L.A. Comic Con started at Comikaze Expo in the fall of 2011, then was known as Stan Lee’s Comikaze for a while, then Stan Lee’s LA Comic Con, until settling on its current name after the famous comic creator’s passing a few years ago. The event has steadily grown in popularity at its home in Downtown Los Angeles over the past decade or so, though that success was waylaid a bit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fortunately this past weekend L.A. Comic Con 2022 went off without a hitch, and I was able to spend the day on Sunday exploring much that the convention had to offer.
I arrived at the Los Angeles Convention Center at 9:30 AM, which was the scheduled opening time for L.A. Comic Con, and found attendees already gathering in the building’s massive lobby. There were statues of Captain America and Ant-Man being used as a backdrop for video broadcasts, signs advertising a giveaway of a life-size Grogu statue from The Mandalorian, and even a photo op depicting Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting “Starry Night” as something out of the Star Wars galaxy.
Watch "X-Men: The Animated Series" 30th Anniversary panel at LA Comic-Con 2022:
But the main attraction for me Sunday morning was the X-Men: The Animated Series 30th anniversary panel, which brought together the showrunners, writers, and one of the voice actors (Lenore Zann, who played Rogue) from the smash-hit cartoon to discuss its history and legacy.
Of course, no pop-culture convention would be complete without some cool cosplay from its attendees. I paid special attention to Star Wars and Marvel costumes as I walked around the event, spotting folks dressed up as Din Djarin, Doctor Octopus, Max Rebo, NED-B, Darth Revan, and a whole gaggle of Spider-people. That Mojo statue isn’t cosplay, but it was big and very cool.
Exploring the exhibit hall floor, I came across what turned out to be my favorite booth: the Galactic Archive presented by the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, which used fictional Star Wars creatures to teach about real-world evolutionary biology.
The Hot Topic booth also caught my eye because of its enormous– and very popular– photo ops from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
I also stopped by a booth showing off some very inventive custom LEGO builds, such as the above Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Hut and Jabba’s Palace MOCs (My Own Creation, in LEGO fan speak).
Lastly, I was shocked to run into two Disney icons that I had already encountered that weekend at the nearby Season’s Screamings convention in Pasadena: legendary Imagineer Bob Gurr and the Pizza Planet truck. These two were apparently pulling double-duty, but their presence at L.A. Comic Con was definitely less spooky!
The next L.A. Comic Con will take place from December 1-3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. For additional information, be sure to visit the event’s official website.