Introduction

On this post of AntSol Travel, going out anywhere is expensive, and fan conventions like LA Comic Con are no exception. From badges, transportation, lodging, food & beverage, buying merchandise, $80 parking fees, and $250 to meet & greet Nicolas Cage!!! I am Anthony Solhtalab, a hospitality professional for over a decade and a huge fan of public transportation, sports, video games, anime, theme parks, and fan conventions. I am going to use my research & industry knowledge to show you how conventions cost from a professional side of things so you can at least understand why prices are like they are for the average consumer, you can still complain about prices in the comments. All that & more on AntSol Travel! 

Inspired by the complaining attendee costs of LA Comic Con, I wanted to do more industry research based on my experience at the convention as people would be interested in a more detailed look into why costs are high. If you want a quick three minute video version of the post, the TikTok version is below.

About LA Comic Con 

LA Comic Con is a popular arts fan convention by fans for fans by everyone in every fandom from comic books, TV shows, movies, video games, anime, and more. It is owned & operated by Comikazi Entertainment since 2011, taking place on one of the last weekends of October when there is usually a convention drought.  It took place last weekend on October 30 to November 1 that happens to coincide with Halloween weekend, which I went to on Nov 1. Next year will be a week before Halloween weekend in 2027. In 2025, they had over 130,000 attendees, this year seems to be a bit more than that. 

The main show dates were that Saturday & Sunday as Friday did not have many panels as they only were open from 5:30 pm to 10 pm, only four panels on Friday with an evening party. Why don’t they make it a full day? Not enough attendees I guess. On Saturday & Sunday, it had a huge lineup of panels & programs.

They make money by selling tickets & vendor tables to make up the cost of the convention center space, staffing, utility usage, and more.

About Los Angeles Convention Center

It took place at the 867,000 sq ft Los Angeles Convention Center, opened in 1971 & had three expansions, it is owned by the City of Los Angeles LA Comic Con took all five exhibit halls, and a good chunk of the 64 meeting rooms for program panels & press room (I bought a ticket this year, not press). Located in downtown Los Angeles at LA Live that is also home to Crypto/Staples Center & Peacock Theater, all venues are owned & operated by Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc. (AEG). However, the City of Los Angeles owns the convention center and has been managed by AEG since 2013. 

AEG also sets parking prices as well & adjusted parking rate with supply & demand, such as the Lakers game held later that Sunday evening. Concession stands & getting outside concessionaires are by Legends Global, a subsidiary of AEG. 

Parking rates at LA Live, which is home to Crypto/Staple Center, the LA Convention Center, and Peacock theater, set the parking rates at $60 to $80 due to super busy LA Comic Con & the Lakers game. My answer, take transit!!! Venues are all owned except for the LA Convention Center by Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc. (AEG) which AEG manages & the City of Los Angeles owns. 

LA Live venues are a quick walk from the LA Metro Pico station that is served by the Metro A & E light rail lines with easy access from LA Union Station on the A line for only a $1.75 fare or is included with Metrolink fare. 

Anaheim to Los Angeles Convention Center by Transit

To get to Los Angeles, I took the OC Bus 43 from Anaheim to Fullerton Transportation Center. Then take the Metrolink 91/Perris train 1751, departing from Fullerton at 8:38 am to LA Union Station for $9.75 fare for a single way ticket, or $12 for the Weekend Day pass. Then included transfer to Metro A line to Pico, and then walk to the Los Angeles Union Station. The return trip will be on the A line back to Union Station, 91/Perris train 1754 departing Union Station at 7:20 pm and arriving in Fullerton at 7:57 pm. 

Time to take the OCBus 43 from Disneyland bus stop at Harbor Blvd. to Fullerton Transportation Center, taking about 25 minutes. I’II get there in plenty of time for the Metrolink 91/Perris train to LA Union Station.

Parking is free at the Fullerton Transportation Center for Metrolink & Amtrak passengers with 1,321 surface & garage parking spaces. I took OCBus instead using Metrolink’s Weekend Day pass for $12 that includes free transit connections that includes OCBus and Metro Bus & Rail.    

All aboard Metrolink 91/Perris train 1751 to LA Union Station! 

Rolling by Pico Rivera, it has tons of older post WWII & newer townhouse developments. With a population of 62,000. Commerce is in an industrial area with only a handful of transit connections, population of 12,000. Making Pico Rivera a perfect place to relocate the Commerce Metrolink station that LA Metro is planning on.

Time to take the Metro A line to Pico station to the LA Comic Con! Other events happening today are the Rams vs. Chargers at SoFi Stadium, Lakers vs. Toronto Raptors at Crypto/Staples Center, and Phoebe Bridgers at Intuit Dome. It will be a busy day here in Los Angeles and for LA Metro staff. There is a game day service from LAX Metro Center to SoFi for the football game.

