San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog

There’s a lot left to think post-mortem about this year’s Comic-Con. Certainly there were some big issues that didn’t sit well with a lot of you. Generally, we were pleased with this year’s convention, but everyone’s a critic and we’ll take our turn with what we thought could have gone better, with the hopes that CCI is watching and will make the necessary improvements for next year.

All in all, we can lump our thoughts into three main topic areas. Click the jump to read our thoughts on each.

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Comic-Con 2011 has come to a close, and our sleep-depraved minds are still reeling from the whirlwind four days of lines, panels and offsite events. And because there was much more to see and do at the con than one person could ever dream of, we went to Twitter and asked our awesome readers what their favorite moments of 2011 were.

Click past the jump to see the top five.

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For the uninitiated, Comic-Con can be a pretty daunting experience. There’s the crowds, and the lines, and the sheer magnitude of the event to deal with. And on top of that, there’s all the super villains lurking around every corner. Like Man-Ant, The Time Sprinkler, and the Sand Fleas.

Only one team of super heroes can save us from such threats. Justice League? Naw, too old fashioned. The Avengers? They’re too busy prepping for their Hollywood debut.

It’s…The Aquabats. Stopping intergalactic terrorism through pop/punk/ska music since 1994, the California outfit known for their over-the-top live performances is comprised of bassist Crash McLarson (aka Chad Larson), guitarist Eagle Bones Falconhawk (aka Ian Fowles), keyboardist Jimmy The Robot (aka James Briggs), drummer Ricky Fitness (aka Richard Falomir), and lead singer MC Bat Commander (aka Christian Jacobs, Yo Gabba Gabba).

And this fall, they’ll be flying into action courtesy of The Aquabats Super Show! on the Hub TV Network.

Only The Aquabats, in their first official appearance at San Diego Comic-Con, could announce a children’s television program and at the same panel entertain a raucous crowd by performing a full-on back-flip from the Q&A table in room 5AB and closing it out with a full-on, riotous, and totally impromptu, kaiju battle with costumed audience members. It’s the closest Comic-Con has come to some cosmic Jerry Springer segment, but that’s an achievement they were able to reproduce the energy frequently on display during their live shows.

Following the panel, the band, staying in character of their onstage alter egos (“We play tennis in these costumes,” MC Bat Commander revealed), sat down with us to talk about the upcoming Hub TV show, how it came to be, and what hijinks we can expect from the greatest crime-fighting super group ever assembled.

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Please welcome blog reader and now guest blogger for the site, Megan Gotch. Megan wrote up a post about all the great swag she received at this year’s Comic-Con, so I asked her if we could repost here – good thing she said yes!

Megan is a photographer and San Diego resident who has been attending Comic-Con for the past three years. She loves Futurama, SDCC, Firefly, Being Human and “all things celebrity”. You can follower her on Twitter at @megangotch or her blog at http://megangotch.blogspot.com/.

I MISS COMIC CON!!!  So much so that I had to blog about it one more time!  I got so much awesome swag this year that just gets put where no one can see it, so I want to share it with you all!!!

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Nathan Fillion is the consummate showman at Comic-Con. He’s a fan, first and foremost, just like all of us; he just happens to be lucky enough to sit on the other side of the table. And as a fan, he knows just what the audience wants, and he delivers in spades.

On Sunday, I asked all of our readers via Twitter which panel they would like me to cover for the blog – Castle was the resounding answer. And then when I asked everyone if they wanted me to live-tweet the panel or video it and put it up later, the majority said they would rather wait to see Mr. Fillion – and his manly hair – in glorious HD.

So after a few days of recuperating from the long days and overnight travel, editing, rendering and uploading video, I’m happy to announce the moment has finally arrived.

A few notes: First, I was about halfway back in 6BCF, so although I was able to zoom in close enough it made the picture susceptible to any small movements with the camera. I tried to have a steady hand, but there will be a couple points in the video where the camera jumps around a bit. Not enough to ruin the experience, but just wanted to make you all aware. Second, I was right behind the middle walkway, so people are passing in and out of frame through the entire panel. It’s quick enough and doesn’t deter from the video, but again wanted to make you aware. Third, the audio was picked up from the internal mic on the camera, but there are times when the crowd noise drowns out comments from the panelists – next year I’ll use an external mic to record audio from somewhere closer to a speaker. And lastly, due to YouTube restrictions. I had to split the panel video into four parts. Saying all that, I hope you enjoy it!

Ladies and gents, I present to you: One-on-One with Castle Star Nathan Fillion, recorded live on Sunday July 24 at San Diego Comic-Con 2011.

Click past the jump to see the parts 1-4 of the Castle panel.

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If you followed us at all during Comic-Con this year, you would know that my thumbs were getting quite a workout keeping all of you up to date on pre-registration news, line queues and swag giveaways. On top of all that, we did manage to take a few pictures during the con, although not as many as I would have liked. Perhaps next year I’ll be able to finally figure out the cloning process and do equal parts of each. Because it’s Comic-Con, after all.

Check out my picture set of SDCC 2011. We’d love to show off your pictures too – if you’d like to share, just let us know and we’ll pass the word along!

This isn’t meant to be a review, but we just have to say it: If you’re lucky enough to live in seven cities – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, San Francisco, Seattle and Toronto – you must include going to see Attack The Block in this weekend’s plans. The British import, executive produced by Edgar Wright and written and directed by longtime-collaborator and first-time director Joe Cornish, is depending on strong word-of-mouth and a solid showing when it opens limited on July 29 in order to expand to a wider release. And in a season of big-budget blockbusters and established licenses, it is the most fun we’ve had at the movies all year.

We can say this with certainty because we were lucky enough to attend a special Comic-Con screening of the film on Thursday, July 21 at the Reading Gaslamp theater, courtesy of our friends at /Film.

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Traditionally, Sunday at Comic-Con is a subdued affair. Most of the AAA panels have already come and gone, exhibitors have run out of their exclusive merchandise and the schedules and audience is focused on family fare. But this year was a bit different – Ballroom 20 was closed, we still had some anticipated television panels, and the 2012 pre-registration saga would come to an end.

So how did everything go on Sunday then? We can say for certain that Sunday consummated SDCC 2011 as “The Year of Television”

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SDCCBlog.com reader Tyler Miller sent us a firsthand account on how he went about planning and hosting his SDCC panel, geekEd: Bringing Geek Back to Higher Education, at Comic-Con 2011. Interested in what it takes to pull off a successful panel? Read on.

It was Comic-Con 2010.  My first.  Overwhelming to say the least as my wife and two kids (5 months and almost 3) navigated our way through the exhibits, went to panels, and had a blast.  Since 1990, it was a dream for me to attend comic-con and I was living out a dream to be in attendance at the Con.

My friend and colleague Ryan let me know that Comic-Con was reaching out to college educators.  I registered my family for tickets and we were ready to go!  During the Con, we took Ryan out to dinner to thank him for helping us go to Comic-Con.  As we sat at dinner that Thursday evening at Comic-Con 2010, we looked at each other and knew.  We could TOTALLY present at Comic-Con.  We could talk about higher education and geekdom.  We knew it was possible as we’ve presented at conferences before.  Both of us had won awards for presentations given in our own field at our regional conference.  My wife came up with the name – “what about geekEd. ?”  It was a play on “geeked” but was a blending of our passions – higher education and geek life.  Then and there, Ryan and I agreed that we would put in the proposal when it came out to present at Comic-Con 2011.

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