Should You Network or Table at San Diego Comic-Con?
Lifeline Comics breaks down their experience at this year's San Diego Comic-Con and gives tips on how to make the most of the BIGGEST SHOW of the year!
Hello Lifeline Comics Readers!
We’re excited to finally talk about our San Diego Comic-Con experience! We spent a whopping 10 DAYS in California — making the cross-country trip for both SDCC and for San Diego Pride Festival the weekend prior. In addition to sharing our own experience, we’ll also talk about how you can make the most of attending the biggest event of the year in the comics industry!
We’ll also make some announcements regarding our upcoming projects, and share our thoughts on popular recent releases Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the final season of The Bear, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, and more!
Let’s dive in!
San Diego Comic-Con Breakdown
Phil: Let’s talk about our San Diego Comic-Con experience!
Networking At San Diego Comic-Con
Kat: San Diego Comic-Con is our favorite event of the year! It’s one of the few conventions that we don’t table at (more on that later). So it allows us to walk around, take meetings, and not be totally exhausted by the end of the day. And even catch a panel or two as fans.
This had to be one of our most successful conventions to date! On a personal note, this was the first time Phil’s husband, Julius, was able to come, and the first time in ten years that my brother came along with my parents to join the fun. It makes the whole experience even better when you have people you love surrounding you.
On a professional level, it was truly humbling to become peers with some of the biggest names in the industry. San Diego feels like the one convention that EVERYONE really is at. Sure, you have New York Comic Cons and your C2E2s, but I don’t think there’s a bigger room with comic professionals than San Diego.
You have the opportunity to catch up with friends and meet people you would never have the chance to see in person anywhere else because some of them live across the globe. We even had a secret meeting that could really change Lifeline Comics forever if everything goes through. (more on that hopefully sooner than later)
SDCC is really a party all weekend! As someone who likes to retire after a long day tabling at a con, it’s nice to have an excuse to go to parties and lunches with your fellow comic creators talking shop and learn more about them as people.
Kickstarter especially knows how to treat their creators well as it really felt like one big family coming together to spread the word about the wonders of crowdfunding.
How to Make the Most of the Convention
Phil: Even when you’re not behind a booth at San Diego Comic-Con, there are still TONS of things you can do to take part in the show.
This year, we were on three Panels — two panels about utilizing Public Domain Properties in comics, and one Kickstarter-hosted panel about tips for first-time creators.
We always have an absolute blast sitting on panels at any show — but especially at SDCC. Comic-Con always has a great turnout for panels, filled with folks looking to learn how to make their own comics. And these panels always have a ton of interesting questions.
We love Paneling because it’s a great way to position yourself as an authority in the industry. This year, we had someone specifically come up to us before our panel started to tell us that they became fans of our work after seeing us on a panel at SDCC last year. And this is far from the first time we’ve heard this fan panel attendees. It’s just a great way to share your experience and to connect with fellow creators and fans.
Special shout-out to our fellow panelists and moderators this year: Clay Adams (Fried Comics), Jessica Maison (Wicked Tree Press), Elliott Mondry (Calamity Comics), Fabrice Sapolsky (Fairsquare Graphics), Sean Edgar (Kickstarter), Shannon Bailey (Todd McFarlane Productions), Ash Troub (BOOM! Studios, Penguin Random House), Andy Nordvall (Andy Narwhal), and Barbara Dillon (Fanbase Press). We had such a blast chatting with each of you — and plotting our ridiculous Steamboat Willie horror book on stage, as well as having Kat and Jessica geek out about Irene Adler on two separate panels.
In addition to panels, you can take part in Signings! This year, we had two signings: one we hosted and one where we were a guest.
One of the highlights of the entire week for us was hosting a signing of The Comic Shop: The Comic by the entire principal cast of the YouTube webseries.
It was our first time meeting all four members of the cast (Cheyenne Ewulu, Zeno Robinson, Shanae Cole, Grayson Niles) in person and they were such a delight. They had a ton of chemistry and made every interaction feel special.
Tons of fans showed up for the signing! In only an hour, we managed to make hundreds of dollars in sales and have so many wonderful interactions.
