SWAG Adventures: The Massive SDCC 2023 Edition
by Gary Catig
We’ve had a few days to decompress and recover from San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC). We also used that time to sort through all the SWAG we obtained during the event. People might feel because the big stars weren’t present, that SDCC wouldn’t be as exciting. However, this year wasn’t any different if you love being on the hunt for free stuff and great collectibles. Let’s take a look at what we picked up.
Amongst the free stuff, there’s some regular SDCC standbys: a t-shirt featuring the latest MCU film for donating blood and the exclusive variant covers from the Marvel panels. Other comic panel giveaways include a black and white variant for Transformers #1 from Skybound and a comic from Bad Idea. At the DC booth, you could receive sketches from cartoonists Jim Beaton and Jeffrey Brown during their signing.
On the television side, Only Murders in the Building had an activation with several different items. We walked away with a Gut Milk tumbler. At the Hulu Animayhem activation, we received the cute green backpack and a set of Futurama pins with the characters in egg form.
Paramount+’s The Lodge had several stations promoting their various programming. Though much of it included photo ops, food and drink, we did get Yellowjackets themed honey and deck of cards.
The most impressive activation was for Interview with the Vampire. It was very immersive and provided a fair amount of SWAG. There was a tote bag, trinket, sheet music/print, and sketch pad.
Once again, pins were a trendy item with the anime film Sand Land, Kickstarter and Shout! TV all handing them out.
Posters were also pretty ubiquitous. There were selections from TV, comics and video games. The print up top from the upcoming Star Wars: Outlaws is pretty nice.
The SWAG that required the most self-control was the special edition Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups promoting the new Blue Beetle movie. With all the walking over the course of almost five days, it served as a tempting snack.
We spent a little more than we planned because we won an entry into the Mattel Creations booth. We purchased the UNO Ultimate Marvel Spider-Man 2099 vs. Venom Add-On 2-Pack and the Hot Wheels Collectors Star Wars Starships Select AT-ST With Chewbacca. Also picked up a few comics including exclusives from DSTLRY and Skybound, a Goon t-shirt from Dark Horse and a Star-Lord commission from the talented Manix Abrera.
With such a selection of comic creators in one place, it would be a waste not to get some floppies and graphic novels signed. Wish we had time for more, but we did get autographs from the likes of Daniel Warren Johnson, Joëlle Jones, Pepe Larraz and more.
