When Comic-Con 2010 ends for the 100,000 to 125,000 that attended this year I will be one of those many 100,000 that eagerly says I can’t wait to come back to Comic-Con 2011. It is extremely hard to tell anyone who has never been to Comic-Con what it is like because it is truly one of the most unique major media and consumer events. I’ve been to E3 Expo and it has the giant video game promotions, I’ve been to Cannes and it has the big Hollywood promotions and CES has all the major technology promotions. Well Comic-Con is like E3 Expo, Cannes and CES all rolled into one massive and exhausting five day and four night event. And this year Comic-Con 2010 did not fail to live up to the hype, excitement and media buzz.
If you wanted to see a lot of rich and famous A-list Hollywood celebrities than you got your wish with Angela Jolie for Salt, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel Jackson, Scarlett Joahanson and Don Cheadle for The Avengers, Seth Rogan for The Green Hornet, Will Ferrell and Tina Fey for Mastermind and even less than A-list Hollywood celebs like Resident Evil: Afterlife’s Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller, etc.,
And if you were willing to wait in lines longer than the ones to see a free Justin Bieber concert in a mall than you could easily see all these A-listers on their Comic-Con 2010 panels. As press you have a horrible choice either to burn valuable Con hours to see a panel that the studios are going to send you video clips anyway or miss a golden moment to Tweet about Marvel revealing at last the new cast of The Avengers.
And if you were willing to wait in lines longer than the ones to see a free Justin Bieber concert in a mall than you could easily see all these A-listers on their Comic-Con 2010 panels. As press you have a horrible choice either to burn valuable Con hours to see a panel that the studios are going to send you video clips anyway or miss a golden moment to Tweet about Marvel revealing at last the new cast of The Avengers.
Or you might miss some news on the final season of Smallville. You are almost spending two hours to wait in line to see a panel that takes usually takes an hour or 90 minutes. And there is just so much to do and cover at Comic-Con as well as outside Comic-Con that you always feel guilty that no matter what choice you make it will be at the expense of something else. So the first thing I usually do is carefully read over the Comic-Con Web site and 2010 guide and map out a strategy as best you can. But while you are doing that you are getting daily barrage from studio, network and independent publicists of Comic-Con 2010 press events, so you throw those events in the mix to cover. And then I finally arrived at Comic-Con 2010 and quickly realize after interviewing a few comic book artists, vendors, and costumed fans that all my hard plans are going up in flames. There just is too much to take in at Comic-Con to pretend that any schedule can fully accommodate that really goes on into trying to cover such an awe inspiring mass media made spectacle. And there was even a report of a stabbing attempt at the Resident Evil: Afterlife panel. Comic-Con 2010 forced you to really choose what is worth your time or even worth getting stabbed over.
And the biggest spenders at Comic-Con 2010 Hollywood wise I would have to say was a three way contest between Sony, Warner Brothers and Walt Disney. Sony was going “all-in” on the 3D version of The Green Hornet. You couldn’t miss seeing The Green Hornet’s Black Beauty parked in the courtyard across from the San Diego Convention Center. Sony even had replicated The Britt Reed garage from The Green Hornet and it had many cars used in the film. There was a Black Beauty that was even bullet ridden. Seth Rogan showed up at Britt’s garage, but I would rather wish Carmen Diaz had done a garage photo shoot.
And once you get inside Comic-Con you saw The Green Hornet’s huge banners and the Sony booth did not let up on handing out Green Hornet promo items. The Green Hornet booth babes were super hot, too.
And once you get inside Comic-Con you saw The Green Hornet’s huge banners and the Sony booth did not let up on handing out Green Hornet promo items. The Green Hornet booth babes were super hot, too.
Don’t get me wrong Sony was equally proud to promote Salt, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Battle: Los Angeles and Priest and new CBS shows like Hawaii 5-0 and extremely fanboy friendly shows like CBS’s Big Bang Theory. But no one who went to Comic-Con 2010 was going to say The Green Hornet was not a leading contender for everyone’s attention. And that is saying a lot because The Green Hornet is not even a summer tentpole film. It is being released in early January 2011 and whether it will be a good comic book film is another matter entirely for critics. And I can’t really hate on Sony for pushing The Green Hornet.
