Comic-Con Post-Mortem

If you're looking for an inside scoop on all the big news that went down at this year's San Diego Comic Con...you've come to the wrong place. You can find that pretty much anywhere else on the web. If you're looking for a highly personal account of 2 nerds and their friends spending a crazy fun day in geek Valhalla - step right on up!

Be forewarned: This is a long one but there are at least a lot of photos to break up the text.

The 7am drive down was pretty uneventful and we got to San Diego in no time flat. After paying a King's ransom for parking, we were ready to do battle with the legendary Con crowds.

Once our badges were picked up, we quickly made our way to Room 6BCF for a Q&A with Star Trek Captains William Shatner and Avery Brooks, moderated by Kevin Smith.

With the epic line to get in we weren't sure that we would make the cut, but fortunately we did. It was a great way to start the day. Smith was funny, Avery Brooks was deeeeeeep and Shatner was...Shatner. Oh and guess what? Scott Bakula also made a surprise appearance!

Fearing a similar 'line situation' for our next panel, we hauled tail over to Hall H prepared to spend an hour waiting. What we found instead was no line whatsoever. Maybe that's why it sold out in one day. Perhaps they capped attendance at a lower number? Who knows, but either way it was nice. We were able to stroll right into Hall H happy to be able to sit through whatever panel was already in progress...

As we entered the lights were down and some sort of film clip could be heard. An usher passed us some 3D glasses which we promptly put on and realized we were in the Tintin Panel! The footage looked phenomenal and probably worth checking out in 3D.

After the clip was over, the lights came up and there was Mr. Steven Spielberg...and some guy named Peter Jackson. From the second it was announced that Spielberg was going to be in attendance, we assumed it wasn't even worth trying to get in since the crowd would be so epic, yet here we were.

The panel was inspiring, funny and informitive. Everything you're looking for in a Comic Con panel. Especially hilarious was a guest appearance by actor Andy Serkis looking like Bono to ask Spielberg a question.

After they left the stage we were given a few minutes to bask in our good fortune before the panel we actually came for began: Reletivity Media's presentation on Haywire and The Raven.

First up was director Steven Soderbergh, MMA fighter Gina Carano and actor Channing Tatum to debut a trailer as well as a crazy brutal fight scene from their action/revenge flick Haywire. The trailer is great and can be viewed here. The fight you'll have to take our word for...

The second half of the panel was for The Raven and in attendance was director James McTeigue accompanied by actors Alice Eve, Luke Evans and Lloyd Dobbler himself - JOHN CUSACK! Judging by the trailer, the film looks like your standard serial killer film but with the added novelty of Edgar Allan Poe! Maybe worth a Netflix stream.

Next I drug my beautiful, loving and understanding wife to the Fantagraphics booth so I could pick up the new Love and Rockets book (!) and get it signed by Los Bros Hernandez!!! After 3 years it's kind of become a tradition and it's still cute that Gilbert brings along his daughter Natalia to sell and sign her own mini-comics.

Now it was time to meet up with our friends Collin, Rachel and Daniel who were dressed as #6 & #2 from The Prisoner as well as Agent Smith from The Matrix, respectively. Since none of us had any real firm plans for this part of the day so we opted to just wander the convention floor.

At one point I swore I saw German filmmaker Werner Herzog but nobody else was paying attention to me. Was I hallucinating? Why would Werner Herzog be at Comic-Con? Well sure enough it was Werner as evidenced by this photo I came across on Tumblr. Le sigh...At least we were able to spy Guillermo Del Toro! 

With 2 hours left until our next and final panel (a Q&A with Adam West, Burt Ward & Julie Newmar) we decided to check out what was going on across the street in The Gaslamp Quarter. We found a cool little shop/gallery called Tr!ckster which we browsed for a little while before returning in what we hoped would be plenty of time to make it into the Batman panel...

...Unfortunately we had miscalculated the fandom of a 45 year old show and after 45min in line were informed that the room was filled to capacity. Le sigh again. But all was not lost, for PASTA lay in our future at The Olde Spaghetti Factory! Nom nom nom!

And now for the Doogie Howser wrap-up: Comic-Con is what you make of it. And even though we didn't get to see everything we wanted to, we were still able to have a great time because we were with friends and really isn't that all that matters? *music swells

In parting, here are some costume highlights as captured by Ms. 'Becca'lise Deveaux.

Catch you In the Funny Pages!