Hi everyone,

I’d first like to thank you all for an awesome 2011. Our traffic was at its highest point ever, the site’s Twitter is almost at 10,000 followers, and I can safely say our content was better than ever before.

Unfortunately the con has now passed and we’ll be signing off until early next June (or even late May seeing as how SDCC 2012 is a week earlier). Keep following the twitter or add the site to your RSS though, because we’ll still be updating you for such events as passes and hotels going on sale.

2012 is going to be the biggest year yet for us, so you guys have a ton to look forward to. Again, thanks for reading and I hope to have you back next summer for San Diego Comic-Con 2012.

- Zack Young
Editor in Chief

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.

Programming Schedule

When the final schedules were announced for the four days, many, including us, were confounded by the sporadic must-see panels slated for Hall H, including a complete void of anything interesting on Saturday. Meanwhile, Ballroom 20 was a logjam of popular television shows, creating a situation where many waited in line for hours without ever making it in the room.

And it was this same story, all weekend.

We can label this the “Game of Thrones” problem, because that is the one panel that really made the issue with Ballroom 20 scheduling so evident. It makes sense that CCI would put it in Ballroom 20, because that is traditionally the biggest room for television shows. But Game of Thrones, along with Doctor Who on Sunday, made it perfectly clear television has a legitimate place in Hall H.

And what about that Hall H schedule? We’re just as confused as you are. Thursday, which had a decent enough slate of panels had hardly a line and graciously accepted a walk-in audience. As a matter of fact, the annual EW Visionaries panel with Guillermo del Toro and Jon Favreau was only half full at its start. Hall H didn’t have much of a problem the rest of the weekend accommodating anyone who wanted to walk right up at the start of a panel, aside from Sony Pictures on Friday and again during the aforementioned Doctor Who on Sunday.

The Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront was also playing to packed crowds and mammoth lines thanks to some big names and popular shows making an appearance next door. 6BCF was an odd choice to house the Legendary Pictures panel mid-day on Friday, and it showed when it stranded many in the line outside.

There’s not much CCI can do without having an additional large room to split the burden of hosting some of these popular panels. Regardless, we thought they did a better job of crowd management last year. Until the expansion of the convention center comes to fruition, the best it can do is spread out the schedule and give folks a reason to leave their seats in one room for another.

2012 Onsite Pre-Registration

If there is one hot-button shared by most attendees, it’s the way CCI elected to handle onsite pre-registration for 2012. Concerns about ticket availability started a year ago, the day we all found out Preview Night tickets were sold out at the show. Even with the surge in popularity over the past few years, no one had ever experienced – let alone expected – this situation happening. Everyone thought, if Preview Night could go that fast, so too would other tickets once they were made available to the general public. And so when tickets were made available online, the system crashes famously followed. CCI never anticipated the amount of traffic they experienced last fall. Even when TicketLeap had the benefit of such data when they took over in February, they too were blindsided by just how many people rushed the system at once.

The inevitable part of this story is that Comic-Con is awesome, and like all good things, the word is out. The economics of the situation have made us all victims. It’s a simple case of supply and demand. The number of tickets have not increased, but at the same time the number of people hoping to attend have soared to amounts inconceivable.

Appeasing 140,000 people is impossible. Saying that, CCI has done their best with a difficult situation. The only other way they might have done this better is to implement a lottery for pre-registration among ticket holders, but even that model would have had its detractors. If they kept pre-registration to Sunday as in years’ past, the line of people on the last day of SDCC might have stretched quite literally to La Jolla.

The whole pre-registration process was different than last year because it had to be, because of increased demand. Yet lines were still long – longer than probably CCI had expected and intended. No one would have expected the line to stretch a mile and a half or people to camp out overnight. No one. It’s because the panic, carried over from the previous year and during online sales, still ran rampant among attendees.

If there is any good news here among those feeling slighted by the process, it would be that there is still online registration to fall back on. And when the remaining tickets go on sale, most likely in the fall, Preview Night will be among them because CCI learned their lesson from last year and held back a certain number for the general public.

Hollywood

We wrote before SDCC that we expected some surprises from Hollywood. After all the hoopla about the big studios sitting out this year’s con, we figured it couldn’t be all right. Could it?

Well, we were wrong.

