It's Crunch Time! Conquering A Comic Con In One Day

You're all set for comic-con. You have your money put away. You filled your tank with gas. You even bought a box of protein bars to help you power through your trip.

The only problem is you only have one day to get everything done at comic-con. Well, now what?

Most comic-cons run for multiple days. New York Comic Con (NYCC) and San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) both run for four consecutive days for a reason: there's way too much to do.

You can shop, visit panels, meet artists, and even snap a photograph with your favorite celebrity. It seems overwhelming and honestly impossible to get it all done. But trust me, you can do it.

Okay, let me clarify. You can get most of it done.

Quite frankly, it's impossible to get everything that you want to get done at a comic-con in the full four day period sometimes. Inevitably, things are going to overlap and you're going to miss something that you wanted to see (yes, I'm talking about my Tom Hiddleston photo-op being at the same time as Ryan Reynold's panel at NYCC 2019. Yes, I'm still a little salty.)

But if you plan your day accordingly, you'll be able to get the most out of a single day at comic-con, and here's how to do it.

For starters, buy all your tickets ahead of time. This saves you a lot of time waiting on line for tickets. It's becoming more popular for tickets to be purchased online prior to the event. Snag your tickets and skip the line the day of. Once the big day rolls around, make sure you get there early. I cannot stress this enough. If the comic-con opens at 10:00 a.m., there will be people there at 9:00 a.m. lining up an hour early. Why do they do this? The answer is simple: security check sucks.

Security checks are important. They keep the comic-con and all its guests safe. But just like going through the TSA, it's going to take a while. No, you don't need to take off your shoes or unload your 3 oz liquids, but you will need to open your bag up and go through some scanners. For someone with just a small bag, it won't take that long. But for cosplayers and those with larger backpacks and multiple carry-on's, the security point could take a few minutes per person.

Get to the comic-con early. Some events have you line up before going through security, thus opening the security check points once the comic-con actually opens. Other comic-cons, however, will have you go through security when you get onto the convention center's property, have you checked, and then let you wait in line outside the doors of the show. Either way, it's best to show up as early as possible to get to the front of the lines and enter the event as soon as it opens.

When you first enter the comic-con show floor, I recommend going to the back sections first. Why? It's sort of like an amusement park. When the park opens, everyone hops onto the first ride they see, leaving the back of the park more spacious and with shorter lines.

Comic-con is exactly the same. Everyone stops at the first booth they see. So, stray from the crowd (the big, big crowd) and head towards the back of the convention floor. Work your way towards the front from there. By doing this, you'll avoid the major traffic jam that always happens at the start of the comic-con from people latching onto the first vendor they see.

One of the largest parts of comic-cons is meeting your favorite actor or actress. Let me tell you, it's amazing and a truly unforgettable experience. You know what is also an unforgettable experience? Waiting on line for said actor or actress, but that isn't nearly as glamorous.

Out of the seven times I've met celebrities at comic-cons, I've waited almost an hour on line nearly every time. The longest I waited was at ACE Comic Con in Chicago for Brie Larson. She was the last celebrity I was meeting during the day, and due to her backed up schedule, my 3:45 p.m. meeting time became almost 5:00 p.m. and that was just when the line started actually moving.

It's nothing against the comic-cons themselves. The meet and greets for celebrities get booked up really quickly and it's never just walk in, snap a picture, and walk out. It takes a few seconds for every person. Every time someone wants a special pose or wants to thank the celebrity for coming, it adds on a few more seconds. And once one person gets bumped back, everyone else gets bumped back too.

So how do you avoid sitting on the ground of a convention center, waiting for the line you're in to finally move? The key is to snag the earliest meet and greet time you can get.

Every comic-con has a different way of doing this. Some comic-cons, such as NYCC, will list out the time of day that person is meeting when you buy tickets. Other comic-cons, such as ACE Comic Con, are a bit less direct, instead showing you the group number you can buy, such as group 1, group A, etc.

Try to buy your meet and greet tickets for first thing in the morning. The morning groups haven't been affected by groups before them taking longer and pushing back the meet and greet times for the later groups in the day. When I met Tom Hiddleston at NYCC, my scheduled time was 11:40 a.m. and I finished the meet and greet at 11:50 a.m., pretty on track with time. However, later that day, my photo-op with Paul Rudd was supposed to be at 4:40, but I didn't enter the photograph space until nearly 5:30 p.m.

Take advantage of the morning groups. A lot of people will often buy their celebrity tickets for the end of the day, opting to finish their day out with a bang. While this is fun, it also causes you to wait in line much longer. If you have the ability to pick an early group or an early time slot, I highly recommend it. It will give you at least an extra hour for the rest of your events.

Now, you want to go shopping for some art. Understandable, the artists at comic-cons are unbelievably talented and have some of the best merchandise. When you enter the convention center, there are so many booths to visit that it seems almost overwhelming at times. Luckily for you, you can preview which artists are going to your comic-con of interest!

All you have to do is visit the comic-con's website that you're attending. Here, it will list the artists that will be at the comic-con. Most of the time, the comic-con's website will feature some of the pieces that the artist will be bringing to the comic-con, but even if they don't, a quick search on Twitter or Instagram of the artist will bring you to their social media pages and maybe even their website. Peruse their art, find styles you like, and when the day of the comic-con rolls around, you'll already know which artists you're definitely going to buy from. This will help you avoid circling the booths for an hour debating whether or not the Wonder Woman piece from one artist is more worth your buck than the Ant-Man piece from another.

And just like that, you've knocked out the biggest killers of time: security, crowds, celebrity meet and greets, and perusing through artists. Now, you have the rest of your day to check out some of the other amazing things that comic-cons have to offer, such as panels, how-to's, and even some video game testing.

Essentially, the key to doing a comic-con in one day is to look ahead at what you want to do and understand that things just won't run on time. With that in mind, don't be too strict with yourself. There's no need to plan things to the minute because trust me, you can get a lot done in nine hours.

Check out your comic-con's website, buy your tickets early, and remember to have fun! It's okay to stray from your plans, but as long as you prepare for those long lines and big crowds, you'll knock off everything on your to-do list with ease.