From Saturday July 12 to Sunday July 13, I headed to historic Savannah, Georgia for one of the city’s premiere yearly video game and pop culture conventions – Savannah Comic Con. Held at the Savannah Convention Center across the river from downtown, SCC celebrated it’s 11 year, though the convention was originally founded in 2011 as Savannah Mega Comic Con. This visit was also a special one personally, as it was my first convention in five years. The last one I went to was on the last day of the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) barely a couple weeks before the pandemic began in March 2020.
Convention layout
As mentioned above, Savannah Comic Con is held yearly at the Savannah Convention Center on Hutchinson Island, across the Savannah River (right before crossing the Georgia/South Carolina border). Aside from taking the city’s landmark Talmadge Bridge to the convention center, convention-goers have the option to take a ferry ride over from either the City Hall landing (which I took) or the Waving Girl Landing on the opposite end of the river. After reaching the Savannah Convention Center and walking through the entrance, it’s only about a five minute walk all the way to Hall D, located towards the back of the building. In fact, the convention center held the grand opening of its expansion area earlier this year, a project that started after breaking ground in 2021.
All the vendors, guests, and panels were clustered within Hall D, which may have been a change from past years of SCC (more details on that later). After entering Hall D, guests can find the booths of several guests to the right, and all the vendors going down from there. There’s also a gigantic Pikachu inflatable after the various vendors as well as towards the back, one large area dedicated to panels, a video game center to the right that featured a gaming tournament hosted by GameTroopers, as well as a wrestling ring where a couple of shows took place on Day 1 (which was removed for Day 2).
Movies and TV/anime (and wrestling)
We’ll get to video game content in a moment… but one of the biggest pop culture draws in SCC centered over movies and TV, with the latter including anime. While SCC didn’t hold any movie-centric panels/events, two of the biggest SCC guests were voice actors from movies and TV shows/anime. The first voice actor is Aaron Dismuke, known for voice roles from Fullmetal Alchemist, My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, and a number of shows in the Dragon Ball franchise (and also a voice in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero).
The second voice actor is Debi Derryberry, famed not only for being the voice of Jimmy Neutron in his Nickelodeon movie/series from the early 2000s, but also for Coco Bandicoot and Nina Cortex (in numerous Crash Bandicoot installments), at least one of the Little Green Men in the Toy Story films, and Pac Man in Street Fighter X Tekken. On a personal note, meeting Debi was a complete surprise, as I went into SCC blind (including not knowing she was going to be a guest).
While she had her own dedicated panel on Saturday, she and Aaron Dismuke teamed up for a panel on Sunday. I was among those asking questions for the VA’s, though stage fright from standing in front of the audience still got to me (like usual). I wasn’t this nervous when I first went up to meet Debi Derryberry though.
When it comes to Pro Wrestling, I’m not too much in to that scene scene aside from knowing big names like John Cena and The Rock… but pro wrestling still had some sizable representation through guests including retired wrestlers D-Von Dudley and Koko B. Ware, and former WWE referee “Third Man in the Ring” Mike Chioda. Despite my lack of fandom in wrestling, I still attended their panels on both days. Additionally, photo ops in the ring were offered to fans on Day 1.
Video games and collectibles
A staple of any convention anywhere across the USA and worldwide are the collectibles. More often than not, fans end up paying top dollar for wide variety of artworks, vintage/modern toys, and collectibles from so many franchises… whether they be Star Wars, Transformers, Power Rangers, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or comic books and their superheroes, fans are more than covered for merch hunting.
For video games, the usual Funko Pops and figurines are an immediate draw. Plenty of Funko Pop figures to go around for video game characters and beyond gaming. But this was not the only representation for gaming. A number of vendors were selling both modern and retro video games/systems, which ensured that the modern and nostalgic sides of gaming were made known at SCC.
Also mentioned at the beginning, visitors were also invited to play video games at a couple or so tables. Not only did I see Guitar Hero II on PlayStation 2 and a Just Dance! game on Xbox 360 via Kinect, but there some retro flashback/emulation boxes for Sega Genesis/NES, a couple of boys were playing Twisted Metal, and even Sonic the Hedgehog’s own game was playable.
