MAKING CON-TACT
My daughter and I went to Comic-Con at the San Diego convention center today. Upon arrival, there was a huge line of people. I mean, huge, over a block long and around the building for all the pre-registered attendees. The line moved fairly fast, thankfully. Soon we were inside, picked up our ID badges and headed for the convention floor.
This is an annual convention for geeks, like me, who are fans of this aspect of pop culture. Everything, from video games, animation and still artists, comics, film, TV shows, anime, sci-fi, and fantasy. Enthusiasm abounded! I was finally inside the super-geek clubhouse and it had my senses reeling.
Everyone was very nice and well-behaved. Amazing for such a vast number of people crowding the convention hall and meeting rooms. Many were in costume. Star wars characters, Pokemon, various “Trekkies”, Spidermen, aliens, Simpsons, warriors, etc.
The DC booth and the new Marvel postage stamps featuring superheros were big draws. At one end of the hall there were a number of comic book artists and animators, dwaring. Many were older, vintage artisans, doing what they love: drawing.
There was so much to see and do, it was truly overwhelming. To illustrate what I mean here, check out this link: Comic-Con Thursday Schedule
At Luscasfilm’s display, there was the most artful display of Darth Vader Helmets, all in a row, each decorated uniquely. One was pink with daisies, another had a Dorothy Lamour style fruit basket hat crowning it, complete with bananas!
There is really no way one could absorb everything in one day. But here’s a small slice of our experience.
We toured the 600 square foot replica display of the black pearl ship from Pirates of the Carribean. Inside was a photo gallery from the film, a costume display, and mini 1/12 scale models of ships used in the film. Got a very wonderful lenticular guitar pick with 4 different pictures of Captain Jack Sparrow. Very cool!
Of course there was more cool free stuff. My favories were the “Pirates” guitar pick, and specially minted “coins” for Comic-Con , of Star Wars 30th Anniversary, and a promo coin for “Indiana Jones 4”, to bow in May, 2008.
While hanging around the Lucasfilm display, I met the actor, and English gent who played Darth Vader, Dave Prowse. We chatted a good five minutes. He worked in Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back , Return of the Jedi and A New Hope. He initially did the dialogue as well, and worked several months on end in that very hot Darth costume, and how the helmet would fog up so bad he couldn’t see his marks on set. Then, he told me how James Earl Jones would later go into a studio in New York and get the Darth tracks recorded and “in the can”in about 2 hours.
Then I went to a seminar room with a panel from Cartoon Network’s Ed, Edd & Eddy. Wow. Such a great time listening to the cast crack their character voices out for the adoring fans. We even got to see an unaired clip #66 from the show, to the crowd’s delight. Here’s the seminar description:
Cartoon Network: Ed, Edd & Eddy: True Tales from the Cul-de-sac— Get ready for an Edstravaganza with Danny Antonucci, the creator of the show. Joining him in expanding your Edducation will be Samuel Vincent (voice of Edd), Peter Kelamis (voice of Rolf), Janyse Jaud (voice of Sarah, Lee Kanker), Scott “Diggs” Underwood (storyboard director), and “Big Jim” Miller (storyboard director).
After the seminar, I met one of the show’s voice actress, Erin Fitzgerald, who gave me her autograph on a color photo of the characters she plays on the show, Nazz and May Kanker.
It was great!. Like life, I ran out of time before I did it all. But I am thinking I’ll register for next year, soon!
My daughter and I went to Comic-Con at the San Diego convention center today. Upon arrival, there was a huge line of people. I mean, huge, over a block long and around the building for all the pre-registered attendees. The line moved fairly fast, thankfully. Soon we were inside, picked up our ID badges and headed for the convention floor.
This is an annual convention for geeks, like me, who are fans of this aspect of pop culture. Everything, from video games, animation and still artists, comics, film, TV shows, anime, sci-fi, and fantasy. Enthusiasm abounded! I was finally inside the super-geek clubhouse and it had my senses reeling.
Everyone was very nice and well-behaved. Amazing for such a vast number of people crowding the convention hall and meeting rooms. Many were in costume. Star wars characters, Pokemon, various “Trekkies”, Spidermen, aliens, Simpsons, warriors, etc.
The DC booth and the new Marvel postage stamps featuring superheros were big draws. At one end of the hall there were a number of comic book artists and animators, dwaring. Many were older, vintage artisans, doing what they love: drawing.
There was so much to see and do, it was truly overwhelming. To illustrate what I mean here, check out this link: Comic-Con Thursday Schedule
At Luscasfilm’s display, there was the most artful display of Darth Vader Helmets, all in a row, each decorated uniquely. One was pink with daisies, another had a Dorothy Lamour style fruit basket hat crowning it, complete with bananas!
There is really no way one could absorb everything in one day. But here’s a small slice of our experience.
We toured the 600 square foot replica display of the black pearl ship from Pirates of the Carribean. Inside was a photo gallery from the film, a costume display, and mini 1/12 scale models of ships used in the film. Got a very wonderful lenticular guitar pick with 4 different pictures of Captain Jack Sparrow. Very cool!
Of course there was more cool free stuff. My favories were the “Pirates” guitar pick, and specially minted “coins” for Comic-Con , of Star Wars 30th Anniversary, and a promo coin for “Indiana Jones 4”, to bow in May, 2008.
While hanging around the Lucasfilm display, I met the actor, and English gent who played Darth Vader, Dave Prowse. We chatted a good five minutes. He worked in Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back , Return of the Jedi and A New Hope. He initially did the dialogue as well, and worked several months on end in that very hot Darth costume, and how the helmet would fog up so bad he couldn’t see his marks on set. Then, he told me how James Earl Jones would later go into a studio in New York and get the Darth tracks recorded and “in the can”in about 2 hours.
Then I went to a seminar room with a panel from Cartoon Network’s Ed, Edd & Eddy. Wow. Such a great time listening to the cast crack their character voices out for the adoring fans. We even got to see an unaired clip #66 from the show, to the crowd’s delight. Here’s the seminar description:
Cartoon Network: Ed, Edd & Eddy: True Tales from the Cul-de-sac— Get ready for an Edstravaganza with Danny Antonucci, the creator of the show. Joining him in expanding your Edducation will be Samuel Vincent (voice of Edd), Peter Kelamis (voice of Rolf), Janyse Jaud (voice of Sarah, Lee Kanker), Scott “Diggs” Underwood (storyboard director), and “Big Jim” Miller (storyboard director).
After the seminar, I met one of the show’s voice actress, Erin Fitzgerald, who gave me her autograph on a color photo of the characters she plays on the show, Nazz and May Kanker.
It was great!. Like life, I ran out of time before I did it all. But I am thinking I’ll register for next year, soon!
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