SAN DIEGO : COMICON 2009

I just returned from a 3 week trip to the United States and I'm slowly re-adjusting back into the Hong Kong State of mind.

The main reason for the trip was because one of my oldest and best friends was getting married in San Diego, and it just so happened to coincide with Comicon!

Along the way I also stopped by New York City, which I will blog about on the next one.

Having never been to San Diego or Comicon, I was quite excited to see what they both had to offer.  This year was also quite appropriate for going because many friends from Hong Kong were also attending the Con or were in the San Diego area.  Spencer, Jason and Digger were all there to keep me company.

DAY 1 - ARRIVAL & EXHIBITION HALL I knew that I was going to see some cool stuff but even right from the beginning I was surprised at what I found.  There was a huge promotional push for District 9, one of my most eagerly anticipated movies of the year, and I was glad the studio was backing what was sure to be a great sci-fi film.

Comicon is basically divided into two parts:  browsing the exhibition hall for products or attending a panel discussion with your favourite Film, Television or Comic creators.

I learned quickly that you had to pick and choose your battles.  There was no way you could attend everything because the line ups were INCREDIBLY LONG.  You really had to plan and decide where you wanted to go beforehand and then stick to your guns.

Of course, I didn't know any of this on MY FIRST DAY so I ignorantly highlighted all these cool panels I wanted to go see and thought there would be no problem getting in.  Getting there thirty minutes before was surely enough time.  WRONG.

This was the line up for the infamous HALL H.

Actually I don't think you can even call it a line.  More like a MOSH PIT.  In fact, the line snaked all the way around the convention center into the adjacent Marriot Hotel!

HALL H was where all the major studios and presenters spoke.  Everyone from James Cameron to Peter Jackson to Johnny Depp showed up there, so it was no surprise that it would be packed.

Deterred, I decided to head into the main Exhibition Hall.

The first place I stopped by was the HEAVY METAL booth.  For those who don't know, Heavy Metal is an adult sci-fi / fantasy magazine that had featured some of the industry's most prominent artists.  The publisher and editor is Kevin Eastman, who also happens to be the co-creator of the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (TMNT).  Kevin happens to be a good friend of Digger's and In fact, the main reason I was able to go to the Con.

It also happened to be the 25th Anniversary of TMNT, so the booth was super packed with fans of the long running series.

I was helping out Digger with the promotion of his new project, A Fistful of Blood, a horror-western graphic novel that he is adapting into a feature film.  The book was co-created by Kevin Eastman and he fully supported the project.

Promo action figure set piece for "A Fistful of Blood".

The gun replicas of the main character "Blondie".  These things are totally bad ass with triple barrel action and a large spike protruding from the handle.  OUCH!

The guns were created by Gentle Giant Studios, one of the major companies in the industry who have worked on Star Wars, Spiderman and the Harry Potter series just to name a few.

Freebies and swag were all over the place.  You just had to grab a big bag and then be at the right place at the right time and start filling up!  The rest of the day was left to scavenge through the main hall and see how much loot I could accumulate.

DAY 2 : PANEL DISCUSSIONS

On the second day, I felt that I had gotten a good taste of the main floor and wanted to focus more on the interesting industry speakers.  By the time I arrived, Hall H was already out of the question, so instead I headed up to the second floor where all the speaker rooms were.

FLASH FORWARD - The first panel I attended was for a new tv show, FLASH FORWARD.  The premise was about everyone in the world recieving a "flash" vision at the same time about the future.  In this glimpse, people saw themselves with other partners, imprisoned, fighting for their lives to name a few.  The first season is supposed to lead up to this glimpse and we are to see if the vision comes true or not.  There is also an overarching plot about what caused the flash, as well as the fates of its protagonists.

The show was co-created by David S. Goyer (far right), who wrote all the Blade movies, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and Dark City.  He also directed the pilot episode.

Joseph Fiennes  (Shakespeare in Love).

John Cho (Better Luck Tomorrow, Harold & Kumar, Star Trek).

Courtney B. Vance (Law & Order : Criminal Intent).

Newcomer, Christine Woods.