Special thanks to Charlie Stickney & Conor Hughes (White Ash Comics) for letting us take over their booth for the signing!
In addition to the signing we hosted, we also had the pleasure of signing with Prism Comics on the same day. The folks are Prism do such important work for queer representation in comics, and we’re always happy to see them selling our books!
With or without a table, Comic-Con offers tons of opportunities to make your mark. If you’re attending, definitely do your best to make meetings, get on (and attend) panels, and take part in signings!
Should We Table in the Future?
Phil: The eternal question. San Diego Comic-Con is THE EVENT of the year for the comics industry. Professionals across every sector of comics are present for the event. It’s for this reason that, up to this point, we haven’t even attempted to table at the show. We’ve always prioritized taking meetings and networking since there is truly no better show to network at.
In past years at SDCC, we’ve connected with artists we’d go on to work with on some of our most popular books, as well as the writers behind several of our DEATHline and POWerline books. Not to mention anthology contributors and collaborators, and having work-for-hire conversations with bigger publishers.
This year at SDCC, we had a HUGE meeting with a big media company to cement a deal we’re really excited to talk about in the Fall if everything comes through the way we hope it will. Suffice to say, some of our most important connections and meetings of the year happen when we’re walking the floor at Comic-Con.
Plus, it’s nice to have a show where we get to just…be fans. In addition to all the work we did, we also spent time walking the floor, grabbing exclusives, and just enjoying everything the show has to offer.
That said, this year more than any before, we got a lot of questions about WHY we haven’t attempted to table at the biggest Comic-Con in our country. Our friends who tabled all raved about having one of their best sales years yet at Comic-Con. Plus, with the multitude of different meetings and signings we had, it would have been nice to have had a table as a “home base” to host at, versus having to find locations for meetings and signings.
Here’s where we’ve landed: we’re going to at least apply for a table next year. It’s just too good of an event not to try for. And a difficult one to get into. So we figured it’s time we start trying in hopes of getting a space in the coming years.
But if we do get a table at SDCC, we would probably hire someone to man the table for the majority of the show and we would make periodic appearances at the table for signings. As much as we want to share in the sales fun of Comic-Con, we are already swamped with activity at Comic-Con even without a table to manage. So having somebody else holding down the fort at the booth so we can come-and-go seems like the best solution.
We don’t know if it will be next year, the year after, or five years from now, but you will probably see us behind a table at SDCC sometime in the future!
San Diego Pride Festival
Phil: When we learned that San Diego Pride Festival was the week before Comic-Con, it felt like an absolute no-brainer to attend. We were already going to be flying out for Comic-Con. And I have family in the area we can stay with, so we didn’t incur any additional hotel costs. All we really had to deal with were a car rental, our food expenses, and the cost of the table.
The Pride itself was pricy — nearly $2K for just the space. Plus, we weren’t local and needed to rent a tent, table, and chairs. Add on our car rental, and we were in the mid-to-high $2,000s in the cost department. But we had seen (and made profits at) more expensive shows in the past. Plus, this was a two-day Pride. So we had two whole days to make sales!
After some drama during set-up (wherein the original space we were set up in wasn’t usable due to TONS of dirt and dust in the area), the organizers had us set up in a pretty good spot in the main area. The doors opened and…
…it was okay?
In the end, we did manage to just barely break even for the event. All things considered, that isn’t horrible for any event where the goal is to make fans. But for an event as large (and expensive) as San Diego Pride Fest, we had expected to turn more of a profit than we ended up turning.
Talking to our neighbors, they had similar experiences. Not bad turnout, but not to the level they had been hoping for. A lot of folks blamed this on the expensive $45 entry fee for attendees of the Pride.
The Pride had some really cool musical guests (MARINA, Krewella). And there were a decent amount of attendees (if not the volume we expected). But not everyone was looking to spend more money following the entry fee.
Most Prides we vend at are free to the public. Some charge small amounts ($5-$15). But this $45 entry fee was, by far, the highest we’ve seen. We learned about the fee because a friend of ours had actually been planning to stop by and visit, but ended up leaving at the door because of the high entry fee (don’t worry, we hung out with her the next day somewhere a lot cheaper).
