailor Moon had her anniversary or whatever you would do , just like a fashion look showing different Sailor Moon outfits or whatever with with what's in your closet. Um , then I kind of shifted into skits. I started a series called Villain Pair , which is literally my take on a PR person. That's kind of a blend of Olivia Pope from scandal and maybe , maybe a lawyer ish. But defending these villains , like , if you take Ursula from The Little Mermaid and like , oh no , Ursula was innocent. Ariel signed the contract without reading it , but it clearly said what ? Ursula was going to do. She is not at fault. So just kind of taking these villains that everyone knows and loves and defending them. With everything within me that really boosted my my reach and my audience.
S1: I'm glad you mentioned villain PR. Um , we do have a clip of one of your more recent ones on Dracula , so we wanted to play that now.
S5: My client , Vlad Tepes , commonly known as Dracula , is only guilty of being a passionate , devoted husband. He wanted absolutely no smoke , but merely to live in peace and travel the world. Y'all killed his wife. Then church folk saw the word penicillin and a science book struggled to pronounce it , called that woman a witch and burned her at the stake. Do you see how the entire community suffers when we let the dumb people get too loud ? My client gave the villagers a year to get their things together and leave before enacting his revenge.
S1: So that's right there.
S5: But it was kind of interesting , so. Or , you know , boring. So my imagination would just go and I would look over and see , like Snow White walking around and be like , ah , what's the story really about here ? So it just started off as like a inner monologue of different jokes to entertain myself. And I worked at Disneyland over a decade ago , and then when it came to content , I was like , I can put this in a video form somehow. And it's mostly it's mostly jokes. But I did discover along the way that there is a pattern when it comes to villains and how they are portrayed in media. Sometimes they fall into certain archetypes that reflect real life issues , and I learned recently that there are some teachers that use my villain PR in classrooms to illustrate certain points. From a literary standpoint , which is like , I never even I that's so outside of my wheelhouse. I never even considered that. But , um , it just started off as jokes. It went into some commentary , and I'm pleased to see that for other people , they're able to get more out of it than I ever intended to put into it , but it just came from a place of entertainment.
S1: But you're right , there is an interesting discussion there , and you kind of break down these villains and looking at characters that a lot of times we're really familiar with , but just kind of , I don't know , thinking about them in a different way. So now , you know , Comic-Con is here this year , Friday at 6 p.m.. You'll be moderating a panel at Comic-Con called Diversity and Fantasy. Tell us about that. And you know , also just what you think makes San Diego Comic-Con so special for you.
S5: Oh , wow. I'll try not to be long winded because I love San Diego Comic-Con. Before before content creation , social media. I have loved San Diego Comic-Con , just being a San Diego native and a nerd , so it's amazing for me to be able to approach it from this standpoint and be there in a professional capacity. That means everything. And the Diversity and Fantasy panel is actually started by one of the authors on the panel , John Wells third. Uh , he approached me a few years ago about moderating this panel , and we've taken it to different con's. This is , I think , maybe the third year we've done San Diego Comic-Con , but maybe the sixth or seventh time we've done this panel. And it's different fantasy authors , um , of of fictional novels. And we have we have different ethnicities. We have just different expressions , different marginalized groups represented on this panel , talking not just about their work , but what it's been like navigating that as a marginalized person and how important it is to share these stories. And so for me , as the moderator , I'm not an author , but being in this space with people that do create this sort of work and then seeing the room full of people , and it's also just cool seeing how the panel has grown over the years. And like we fill in these seats out , it feels really good. But seeing people that that is why I do what I do as a content creator , and those authors do what they do. This is who it's for. It's a it's a crowd full of people that want to hear about diversity , that have been looking for spaces where they can feel safe , and even if they aren't represented in these books , if they happen to be the norm , that has more representation than they'll ever need , that they're learning a different perspective. I love this panel so much they give. John has given me permission to get up there and basically talk my mess about diversity. And I and I love being able to do that.
S1: Well , we'll look forward to that again. That's tonight at 6 p.m. at called Diversity and Fantasy. We'll have a link to that on our website as well. And also can't wait for more content. The next villain PR I'll be looking forward to see who you choose. Um , one suggestion I had I don't know if you've been following Andor , but I'm obsessed with the villains in that show from the last season.
S5:
S1:
S5: Don't take my nerd card. I'm not really familiar with the Star Wars , but I can do some research. And if you've requested Andor , I can add Andor to the list.