There were no surprises from Hollywood. No Hellicarrier. No S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives. No Ballroom 20 event on Sunday. No nothin’.

That’s not to say there wasn’t anything to do at Comic-Con. On the contrary, there was still a whole lot more than a busload of geeks could do at once. So we’re not complaining. We’re just eating crow on this one.

Which makes good advice for next year – believe it when you see it!

Wait, we’re talking about next year already? Better start packing!

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.

5. Conan O’Brien

No one was expecting this. If anyone predicted Conan would be on our top five list, we’d have all thought it was the upcoming fantasy reboot, right?

Our favorite late-night host surprised the convention by opening up his own offsite location in the Gaslamp – The Museum of Conan Art – to promote his new animated venture, The Flaming C. He event went as far as crashing the Green Lantern Animated Series panel to show off his new project, much to the audience’s approval.

Not only that, but Conan tweeted some of the most memorable lines from Comic-Con:

4. Spielberg and Jackson (oh, and Tintin)

Who would have thought a week ago the first appearance of Steven Spielberg at Comic-Con would rank toward the bottom of our list? Well, that’s SDCC for you – always surprising us and providing the crowd-pleasing moments from where we didn’t expect them. That’s not to say this isn’t one of them, because it made our list after all, but Steven Spielberg, joined by a surprise appearance by Peter Jackson, and a hysterical pre-production look at the mo-cap technology and it still couldn’t make it past Nathan Fillion? And that, loyal readers, is pure Comic-Con.

Jackson didn’t give any reveals on The Hobbit worth mentioning, but Spielberg did announce that Jurassic Park 4 has a story, has hired a writer, and that we should see it in the next two to three years. Quick, someone email him the “Dinos with Guns” concept we all read about, before it’s too late! Nada on an Indiana Jones IV film though.

In all seriousness, how awesome is it for everyone in attendance to say they were once in the same room as Steven Spielberg? The sizzle reel of film clips prior to him receiving the Inkpot Award is evidence he is the reason why everyone in that room is the person they are today – including Jackson. Spielberg’s influence on the Comic-Con crowd cannot be overstated. Just ask the guy with the t-shirt.

3. Nathan Fillion

What more can be said about Nathan Fillion? He’s a SDCC favorite because he loves the con as much as the con loves him. Very few embrace and give back to the welcoming audience as much as the former Captain Reynolds does. Not only did he participate in the Castle panel on Sunday, ironically titled “One-on-One with Castle Star Nathan Fillion”, but also at Zachary Levi’s NERD HQ across the street from the convention center. Sadly, he wasn’t able to participate in the Firefly reunion at NERD HQ, but there certainly was enough of Mr. Fillion to please the con-goers during the weekend.

And what a crowd pleaser he is. Fillion doesn’t just show up to a panel, the man is prepared. He plans his bits and executes them flawlessly, judging from a cheering and hysterical audience. He speaks the geek lingo. He is, quite frankly, one of us, descending upon San Diego during the annual geek pilgrimage for the same reasons we all do. Heck, he even wandered the show floor in his spare time (in disguise, no less).

He’s frequently referred to as The Mayor of Comic-Con, and we agree. There is no better celebrity to bestow this title than Nathan Fillion.

2. Cowboys and Aliens Premiere

When Jon Favreau announced he would be bringing the worldwide red-carpet premiere of his new blockbuster film, Cowboys and Aliens, to this year’s Comic-Con, it was the biggest news of the pre-convention season. Sure, we have special screenings for fans, such as the free Attack The Block and the invite-only Captain America ones from this year, but rarely if ever have we had one with such attention. If that weren’t enough, Favreau reserved 2,000 tickets for SDCC attendees.

The internet was buzzing about how these tickets would be distributed. What chances did we have of attending? How difficult would it be to get a ticket? We all found out shortly before the start of the con, where we had heard gold bricks would be handed out to attendees at random locations and times, and within each gold brick was a chance to win tickets to the premiere.

The news of these appearances came fast and furious. Multiple times per day, announcements were made via text and Twitter, and fans dropped what they were doing and rushed the location where they were being handed out. It was a cool promotion – the “bricks” were just paper, but inside everyone who grabbed one got a C&A t-shirt, and among them a few even got to go to the Saturday star-studded premiere. The cool thing about this was, no matter who you talked to during the con, you undoubtedly knew someone or ran into someone who won the tickets. That made the event feel less-exclusive and more of a gesture of gratitude toward the fans as it was intended.