What does this boil down to?
San Diego Pride Fest was not a waste of time. We did feel we made new fans on a coast where we rarely table. But we probably wouldn’t do it again anytime soon. There weren’t enough sales to justify the event as “advertising”. And spending two 8+ hour days in the hot sun is very taxing, so if we’re doing it, we probably need to be turning a bit more of a profit.
San Diego as a Tourist
Kat: I’ve been going to San Diego Comic-Con every year for over a decade, but this was the first year that we went a few days early to enjoy San Diego as a whole. I don’t see us doing their Pride again anytime soon, but we did learn that we should take a few days to enjoy the wonderful city before the convention starts.
For starters, a lot of flights were cancelled the Wednesday going to the show (my parents and brother included). I know a lot of Tristate area creators were scrambling to find another flight. But most importantly, it was nice to take a day or two to “relax” in the new time zone before the Comic-Con madness.
With the extra time, I was even able to pick up my comic books at a local shop: Now or Never Comics, which had a huge line for the con weekend.
Phil was able to see his family (who live in San Diego), which is always a treat, and I got to visit my friend Amy (and fellow Legendary Lady co-host) in her habitat - the San Diego Safari Park.
And a special shout out to Mike’s Red Tacos! The best food I had all week (the competition was steep).
ANNOUNCEMENT: Love at Second Bite is Back on WEBTOON/Tapas!
Phil: Fans of our Vampire BL series might have noticed that Love at Second Bite went on a two-month hiatus from new posts on Webtoon and Tapas.
We can now reveal that we were pitching the series around to different publishers at that time and had to cease sharing new episodes. In the end after several different conversations with publishers, we decided that Webtoon Canvas & Tapas were still the best home for the series.
So we’re excited to be back to weekly new episodes of the series — and a new thumbnail!
Fans of the physical comic can expect a new issue to Kickstart this Fall!
Open Submissions: Monsters & Myths Anthology
Phil: In case you missed our last post, we’re currently accepting submissions for our upcoming Monsters & Myths comic anthology!
Whether you’re a Writer or an Artist, a Comics Newcomer or a Seasoned Pro, we encourage you to throw your hat into the ring for the new anthology!
Submissions are open until August 27th! Good luck!
Current Campaigns
Phil: And finally, let’s quickly plug our live and upcoming campaigns!
ENDING THURSDAY: SINK YOUR TEETH IN #1-2
“From Zoe Tunnell & Lauren Knight, an undead PI hunts a missing vamp, facing ancient Mob Families, corrupt cops, & a past she buried to survive.”
We’re funded and on the road to our first Stretch Goal! Help us unlock it!
LIVE NOW: Slice of Life #1-9: Yuriko in JAPAN!
“Cheerleader Lucy and her Anime Character girlfriend have to survive long-distance when Yuriko makes her way to JAPAN!”
We’re 80% funded and need YOUR HELP to cross the finish line!
NEXT WEEK: FAIRY TALE WARS #1 - An EverAfterVerse Crossover Event
“The Beast & Snow”, “Nightmare in Wonderland”, & “The Witches of Oz” COLLIDE! Mature 18+ Fantasy EVENT. (Featuring: Tula Lotay, Dan Mendoza)
The BIGGEST COMIC WE’VE EVER LAUNCHED is almost here! A first-of-its-kind Kickstarter event launches next week! Our three popular Mature Fairytale series crossover for the first time!
Media
Let’s discuss some non-comics media!
Note: We’re holding off seeing The Odyssey until we can see a 70MM IMAX showing at the end of the month. So expect our thoughts in a few weeks!
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Kat: If you are new to the newsletter, I’m a HUGE Spider-Man fan. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is one of my favorite movies because it’s an animated film that truly taps into what makes the Spider-Man comics so great.