They showed 15 minutes of the pilot and I have to say that it definitely looks great.  It has a LOST-like appeal and could turn out really good if they keep up the intensity of the footage shown.

Speaking of LOST, just before the panel ended, they showed another trailer and when they got to the last shot...

...Dominic Monaghan, who plays Charlie on LOST, showed up and the room erupted!  It was a pleasant surprise and definitely a fan favourite that he is going to be a part of this show.

ROBERT RODRIGUEZ -

Discussed his new film SHORTS, developed and filmed with his family. He talked about his movie empire and how it has developed into one of the most influential independant studios making movies today.  The big studios give him a lot of creative freedom and he basically does everything in-house and with his family.  He also gave tips of filmmaking and parenting in general.

DC NATION - I have to admit that I haven't been following comics lately, and when I did I never really read the standard DC COMICS.  It wasn't until one of my good friends at the wedding recommended that I read the latest Green Lantern series that I checked out what was going on.

To sum it up, the major story arc on everyone's lips this year is GREEN LANTERN : BLACKEST NIGHT.  It was EVERYWHERE in comicon.  There was a new animated movie, exclusive action figures, and (to continue the Green Lantern lovefest) it was on the official Comicon 2009 exclusive t-shirt.  That alone should show how important it is.

So as you can guess, the DC NATION panel was mainly focused on Green Lantern, and the man who has been writing it for the past 5 years, Geoff Johns.  He had been slowly building up the story until this point and now all the pieces were coming together.  Lucky for me, I decided to jump on now, so I didn't have to wait all that time and I can read it all in one go.

Even though this panel was the one I had the least knowledge or interest in, it was probably one of the more fun ones because of the great energy of the moderator as well as the crowd interaction. 

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES : 25th ANNIVERSARY The highlight of the day as well as the last panel I attended was for the 25th Anniversary of TMNT.  I have many fond memories of the turtles and they definitely hold a place in my childhood as well as my facination with comics and character design. 

On hand to discuss the history and evolution of the Turtles was:

Co-creator Kevin Eastman.

Steve Barron, director of the first (and best) live-action Turtles movie in 1990.

Producers Scott Mednick and Galen Walker, both industry veterans (having worked on Superman Returns, 300, Where The Wild Things Are & the animated TMNT movie in 2007).

They basically talked about the genesis of the turtles and its journey from black & white comic produced in their living room, to self-publishing and selling out their first 2 issues, to signing the toy deal and making the animated show which led to its breakthrough success, to its various movie incarnations, to the new animated tv show and into the future with the upcoming live-action film set for 2011.

There was even a surprise guest when Ernie Reyes Jr. ran up to the mic and asked a question.

It was a fantastic and informative discussion and the producers promised a darker more edgier turtles movie that was true to the original comics.

DAY 3 : HALL H

Finally the day had come.  I was ready to take on the olympian feat of trying to get into Hall H. 

I had already missed out on some fantastic panels: James Cameron (showing for the first time footage from his new 3-D film, AVATAR); Peter Jackson discussing projects DISTRICT 9 and THE HOBBIT;  Tim Burton & Johnny Depp for ALICE IN WONDERLAND.  It was now or never.

Today was the last day for Hall H panels so I had to man up and jump into the trenches.

YES...this is a line.

Success!  Finally after several hours of waiting, I had made it into the coveted HALL H.

You basically had to suck it up and prepare to be there all day because once you were inside, you wouldn't be able to come back in, and usually the best panels are at the end of the day.  Today's highly anticipated panel was IRON MAN 2 but there were several other ones that were noteworthy.

First up:

LOST - One of the best shows on television, this was also their last Comicon as the 2010 would be the end of the show.  So suffice to say, the audience was expecting something big for their final hurrah. 

First to show up were the writers and producers of the show, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof.

Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley.

Michael Emerson, who plays Ben.

Josh Holloway, who plays Sawyer.

Nestor Carbonell (far right), who plays Richard Alpert.

Throughout the panel, they poked fun at the show and showed some great Fan-created material.  They punched holes in most of the rumors flying around the net and even showed that they were not making the show up as they went along by locking up the supposed "final page" of the last episode's script in a box which was then supposed to be opened when the last episode aired. 