For that, Mr. Favreau, we say on behalf of the Comic-Con crowd, thank you!

1. Zachary Levi (Chuck, Nerd HQ)

What a year for Zachary Levi. Traditionally a favorite among the Comic-Con crowd, Levi this year really propelled himself to the upper echelon of geekdom with two big events during the weekend.

First, it was an emotional and tearful send-off to NBC’s crowd-pleasing Chuck, entering it’s fifth and final season, and it’s final panel at Comic-Con as well. Levi and cast were on hand to kick off the crowded Saturday schedule and show their thanks to the welcoming crowd for the past few years of support. Few shows speak so directly to the Comic-Con audience – The Big Bang Theory and Community among them – which made this last appearance for the show in Ballroom 20 a heartfelt goodbye and with a standing ovation.

But it’s what Levi did outside of the con that propelled him to our number one spot.

Across the street from the convention center, Levi took over Jolt’N Joe’s restaurant in the Gaslamp with NERD HQ, an alternative to Comic-Con offering four days of events packed with big names like Nathan Fillion, Zachary Quinto, Dominic Monaghan and other friends of Levi’s. NERD HQ was an intimate setting which proved more accommodating to fans than the huge Ballroom lines and ticket registration insanity that Comic-Con has become. It also partnered with companies like Xbox to provide hands-on game previews of top upcoming titles, hosted a Tweet-Up with Xbox’s Major Nelson and held the second annual Nerd Party. On top of all this, 100% of the cost of the tickets for each panel, called “Conversations for a Cause”, raised over $40,000 for charity.

Levi made himself accessible to fans and could be found signing autographs and posing for pictures, always with a smile on his face. It seemed as if NERD HQ was the party Levi always wanted to throw at Comic-Con, and had a blast doing it for his fans. He’s already announced he’ll be doing it again next year, and we can’t wait. We hope this grows bigger and better every year!

What were your favorite moments of Comic_Con 2011? Let us know in the comments!

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.

If you’ve ever seen the Aquabats live, there’s a good chance you’ve seen The Aquabats Super Show! in its infancy. Since 2008, the band has shown clips of a pilot episode during their concerts, and they’ve been shopping it around to networks ever since.

“It’s crazy, we’ve been trying to do the show for so long. I can’t even remember how long we’ve been trying to do this,” says Crash McLarson, as MC Bat Commander holds up three fingers to remind those around him of the number of years. “But, I think, where we’re at now is the best possible way this show could have happened. It’s the only way the show will come out as awesome as it’s going to be.”

The Aquabats have released five albums in their fifteen-year existence, their latest Hi-Five Soup! released in January 2011, but they’re a live band, first and foremost. The best way to describe them is a cross between the Japanese kaiju shows of the ’60s and ’70s and the theatrics of Gwar, frequently engaging in epic, onstage battles with costumed villains. They’re aiming to take that same crazy energy to the small screen.

“The pilot was 50-50. 50% animated, 50% live-action. We did that for a strategic reason – some networks like cartoons more than other networks,” says the Commander. “We wanted to say, ‘this could be both shows’. But really what we always wanted to do was be a ‘live-action cartoon show’. And in talking to the Hub about that, that’s what they wanted, too. They saw the strength was in the live-action show, because it’s, like, nothing else really out there on TV. I mean it is, but it’s totally making fun of that stuff, [like] Power Rangers, but it’s totally silly and crazy, and [with] music. So we slimmed down the animated portion of the show and cranked up the rock.”

Why The Hub, a Hasbro-owned cable network that’s known primarily for My Little Pony, The Transformers and G.I. Joe? Not that we mind, because we love all-things Hasbro. And judging from the lines at the HasbroToyShop booth at Comic-Con, we’re certainly not alone. But The Aquabats could be seen as strange bedfellows, given their pedigree of playing to a mosh pit of sweaty twenty-somethings.

“Because The Hub is not afraid, ” the Commander adds. “They’re looking at new programming and doing things differently, from a different standpoint that a lot of networks are still scared or they aren’t able to do. The Hub is fresh and new so they can take new ideas and new shows, things that are kind of funky, or things that other networks would say, ‘The Aquabats? That’s stupid! Those guys are old and fat!’”