With three different live-action Spider-Men gracing the screen, I had come to accept that animation would be the only medium that would truly be able to tell a great Peter Parker/Spider-Man comic book adaptation…until now.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is everything I’ve ever wanted from a live-action adaptation. The world is self-contained with appearances from street level villains like Tombstone, The Hand, and Scorpion, while simultaneously feeling like a puzzle piece to the larger Marvel universe with appearances from characters like the Punisher.
The movie is a true character piece! It puts a magnifying glass on Peter’s struggles in an Avengers: Endgame post world AND TOM HOLLAND SELLS IT. There are so many reasons to love Peter Parker as a character, but one of my favorite attributes is that even when he’s at his lowest, he’s going to try and do the right thing. That theme truly sings in Brand New Day as he faces the biggest personal struggles of his life and still tries to be the best friendly neighborhood Spider-Man he can be.
Brand New Day had bigger box office numbers than Avengers: Endgame’s opening weekend, which hopefully shows Marvel what a modern movie audience wants to see from superheroes. Marvel is always at its best when telling larger than life stories in a grounded way, which is why Brand New Day is their best installment to date. It’s one of the first live action movies that truly feels like a comic book come to life.
Phil: In a shocking twist, Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues the trend of all of the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies being good! That’s a really hard accomplishment four movies in, but somehow BND manages to be, if not the best Spider-Man movie for Holland, certainly at least his strongest performance as Peter Parker.
Brand New Day is first-and-foremost a character story, and a strong one at that. This the down-on-his-luck Peter Parker we all know and love from the comics, and both the script and Holland fully understand that assignment.
One little detail that I really loved is that Peter doesn’t introduce himself to people he used to know (pre-”forgetting him” spell) with his actual name for most of the movie, even though nobody would recognize the name “Peter Parker”. It’s just such a great, subtle way of showing how little sense of self/value Peter has in this film. And that’s further compounded by the fact that the fake names he chooses (Maynard, Ned) are the names of people he does love and value.
The entire cast all do great work, with particular shout-outs to Holland and Sadie Sink. The cameos and MCU tie-ins all manage to feel fun and organic. And the film makes great use of New York City (including a beautiful credits montage of the city).
On the negative side, I really only have three complaints. (1.) I wish that MJ and Ned (particularly MJ) played more of a role in the final act of the film. Zendaya does great work with what she’s given in the second act, but sort of disappears for the third, which was disappointing. (2.) I think the characters (and film itself) are a bit too forgiving of some pretty heinous acts by the antagonist…that’s about as much as I can say without spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that. (3.) And the first act of the film is a bit slow until Sadie Sink’s character is introduced and kicks the film into high gear.
If you’re a fan of character-driven superhero movies, this is not one to miss.
The Bear (The Final Season)
Kat: The Bear is a lot of things - a show about food, loss, and ambition. But more than anything it’s about community. Carmy was one of the all-time “best chefs”, but isolated himself for achievement. A goal that he only wanted because of his complicated relationship between him and his late brother.
In its final season, The Bear takes a full circle look at what it actually means to achieve. It focuses on the family that this restaurant has built, and how Carmy’s search for greatness was actually just a journey to find connection.
It’s a satisfying ending for people who like closure and has enough open-ended threads for fans (like me) who rather interpret. The Bear Season 5 isn’t perfect. There are still some very slow episodes (especially in the front half), but when this show hits it hits, which will help cement the series as one of 2020’s best.
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender
Phil: There’s a reason that Avatar: The Last Airbender is still hugely popular more than twenty years after the series first premiered. The original ATLA series features some of the best character work, world building, humor, and heart in animation history. Full stop. But can a film focusing on adult versions of the original cast recapture the magic?
The greatest triumph of Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender is the animation. Almost every review of the film starts by complimenting the many beautiful sequences of bending and the multitude of epic action set pieces. Truly, the world of Avatar has never looked this good. And the film deserves its flowers for that.
There are plenty of small nods to the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series, both loud (the Cabbage Merchant, the excited guy who froths at the mouth and faints) and subtle (blink-and-you’ll miss it cameos from the “Secret Tunnel” musical Earth nomads and the Kyoshi Warriors), that are sure to delight long-time fans.
