San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog

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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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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SDCC is just around the corner (preview night’s in 9 days for those who are keeping count!), and TV Guide is getting in on the action.  As they did last year, they will be teaming with The WB to produce a Comic Con focused issue of TV Guide, and there will be four collectible covers.  This year, the shows being featured on the cover will be The Big Bang Theory, Chuck, Fringe, and The Vampire Diaries.  The magazine will be distributed at the Warner Bros. booth (#4545) starting on preview night, July 20, 2011, and will be available on newsstands July 21- July 28.

As to what’s going to be inside the pages of this special issue?  Click past the jump to read the press release and view the covers.

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We feel like we’ve been stuck on an emotional rollercoaster these last few weeks. Would Hollywood show up for Comic-Con this year or won’t they? We’d heard conflicting reports on either side of the story. And we finally received some closure after seeing the schedules for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Most of our questions have been answered, but there are some still lingering about the offsite presence of Marvel and Dreamworks studios. And the answers we did get were pretty encouraging, at least for Thursday and Friday, that Hollywood would bring their “A” game to the con.

But then Saturday’s schedule was released, and it wasn’t nearly as strong as the prior two days. So the question on everyone’s mind is, would Comic-Con rebound on Sunday and end this year with a bang?

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Okay, we’re officially exhausted. This is good training, though; it gets our mind ready for the insanity that is San Diego Comic-Con. We’ve been officially blown away by the quality and quantity of the panels announced thus far, and we’re only half way through the weekend.

But today, Comic-Con announced their Saturday schedule, which officially pushes us over the mid-point. One more day to go of panel announcements – we think we can pace ourselves.

Although there are some great panels on Saturday, to us it is the weakest of the days thus far. Click through the jump to find out why.

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We’re starting to feel a little deja vu. The Friday SDCC event schedule has been announced, and after going through it we immediately realized we were double and/or triple booked almost the entire day.

Welcome to the SDCC weekend, people. Get used to it.

You’re going to have to make some tough choices, as mentioned in Part 1 of our Newbie guide, because it’s physically impossible to be in two places at once. So, as the good friends that we are, we’re going to go through the events of the day and let you know which ones are worth attending, which are worth skipping, and how to score a seat at your favorite panel.

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Well, this is it. The moment we’ve all been waiting for. All the speculation comes to an end, as Comic-Con officially unveils their 2011 schedule of events. Today saw the announcement of Wednesday’s preview night event, and Thursday’s schedule. Who will be in Hall H? Will Hollywood really be sitting out on this year’s con? And which events are the ones that have us most interested? Click through the jump to find out more.

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It’s the question on everyone’s mind.  It’s been debated through the ages.  Who would win in a fight: vampires or zombies?  Now, Spike TV is set to answer that question in “Deadliest Warrior,” and those lucky enough to be in Room 25ABC from 10am – 11am on July 21 will be able to see how it all goes down!

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The Disney Channel always gets a big crowd for their Phineas and Ferb panels, so they would be remiss if they didn’t return again in 2011.

Today Disney Channel announced their full slate of panels, and yes, Phineas and Ferb were included on the schedule – not once, but twice! They will be having a panel and Q&A with cast and crew on Friday, July 22 (time and location TBA), as well as a sneak peek of the new Disney Channel Original Movie, “Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2^nd Dimension” on Saturday, July 23 with a Q&A with the creators directly following (again, time and location TBA).

Disney Channel is also bringing Kick Buttowski – Suburban Daredevil and Fish Hooks panels to Comic-Con. What is most interesting, and ultimately disappointing, to me is that not only is Tron: Uprising not getting its own panel, but it plays second fiddle at the Kick Buttowski panel, along with another Disney XD series, Motorcity. Geez, Tron rules the con three years in a row and this is what we get?

Check out the full press release after the jump.

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For those lucky enough to score a pass or two during the single-day ticket resale earlier today – your dessert just arrived. Details of several popular television panels were announced throughout the day, surely making you wish tomorrow was the 21st of July.

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