McLarson interjects. “Whereas The Hub goes, ‘The Aquabats? Those guys are old and stupid and fat! Perfect!’”

The more MC Bat Commander talks about the relationship with the network, the more sensible it sounds. “Hub is an incredible experiment by bold and risky pioneers in the industry. Hasbro put their money where their mouth is, doing movies, they’re making a TV network. I mean, this is incredible, it’s unprecedented, really to go all the way to do that.”

With The Aquabats Super Show!, the format of the show will attempt a traditional narrative. But as MC Bat Commander explains, ‘it’s more of a magazine for older kids as well because it weaves in here and there” – fake commercials like those shown at their live shows, animated segments and music videos that go along with the story, “a la a musical”.

“You know, singing about desks and dancing with trashcans, whatever they do in musicals.” The Commander looks around the room. “What do they do in musicals?”

“I’ve never seen a musical,” admits McLarson.

“Singing in the rain!” The Commander reaches a moment of faux-inspiration. “We’ll be singing in the rain. In the show.”

The Hub’s key demographic plays to kids between the ages of 6 and 11, generally younger than the band’s typical audience. But as MC Bat Commander explains, they’re prepared to turn kids of all ages into a legion of fresh, new Aquacadets.

“I think we’ll want to put things in there for an older audience, because we realize we have an older audience, but then also we want the young kids, to not have it go over their heads. You can’t put a six year-old in front of Lost and really expect them to care from episode to episode. Each episode is pretty self-contained, but there will be stuff that carries through from episode-to-episode. And stuff that doesn’t make sense at all, just for fun.”

If anything, the band has been evolving toward a younger audience for years. Take off the mask and wipe off the painted-on mustache from MC Bat Commander and you get the co-creator of everyone’s favorite kids’ show, Yo Gabba Gabba. Airing on Nickelodeon since 2007, the show has been popular with kids and adults alike, spanning several seasons of retro-inspiration, celebrity guest stars, and popular music acts – The Aquabats among them.

Jacobs…ahem…The Commander explains. “We hold the record on Yo Gabba Gabba for Best Band. We’ve been on Yo Gabba [Gabba] the most, they keep calling us back for some reason. There’s just obviously something about the costumes and being super heroes that really appeals to younger kids, and I think we always knew that as a band. And we get excited to see parents with their kids at shows, three year-olds on their shoulders, kids getting thrown off balconies into the mosh pit. You know, things like that. We’re really excited about that. Family entertainment. Of course we’ll have to tone that down a little bit now with the world watching us…”

The Commander continues. “I think it’s exciting, it’s definitely helped. I think its opened it up to bringing The Aquabats kinda out of the basement a little bit, and exposing people that normally wouldn’t maybe find The Aquabats, especially kids, through Yo Gabba Gabba. I mean, we’ve been on the show three times or four times? With [Yo Gabba] Gabba, the idea was creating a new show, too, that parents could watch with their kids and not be like, ‘this show’s just for my kid, I can’t stand it’, but something that’s for everybody. Same as The Aquabats Super Show! Little kids will watch it and compare it to Batman ’66. When I was a kid, obviously we loved that show, Batman was so awesome. I watch it now and love it even more because it’s so silly. And it’s so obviously silly. They were all having a good time making that show. And that’s what I hope people can see, that we’re just fantasy fulfillment, doing  something that’s just too fun.”

Look for the premiere of The Aquabats Super Show! on The Hub this fall. Which, ironically, is a year before the dreaded apocalypse of 2012. “It’s fitting that we would have a show come out on the last year on Earth”, says MC Bat Commander.

And if there’s anyone who will be able to save the world from certain doom, it’ll be The Aquabats.

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!!!

It is hard to pick a FAVORITE thing, but it just might have to be my mockingjay pin from the Lionsgate booth.  It is heavy and made of real metal, it is super nice!  VERY hard to acquire so I am quite proud of it, EVERYONE was asking me to trade them for something, but NO this was my badge of honor!   Also was happy to get the Being Human buttons and the Breaking Dawn buttons, they had the SDCC logo, which makes them even more special!

