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.

We’re looking for your favorite moments from #SDCC to be included in a future post. Tweet us your favs using hashtag #ccfavs!

July 25, 2011 9:34 AM via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@SD_Comic_Con

SD Comic Con Expert

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:

I have arrived @Comic_Con. The air is thick with the smell of Cheetos and celibacy. #SDCC

July 22, 2011 8:55 AM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@ConanOBrien

Conan O’Brien

Currently walking around @Comic_Con. Good god, Batman has really let himself go. #SDCC

July 22, 2011 8:27 PM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@ConanOBrien

Conan O’Brien

Had a great time @Comic_Con, but I’m kind of regretting this “Vampire Diaries” tattoo. #SDCC

July 23, 2011 1:01 PM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@ConanOBrien

Conan O’Brien

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!

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!

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.

I also wrote how I was expecting a surprise from Hollywood, as it seemed they were clearing the schedule for something. But up through Saturday, they’ve stuck largely to the schedule.

But part of the magic of Comic-Con is those moments you don’t expect – ending up in a panel just for kicks or by chance and finding some memorable moment that defines the con for you. Today was a great opportunity to stumble upon one of those moments.

Alas, I just didn’t find it.

I started the day at the Marvel Television panel, looking for some confirmation and maybe some surprises of some live action Marvel television shows. And there were indeed some announcements, but the projects are just too early in development to have shown anything to the audience. But Jeph Loeb, EVP of Marvel Television, did confirm that there is a Jessica Jones show in the works for ABC, and that Carol Danvers and Luke Cage will be the main characters. He also confirmed a Cloak and Dagger live action for ABC as well, which would take place in post-Katrina Louisiana. And yes, The Hulk is in development for ABC, but there was no mention of Guillermo del Toro attached . Jeph said the show would focus on the relationship between Betty Ross and Bruce Banner. Over on ABC Family, a series based on Mockingbird is in development for a younger audience. We were then treated to a ton of information on the new Disney XD animated series Ultimate Spider-Man. Paul Dini, of Batman: The Animated Series fame, is involved in this one, as is the animation studio responsible for Ben10 and Generator Rex. It looks great, and has a lot of star power attached. One thing I loved is that they are finally pulling Spider-Man into the continuity of the Marvel Universe. Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America will all appear as cameos, as well as Dr. Doom and other characters from the Marvel library. And Spidey will be mentored by Ultimates-era Nick Fury (read: the one based on Samuel Jackson). J. Jonah Jameson will be voiced by J.K. Simmons, who played the character in Sam Raimi’s Spidey films, and Clark Gregg will be reprising his movie role of Agent Coulson in the animated series. With the upcoming Avengers film next year, Marvel sure is trying to integrate their flagship character into the continuity any way possible.

The nightmare lines of Ballroom 20 and Indigo Ballroom continued today, so the next panel I ended up in was for Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time. I never saw the show, but it’s proved very popular at this year’s con, with offsite parades, an Adventure Time-themed pizza restaurant in the Gaslamp, and a filled-to-capacity panel that actually filled the room during the previous panel. At the panel, fans of all ages had an extensive Q&A with the voice actors and creators, got a sneak peak at the upcoming season, confirmed that a season three has already been green-lit, and we all got Fin hats!

Closing out today I caught two television premieres for the new series Grimm and The Secret Circle. Grimm, airing on NBC this fall, comes from the writer/producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Bruce Greenwalt, so I was immediately interested. Grimm also received the most votes from our readers via Twitter for shows they wanted to hear more about. The premise is the latest trend in Hollywood, taking classic stories and fairy tales and reimagining it for a modern audience. In Grimm, the main character is from a long line of Grimms – yes, from the Brothers Grimm – where their fairy tales were actually real, and they were in charge of fighting off the evil demons and monsters told in their stories. The pilot played upon the classic Little Red Riding Hood. It started out very promising, very dark and very scary, combining modern serial killer stories with a supernatural slant. Think Millennium from Chris Carter, where the lead character has an uncanny sense of seeing the evil lurking in humanity, but with a mix of fairy tales as the supernatural elements. But it went off the rails from there. A fight with the scene with an elderly “Grimm” (think Slayer) was unintentionally laughable, and the acting throughout was pretty poor. The lead character befriends a “blutbad”, basically a big bad werewolf who urinates on his wood fence to mark his territory and provides comic relief. The premise of the series has potential, as it has a lot of classic material to use, but the cast and the writing is ultimately going to let this one down come fall.

