And Now...the Conning Fellow

With more cons to cover, I'm moving this effort to a less event specific blog. Come check it out at Conning Fellow.

More Photos

Year Four: Done

Another year of the NY ComicCon down, and now starts the long wait until October 2010. I've still got some notes to go through before sealing the NYCC file, including plenty of photos, and some reviews that will be on DVDTalk.com soon.

Thanks for reading!
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Fringe is Not An Easy Title For Puns

They all turned out for the Fringe panel, including a far more than capacity crowd, and exec producer Jeff Pinkner, along with actors Anna Torv, Kirk Acevado, Blair Brown, Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole, Josh Jackson and John Noble. I admit, I've never watched the show (I have enough serial dramas to follow) but after seeing the recap reel shown here, I may have to check it out.

The panel didn't spill many secrets, other than the presence of a visual clue in each episode that foretells the next show's subject, and the fact that the bumpers have a code that reveals the show's secrets. Instead, it focused more on the actors' experiences, like Jackson's flowchart of the series plot or Reddick's personally touching his set (which is the biggest of the cast, in case you were wondering.) The most interesting item involved the character of the Observer (whom they got on the sidelines of the recent Giants play-offs game (much to Jackson's chagrin, as he sat in the nosebleeds.)) Apparently Fox tried really hard to get the character onto the platform for President Obama's inauguration. Also, there's other Observers, one of which will be seen soon.

The first third of the next episode was shown, and yeah, I definitely have to check this show out.

A favorite part for non-Fringe followers: a guy in the audience kept yelling out Mighty Ducks references, and Jackson played along. I don't think he's the greatest actor, but he seems like a good guy in real life.
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Kids Day

I'm not particularly comfortable seeing women in next to nothing and little kids sharing the same convention floor (and even less comfortable with the two mixing, like the six-year-old girl in fishnets or the little boy posing with an amateur porn star in a Wonder Woman costume.) But if you get past that, the experience must be pretty cool for the kids in attendance, with a special room for them, featuring kid-friendly events, and even booths catering to youngsters, like Fox Home Entertainment's, which was doing kid's hair to look like the star of their upcoming Dragonball movie.

It will still be a long time before I bring my daughter.
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What I Learned from Joss W.

"Friday is Killday": When asked about how he decides to kill characters.

"Locations are the new special effects": Joss' wife's thought after watching Slumdog Millionaire

"I'm a genius": Joss' joking explanation when asked why people are so willing to work with him
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Inside the Dollhouse

Joss Wheadon (I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong) stopped by with the first third of the premiere episode of his soon-to-air series Dollhouse. It (and especially Eliza Dushku) looks pretty nice, as we got to see her character Echo, a high-priced callgirl, on a job, and the process she undergoes following said job, along with a scene that sets up the gist of the story. It's essentially setting up as a cop chasing a case that's far beyond his scope, and it seems there will be some changes in Echo's life.

The main room was packed with fans of the mercurial creator's prior series, who gave a great primer on the creation of the show
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Chuck vs. NY ComicCon

Execs Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak were joined by series star Yvonne Strahovski for a panel Sunday, which followed a rather extensive reel of never-before-seen footage from the second half of the current season, loaded with spoilers of what's coming up, including more (inappropriate) romance at the Buy More, some guest appearances by comedy and sci-fi icons and more revelations about Chuck and Ellie's dad.

The room was packed beyond capacity, likely to check out the lovely Aussie Strahovski (who lost geek cred for saying she didn't get the show's pop-culture references,) and the crowd was definitely entertained by the funny trio, though the constant requests and invitations during the Q&A session got a bit annoying (and led to the new catch-phrase "Throw it up!")

Among the topics touched upon were the effect of the economy on Buy More (something we'll see coming up, guest casting (Fedak lives to cast Star Trek actors), Jeff and Lester's band "Jeffster," and the introduction of new spies in the lives of Chuck and company, including a British agent who takes a shining to our favorite lady agent.
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The Diversity of Nerds

Here's my "The More You Know" Post: Say what you will about the people who attend comic conventions, but they have to be the most diverse group of people ever to assemble under one roof. If there's a color of skin, it's here. If there's a gender, it's here. If there's a social class, sexual orientation or age, it's here. It's the feel-good element of this freak show.
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Back for Day Three

Heading back to the city for the last day of NY ComicCon until October of 2010 (Boy that's a long time.) Today is Kids Day, so we'll get the unusual combination of naughty nurses, costumed geeks and impressionable children. We also get a few of the weekend's biggest panels, including Chuck, Dollhouse and Fringe. Should be a good time and hopefully we'll get some good scoops.
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Some Photos from ComicCon

Krod Mandoon (Not an Ethnic Meal Break)

Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire is a "workplace" comedy series coming up on Comedy Central, that is a bit like Robin Hood: Men in Tights, but with a stricter story and less parody. Chris Hardwick of G4 did a great job moderating (he really should be on TV more often,) as two of the execs and two of the stars answered questions, including Sean Maguire, who is making up for the horrible "Meet the Spartans" movie. Unfortunately, the wonderful Matt Lucas (Little Britain,) who plays the key baddie in the show, wasn't in attendance, but Maguire does a pretty good imitation (of co-star Kevin Hart and Marty McFly also,) and is really pretty quick on the draw.