I pride myself on being a Nerd!  So was happy to get a Nerd HQ lanyard and bracelet while visiting them for the Nathan Fillion panel.  Both are on display in my Nerd Mobile (car:))

I got a BUNCH of Phineas & Ferb stuff this year…LOVE THAT SHOW!  Buttons and a mouse pad, 3 backpacks and not pictured is the poster for their new movie.

The Conan Museum of Art had to have the best OVERALL swag!  I got oven mitts, buttons, T-shirt and posters.  And the T-shirt was actually in my size so I was able to wear it the next day to the con!…..WHEN….

I was able to meet the cast of Being Human…just wanted to share my favorite moment EVER again!!:)

I already have a bag addiction, purses, shopping bags, reusable bags, so SDCC is not condusive to that addiction.  They give out bags there like candy!  And with my addiction I will take any bag I can get.  Was supper excited to again this year get my Dexter bag, better than last year, but not better than the 1st year.  LOVE the WB swag bag they give away at check it, this year it was a back pack and it was perfect!  Wearing it like a messenger bag was too long for me!  The P&F bags were great!  so CUTE used mine all SDCC.  And the Pan Am bag, SUPER popular, was GREAT quality messenger bag, my Dad scored to different style of those bags.

My favorite thing I paid for was my Futurama stuff!  Nothing can beat the 1st year we attended SDCC and their Futurama exclusive, but this years were pretty cool too.  The Bender is adorable.  We also ordered the Robot Devil plush and Destructor figure which is going to be pretty big! I was happily surprised by the calender this year…last years was EH!  But this year is all the character have their own magazine cover spoof.  Really like when they get creative with the calendar instead of just reusing old pictures.  And was able to get the new comic!

This past week have been sad that it is over, but was so happy to be able to attend and have the best SDCC of the 3 years I have been going,…of course can’t wait till next year!

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.

SDCC 2011: Castle Panel, Part 1:

SDCC 2011: Castle Panel, Part 2:

SDCC 2011: Castle Panel, Part 3:

SDCC 2011: Castle Panel, Part 4:

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.

Like most screenings at Comic-Con, an RSVP doesn’t necessarily guarantee you entry for the event. It’s usually first-come, first-serve, and so as we arrived at the theater an hour ahead of showtime we found a line into the theater that stretched nearly two blocks. We thought, “no way would we get into this.” But as we found throughout the weekend, regardless of how long the line is, it’s surprising just how many people they can fit inside.

So when we got inside, we were greeted to a voucher for a free popcorn and soda and ushered into a large theater room, with ample seats to fit the large number of people who were waiting in line. Edgar Wright was on hand to introduce the film to the eager audience, who welcomed both him and the film with roaring applause. He let the audience know the film would be opening July 29 in North America to select cities, and that their word-of-mouth was important for a wider release. He also said that he, along with Writer/Director Joe Cornish and lead actor John Boyega would come out after the film for a Q&A with the audience.

After the film, which received a roaring applause from all who were in attendance, Wright informed that because it was so late in the night – nearly midnight, since the screening didn’t begin until after 10pm – he would lead the Q&A and keep things moving. Wright played the audience well and got a lot of laughs when he would pick audience members to ask questions he prepared for Joe and John himself, but also opened the floor up for a few general questions toward the end.

One of the more interesting things we learned from Cornish is that he spent time recording audio of how kids spoke in south London, and used those recordings when writing the dialogue in the film. One of the more memorable lines – like, “it’s just too much madness to explain in one text!” – was spoken for real during those recording sessions. He also said that they made a conscious decision not to use CGI to create the alien creatures to differentiate them from other creatures. They actually used CGI to remove detail from the creatures – he referenced Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings animated movie and how live-action elements stood out on a matte background as the visual style he was trying to achieve. Newcomer John Boyega who played lead Moses in the film got a rousing applause from the audience and explained how the kids in the film spent a lot of time acting as kids together in order to bond, and that camaraderie showed in the final product.

When the Q&A came to a close, Wright, Cornish and Boyega all posed in the lobby for photographs with all in attendance, and everyone received a free t-shirt! All in all, it was one of the more memorable offsite events during the con and we’re glad we got to be a part of it.

Now, what are you waiting for? Go see Attack The Block this weekend!