S1: Oh , great. Thanks. I'll look. I'll look out for that. I've been speaking with the online creator , Tiffy Starchild. You can find her pretty much all over social media at Tiffy. Starchild. That's t e Starchild. Thanks so much. And have , you know , enjoy the con and congratulations.
S5: Thank you so much. This is great.
S1: Coming up. It's time for the weekly roundup. This time with the Comic-Con twist. Stay tuned. We're back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. So on the roundup , we normally talk about some of the biggest headlines from the week. But this week we wanted to explore Comic-Con some more with a pair of its biggest fans here at KPBS. I'm joined now by KPBS Midday Edition producer Giuliana Domingo , along with web producer Leslie Gonzalez. Welcome to roundtable. I know you know this is audio , but I should probably start out by saying at least a couple of us are in cosplay right now. I'm trying to Alan Grant thing from from Jurassic Park. That inspiration came from Giuliana.
S4: You're welcome.
S1:
S6: I think everyone in my life can attest to the fact that I have been obsessed with this movie. Genuinely. I've watched it three times so far with different people. It's just such a hopeful and feel good movie. And , um , I've also seen a lot of people at Comic-Con so far dressed up as Superman , and I've also seen a couple of Lois Lanes. So I for our listeners , I'm wearing kind of a black vest , a white shirt , black slacks , the loafers , even the orange socks. So I kind of tried to get all those little details. Not exact , but that's kind of what I'm going for.
S1: It's great. And there was also the journalism connection , obviously. You know what I mean. Talk about that. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. Well , I can say it was really funny watching the movie and seeing kind of I mean , of course , Superman's whole origin stories that he works at the Daily Planet , for example , as Clark Kent. But , you know , journalism does play a huge role in this movie. You know , without spoiling anything for those who haven't seen it , it was just so cool to see Lois Lane in action because she's such she's such a just incredible kind of intrepid journalist and I think really iconic and kind of over all the iterations of Lois Lane's that we've kind of seen over the many decades and years that her character has existed. Um , but yeah , I mean , it was just really kind of inspiring. And my mom actually turned to me the last time we watched Superman , and she mentioned kind of when she saw the Daily Planet , she turned to me and she was like , the power of journalism. So it was really sweet. It was really. Sweet.
S1: Sweet. I imagine a lot of it's just kind of for that community interaction. Right. The reaction you get. I mean , you mentioned seeing a lot of Superman's and some Lois Lanes.
S6: I mean , um , this is my first time actually kind of doing a cosplay for Comic-Con. So kind of over all the years that I've been , I've just gone in , you know , really nerdy t shirts , which is still nice because people kind of will compliment your shirt. You compliment them back , but it's nice. I've been going to the Critical Role panel for the past couple of years , and the cosplays are incredible , first of all. But also , the voice actors are really nice about kind of acknowledging the craft that goes into it. And it's just so nice to , you know , when you're passing by someone in the exhibit hall , for example , you compliment them and then that immediately kind of helps you strike up a conversation about something that you're passionate about. Yeah. You know , it's just so easy. Yeah.
S1: So it's Friday now for Comic-Con. You were both working on the floor yesterday.
S7: I had to say the thing that stood out to me the most was the sheer positivity. Um , I think that we right now , we're currently living in a climate that is very tense , and I think it's wonderful to see all these people coming together and expressing themselves in such a positive light. I overheard a fan talking about one of the panels , and I approached her and I told her , hey , do you want to talk a little bit about what you saw and why you love it ? She goes , yes , absolutely. And she was practically screaming into the microphone about how wonderful the experience was and how she's looking forward to meeting people just like her at the con. So I just like to be a part of this environment where people are just so gung ho about what their passions are and about what they love to see and watch , and being around people who are just enthusiastic as they are. And I think that's what feeds off of it.
S1: And Julianna , you know , working on Comic-Con , you did a Comic-Con show yesterday. We're doing another one today , obviously right now. And I think passion is just a key word that comes up when it comes to talking about Comic-Con.
S6: Yeah , absolutely. And for our live midday show that we did yesterday , we were really intentional about covering the creators , both local and from out of town , who are really carving out a space for cultural representation and telling stories that are really personal to them , and whether that comes in the form of visual art or illustrations or comics or books or film. I just think , you know , passion is kind of the underlying throughline between all of those different things. And I just think , you know , when we talk about Comic-Con , a lot of it is about , you know , the pop culture side and the geek culture side , which I also feel very passionate about. But I think also storytelling is really a key factor here. And when people are telling their stories and talking about , you know , the different mediums that , you know , that might come in , the passion is just very clear and it's just such a , you know , an amazing space to , for creativity , which I don't think gets acknowledged enough. So. Agreed.