This was quickly done away with as Sawyer threatened Cuse and Lindelof with a taser to open the box and read the ending.  Then, as Michael Emerson read the page, it was revealed that it was actually a page for an episode of HEROES, much to the humor of the audience.

Finally, after showing a tribute video of characters who had passed away, with the last segment showing Charlie's death, the lights came on and revealed Dominic Monaghan standing on the stage, his second great entrance at Comicon!

MIKE JUDGE - EXTRACT Next up was the new film by Mike Judge, creator of Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill and director of OFFICE SPACE and IDIOCRACY.  Extract seemed to be a continuation of Judge's take on blue collar work environments of the everyman.

Mike Judge (right).

Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, Hancock).

Mila Kunis (That 70s show).

SONY PANEL - ZOMBIELAND & 2012 The other big undead trend besides Vampires this year is the ever reliable Zombie genre, and this new film looked to bring the fun back, Shaun of the Dead-style.  They showed the trailer and various clips and it definitely looks like a fun romp in a zombie wasteland.

2012, the latest from destruction director Roland Emmerich, is about the mayan legend of the world ending on that auspicious date.  He showed several clips of stuff blowing up and people running for their lives.  One question asked to him was what film who could do next since he had basically destroyed everything already in his movies, to which he replied, maybe he would do a romantic comedy!

Director Ruben Fleischer.

Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers, The People VS Larry Flynt.

Jessie Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale, The Village).

Director Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Independance Day, The Day After Tomorrow)

IRON MAN 2 - Finally, the panel that everyone had been waiting for was about to start.  You could feel the electricity as the crowd brimmed with excitement.

Director Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Elf, Zathura).

Robert Downey Jr. (IronMan, Sherlock Holmes, Tropic Thunder).

Scarlett Johansson (The Spirit, The Prestige, The Island, Lost in Translation).

Sam Rockwell (Moon, Frost/Nixon, Matchstick Men, Choke).

Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Ocean's 11-13, Reign Over Me, Crash).

After some teasing with some fake footage, Robert Downey demanded that Favreau give the audience what they want and show some real footage.  To which he gladly obliged by showing an exclusive trailer.

The crowd went NUTS.  But it wasn't until the final frames of the trailer when they revealed WAR MACHINE that the room completed EXPLODED IN CHEERS.

(yes I couldn't resist taking a few snaps!)

KEVIN SMITH - And finally, last but not least there was writer/director Kevin Smith.  How anyone could follow Iron Man 2, i really don't know but if anyone could do it Smith could.  I heard him speak before in Toronto and he is by far one of the funniest and best speakers I have ever heard.  He can talk about nothing and it would still be funny.

The great thing about listening to Smith is the way he handles the discussion.  Where most panels seem rushed and constricted, Smith manuevers his talks with a very laid back attitude where he actually takes the time to TALK with his audience.  If the person asking the question stutters, Smith gives them time to recover while most of the time going off on a random funny rant. 

Listening to Kevin Smith was definitely a great way to end the immense day that was HALL H.

DAY 4 : CLOSING DAY

By comparison, Sunday was much more chill and less hectic.  Most of the exclusive toys and collectibles were already sold out, all the major panels had already been shown and most people had to work the next day.

There was one panel that I had to check out and that was the one for Stan Sakai, the creator of Usagi Yojimbo,  another black & white comic about an animal warrior who was also celebrating his 25th anniversary.

It was also the day I decided to snag a couple of signatures where I could:

Tyrese Gibson (Transformers 2, Death Race) signing his new comic, MAYHEM.

Kevin Eastman (TMNT, Heavy Metal).

And of course, what would COMICON be without its two essential factors:

COSTUMES...

...and BOOTH BABES!

Overall, this is has been an exhausting and fulfilling experience, one where I am now much more prepared for the next time.  I saw a lot of cool stuff, heard a lot of cool news, and met a lot of cool people.  Hopefully, by this time next year, I will be the one presenting something for the masses!

Oh, and one last note for you AliveNotDeaders, I saw a familiar face....