Jul 15, 2018 7:00 AM

All the Gear You Need to Conquer Comic-Con

Brave long lines and massive crowds like a superhero with these essential items.

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Comic-Con International is both a celebration of fandom and a grueling test of fans’ dedication. This July, an anticipated 130,000 pop-culture devotees will make the trek to the San Diego Convention Center, where they will endure crowded halls, marathon lengths of walking, and lines so infamous they have their own Twitter accounts. (Hall H Line’s bio: “the longest, nerdiest, most demoralizing line at any convention ever made.”)

The reward? Four and a half jam-packed days of panels, signings, cosplay, exclusive collectibles, celebrities, and sneak previews. If you, brave soul, are heading to Comic-Con this month, we have all you need to minimize the suffering and get your geek on.

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Tom Bihn
Tom Bihn Synapse 25
It’s hard to exercise restraint around the bounty of free swag and covetable merch. With Tom Bihn’s roomy Synapse 25, you won’t have to. The backpack is deep and durable enough to hold all of your nostalgic impulse buys. It also features hyper-organized pockets for your smaller essentials, like Sharpies to whip out for autographs.
$200 at Tom Bihn
Anker
Anker PowerCore 10000
When sci-fi and comic book legend Joss Whedon spontaneously agrees to take a selfie with you, the last thing you need is a dead phone. Revive a low battery with the PowerCore 10000. This compact and powerful portable charger stores enough juice to fully charge an iPhone 8 almost three and a half times.
$30 at Amazon

Sea to Summit
Sea to Summit Spark SpI Sleeping Bag
Hall H, which hosts the Con’s most sought-after events, notoriously draws lines that wrap outside and around the convention center. If you plan to camp out, go for a lightly insulated sleeping bag to stay comfortable on balmy summer nights. In the morning, the Spark rolls into a 12.3 oz. ball that can be held in the palm of your hand.
$299 at Sea to Summit
Gossamer Gear
Gossamer Gear Liteflex Hiking Umbrella
Shield yourself from the Southern California sun with an ultra-lightweight umbrella. Bonus points for incorporating it into your Blade Runner cosplay.
$39 at Gossamer Gear

Helinox
Helinox Chair One
Have we mentioned that you'll probably find yourself in a lot of lines? For daytime queues, kick back and relax in a lightweight, mesh-lined folding chair. Chair One folds up easily, so once the doors open, you can head straight inside for that sneak preview of the new Transformers movie. (Yes. There's another one.)
$100 at EMS
Juvale
Juvale Poster Tube With Strap
Sure, you could buy a poster tube at Comic-Con, but why wait in another line when you could dive straight into the merch melee? Come prepared with your own poster tube to safely tote your precious posters and signed artwork all the way home. Juvale's poster tube can expand from a length of 24 in. to 40 in., so you can accumulate posters of any shape and size.
$15 at Amazon

Kind
Kind Sweet Cayenne BBQ Almond Bar
The snacks in Hall H are tasty, but don't have the nutrition to keep you going through the long days of Comic-Con. Fuel your fandom with a box of healthy, packable bars. These ones are tasty as hell and way more nutritious than nachos.
$15 at Kind Healthy Snacks
Photograph: Hydro Flask
Hydro Flask 24-Ounce Standard Mouth
Going to Comic-Con is a surprisingly athletic endeavor. All-day walking, followed by all-night parties, can dehydrate you fast. Invest in a water bottle to refill on the go. Hydro Flask's insulated bottle maintains the temperature you want for iced water, hot tea, and Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters.
$35 at Hydro Flask

Bath and Bodyworks
Bath & Body Works Stress Relief PocketBac Hand Sanitizer
Thousands of people equals millions of germs. Bring a pocket-sized hand sanitizer to stay healthy. (This one smells like a pocket-sized spa.) Apply generously as you open doors to long-awaited panels, page through rare paraphernalia, and hi-five the new lifelong friends you made in line.
$6 at Bath & Body Works
Emergen-C
Emergen-C Vitamin C Drink Mix in Tangerine Flavor
Lack of sleep, big crowds, and enclosed areas can spell disaster for your immune system. The relationship between vitamin C supplements and cold prevention is still unclear. But we figure that you’ll want anything in your arsenal to help stave off con plague.
$10 at Amazon

Pia Ceres is focused on making WIRED.com run seamlessly, whether she's crafting headlines or adapting print stories for web. She's sometimes a writer and always a dog person.

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