The second premiere I saw was for Kevin Williamson’s The Secret Circle airing this fall on the CW. I love The Vampire Diaries and Williamson is a superb writer, so I had high hopes for this one. Again, I was disappointed. But unlike the mess that was Grimm, The Secret Circle is merely mediocre. It’s about a society of witches living in a small town with many secrets. But unlike The Vampire Diaries, this cast skews really young, there aren’t any known stars, and it’s pretty sterile in comparison. It felt like an ABC Family series more than something hip and edgy as the CW is known for. Unless you love witches, you could probably find better shows on television to spend your time watching.

And that was it for me today. Hopefully we’ll get some reports from the Cowboys and Aliens premiere and post those to the site soon.

On top of that, we had Spielberg and Spider-Man in Hall H.

See, didn’t we tell you Comic-Con would test even the strongest of you?

The biggest story the con, on a positive note, has to be the appearance of Steven Spielberg for the Adventures of Tintin panel starting Friday in Hall H. Despite the star-studded cast, none of the cast was present, but Peter Jackson, executive producer of the movie, made a surprise appearance to a gracious Comic-Con crowd. The crowd was graced with hysterical pre-production footage of Peter Jackson testing the mo-cap technology and interacting with Snowy the dog drinking some spilled wine, getting drunk and falling off a pier with Jackson diving into the ocean after him. We also got some footage from the film in 3D which showed off the awesome animation and superb score from John Williams. The art style helped avoid the uncanny valley problem of The Polar Express, which was specifically called out by Spielberg to show how far the technology has come. But although the art was faithful to the original material, it felt a little too classic for the modern technology used.

There were two reveals during the Q&A. One, Spielberg said there was a story for a Jurassic Park 4 movie, they hired a writer, and that we should expect to see it within the next two to three years. Peter Jackson talked briefly about The Hobbit, saying they were on break because lead Martin Freeman had to leave to film the Sherlock BBC series, and that they had 200 more days of filming remaining.

And the viral moment of the con – a joke played by a fan, when he asked a completely innocent question while wearing a shirt that read: “”If possible I would love to meet Steven Spielberg just to shake his hand and say thank you very much.” The crowd erupted, and the fan was allowed onstage to shake Spielberg’s hand. A funny touch was when the fan went on stage, both Jackson and Spielberg pulled out their camera phones and snapped photos of the fan, spreading the meme, “how many Oscar-winning directors does it take to snap a picture?”

Total Recall got some good buzz and positive reaction from its different take on the Schwarzenegger classic. But it was later in the day when the next must-see panel hit the Hall, during Sony’s unveiling of The Amazing Spider-Man reboot, due in 2012. Fans were treated to exclusive footage and breathed a sigh of relief that the reboot, although taking the franchise in a different direction from the Raimi films, still did the web-slinger justice. Thousands of fans in line were turned away from entering Hall H, making it one of the biggest of this year’s show.

In the weirdest news of the day, Lizard actor Rhys Ifans was arrested shortly after the panel on misdemeanor charges after pushing a female security guard while allegedly drunk.

In Ballroom 20, the lines grew even longer than on Thursday, with a day maxed out with huge panels. Fans were treated to The Walking Dead season two footage, which premiers in October, followed by The Big Bang Theory. The Bones panel was unexpectedly canceled with no replacement panel scheduled, leaving a big gap in the middle of the day. And then last panel of the day, True Blood, caused many fans to invade the Psych and Eureka panels earlier, and leaving thousands of attendee stranded in a line outside during the panel that stretched out to the marina.

The other news was how crowded the Indigo Ballroom was – not just on Friday for the Adult Swim panels, but on Thursday for the Archer panel as well.

Coupled with the long lines for the panels and the folks camped out for the pre-registration lines, it’s no wonder the show floor was so empty. Many exclusive toys were ready for the purchase by just walking up to the booth, something that hasn’t been seen at Comic-Con in a long while. See, there is a silver lining for everything.