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

As the lines for Ballroom 20 were worse than rush hour on the 405 throughout the weekend, the same trend held true when the panels moved over to Hall H on Sunday, the first year it was open on the schedule for the last day of the con. And what a schedule it was. Fans camped out overnight for three major television panels – starting with Glee in the morning, continuing with returning favorite Supernatural, and then Doctor Who a few hours later – and packed Hall H to capacity throughout the day. It was reported earlier in the day and confirmed when we arrived later, that staffers removed nearly 1,000 seats from Hall H. We have no idea why they did this – maybe they were expecting lesser crowds – but the hall still filled the seats to capacity and then ushered in awaiting fans to where the seats used to be for a standing-room only section. Even with the addition of the standing-room section, there was still over a thousand fans in line and unable to get in.

At the same time, lines for Nathan Fillion and the Castle panel in room 6BCF, which holds about 1,500 people, started to form before the show opened, and by the time the exhibit hall opened the line had stretched outside, winding under a tent and then extending all the way down the side of the convention center, nearly to the Marriott Marquis next door. In a strange programming decision, Castle wasn’t even the first panel of the day in 6BCF – that distinction went to the George R. R. Martin-moderated Wild Cards panel, about a series of sci-fi/fantasy books written and edited by the Game of Thrones author. The good that came out of this, is during the Wild Cards Q&A, many fans who were there for Castle mentioned this was their first exposure to the series and wanted to learn more about the best book to start reading, and where to buy them. We always said the best takeaways from Comic-Con are those when you find yourself somewhere you didn’t expect to be, and are able to gain some memorable or magical moment as a result. From the sound of it, a lot of Castle fans had this moment.

That’s not to say the Wild Cards panel eclipsed the Castle panel, because judging from the huge roars of applause from the audience it was all about the “Mayor of Comic-Con”, Nathan Fillion. He’s a great showman and a con favorite, and it’s evident he loves the Comic-Con crowd. Throughout the Castle panel he embraced the audience and gave them exactly what they were expecting from him – a lot of humor, some great planned gags and rewards for fans lucky enough to get a chance to participate in the Q&A with Fillion and the cast.

Navigating through some good family-focused panels (Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated, Yo Gabba Gabba‘s Behind the Music among the standouts), we ventured over to Hall H for the afternoon block of FX shows, where we participated in a well-attended It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia panel that screened the premiere episode and followed with a Q&A that had the audience in stitches and ended in a rousing rendition of Dayman among the cast and crowd. Following, cast and crew of Sons of Anarchy were also greeted by a near-full house crowd as they were treated to the first scene of the upcoming season.

Traditionally closing out the con but first time in Hall H, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, “Once More With Feeling”, had its annual sing-a-long and Dawn-bashing. Sorry Michelle Trachtenberg, but you were never really Buffy’s sister anyway…

It wasn’t an official Zombiewalk in the Gaslamp, but one could tell by wondering the outskirts of the convention center that this year’s SDCC had gotten to the best of them. Feet sore, bodies depraved from sleep, and minds blown by what they saw over the four days, Comic-Con 2011 spared those in attendance and finally came to a close.

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.

In January, the forms for professional registration came out.  We read through it, and I saw the program form.  I filled it out, and asked two other colleagues to join our panel team.  I knew they had been to Comic-Con in the past, and at the time I am sure they thought we would have no chance of being selected for a Comic-Con panel.  They agreed and connected me with someone I didn’t know who was a colleague of theirs who had been to 13 comic-cons previously, Alfred.

We knew our topic – how do you use your “geekness” to succeed in Higher Education.  From a staff perspective, student perspective, etc.  “Geek Week Programming.”  The UC Santa Cruz “Social Fiction Conference.”  Free Magic Cards for college students from Wizards of the Coast marketing/distribution. But most of all, I knew they (CCI) were reaching out to us – and I submitted a cover letter saying we wanted to give back – which we did.  We also had a diverse panel – 5 different higher educational institutions represented, I had all the confidence in the world we could present at Comic-Con – I just wondered whether we’d get the chance.  People in the know suggested we start at Wonder-Con.  I felt like Comic-Con was the place for us and submitted the proposal in January.  I knew it was a long shot, but still, I thought we had a good chance.