Visitors also were invited to sign up for tournaments on a few video game consoles and for a number of competitive games that one would likely see in eSports events. Though if you’re like me and not being that competitive, you’re free to sit down and watch players compete in games like Naruto, Super Smash Bros, Tekken (possibly Tekken 8, as it was being played on a PlayStation 5), and even Mario Kart World on the brand new Nintendo Switch 2. This game room spot does remind me of my college days when my university’s Competitive Gaming Club would host similar gaming events on campus from time to time.
Cosplaying
In addition to the collectibles, what convention would be complete without the art of cosplaying? Even for a short two-day convention, there was a lot more cosplaying than I would’ve imagined… and a LOT of anime cosplaying to witness.
Cosplaying definitely helped bring the fandoms together from multiple genres. SCC hosted a cosplay contest, which was held towards the end of both days. While I didn’t stick around to watch the first cosplay contest, there was so much undeniable enthusiasm and energy for the second contest.
Some of the most notable cosplays ranged from a Helldiver from Helldivers 2, Superman, the Master Chief himself from Halo, and even both Wolverine, and the Hulk were contestants. Did I fail to mention, the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man swung down from the Big Apple to the Hostess City for the convention?
The cosplay above was also one of my favorites. If this character is from an anime, can anyone identify? The size of the blade-looking weapons are a striking pair to define this character’s cosplay.
Can anyone also identify the character below? The mask and glowing eyes really made this cosplay stand out. Whoever this character is, it looks like someone from a Miyazaki film such as Princess Mononoke.
I shouldn’t be surprised if most of these cosplays were professionally made at home, perhaps with 3D printers. They were all inspiring to see, and they actually made me want to explore cosplaying one day… especially as characters wearing helmets and suits of armor. However, one of the biggest problems personally would be considering I wear glasses. As such, I’d imagine I would have to wear contacts when putting on a helmet.
Regarding all this, I also got to talk to a couple of cosplayers and ask how it was for them to wear helmets. Watching various “Behind the Scenes” of movies/tv shows like The Mandalorian Season 2, I’d see the actors/stunt actors wear balaclavas over their heads when wearing the helmets from their costumes, and I imagine some cosplayers may do the same thing. However, the cosplayer for the Helldiver showed he only added some padding inside his helmet rather than using a balaclava underneath.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Savannah Comic Con was a fun time to experience my first convention in several years. I had been clamoring for some time in going to my first convention outside of Chicago. That being said though, SCC had some drawbacks. I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t vastly more booths and panels to see at SCC. Then yet again, it isn’t entirely SCC’s fault. Both it and the Savannah Convention Center aren’t nearly as big, nor well-known as bigger conventions like San Diego Comic Con, Star Wars Celebration, and even MCM London Comic Con. On a quick note, did you know that Chicago’s McCormick Place is North America’s largest convention center (according to Giant Printing)?
Anyways, I recently found a comment somewhere on a Facebook post of Savannah Comic Con were a visitor critiqued the event, bringing up that separate business rooms were not used for dedicated panel rooms for this year’s event. This is a legit point, assuming that SCC previously did hold panels in their own separate spaces. There definitely were plenty of nearby business rooms that could’ve been rented out for the event.
For example, having Debi Derryberry’s panel in a smaller room could’ve prevented her panel from experiencing minor interruptions when announcements from the neighboring wrestling ring were being called over the speakers. After all, the Savannah Convention Center’s expansion just about doubled the building’s size, so surely there’d be more rooms to use compared to even five to 10 years ago.
Savannah Comic Con, being a short two-day event, it was almost the same things to see and do for both days. Had it been an even bigger convention with more panels/guests and vendors, perhaps SCC would have more reason to warrant a weekend pass. But maybe that’s just me. Maybe guests can still manage to better plan out the convention weekend in order to see and do more between two days. Otherwise, such a smaller event could easily be done in only one day.
Despite the drawbacks, I still recommend going to Savannah Comic Con even if for just one day, especially if you haven’t been to either the event nor the city of Savannah before. Whether the layout changes were made because not as many vendors and VIP guests were able to attend, or if any post-pandemic economic considerations were a factor, here’s to hoping that SCC returns in an even better state next year and for many more to come!
