Arielle Jay | Downtown News

Every year in mid to late July, Downtown San Diego undergoes a mighty transformation. The vast majority of temporary inhabitants of Downtown are here solely for one thing: San Diego Comic Con International, or otherwise known as SDCC or “the Con.”

This four-day event (unless you count Preview Night) invites all ages to attend, San Diego residents and people from all over the world combined, and inspires everyone to wear costumes — that in normal circumstances would raise a few eyebrows — or their geekiest pop-culture apparel with pride.

SDCC starts every Wednesday evening with Preview Night, where those with exclusive passes view what Con-goers call “the floor” first-hand and get dibs on whatever is to be sold there for the days ahead.

With backpacks funded by Warner Bros, owner of DC Entertainment, attendees quickly learned that this particular year marked the 75th “birthday” of everyone’s favorite night-dwelling caped crusader, Batman. Here’s to 75 more!

Among other notable milestones: this was also Daredevil’s 50th, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ 30th, and Hellboy’s 20th year. Anyone who grew up with these wonderfully complex characters would probably find such to be amazing, but in the world of comics, heroes — and their respective villains — are timeless beings.

As the days unfolded, Con-goers also got to learn of exciting new movies and games either already out or on their way and far too many new and continuing television series to list.

If you are one of most individuals who lead average-Joe lives and have managed to successfully rope in a total of zero connections to get you into the Con, fret not. While it’s not guaranteed, if you dedicate some pre-planning, you just might get to go to the Con next year.

SDCC offers free passes to whoever volunteers. Becoming a volunteer is nearly as difficult as obtaining a ticket. However, if you make an account with SDCC online, sign up for SDCC’s email alerts, watch for SDCC’s emails, and make yourself available on the scheduled date and time to apply for volunteering, you too can become a volunteer.

SDCC volunteers get their passes free but they also have to earn their pass by fulfilling assignments that generally tend to be in three-hour increments.

As a volunteer, you get to see all aspects of SDCC, both behind the scenes and in the frontlines. So if you’re someone who loves to see how things work, you’ll probably love being a volunteer. Depending on the assignment you’re given, volunteers may see the exhibit hall just hours before attendees are allowed in, manage SDCC’s infamously long lines, assemble and hand out Con freebies to attendees, and register attendees, professionals, and other volunteers, among many other assignments.

Even better, returning volunteers get to go to Preview Night!

As with anything, volunteering is not without its drawbacks. Volunteer assignments require three hours of your time and in order to attend each Con day, you need to fulfill an assignment for each day.

Some supervisors are nice enough to let a volunteer go as early as two hours before the end of their assignment, but many will keep a volunteer held up even when they have a surplus of volunteers waiting with no tasks to fulfill.

Volunteers are asked to check in approximately 30 minutes before their assignment begins. Granted, it is just a request but to remain in SDCC’s good graces for future years as a volunteer, you want to be there when they ask you to be there.

Aside from assignments, you also have to wait in line to schedule assignments. Typically, assignments for the next Con day do not become available until 1:30 p.m.; however the line often begins as early as an hour and a half before that.

You see, in order to schedule a next-day assignment at a time you want, you must be in the line early because as with anything at SDCC, the slots for every assignment are limited and on a first-come-first-served basis.

So, if you want to see the panel for Teen Wolf in Hall H at 11 a.m. the next day, you need to be in that line for scheduling assignments very early to get an assignment that doesn’t conflict with that panel’s time.

If you have little patience, perhaps volunteering isn’t the right thing for you. But it’s very hard to turn down an opportunity to get into the most popular and important annual entertainment convention, even if it means waiting in lines and sacrificing somewhere around four hours of your time each day.

Not to mention, sometimes having a volunteer pass lets you get into certain parts of the Con that are normally closed off to attendees, even when you’re not a volunteer on duty.

—Arielle Jay is a native San Diegan, an artist, a major enthusiast of western comics and movies, and has attended four years of Comic Con as a volunteer. She can be reached at [email protected].