S7: Agreed. Yeah.
S1: Yeah.
S7: Should I give you the real version or should I give you , like , the abridged version of this ? Um , when I was , uh , when I was in middle school , my dad , um , we were walking , uh , downtown in Anaheim , I think one year for. I think in angels game. Please don't come after me. Um , and , and , um , Anime Expo was happening at that time , and my dad happened to say , hey , you love anime. You want to go in for a day and see what this is about ? I'm like , I don't even know what this is. And he took me , and I think my eyes grew like three times the original size and like , little hearts came out cartoon style. Um , and I just became the biggest nerd on that floor. And I just started to talk to people , and I was amazed by their cosplay. And ever since then , that 13 year old girl just grew up realizing that there's a group of people out there who actually get together and actually do this , you know ? And I thought , wow , there's got to be more to that. And next thing you know , my dad found out there's Comic-Con in San Diego. And , you know , back then when you can actually buy a ticket that same day and not have to worry about , you know , a lottery system or whatnot , he just said , hey , I got you got I got you to get in. Let's go. And , uh , when we couldn't , uh , it was more like , you know , we'll sneak you in and see what happens when you could sneak in. Um , but other than that , my convention lifestyle started around that time , and I give it a lot to my dad for kind of , I guess , fostering that and telling me it's okay to be this , you know , this creative , to be this passionate person who loves this type of media. So go forth and explore is basically the message that my dad gave me.
S1: It's really nice. Giuliana , you know , you grew up South Bay from San Diego. How did you get introduced to Comic-Con ? And I don't know what makes it , you know , special for you.
S6: Yeah , I think that's interesting because I feel like so many people who grew up in San Diego. I mean , obviously we hear about the convention downtown is always crazy busy. Yeah , but it was something I , you know , grew up not knowing how to get into. It was just something that I heard about. And then I think I started going in high school. So , um , maybe around 2016. And I just , I figured out the lottery system. Right. And all the I just figured out the best kind of ways to get a badge. And luckily enough , my family and I were able to go. And then I started kind of volunteering from there to keep it going , you know. And then now I'm lucky enough to go as press , which is also a completely different experience. And in terms of what I think makes Comic-Con special , it's honestly for me , I think the connection and the community are the best part ? I do love the Hollywood news that comes out. Marvel and DC news is always , you know , the big headline that comes out of Comic-Con , right ? Maybe not this year because there's less of a presence , but it's just for me about the fandom. And , you know , it's so easy to strike up a conversation with people who feel similarly passionate about the things that you're interested in , whether that's someone you're waiting in line for. Or maybe it's an artist you're buying from. Artist alley is one of my favorite places to stop by , and it's also where I do the most damage financially. Yeah. Um , um , so , um , or maybe it's some random passerby , um , who notices your shirt or your cosplay or something. And , I mean , that happens even outside of the convention. That's not limited to within the convention center , right ? So not even just people with a badge. Um , everyone's just kind of there to feel the energy that is Comic-Con. And I also , as someone who grew up here and who grew up in Chula Vista , I also do feel it makes me feel proud of being from San Diego. And last year I remember , I think it was the very last day. It was it was Sunday. And we walked out of the of the convention center around four , and my friend and I just chilled out at Seaport Village. And there's something about , you know , just kind of seeing all the cosplayers and attendees and whomever else walking around San Diego and just also against kind of the beautiful backdrop that is our city. So , yeah , they don't call us America's finest city for no reason.
S7: You're here. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Right on. Well , you know , I hope you both get to feel that energy from Comic-Con this year , whether it's , you know , while during working hours , but hopefully also as a fan as well. I've been speaking with KPBS Midday Edition producer Giuliana Domingo , along with Leslie Gonzalez , who's a web producer here at KPBS. Thanks so much for being here. And have a great weekend , but also get some sleep.
S7: We'll try. We'll see.
S6: It remains to be seen.
S1: You've been listening to KPBS roundtable. Thanks so much for listening today. You can also listen to our show anytime as a podcast. KPBS roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show , you can email us at roundtable at KPBS or leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtables technical producer this week was Brandon Truffaut. The show was produced by Giuliana Domingo. Brooke Rooth is roundtable senior producer. I'm your host , Andrew Bracken. Thanks again for listening and have a great weekend.