I just arrived at the LA Convention Center! There is a $15 convenience fee, if you want to have your badge delivered by mail. I did not, so I’m picking it up from the badge pickup. Security here has the walk through metal detectors.

With my badge in hand, Joltick & l are ready to explore LA Comic Con!

In The Exhibit Hall

Now in the exhibit hall, they have plenty of vendors & artists! Of course, there are still comic book vendors. Their artist alley does not allow all Al art to be sold!

Fandom was doing free cosplay photos! Here is my cosplay of Nate, the male protagonist of Pokemon Black & White 2(2012) with a short sleeve sweater on top of a black long sleeve shirt, dark shorts, visor with a Pokeball logo, and beige messenger bag. Joltick has clips on its feet to hang on to the bag strap. I was also carrying a poster tube as well in case I wanted to buy a larger poster, which I ended up not needing.

In the exhibit hall, Art Supply Warehouse in Westminster, is also selling discounted art supplies as well! I bought art supplies from them earlier this year at WonderCon. I got a sketch book and black felt pen for $7. A really good deal!

Food & Beverage

Time for lunch at the convention center’s grab & go dining. AEG manages the food & beverage concession stands as well. They have the usual food such as burgers, salads, sandwiches, pizza, chicken tenders, chicken sandwiches, and more. I got hot dogs & fries for $15, not bad. Yes, I am sitting on the floor since all the seating was full.

One of the convention center’s grab & go markets had a coffee machine for $5 coffee. However, I overheard some attendees complain about the $8 monster energy cans. Forgot the item at home, pay the convenience fee that profits for AEG & City of LA.

AEG also gets outside and charge a fee to vendors & food trucks to widen the food choices for attendees, which some use really bad AI generated renderings of their alleged items. 

Celebrity Meet & Greets

Celebrity Meet & Greets can be a huge draw for conventions as the organizers can get a well known celebrity to make money if they are either in between roles or promoting their upcoming role. 

Nicolas Cage was at a couple panels and charging $250 for a meet & greet and an autograph. 

Hayden Christenson did meet & greets, along with a paid panel as well. I have not seen a paid panel before at any conventions I’ve been to. 

I wanted to pay to meet & greet with anime voice actors that I am more familiar with. I bought autographs from two of the lead voice actors from Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End anime, Mallorie Rodak as Freiren for $50 & Jordan Dash Cruz as Stark for $40. Since they both had many voice over roles, you can geek out with them about that role, which I did with Mallorie & Jordan for their roles in Freiren.  

Mallorie Rodak, with over 110 anime roles & recently on one of my favorite anime, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End as Frieren, a mage elf. Along with Jordan Dash Cruz, many anime roles, including as Stark in Frieren as well. I bought posters & autographs from each of their Friernen characters for $40 each. They both loved I found them through the anime and are excited for season 3 next year for the anime. Jordan even loved my Joltick plush since it is hanging on the front of my messenger bag strap. I was happy I did the meet & greet!

The autographs were in the west hall, which also had the gaming section. There were tables for some of the branches of the armed forces since they have video gaming leagues. They especially had gaming competitions between the armed forces & the attendees.

Panel Programs

Panel 1: “Creators in the Age of AI” 

The first panel of the day was with the National Association of Voice Actors as they discussed creators & broadcasting in the age of AI. Left to right: Moderated by Carin Gilfry, Sam Tung: Storyboard Artist, David Goyer: Writer, Cissy Jones: Actor, Tim Friedlander: President of NAVA. 

AI seems to be used by broadcasting a lot such as feedback generated by AI, shot list for film, voice recording used to train AI unethically to the published product. Voice overs can get cloned & trained, and the person does not own the VA lines once given to companies. Rob fees for agents & VA for easy & cheap sounds. 

The point of doing art is learning about enjoying the process of creating art, and it will get better. You need to match your skill to match your taste, however, many people quit art because of the time & effort, and resort to AI generation. 

The AI output is only as good as the input and is a service that stole art & data. A lawsuit was filed against Anthropic for illegally taking & uploading books, and authors got $5000 each book. Now they cut up, scan, and upload to the AI. 

California State Senate Bill 1050 now requires commercials generated by AI now need a disclaimer if they use AI for voice or visuals starting January 1, 2027! The bill was spearheaded by Jim Friedlander, the president of NAVA. Especially now that many people are anti AI, they fear backlash. In Adobe Photoshop, some outputs will be flagged as AI even if it was not edited with AI.

To combat AI usage, contact governments about anti AI bills, add watermarks like Glaze & Nightshade, and don’t post online to keep AI away from using content. There are various groups that want more control of AI such as the Creator Coalition on AI, and let studios know that . Hire an artist to work on art. Call out on AI content, especially random art & marketing materials, and tell them I don’t like AI usage.  