I didn’t hear a thing for six months.  And then, the email came the first week of June.  We had been selected, and we were presenting Friday night at 8pm.  I was in shock, and as I forwarded the confirmation to our panel, we were all in disbelief.  Less than two months to plan and we had questions.  Only three members of our five panel team currently had registration for SDCC 2011.  Would our other panelists be given registration passes?  We had no money – how would we market the panel?  What to do?

I emailed the SDCC blog with questions.  I emailed the program person with questions.  I emailed people I knew who had comic-con experience questions.  And I got helpful answers.  Here is what we did/learned/would do differently:

First, Logistics:

• If you are selected to present at Comic-Con, you are given full four day badges for your panelists.  Each Panelist can bring a guest for free with them.  Kids under 12 are also free and do not count toward your quota.  You are also allowed to purchase additional tickets for assistants and such
• Lodging.  This is not covered.  Fortunately, one of our colleagues worked at CSU San Marcos and they were willing to house us on Campus.  This was a huge benefit.
• Parking.  This is also not covered.  If you are thinking about putting together a panel, you may want to get parking passes for each day of the conference in advance.  You won’t know which day you will be placed on.  For us, to give us the best chance of being selected, we let the program committee know we were willing to present whenever they’d like us to.
• Video taping: We were allowed a videographer badge in addition to the badges for panelists and guests.  We were responsible for our own audio/visual equipment as well.

Second, Marketing

• We set up a facebook page and a twitter account.  One issue we ran into is people wanted to know a website connected to our twitter page.  We linked ourselves to one of the blogs written by one of the panelists.
• We created a logo.  Fortunately, I have some experience in marketing and we worked to make something simple, yet visual.
• We designed a press release.  People may not know this, but you can ask for a list of all the press attending comic-con about 3 weeks prior to the conference.  We sent an email blast to all the press listed, with our cool logo and what our panel was about.
• We immediately got a few requests for interviews.  If you are able, you may want to have someone to coordinate the interviews.  Being the panel coordinator, on the panel, and the person coordinating the interviews was a LOT of work.
• We tried our best to set up times for interviews prior to the conference.  Some worked and some didn’t.  One problem we ran into was figuring out  location to hold the interviews.  The industry lounge will not allow press into the room, which worked against what we thought would happen.
• We created marketing materials to hand out during the conference.  While we were in line, on the exhibits floor, etc.  We made cheap buttons – one of our panelists had access to a button maker and made about 150 buttons with our logo and various sayings like “Buffy Slayed Vampires in College” or “Even Superman went to College.”  We also made half sheet post card flyers to hand out.
• We searched for someone to sponsor t-shirts and SWAG.  I will have a separate section on SWAG in a bit, because we got REALLY lucky with SWAG.  Ultimately, one of our panelists’ host institution paid for 50 t-shirts at $5 a piece.  This was a huge thing.
• Finally, we emailed all sorts of folks to try and develop interest in our panel.  Put our name out on twitter, blogs, etc. We didn’t want to be “skeevy” so we tried to do this as naturally as we could.

Third, SWAG

• Being that we were college educators, we had a lot of access to SWAG.  We got lucky because our panel was the last one of the night, and there was no pressure to get us out of the room.  We put down in our registration in January that we wanted to hand out swag, but no one contacted us about it.  My recommendation would be to contact the program committee a week or two prior to make sure SWAG distribution is taken care of.
• We had a “helper” handing out t-shirts to people who asked questions and at the end of the panel, they started handing out various SWAG to audience members.  This made for a very organic panel, but probably wouldn’t be repeatable in the future (especially if there was a panel coming in after us)

Fourth, planning the panel itself:

