Thor, Hela, and Loki strode through the crowd at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, pausing often as fans stopped them for photos or to compliment the quality of their Asgardian cosplay.
“I think the best thing is spending quality time with each other, and helping each other out with our costumes,” said Emma Thornton, all in black as Hela, as her friends Kinley Morrison as Thor and Cayden Grantham as Loki nodded in agreement.
“Emma helps us with our costumes; I help with makeup and hair,” Grantham said.
“I bring the vibes,” Morrison adds.
San Diego Comic-Con 2024 kicked off Thursday with big crowds (though not too big), colorful cosplay, panels packed with artists, writers, actors and other creatives, and vendors selling everything under the fantastical sun.
It’s impossible to capture it all in a day, but we explored the exhibition halls, the grounds around the San Diego Convention Center, and a panel or two. Here are some moments that stood out.
SpongeBob at 25
Yes, you read that right: SpongeBob SquarePants is 25, well past the age to drive, vote, and drink, but has Mrs. Puff ever NOT failed SpongeBob on his driver’s license exam?
Hall H, the largest of the rooms at the convention center, hosted a 25th anniversary panel on Thursday that featured all of the main voice actors as well as the show’s executive producers. Kel Mitchell hosted in character as Ed, his role in “Good Burger,” which didn’t entirely make sense until you remember that he and SpongeBob both share a love for flipping patties on a grill.
“You know, I love Good Burger; he loves the Krusty Krab, it’s the same thing!” Mitchell said.
“Always a pleasure to work with a fellow fast food worker,” Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob, replied.
The panel featured a table read by the cast of the pilot episode of “SpongeBob SquarePants,” the actors reading their lines as a split-screen of finished animation and draft sketches appeared on a video screen above them.
In addition to Kenny, the cast in Hall H included Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick Star, Rodger Bumpass as Squidward Tentacles, Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs, Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy Cheeks, and Mr. Lawrence as Plankton.
The panel wrapped up with sneak peeks at a few upcoming spinoffs, including the movie “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie,” which tells the origins of the undersea-dwelling squirrel,” and “Kreepaway Kamp,” a SpongeBob SquarePants special that plays on the horror tropes of summer camps.
Finally, Mark Hamill, Mr. Luke Skywalker himself (and not this “Fluke” fellow), popped out to reveal that he will voice the Flying Dutchman in the upcoming theatrical movie “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants.”
Alex Maxwell and Sabrina Johnson, both of Aliso Viejo, cosplay at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, July 25, 2024. Maxwell,. left, is Maud’Dib from “Dune.” Johnson, right, is a sandworm from the same movie and book universe. (Photo by Peter Larsen/Southern California News Group)
Whatcha ‘Dune’?
Alex Maxwell and Sabrina Johnson of Aliso Viejo were getting lots of attention in the convention center lobby thanks to the look of their “Dune” themed cosplay.
Maxwell, who was dressed as Muad’Dib, the character played by Timothee Chalamet in the recent “Dune” movies. Johnson was, well, a sandworm in a terrifically creative costume that covered her almost completely leaving just her Chuck Taylor All-Stars peeking out the bottom.
“I grew up loving the ‘Dune’ books, and when I saw Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ films it was a dream come true,” Maxwell said.
He and Johnson came a year ago as Captain Jack Harkness and a Tardis from “Doctor Who” respectively, which prompted one to ask her if she’s being stereotyped as characters that entirely hide her identity.
“I don’t like showing myself,” she replied from somewhere inside the sandworm’s … mouth, maybe? “I like to be hidden away, so that’s why I pick these.”
Anniversary time
“SpongeBob SquarePants” wasn’t the only pop culture property celebrating an anniversary at Comic-Con this year. The exhibition hall floor was chockablock full of booths marking 20 years of this, 50 years of that.
That would be 20 years since the “Scott Pilgrim” graphic novel series by Bryan O’Malley got started. The booth at Oni Press was selling special box sets of all five books plus a sixth book of extras, posters, stickers, and more for $250 each, and moving plenty of them in both the color and black-and-white editions.
That would be 50 years since Hello Kitty and her slightly younger identical twin sister Mimmy were born. (Hello Kitty is a girl, not a cat, never forget!) The Kid Robot booth had special 50th-anniversary plushies of both characters.
Neopets, the virtual pet website, is marking 25 years, and its booth had plenty of actual-not-virtual merch to mark the occasion.
And good grief, we better not forget “Peanuts,” which is celebrating the comic strip’s 75th year with fans lined up into the distance to buy the latest “Peanuts” swag.
“We’re always rooting for the underdog, so Charlie Brown, he’s our guy,” said Melody Walden, who with her 17-year-old daughter Milena, had just finished purchasing a few large bags of “Peanuts” memorabilia including a kit, pins, a hat, and more.
“My mom loves it,” Milena Walden said of how she got into the “Peanuts” gang. “It’s been in my life as long as I’m alive. And it’s really cute.”
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