Per the U.S. Congress, content generated by artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted. It must be made by a person. However, human made content that has been assisted by AI for edits can be copyrighted as long as human made work is most of the work.

Panel 2: “How to Break Into Voice Acting”

The second panel of the day is about breaking into voice acting. I came in late and the panel guests were not post the LACC app. Here are some of the points I got from the panel. It is a marathon that you need to do, from classes, practice, tons of auditions, stick with it, and you will find your opportunity. Make sure to check out emails consistently, you might miss an opportunity. You can always check out voice acting weekend classes. There’s plenty of room in the sea of acting, and celebrating your industry colleagues wins. You never know if your regular or tweaked version of your voice would be picked, so embrace your natural voice as well. You do earn money, so you need to learn how to manage it as well. 

Once you record a voice line while practicing, record it, take a break, and then listen with fresh ears. Know about what type of content you are auditing for so you know how to voice. Have affirmations to yourself if you are anxious. Talk to a voice therapist as you will have issues with your voice box & over extend it, and do vocal exercises. Ask who, what, where, when, and why of the subject of the auditions. 

For first timers, take classes, learn the fundamentals of acting, watch & learn about people you look up to. It is a busy job and you need to manage your time between your family & work, and don’t burn yourself out. 

If you need to use a different dialect, there would be a dialect, they would be in the booth, along with pronunciations. Check the dialect archive. 

Panel 3: “Avatar: The Last Airbender fans, are we back?”

My last panel of the day was a fan led panel, “Avatar: The Last Airbender fans, are we back?” With the success of Avatar Seven Havens series & the sequel movie of the main series, is it back for the fans? Everyone loved both the new series & movie, especially Paramount, and shared about the relationship with the show, characters, themes, and more. Led by Avatar the Last Airbender franchise fans, everyone love the franchise with the many themes such as choices that the characters make, change & growth that characters have over time, how we relate to each character & learn from every watch, tons of grief & loss, it is okay to not be okay, cultural representation with the four nations & all combined in Republic City in Korra. The show’s creators make a great show that can stand the test of time. 

LGBTQ representation in media is small, but was shown in Legend of Korra as Korra & Asami was the first cartoon representation of two women together, which had tons of push back. 

Characters have wide representation & have tons of strong women characters. Toph Bi Fong was working with vision impairment & sheltered by her rich family,

Seven Havens is great to have weekly postings, then fans can talk about it before the following week. 

Jessikarah was one of the panelists who has a huge following for Avatar series cosplay & skits that I love! She was dressed as Korra during the Seven Havens series, and she loved the girl dressed like Pavi, one of the twin Avatars from Seven Havens! After the panel, I sent her the photo and she was so happy that I got the shot for her!

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Heading Home with A Stop at Little Tokyo

It is 5 pm, that is the end of the 2026 LA Comic Con! I had tons of fun exploring the exhibit hall, informative program panels, and meet & greets! I definitely want to go again next year! Let’s get dinner in Little Tokyo since LA Live will be busy with Lakers fans.

Now from Pico to Little Tokyo on the E line! It is also packed with Rams (4-4) & Chargers (0-7) fans as the Rams won 24-9! Lakers fans exit here with the game starting at 6 pm vs. the Raptors.

I walked around Japanese Village Plaza, a shopping center with Japanese restaurants, clothing, anime merchandise shops, and more. There were a good amount of people I saw at LA Comic Con who also went to the plaza via the Metro as well. 

Including a grocery store, Nijiya Market, a full service Japanese grocery store! They had packaged  food & beverages, and quick & cheap pre-made food! I bought a bento box for $7.99 & $3.50 for a bottled oolong tea drink. Then I headed back to the Little Tokyo Metro station to Union Station. 

At Union Station, the waiting area seating is open for ticketed Amtrak & Metrolink passengers, and just show the security staff the ticket you can sit. 

From the Nijiya Market, I got a bento box with two onigiri, and a variety of sides that are more typical of modern Japanese food. Including spaghetti, pickled egg, sausage, meatballs, broccoli, and tempura shrimp. It was all good!

They have nice & large video boards for the COS departures. I’ll be taking the Metrolink 91/Perris train at 7:20 pm. After eating, I chilled for a bit before heading out ten minutes before departure. 

At platform 11B, I boarded the Metrolink train to head back to Fullerton, where the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner 558 got a head start by departing at 7:10 pm vs Metrolink 91’s 7:20 pm. 

Back in Fullerton, it is 8 pm and 61°. It is late and I am tired. I’m going to take the OCBus 47 back towards the resort area. When I got back home and unpacked, it was 9 pm. I was exhausted but had an amazing time at LA Comic Con!