Well, if the title of the post hadn’t given it away – and I think it’s been pretty apparent to anyone paying attention, presumably – Caroline and I will not be attending San Diego Comic-Con this July. We’ve both been deep in discussion about this for the last couple of months but a recent family holiday away (where we had to tackle the increasing situation regarding my father and his Alzheimer’s / leukaemia diagnosis) made the decision pretty much a done deal.
I don’t think I’ve been completely absent online, as I’ve been maintaining my Bluesky and Threads accounts as best I can (no twitters for me anymore, nu-huh, no chance in hell!). So, while I haven’t been live streaming my weekly Talkin’ Con: A Cup O’ Tea podcast, I’d like to think I’ve still been a little bit of a welcome presence, popping up in your timelines when you’ve least expected it.
That being said, and with the imminent curtain-raising on Hotelpocalypse later today, I thought it only fitting to explain my reasons for my absence for SDCC 2025 (and possibly the foreseeable future) and what I’ve got in mind, going forward. So, what’s going on, Leonard?
- 1. My Father’s Health. Can’t Forget That. (A Pun.)
This one’s pretty obvious as it has been the biggest aspect of my life for the last couple of years – and, for him, it’s only getting worse. My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s three years ago, and as time has gone on, his memory and retention have been completely shot to hell. We’re now at a point where we can’t go between five and 20 minutes without him resetting and not being able to know what he’s done or even what we’re doing in that moment.
Around two years ago, I left my job at the National Distribution Centre for Marks & Spencer’s where I was developing, I thought, a half decent career to change tack and work from home for a company servicing data for the music industry. This allowed me to earn an honest living, keeping me off the streets, while also serving as a full-time carer for my father.
It’s doing this which has meant that I had to curtail my live streaming efforts, just as I thought I could get back into it – while Talkin’ Con only took place once a week on a Sunday, the preparation for the show as well as real world scheduling around looking after my dad meant I couldn’t invest the time and effort to put on a stream I could be proud of, as evidenced by the many technical issues in the last episodes which could have been solved if I just had my head out of my arse for half an hour!
I managed to get two weeks off last year to attend SDCC but that took a lot of juggling and negotiating with my brother, Paul, and my father’s estranged wife to have somebody in the house looking after Dad (my brother is an aspiring actor, called away for shoots at a moments notice and my mother staying at the old family home… well, you can imagine how awkward that was for everybody concerned, regardless of however ‘friendly’ everyone is in recent years).
This year, myself, Caroline and Paul have decided to try to give Dad some positive moments – instead of just sitting on the sofa at home, playing Solitare on his phone and wasting away – including over the last week and a half a family holiday of a P&O Cruise around the Med, bookending with stops at the port of Valletta, Malta – it’s where the family name comes from and, while we couldn’t get to the actual Sultana point of origin at Gozo due to rough weather, at least we could say we put ‘boots on the ground’ in Malta. First time visit for myself, Paul and Caroline: a proper emotional moment.
But it’s a moment of many that my father simply can’t recall, even the evening that same day. While we did have some true shining moments during the trip, the majority of it was taken up with his frustrations, bitterness, frustrations and exclaimations of suicidal thoughts. I have to do more research but I can’t believe that one or two pearls in a mire of darkness is enough to warrant the physiological strain on someone trying to pull anything from a brain that is broken. On return, we’ve decided that big trips like the cruise is simply too much for him and so, we’re moving to day trips away where he can be back home and in familiar surroundings by close of day.
That also means we have to be around full-time – and that instantly puts a kibosh on a two-week holiday to San Diego. But that’s not the only reason, is it? Oh no.
- 2. The Orange-Haired Elephant In The Room (or, Horse In The Hospital)
This may seem like a cop-out – blaming a governmental administration on a decision to skip a trip to the United States – but THIS administration is putting particular strain on anyone from outside of the country, putting them on a confrontational status.
What Donald Trump has done to the mindset of the country in such a short period of time (it’s been just THREE MONTHS, for f%&k’s sake!) is almost worthy of appreciation if it hasn’t been so incredibly damaging to the reputation of The Most Powerful Country On The Planet. From emboldening some of the blackest souls to walk the earth to cause immeasurable harm and suffering to not only the already vulnerable but also to its regular everyday citizens, to setting the world stage alight with inflammatory rhetoric and financial table-flipping, the United States has effectively thrown up a symbolic wall to the rest of the planet with everyone who doesn’t subscribe to the xenophobic worldview of the authors of Project 2025, with all very much an enemy combatant.
My family surname is Sultana: as I’ve mentioned, it’s one with its origins in the Mediateranian as well as the nomadic regions of the world – Turkey, Pakistan, Bangaldesh, Saudi Arabia, etc – and you better believe that a six-foot white chap with a pronounced Received Pronounciation accent and this surname means that, on every single trip to the States I’ve done since 2010, I’ve been selected for a ‘random luggage search’ on entry. It’s become the running joke in our house, simply part of the holiday experience.
Except, now, it wouldn’t be a joke, would it? ICE has been let completely off the leash under the Trump Administration, finally equipped with the jurisdiction and powers they’ve been craving for decades. Journalists, scientists, creators and tourist visitors have found themselves, at best, under intense scrutiny of their intentions visiting the country and, at worse, placed in detention with the slightest hint of provocation. I’d hate to think what the response would be if Border Control saw my passport at Chicago International this July.