And the Gaang all behave more-or-less the way you might expect them to when they grow up. Nobody feels grossly out-of-character (even if they don’t have much to do) nor does anybody look “off”.
On the more negative side, the film is pretty thin in the plot department. There are hardly any surprises in the film since everything is pretty heavily telegraphed (including the supposed “twist” involving our villain). The Gang are given shockingly little to do outside of cool action beats.
And, most annoyingly, Aang’s entire conflict in this film is just a retread of an arc he already went through in the original show. So much time was spent in ATLA having Aang come to terms with the fact that he can’t change his past (running away from his people) and accepting that he would have died with the rest of the Airbenders had he stayed. I’m not saying that he can’t still feel the pain and regret of that decision as an adult. But it’s strange that his ENTIRE arc in this film is dedicated to it when we’ve already seen him spend so much time processing it (in a more nuanced long-form manner) in the original series.
Lastly, the voice acting…it wasn’t for me, for the most part. Voice performances were one of the highlights of ATLA and The Legend of Korra. Characters all had fun, distinct voices in those series. But here, nobody really impressed me with their performance…nor did anyone really sound like the original characters/how I might have pictured they’d sound as adults (except MAYBE Sokka…maybe). Instead of a so many celebrity stunt castings, I would have rather they hired actual voice actors. I’m not even saying the original cast, many of whom have probably aged out of the roles. Just trained voice actors who can emote better in vocal roles. (And, like, you definitely could have still used at least Dante Basco…maybe even Mae Whitman).
I know I spent most of this review nitpicking, but the film is…fine. It’s not a bad watch. I’d call it a middle-of-the-road animated film. But middle-of-the-road is disappointing when we’re returning to characters who, over a decade ago, delivered such powerful stories. If anything, watching this film made me long for the incredible highs of ATLA (Zuko Alone, The Desert, The Puppetmaster, The Southern Raiders are all episodes that I literally thought about in the moments I was bored during this film) and highlighted that Avatar Aang never really manages to deliver anything as powerful.
Kat: The original Avatar: The Last Airbender TV show grew popular for its Eastern influences and it’s sophisticated storytelling. For a show about a group of kids, it felt more mature than a lot of the other animated shows that were being aired at the time.
This makes it all of the more disappointing that the much-anticipated movie about these kids all grown up is more childish and less intricate than its original counterpart. Avatar Aang was trying so hard to look like “a popular modern anime” that it forgot what makes anime and the original show work in the first place — character work.
The story is riddled with MacGuffins and uninspiring mythos building that takes away from the character development Aang had already gone through in the television series. I was expecting Avatar Aang to be the beginning of a new era for the franchise, but it just ended up being a filler episode with a movie sized budget.
Comics
Let’s discuss some comics we’ve enjoyed recently!
As usual, we’ll spotlight an Indie Book, a DC/Marvel book, a Webcomic, and a Live Kickstarter book!
Indie Comic: Avatar The Last Airbender: The Kyoshi Warriors (Dark Horse)
Kat: We’re really on an Avatar kick this newsletter!
Dark Horse has been releasing Avatar comics for over a decade, but this is the first time they’ve tried monthly releases. With a lot more Avatar content coming our way, it’s great to see comics trying to target different audiences. The Wednesday Warrior is very different from book market readers, and by releasing floppies you’re able to target both markets.
The Kyoshi Warriors are fan favorites, and a perfect fit for this type of experiment. It was a nice little treat to get this miniseries for a few months in a row. It showcases Suki’s leadership skills while exploring a different angle of Avatar’s political climate in a tight three issue story arc. Avatar has such a rich world, and stories like these prove there are a plethora of narratives you can explore even without the core team.
Marvel: Infernal Hulk
Kat: Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Nic Klein have been telling their Hulk saga spanning from multiple titles, but Infernal Hulk has to be my favorite. Tension heightens as the creative team stomps their way to their epic grand finale. It brilliantly meshes the new mythos they’ve created with Infernal Hulk himself and side characters like Charlie with the impeccable groundwork of the Immortal Hulk.
