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# San Diego Comic-Con 2018
- URL: https://www.andrewliptak.com/san-diego-comic-con-2018-501st-star-wars-fandom/
- Published: 2018-07-28T13:34:51.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-26T19:24:12.000Z
- Author: Andrew Liptak
- Tags: Fandom, Star Wars

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2c/d7/2cd7d323-e6ed-4666-8092-07e380dbdf2a/content/images/2025/09/image-asset-jpeg-format-original-8.jpg)

San Diego Comic-Con 2018 has come and gone. This year was my second year covering / attending the show for *The Verge*, and it was a good time all around. I wrote about a bunch of things: [DC's new streaming service](https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/19/17589522/dc-universe-titans-streaming-service-san-diego-comic-con-2018?ref=andrewliptak.com), new *[Star Wars novels](https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/20/17596512/star-wars-novels-padme-obi-wan-qui-gon-claudia-gray-ek-johnston-san-diego-comic-con-2018?ref=andrewliptak.com)*, the [return of *The Clone Wars*](https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/19/17593108/star-wars-the-clone-wars-saved-disney-streaming-service-dave-filoni?ref=andrewliptak.com), [interviewed Timothy Zahn](https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/25/17597478/star-wars-timothy-zahn-thrawn-alliances-book-comic-con-sdcc-2018?ref=andrewliptak.com), [reported a UFO sighting](https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/22/17596588/comic-con-sdcc-2018-project-blue-book-history-channel?ref=andrewliptak.com), and [rode a couple of scooters](https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/26/17617242/scooters-bikes-lime-bird-ofo-mobike-san-diego-comic-con-2018?ref=andrewliptak.com). A couple of things fell through, which was unfortunate, but it was a good time all around.

Along the way, I got to catch up with a bunch of friends and colleagues from around the science fiction community, which was fun. The trip back had a bunch of delays, but it was bearable because of fellow Vermont fantasy author Katherine Arden, whom was on the same flight.

There's a lot of people who complain about the convention: it's too big, too crowded, too commercial, not enough comics, and so forth — I've complained as well, in that it's 5-6 days of flat-out running from place to place to cover things — but I've enjoyed myself the last two years. The main crux of it is that it's a gathering point of like-minded people. I saw people dressed in costumes from just about everything — it was especially cool to see people dressed up as characters from *The Expanse* — and I ran into a bunch of fellow 501st members from California, Texas, and elsewhere.

There's been a lot of talk about how fans have been incredibly shitty in recent years (mind, it's not a new occurrence) and Timothy Zahn had a good observation that while a lot of these attitudes have been around for a while, they're amplified by social media. We've seen actors and directors become the focus of intense scrutiny by "fans" with an ax to grind because they're upset about women being in *Star Wars* or something.

But I didn't see any of that while I was there. I don't doubt that it existed, but what I saw was people reveling in what they really love. When a room full of *Clone Wars* fans learned that the show was coming back, there were actual tears. I saw costumers who'd (presumably) never met one another strike up conversations, and people posing for countless pictures. It was a good reminder that fandom isn't always this awful thing. The internet has a habit of equalizing various groups, which isn't the case.