San Diego Comic Convention Releases New Statement on 2021 Conventions Comic-Con and WonderCon Anaheim.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to impact the comics industry in 2021 as the San Diego Comic Convention has announced it will be postponing SDCC 2021 this year and offering Comic-Con@Home for free online in its place. SDCC will return to the San Diego Convention Center July 20-24th, 2022.
SDCC has decided to plan a three-day in-person convention in San Diego during November, 2021 with more details expected to be announced soon, however.
This follows the earlier announcement of WonderCon in Anaheim 2021 being cancelled with a free online option WonderCon@Home also taking its place.
Those who have purchased badges that were meant to be rolled over to the 2021 show will now have their purchases rolled over again to the 2022 date unless a refund is requested.
See below for the full statement released by Comic-Con International found on their social media HERE:
STATEMENT REGARDING COMIC-CON 2021
As you may be aware, due to concern for public health and safety, San Diego Comic Convention had to cancel both of its in-person events in 2020 and recently announced that our spring 2021 show, WonderCon in Anaheim, will also be canceled. In its place, WonderCon@Home will once again be held as a free online event on March 26 and 27, 2021.
It is the policy of the organization to continue to closely monitor information from local and national healthcare officials as it pertains to the COVID-19 pandemic. Never could we have imagined what the world experienced in 2020 and continues to experience today. While we are buoyed by the rollout of the vaccine and the growing number of individuals being inoculated, it appears that July will still be too early to safely hold an in-person event of the magnitude of Comic-Con. For this reason, we have made the challenging decision to postpone Comic-Con 2021 as an in-person gathering until our 2022 dates, and once again hold this year’s celebration as the free online Comic-Con@Home. Unfortunately, the challenges of this past year and the multiple postponements of our two largest events have left us with limited financial resources, so this year the online experience will be reduced to a three-day event, spanning July 23-25, 2021.
While we lament the postponement of the in-person Comic-Con, our commitment to this community of fans and our celebration of comics and the related popular arts endures as an important part of who we are. As the timing and scope of our larger event factored greatly into our decision to postpone, we believe that launching a smaller in-person event at a later time may be a safe alternative. For this reason, we are happy to announce that San Diego Comic Convention is planning to present a three-day in-person convention in San Diego in November. At this time, we are still working on specific details as to attendance capacity, badge cost, and related information, and those details will be forthcoming. Please continue to visit our website, comic-con.org, for official updated information as it becomes available.
At this time, individuals who have purchased badges that were rolled over to the 2021 show will have those badges automatically transferred to the 2022 event unless a refund is requested. To submit a badge refund request, visit www.comic-con.org/cci/comic-con-cancellationrefund-policy. All confirmed exhibitors with a rollover payment from Comic-Con 2020 will receive a separate email with instructions and deadlines for continuing to forward your payment on to Comic-Con 2022, or for requesting a refund. In addition, we are currently working on an option for those wishing to transfer their badge or exhibitor deposits/payments as full or partial payment towards our 2021 November event. Information will be forthcoming, so please watch your email inbox and the Comic-Con website for further details.
The past several months have taken a great toll on both families and friends, and we hope this effort is a small move toward a return to gathering as a community to not only celebrate popular art, but also friendship, education, and the enduring spirit of the fandom that is so much a part of Comic-Con. We thank you all for your continued and unwavering support during these most challenging times.
We look forward to seeing you in November!
–San Diego Comic Convention
If you have a cancellation/refund request be sure to head over to the Comic-Con website for more information.
As always, stay tuned to Comic Watch for all your fandom news and reviews.