• Visuals:  We created an intro video – simple yet effective.  It was 2 minutes (probably the max time you’d want a video for) and had audio with it.  It was a cool way to start us off.
• We also had two other short videos to break up the presentation.  This worked REALLY well.  It allowed our audience to take a break from hearing us talk, and kept them engaged.  We tried to be funny, and made sure to keep things short.  At one point, one video was 4 minutes long.  Our long time Comic-Con attendee on the panel shared he thought it was too long.  We cut it to two minutes and it was great.
• We are all Mac folks on the Panel, however, I use a PC at work.  I kind of defaulted to creating everything on the PC, and it ended up working without a hitch.  The tech person in our panel room ended up appreciating that we used a PC.  They had been having mac issues all day.  Mainly it’s knowing the connectors you need to connect the Mac to the AV plug ins.
• One final thing about visuals.  At the end – give your audience a link to twitter and/or facebook.  Encourage them to follow you so you can continue to connect with them.
• Moderator:  This was, by far, the most difficult thing to figure out.  We knew our backup was that one of us on the panel would do it.  I emailed famous people, people on twitter, press agents, everyone I could think of.  We got no hits.  I did get some positive feedback.  I asked agents who responded to me if we were on the right track.  They said we were.  Because our panel was Friday night at 8pm, and we were new and virtually unknown, no one wanted to moderate.  We went into our own industry to find a keynote speaker from our conference who was also a “geek” and she agreed on short notice to moderate.  In the future, I might try to secure a potential moderator earlier.  I don’t think the moderator is critical other than keeping the flow going, and we could have done it ourselves, but it is a nice touch.
• You need to have a moderator script/question sheet ready so they know what questions to ask.  We developed this over a few weeks among the panel, and made sure we had it set before we had our moderator.
• One thing to know – you can add your registrants up until the day before Comic-Con, so even if it is a last minute add, you can get your panelist a badge.
• Knowing the audience:  We took time to introduce ourselves at the beginning of the panel.  But we also planned to ask who was there in the audience.  This would help us tailor our info to who was in the room.  More on this later.
• Special guests?  One of the things we tried to do is contact companies we planned on talking about in our panel.  We knew Gowalla, and Wizards of the Coast were companies we had worked with that had Comic-Con presence in the past.  Gowalla was not going to have a big presence at Comic-Con, so that left us with Wizards of the coast.  I connected via email the person in charge of their  booth in the exhibits hall when they sent out their press release.  I stopped by the booth with one of my colleagues and we talked to them about a special guest for our panel, and they came through with the “DM to the Stars” and Wizards exec, Chris Perkins. It was a pretty cool last minute addition.

Fifth, the Con itself

• Our panel was on Friday.  We spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday giving out buttons, talking up our panel, etc.  Standing in line for panels allowed for opportunities to talk to people about our panel.
• We decided to be at our room an hour prior to the panel.  This way we could strategize prior to the panel.

Finally, the panel (and pre-panel)

• We started getting excited when a line started forming for our panel immediately once the doors closed on the panel prior.  We knew the people waiting for our panel were for OUR panel since we were last.  We passed out buttons to people waiting in line.  I think this helped to connect to people before the panel.
• Security:  We ran into an issue because security wasn’t ready for a line for our panel in room 9, and certainly not a line that extended three different walls.  We tried to make friends with the security, giving them buttons and some smaller SWAG to encourage them and let them know we appreciated their efforts.  We also explained we were  glad they had the issues since it meant people wanted to see us. By the time our panel started, we were pretty full with a few empty seats.  For an 8pm panel in Room 9 on Friday night, we were stoked that people came to see us.
• The panel was great – I was able to be on the panel AND work the powerpoint.  The plug in was on the panel tables, which made it easy.
• We learned early on we had a lot of people like us in the audience (college educators) as well as college students.  This helped us know where to take the panel.
• Prior to the panel, we had a list of 7-8 questions, but we actually only got to 3-4.  Time flies in the panel, with 5 people each talking it ends up taking a lot of time.
• Q&A – we were fortunate that we were allowed to go long because we were the last panel of the night.  This allowed for 20 minutes of questions, and we probably could have kept going, except they needed us out of the room.  The questions were awesome, and we really saw that we impacted the people there

So there ya have it – that is what we did/learned/would do differently in the future.  We were thrilled to accomplish a dream for each of us.  Some final tips:

• The program key contact can check in and get badges for everyone else in the group.  To check in, you do not need to stand in the professionals line, you can ask the Comic-Con people to direct you to the Program Participant booth directly – they were in the lobby in front of Hall D.
• For your videographer: They not only need a badge, they needed a “hang tag” in order to have permission for videotaping.
• Reporters:  We had two reporters at our panel.  One took video and stills during the panel.  Afterwards, he asked for our business cards.  Make sure you have info to hand out.

If you have further questions for Tyler about hosting your panel at Comic-Con in the future, you can contact him directly via Twitter @geekEd1 or Email.