But I’m especially enjoying Bruce Banner’s journey as he separates himself from the Hulk. Who is Bruce without the Hulk? And why does he always eventually return? There are plenty of characters being affected by his personal decision - the most gut-wrenching being Betty as she so desperately wants the power of being the Hulk again. She’s been a monster for so long. She doesn’t know what else to be.
Just like it’s critically acclaimed predecessor, Immortal Hulk, Infernal Hulk leans heavily on monsters and body horror to tell a succinct character study. But the true success of Johnson and Klien’s run is how it carves its own path for Hulk’s long legacy.
Webcomic: Jeff the Land Shark
Phil: While Jeff the Land Shark is not new content and is instead a reformatting of the 2025 comic, I thought it would be fun to spotlight in its new form, which introduces everyone’s favorite anthropomorphic shark to a whole new audience of webcomic readers.
The adorable Jeff is a character perfectly suited for Webtoon, with his wacky adventures and adorable design/mannerisms translating perfectly to the webcomic format and being the exact kind of content that Webtoon readers adore.
Most Jeff comic appearances see Jeff getting to interact with a variety of characters in the Marvel Universe, and this comic is no different. In the three episodes that have been released thusfar, we see Jeff infiltrate Doctor Strange’s sanctum, meet up with Deadpool, and cause a mess with Rocket Raccoon and Groot. It’s always fun seeing Jeff bounce off of other established characters, and this comic absolutely relishes in the chance to do so.
If you’ve been putting off checking out a Jeff comic, this Webtoon might be the best opportunity to acquaint yourself with the loveable land shark.
Read “Jeff the Land Shark” on Webtoon!
Kickstarter: SYSTEMIC VOL. 2: A 92-page SF/F anthology
“The hit anthology returns with nine all-new stories where infinitely critical human lives and systemic forces grind together.”
Phil: In a world that is dominated by large, faceless, and uncaring systems, an anthology spotlighting the importance of humanity and individualism is more important than ever. And that’s exactly what this Sci-Fi / Fantasy anthology seeks to do.
I always love a good SF/F story. And pair that with exploration of individuals clashing against seemingly unmovable forces of cultural, technological, economic, and governmental systems, and you just have an instant backing in my book!
The anthology features TONS of fantastic creators — helmed by Editor Ben Crane and Publisher Arthur N. Ebuen (who we had the pleasure of chatting with at SDCC and who is always an absolute delight). Some names you might recognize from collaborations with Lifeline Comics at Tilly & Susan Bridges (Hairology, Witching Season), Brent Fisher (Transphoria), and Eileen Widjaja (Bi Visibility, Like Father, Like Daughter).
And there are tons more talented creators involved in SYSTEMIC we haven’t worked with (yet) but for whom we are big fans of their work!
Support “SYSTEMIC VOL. 2” here!
In Conclusion
Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter! We hope you enjoyed our breakdown of our San Diego Comic-Con 2026 experience! If you attended SDCC this year, be sure to share your own experiences with us in the comments and on social media. And we hope to see you at the show next year.
If you haven’t already, we hope you’ll support our live campaigns to help Slice of Life #1-9 hit its funding goal and help Sink Your Teeth In #1-2 unlock some Stretch Goals!
And be sure to follow the Pre-Launch Page for Fairy Tale Wars #1 to be notified when our biggest Kickstarter to date launches next week!
Subscribe above for biweekly updates on our future projects!
Buy Lifeline Comics on our Website!
Current/Upcoming Kickstarters:
Sink Your Teeth In #1-2 (Ends 8/06)
Slice of Life #1-9 (Ends 8/30)
Fairy Tale Wars #1 (Launches 8/10)
Next Conventions/Prides:
Charlotte Pride Fest (Charlotte, North Carolina) (8/15-16)
Bethlehem/Lehigh Valley Pride (Allentown, Pennsylvania) (8/30)
Anthology Open Submissions: Monsters & Myths
Read our Webtoons for FREE:
Slice of Life [GL] (Anime Character x Closeted Cheerleader High School Romance)
Love at Second Bite [BL] (Vampire College Adventure/Romance)