When Silicon Valley Comic Con 2019 ended last August, no announcements were made for the 2020 show dates. That was unusual since previous shows had the dates for the next show in advance. The only potential date we had for the last six months was a picture posted on Friends of Comic Cons that listed October 16 to 18, 2020 from inside the 2019 program guide. The official website for Silicon Valley Comic Con updated this past Sunday night with the new dates and more announcements forthcoming. But tickets weren’t on sale yet. As of yesterday afternoon, the old website redirected to the new website.
Silicon Valley Comic Con is dead! Long live SiliCon With Adam Savage!
If you read the comments on the Friends of Comic Cons page, an exhibitor mentioned to someone that Silicon Valley Comic Con would re-brand for 2020. A re-branding wasn’t surprising for two reasons.
- SVCC finally stopped being a comic con with last year’s show. None of the comic book dealers showed up with their heavy tables of old comic books. I read comments on Facebook that the organizers charged too much for dealer room floor space. That may have been in reaction to the scandal that took place at the 2018 show. Comic book dealers paid $50,000 USD to Stan Lee’s management team to have him sign 400 comic books while he was ill and attendees waited hours in line for their autographs.
- Unlike the first few years where he ran all over the show floor, Steve Wozniak has all but checked out in recent years. He literally flew in from Germany on Friday night and flew out on Sunday morning to Philadelphia, staying just long enough to take pictures with the celebrities at the 2018 show. With the death of Stan Lee in November 2018, Steve needed a new partner who could be the face of a re-branded SVCC.
That’s where Adam Savage comes in. Most people know him from his popular TV show, “MythBusters”. Fewer people may know that he was part of SVCC from the beginning. I didn’t notice him until he moderated the panel with astronaut Chris Hadfield, cosplayed as Star-Lord from “The Guardians of Galaxy,” and watch the video on how he made a replica of the Sony Walkman to go with the costume at last year’s show. With him as the new creative director, the re-branded show is now called SiliCon With Adam Savage.
I don’t expect too many great changes to take place beyond the changes made at last year’s show. Tickets are available for sale and VIP tickets are $25 USD higher than last year. I still don’t think VIP tickets are worth the money and I plan to buy a regular three-day ticket. After the first guest is officially announced, the bitch-a-thon that preceded every show will get under way in earnest.