Not even taking into consideration my role as Press at San Diego Comic-Con: I would have to apply for a Journalist working Visa, even though The Convention Collective is hardly a cash-cow and would be seen as a fan-site, at best. It would have me ‘working’ in the US, if being tagged a foreign journalist wouldn’t put a target on my back, anyway. And I’m certainly not going to risk putting Caroline in harms way, just for the chance to attend a comic convention.
Trump has made enemies of us all. He and his cult have changed America deeply and, while I desperately hope it’s not the case, possibly irreversibly. One of the biggest reasons why Caroline and I would be heading to the US is the wonderful and beautiful friends we’ve made there, the ‘family we’ve found’ – but the tone and tenor of what makes up America now has a dark undercurrent. And you don’t visit Berlin while they’re constructing the gas chambers on the other side of the forest.
- 3. Sorry To Be Shallow For A Moment: It’s All About The Benjamins.
As part of Trump’s bombastic flipping of the tables, the financial aspect of visiting the States – from flights to hotels, to simply moving around and spending in the country – has risen exponentially, and we just can’t afford it. When we’ve just forked out a sizeable chunk of cash to do this family cruise, it would cost us about the same again and then some to hop over to California for two weeks.
Not to mention the fact that American businesses and hotels were already hiked up to an insane degree, as noted when we visited last year: there seemed to be a vibe of being put against the ropes when COVID and lockdown happened for such an extended period, that every aspect of transaction was trying to claw some of that lost revenue back. It’s already been noted that the hotels in San Diego, already gouging the captive tourist audience of SDCC, have risen their prices again by an extortionate amount, knowing that the con will be in town, signed and sealed, for the next few years. They, along with every other industry in the city, are going to bleed visitors dry the best they can.
Sorry, guys. I’m on a pretty decent wage, for sure… but it’s getting bloody crazy.
- 4. Last But Not Least, And It’s A Tough Fact To Face… But We’ve Done It, Now, Surely?
Our first trip to San Diego Comic-Con was in 2010 as the focal point for our honeymoon, and Caroline and I fell in love with the convention, the city, and the tribe that we found almost instantly, to the point where I’ve hinged almost my entire personality and online persona around the event. I’ve invested time, money, blood, sweat and tears to supporting the convention, helping attendees get the very most out of their week in San Diego, even creating Facebook groups to help attendees get their badges in the first place… I’ve done a lot! Appeared on panels, organised and hosted on panels, attended world premieres, conducted interviews with legends, set up livestreams and forums and meetups on yachts and run around every single corner of San Diego Comic-Con to breathe it all in the best I can and give it all back to you. And I wouldn’t change a single thing.
But, shy a handful of no-shows, that’s been fifteen years dedicated to one event and, as Caroline said when weighing up the pros and cons of going this year, we’ve kinda done it, haven’t we? Literally bought the t-shirt (many, many, MANY t-shirts!! And the tiki-mugs!!). Time to move on? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: for the last five years, easily, the principal reason we have been going back is for the friends we’ve made in San Diego, coming from across the globe. They are – YOU are – beautiful people and you’ve made our lives so much richer and fuller for being in it. Thank you so much – what you mean to us is beyond measure.
Let’s be honest, I ain’t getting behind that lectern in Hall H now (regardless of how much I would have crushed it) and there are only so many overnight (and over-day) campouts for Marvel panels you can do before your back gives out. Yes, 2025 is going to be a stonking year for nerd output, from SUPERMAN and FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS cinema slugfest, to the ever-increasing amount of genre telly, gaming and fandom, to San Diego Comic-Con being back on its feet after the decimation of lockdown. But, for me, it would have to be a slew of amazing panels, a fully comped hotel room and an endless supply of In-And-Out delivered on a silver platter that would get me on the plane. And I can’t see that happening, can you?
So, where does that leave me and An Englishman In San Diego? I do have plans for SDCC this year, seeing as I am booked for holiday for that week in July. I suspect what I’m going to do is sit by the computer take in as much info as I can from every source I can find and post regular updates online to both my AEISD and Convention Collective Bluesky and Threads accounts (something most other sites can’t exactly pull off because, well, they’re at the show and enjoying it the best they can, aren’t they?). We will have boots on the ground in the form of senior editor Dan Berry and a couple of very enthusiastic contributors, dropping content into my Google Drive for me to process and share with you all as quickly as I can, along with any tidbits of information happening at the con, live.
I’m also intending to resurrect Talkin’ Con in the week or so before SDCC, in much the same way as the SDCC Unofficial Blog do, to bring the latest updates prior to the convention kicking off proper. I’m also going to try and bring the weekly show back, post-SDCC 2025, to conduct interviews and profiles the best I can but that’s entirely down to Dad and how he’s doing – you’ll have to watch this space on that one. But for anybody that is wanting to get the very best experience out of their Comic-Con, I will always, always be around and I’ll never turn anyone away. I’m not disappearing for good, I’ll have you know!
And there are other cons I can attend in SDCC’s place, of course – including one which is a little closer to home. Comic-Con International’s first foray into organising an event outside of their North American comfort zone, Comic-Con Malaga, is scheduled for the end of September 2025 and that’s three hours flight away, taking off from Leeds/Bradford, just down t’road. And I can get return flights for fifty quid. I’ve talked it out with t’Missus and it’ll be a great opportunity to be there at this historic first for CCI – I can bugger off for the weekend and be back before Dad needs his pyjamas changing. Result!
I’m going to miss you guys – both Caroline and I will. But I hope you’ll understand that while we won’t be attending SDCC in person, we’ll always be there in spirit. Until I die, in which case, I’ll actually be there in spirit, haunting the convention centre and standing behind you while you’re in line at Sweet Things. BOO!