Star Wars is always repped.....
...At Comic-Con 2010 “hot” looking booth babes were everywhere you looked and that was fine with us.
Our favorite Comic-Con 2010 minority comic book artists that we interviewed were N. Steven Harris who is the creator of Fringe and Ajala. His site is www.nstevensworks.com. And sharing Steven’s booth was Regine L. Sawyer creator of The Rippers and Ice Witch. Regine’s work is at www.lockettdown.com. And we also ran into freelance comic illustrator Bryant "Kaiser" Tillman at www.kaiserstudio.net.
Our favorite Comic-Con 2010 interactive booths were AMC’s The Walking Dead and The Blood Factory.
One of our favorite Comic-Con 2010 vendors were Gamer Grub and Galaxy4Games.com. We first met Keith Mullin at E3 Expo 2010 and he is a smart entrepreneur that created the ultimate snack food for the multi-billion gaming Industry. I like all the flavors of Gamer Grub, but BBQ is clearly is my favorite. We also interviewed Michael Casazza who runs www.galxy4games.com which really lets gamers earn real money playing video games against professional video game players and online video game tournaments.
GAMER GRUB PART 1
GMAER GRUB PART2
One of our favorite Comic-Con 2010 Hollywood Blockbuster booths was Walt Disney’s Tron Legacy film and video game exhibit. Disney even brought out Tron Legacy life size film props and light cycles for fans.
Our favorite Comic-Con 2010 outside convention center event was the medieval knights sparring square.
Some of our favorite Comic-Con 2010 costumed fans are listed below. But one thing I did notice this year at Comic-Con 2010 was the wide range of costumed attendees who were not here to merely support their favorite comic book heroes, which was obvious, but also their favorite anime or video game characters or non-comic book films or TV show characters. And some fans dropped lots of dough on their costumes.
Some of our favorite Comic-Con 2010 after hour press events was the Radical Studios Comic-Con dinner party at the Donovan's, Chuck’s Zachary Levi hosting the Nerd Party at The Keating Hotel and Walt Disney’s Tron Legacy MySpace Party at a funky version of the original Tron’s 1982’s Flynn’s Arcade.
If there was a graphic novel at Comic-Con 2010 called Space Hookers From Minsk than this lady’s sexy and flesh revealing costume was on point. Her pics will be posted on a lot of fanboy’s Comic-Con blogs.
And our favorite Comic-Con 2010 cameraman was Auggie Cavanagh from Leaky Garage Productions.
And David L. $Money Train$ Watts was our favorite Comic-Con 2010 Web host if I do say so myself.
When it was all said and done we again had another great, fun and hectic time covering Comic-Con 2010. And they literally had to kick us out when the convention hall closed down. As all the artists, vendors and exhibit booths were stripping down we were still trying to cram in a few last second interviews, photos or FuTurXTV Comic-Con shout –outs.
And as we left Comic-Con International 2010 we saw an aging Captain America loudly screaming to anyone who would listen that Comic-Con should not move to Anaheim. I don’t know what the Comic-Con organizers will do, but I got a gut feeling we’ll be back at San Diego for Comic-2011 and many more.
By
David L. $Money Train$ Watts (journalist), Auggie Cavanagh (cameraman) & Brandon Bowlin (editor)
FuTurXTV - www.thedarkroome.com
And as we left Comic-Con International 2010 we saw an aging Captain America loudly screaming to anyone who would listen that Comic-Con should not move to Anaheim. I don’t know what the Comic-Con organizers will do, but I got a gut feeling we’ll be back at San Diego for Comic-2011 and many more.
By
David L. $Money Train$ Watts (journalist), Auggie Cavanagh (cameraman) & Brandon Bowlin (editor)
FuTurXTV - www.thedarkroome.com