The story about how Lucas became a part of the show was especially a crowd pleaser, as he sort of fell in their laps. "We got Matt Lucas to tape an audition." "Wow!...Who's Matt Lucas?" Seriously, this might have been the most entertaining panel all weekend.
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Summit Brings Us Knowing & The Hurt Locker

The participation was light this time, but the movies certainly piqued my curiosity.

Knowing has been a movie I've been interested in since Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) was attached, and in seeing the trailer and two scenes selected by director Alex Proyas (who couldn't make it due to post-production,) it probably is better Kelly didn't make this movie. The story of a dad who finds a note in a time capsule that predicted every catastrophe in the 50 years since it was buried, and a few more to come, was probably too "big" an action film for Kelly at this point in his career. That said, I don't know how well it will do, because the topic (global disasters) and the terrifying way they are presented is probably just too harrowing for most people, especially NY'ers. It's just relentless in how destructive the events are and how detailed the events are depicted.

The Hurt Locker is similarly intense and similarly possibly too raw, as it depicts a bomb squad working in what looks like Iraq. The 12 minutes of footage shown nearly made me crap myself. It definitely doesn't look like a feel-good movie. Per one of the stars who did a Q&A, it's not an Iraq movie, but a movie about guys with an interesting job.
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Dead Like Me: The Movie

Four of the cast, including charasmatic Callum Blue and grown-up Sarah Wynter, and two of the producers appeared at ComicCon to promote the soon to be released DVD movie before a packed room. Among the tidbits during this remembrance of the late, beloved series are the return of Dolores and Crystal from the series, but one gets the feeling that Blue could have appeared and just sat there and much of the crowd would have been happy.
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Wolverine and the X-Men DVD Update

The show's already been picked up for a second season, and the first volume comes out on DVD on April 21st. The word volume isn't promising in any way, but there's your update.
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Super Hero Squad

After watching the first trailer, with a theme song from the lead singer of Nerf Herder, it feels a bit like the Marvel version of Powerpuff Girls, just a bit more anime. It feels like there's a great deal of fan service in the inclusion of many lesser-known characters, but the lighthearted tone might rub the fanboys the wrong way. We didn't get to see any plot, but the tone is obvious: goofy fun.

We also got to see the world premiere of the fourth episode of the upcoming NickToons show Iron Man: Armored Adventures, which features a young Iron Man (like school-age.) Rock band Rooney did an excellent theme song, the animation looks pretty sweet (almost anime like,) and the story is hardly kiddie, mixing action and a sense of humor that's well written (one Star Trek joke is particularly hilarious.)
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Make My Animation Marvel

Why they would schedule Robot Chicken and Marvel Animation panels, two topics with certain crossover in audience, for the same time is certainly questionable. I've chosen the Marvel panel, mainly because I haven't seen most of what their showing (and the Robot Chicken drawing power of Seth Green has resulted in a ridiculous crowd (and some fire-code defying blockages.)

The panel, hosted by executives from Marvel Animation, kicked off with info on the ridiculous success of the new NickToons series Wolverine and the X-Men (over 1000% ratings improvement) and the new Hulk vs. DVD. A glance over the new BET series, Black Panther, based on Reggie Hudlin's story and John Romita Jr's art, is followed by what could be either a huge failure or massive win: Marvel Super Hero Squad, which airs this fall.

Bringing together all the Marvel characters in super-deformed designs (almost Kirby-esque in a way,) it's a comedy action series for the entire family
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McG on Sarah Connor and Arnold T-800

When asked about the presence of the two popular characters, McG played it coy, talking about Sarah's importance to the mythology and technical attempts to get the original Arnold (not the Arnold of today), so chances are good we'll see something of each in T:S.
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Saturday the 7th

We got a peak at the beginning of the new Friday the 13th, and it's some scary stuff. If they can keep up this pace doe a whole film, people will end up passing out in the theater.
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We have a (New) Winner

Anchor Bay will be theatrically releasing the film Grace, about a woman with an usual child. Just take a look at the poster, which is a piece of marketing genius (and which unfortunately will not be the theatrical poster due to MPAA restrictions.) But even better is the swag they distributed: a baby bottle. Twisted, but great.
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