What it was like
Downtown gets strange for one weekend. People in full armor waiting at a crosswalk. A Sailor Scout eating a hot dog on the steps. Nobody looks twice, because for those few days the Convention Center holds the largest gathering in this city of people who are unembarrassed about what they love.
That is the actual draw. The celebrity panels are good, the sneak peeks are good, the artist tables are where you find the thing you did not know you wanted, and the gaming tournaments run hot — but the reason people keep coming back is the walk from the parking structure to the doors, where you stop being the person at work with a shelf of figures and start being one of thousands.
Comics, film, television, anime, horror, and cosplay, all of it under one roof at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Bring the coworker who mentioned once, quietly, that they used to collect. Watch what happens to their face in the first hour.