San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog

We wanted to let all of you in on our coverage plans for this year’s Comic-Con.

First, we’re planning on updating the blog from Wednesday through Sunday, day and night. We’ll be experimenting with live photos and videos from the show floor, for as long and as often as we have a signal to upload the goods to the site. So be on the lookout for tons of sights and sounds directly from the big show.

Second, we’re going to live blog during panels to pass along the news as we hear it. Big panels, small panels, we want to bring you as much as we we think you’ll want to read. We also know many of you will be at the con, too; so we want to be your eyes and ears for the panels you won’t be able to attend.

Third, we fully accept that we even we won’t be able to attend every panel and event, so we’re going to look for you for help. In years past, we’ve had some readers provide us with reports of offsite events that we’ve posted to the site for everyone to read. We’d like to extend that to this year’s con as well. Every night we’ll be compiling readers’ comments and photos from panels and events to bring you best and the most complete coverage of each day at Comic-Con. If you would like your comments on the site, send us an email or tweet us at our Twitter account.

And speaking of Twitter, yes, we’ll be tweeting everything we post to the blog, as well as retweeting anything we see that we want to pass along to all of you. Suffice to say, we’ve been giving our thumbs a lot of practice the past few weeks so you’ve been forewarned!

Okay, we’re ready – let’s get this show on the road!

Ever since Jon Favreau spilled the beans on the Cowboys & Aliens premiere during this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, everyone’s been asking how they can get their hands on tickets to what is undoubtedly the Event of the Con. It was announced that 2,000 fans would have a chance to attend, but details have been scarce thus far. The fever pitch surrounding the event reminds us of what Charlie had to go through to get a Golden Ticket to get into Wonka’s.

Well, make that a Golden Brick.

The big Cowboys & Aliens banner going up on the side of the Hilton Bayfront has a text number on the bottom to receive info on how to score tickets. The banner wasn’t complete but we did some deductive reasoning to complete the instructions and came up with the info. By texting the word “Cowboys” to 834-567 we received the following response:

Be on the look out for Cowboys & Aliens gold bricks – get one and you could win tickets to the World Premiere at the San Diego Civic Theater, Saturday, July 23!

So that’s one way to get into the premiere. There may be others, and as soon as we hear of any we’ll pass along the info.

Color us surprised when we didn’t see a Cartoon Network booth or events during the Comic-Con 2011 announcement season. Adult Swim seems to be taking on a life of its own at the con, but for great family fare it looked like it was going to be orphaned to its parent, Warner Bros.

Well, worry no more, because there will be a Cartoon Network booth. Sort of.

Between the time the convention center doors close on Saturday and reopen on Sunday, the Warner Bros. booth will be transformed, or rather “tooned up” into the official Cartoon Network booth for Family Day. The day’s events will feature signings from your favorite CN shows, the Tweety Bird car give-a-way, costumed characters for the kids,and more fun for kids of all ages. And you betcha you’ll catch us at the Scooby-Doo signing – man, we love that show.

Hope they use something a little more snazzy than that black and white from last year. Click past the jump to read the press release.

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Yesterday, foodies at the con rejoiced at the news the San Diego food trucks would be out in full force during the con. The website sdfoodtrucks.com gave the specifics on what cuisine we can expect to be present and where the trucks would be located. Does “Chop Sooey, Patty Melt, Super Q, Asian Persuasion, Two For The Road, Devilicious, SD Street Eats, Flippin Pizza and Green Truck” get your mouth watering?

But they might have given up something far more delectable.

Here’s the quote:

The entrance will be off 1st Ave, right next to the Comedy Central interactive park.  Warner Brothers and Disney will also be doing projects in the lot.

What could it be? Warner Bros. is all over the show, so it could be anything from a big blockbuster movie to a push for a new TV show. And what about Disney? Could it be a tie-in with a Disney XD show, like Tron: Uprising? Hands on their Disney Universe game from Disney Interactive? Or when they say Disney do they mean Marvel? Only a couple of days until we all find out.

Thanks to readers Zach Marcus and Jeremy Wein who pointed out this buried treasure.

UPDATE 2 7/18/11: Tickets are now available for purchase on Fandango. Go get ‘em!

UPDATE 1 7/18/11: Seat42f has posted details on the Captain America screenings throughout the day. Starting at noon on Thursday, July 21 you’ll be able to purchase a ticket to screenings throughout the day, with prizes, giveaways and other promotions for attendees to the early screenings for fans in the San Diego area:

In addition to being among the first to see the movie, all CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER ticketholders will receive RealD® 3D Collector’s Custom red, white and blue Captain America: The First Avenger glasses and a limited edition poster designed exclusively for the fans. A grand prize package of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER merchandise and other Marvel items will be given away to a select audience member at each screening. USO-costumed women will be standing at the American Flag Pole in the Horton Plaza passing out free tickets every hour beginning at 11:00 A.M. to the first 10 people who come dressed as Captain America.

The screenings will be held at the Horton Plaza and tickets will be available for purchase on Fandango, but as of this update the showtimes were not yet available for purchase.

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A couple of days ago we posted some info on the onsite pre-registration process for 2012 that had a lot of you disappointed, and some even more so. Well, CCI updated the official Comic-Con site with the details, and it’s what we expected. Registration will be held in Douglass Pavilion at the Manchester Grand Hyatt from 8am to 11am Thursday through Sunday.

Click through the jump to find out the good, the bad, and the just-plain-weird.

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The “Countdown to Comic-Con” continues, with a mere four days until Preview Night! We can hardly believe it ourselves, and we can’t wait to be on that jumbo jet, San Diego bound.

The folks at Comic-Con International, organizers for the big show, can’t wait to see all of us either, and they’ve been unveiling news and schedules on a daily basis leading up to the con which have been making the wait to opening night just that much more unbearable. Thanks, CCI. We appreciate the tease!

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Comic-Con is great not just because of the events going on inside of the convention center, but everything going on in the surrounding areas of downtown San Diego as well. Being so close to the Gaslamp District gives attendees a lot of great nightlife, restaurants, bars, and plenty of offsite events.

With everything going on after the doors to the convention center close for the night, you’ll want to be close to all of this action. If you’re one of the thousands staying within walking distance to the con, your transportation needs are basically how comfortable your sneakers are. But the popularity of the weekend has pushed thousands more to stay farther out into the city.

For the past several years, CCI has been offering a shuttle service to get people to and from their hotel. They’ve just updated their official site with a PDF of the shuttle schedule, and you’ll want to keep this handy and know when you need to catch the bus to make your don’t-miss panels. The shuttles run at regular intervals and well into the early morning for those who just don’t want to leave. Keep this one on your smartphone so you’re never stuck looking for a cab home. The shuttle is also free, by the way, for all con ticket holders.

The MTS trolley is another way to get to the Convention Center, if for some reason the shuttle service isn’t going to work for you. A one-way fare is $2.50, but a one-day pass is $5 and a four-day pass is $15. Check out the San Diego MTS website for more information.

Some important information for those who are looking to pick up their Comic-Con passes for this year’s convention, as well as those who want to avoid the online ticket process for next year’s con.

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We’ve been waiting for this for a couple of weeks, and it’s finally arrived. CCI has published their annual Comic-Con Exclusives guide on the official website.

The guide has been a great resource in year’s past, and this year is no different. You can select a specific company from a drop down and get the lowdown on all of their exclusive merchandise, including price and limited run.

It doesn’t look like it’s complete yet – for example, no HasbroToyShop or MattyCollector as selectable companies – which means they’re probably holding back until as more exclusives are announced. Keep this bookmarked, and make your checklists now!