Check back later for our analysis of Day 3 of Comic-Con!

The big news leading into the con was that Twilight was going to open the Hall H schedule. A couple of years back, Twi-hards filled the convention hall and caused some ill will with regular attendees because it attracted a crowd that differed from the conventional convention folks. So when Twilight was put on the schedule for Thursday morning, many breathed a sigh of relief. The panel which would clash most with the big-budget Hollywood fare would be over and done with before most people even stepped foot on the convention crowd.

And indeed, the Twi-hards descended upon San Diego with a lot of attention. Word was they were camping out for days to get a front row seat of Edward and Bella; some reports had them camping out over a week in advance of the panel. What came after was the first surprise of the con.

Twilight started, the Twi-hards who camped out got in first. And no one else followed them in.

“No one” is a stretch of the term, but that’s nearly what happened. Attendees stayed away from Hall H during the Twilight panel, and reports were that the hall was about half full for its duration. This was surprising given that most thought the Hall H schedule was front-loaded with many must-see panels on Thursday.

Also surprisingly, the lines of Hall H never reached the fever pitch that they did in prior years. The Pirates! Band of Misfits footage shown during the Animation Showcase panel looked entertaining enough, but although it’s Aardman-produced, it’s still kids’ fare and not the kind of movie that fills the seats at Comic-Con. And the footage show for Film District’s Drive with Ryan Gosling, who wasn’t in attendance, looked amazing – a combination of art house cinema and brutal, gory violence.

But nothing really brought fans to the big hall until the 20th Century Fox panel in the afternoon, where we finally got information on Prometheus, the anticipated Alien-prequel from Ridley Scott. Damon Lindelof of Lost, as well as screenwriter for Promethus, moderated the panel, with Charlize Theron in attendance and a live Ridley Scott remote from the set of the movie in Iceland. Ridley said it wasn’t an Alien prequel, but it had DNA from that classic movie and dealt with themes that have gone unanswered since that first movie was released nearly 25 years ago. He also confirmed the existence of a robot/android character by saying there “might be two” in the story. Fans in attendance were also given an exclusive trailer with footage that showed H.R. Giger’s art design. Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried came out in support of their fall 2011 movie In Time, from the creator of Gattica and writer of The Truman Show, Andrew Niccol. This was met with tepid interest from the fans, seeing a sci-fi twist on a standard thriller that reminded most of The Island rather than something new and fresh. And the panel came to a close with Andy Serkis stopping by to show off the motion-capture process used in bringing his portrayal of Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a prequel to the original movies that showed how the apes came to power. This one comes out in about a month and won some fans over by creating apes the audience sympathized with in a brutal human world, along with the great mo-cap used to bring the apes to life.

The rest of Hall H was a subdued affair. Robert Rodriquez had an entire panel of pre-development announcements for Machete sequels – including a part three in space, Spy Kids 4 with Smell-O-Vision (no joke) and deals to create movies based on the Heavy Metal and Frank Frazetta’s Fire and Ice franchises. And in the most surprising sight of the day, Entertainment Weekly’s annual Visionaries panel, this year with Jon Favreau and Guillermo del Toro played to a Hall H that was about half full. During the panel the two showed off a few scenes of the upcoming Cowboys and Aliens, a few words about pre-production on Favreau’s Magic Kingdom and del Toro’s Haunted Mansion movies for Disney – “few” meaning not anything revealing and surprising from what we already knew from previous reports,

Flip to Ballroom 20,which also had its fair share of big shows booked to appear on Thursday. Unlike Hall H, it didn’t disappoint. As a matter of fact, it surprised everyone by just how crowded the Ballroom was throughout the day. And it was because of one panel in particular – Game of Thrones. Fans flocked to Twitter and posted wait times for the lines, letting everyone know just how long they were in line and the likelihood of getting into the Ballroom. The wait was nearly three and a half hours to get in, with nearly two thousand stuck outside, never getting a seat.

With the pre-registration madness and the Ballroom 20 lines, one could call this year’s con the Game of Lines.

Was Friday any different? Check back later for our take on day two of the con.