The Geekpocalypse is Upon Us! San Diego Comic-Con 2010!

The San Diego Comic-Con is kind of a big deal to me. I even wrote a book about it. The annual geeky event brings people from around the world to downtown San Diego just to catch a glimpse at the hottest pop culture icons from movies to television to video games and, of course, comic books. And today is the day that the geeks come to town!

If you’re at all interested in what is happening at the big show as it happens, be sure to follow popculturegeek on Twitter and/or on Facebook. I’ll be sending updates on whatever catches my eye, from big movie footage reveals in Hall H, celebrity sightings on the exhibition hall floor, great deals I’ve scored, or hints at everything going on around the convention center each night.

I’ve said somewhere else that San Diego doesn’t just HOST Comic-Con, it BECOMES Comic-Con! And never has that been more true than this year. With the cast of Scott Pilgrim printing t-shirts for fans outside the Hilton Gaslamp, the cast of Machete serving up tacos from a taco truck at 5th and J St, the Adult Swim ice cream truck roaming around the Gaslamp District handing out free Ben & Jerry’s, or the event so big that it will require the use of the Petco Park baseball stadium (could it be… Tron and… ?), this is almost the year you don’t even need a ticket to enjoy many of the festivities surrounding Comic-Con.

The list of parties grows by the minute and the panels are sure to pack some big surprises (Brad Pitt’s first appearance? The kids of Hogwarts to apparate? The entire official Avengers lineup on stage?). But what about the comics? SOMEBODY THINK OF THE COMICS!!! Robert Kirkman is set to announce the new Skybound imprint for Image. There’s a new documentary about the legendary Stan Lee. IDW launches the new True Blood comics. And Marvel and DC will surely tease us with lots of new ideas and concepts they really can’t say much about at this juncture (but they’ll bring art we can try to decipher out of context!).

No matter what happens, it’s going to be full of long lines where we’ll all daydream of being Madrox the Multiple Man for just one week so that we could catch everything that’s going on during Comic-Con’s insanely packed schedule.

I know I can’t catch everything and I know all of my dreams can’t come true, but here are a few things I kind of wish would happen this week:

1. I’d like Joss Whedon to be officially announced as the director of Avengers and I want him to bring out all of the actors who will be playing the heroes onto the stage for a big photo op. I also want Edward Norton to be among them, but I don’t see that happening unless it’s all been a big redirect to keep media from looking at what they’re really planning.
Chances of happening:
Whole cast: 60%
Partial cast: 90%
With Norton: 1%

2. Speaking of Joss Whedon, his panel with JJ Abrams seems like the perfect opportunity to finally show some of that long-awaited Cabin in the Woods footage. And for Abrams to show off some Super 8 clips. And then, as part of a big finale to the panel, I want their respective starship crews to come on stage to duke it out for interstellar dominance (or possibly a slap fight). Serenity (Fillion, Baldwin, Tudyk at least) vs Star Trek (Pine, Quinto, Pegg at least). And I want Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill to come out on stage to referee.
Chances of happening:
Just clips: 80%
Starship crew fight: 20%
With Star Wars referees: 0.5%
Chances of a decisive ruling on starship crew dominance: 0%

3. If Warner Bros is smart, they bought the plane tickets from England a long time ago for the cast of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to make their first and final appearance at Comic-Con. It would be awesome to have Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Ralph Finnes, and pretty much every other witch or wizard who has graced the halls of Hogwarts over the past 6 movies step out onto the stage, but I imagine it would get pretty crowded. At the very least, they should trot out the 3 principal actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint to suffer through our horribly uncomfortable questions about their lives after Harry Potter (they look pretty good, surprisingly) and the incredibly high pitched screams that in previous years had been reserved for the Twilight kids. Show some kickass footage (not of Kick Ass, obviously) and let us give you guys a proper good-bye with a standing ovation in return for Hollywood stealing your childhood. It’s the least we can do. Seriously. The least.
Chances of happening:
Appearance by a majority of the cast (at least 10): 40%
Appearance by Harry, Hermione, and Ron: 90%
Just footage (and complimentary swag): 100%

Some quickies:

- Chance that I’ll score one of those Star Wars Lego exclusive figures: 15%
- Chance that Steve Brule will give me ice cream from the back of a truck: 5%
- Chance that Tim and/or Eric will try to lure me into the back of a van: 98%
- Chance that there will be a Piranha 3D screening somewhere in the Gaslamp District despite being banned from Comic-Con: 99%
- Chance that I’ll get a book deal due to my self-published book, The Unauthorized San Diego Comic-Con Survival Guide: 1%
- Chance that Simon Pegg won’t be weirded out if I walk up to him at a party and give him a picture I took of him and Ken Foree (from Dawn of the Dead) six years ago at the first US Shaun of the Dead screening at Comic-Con: 87%
- Chances I’m invited to a party where Simon Pegg and other celebs will be mingling: 20%
- Chance that the Green Lantern footage will change the minds of those who hate the pictures of the costume: 55%
- Chance I’ll get into the big Petco Park event Saturday night: 90% (or else!)
-Chance that Anna Kendrick herself will make me a really awesome Scott Pilgrim t-shirt: 2%
- Chance that Anna Kendrick herself will make me a really awesome Scott Pilgrim t-shirt and then wear it for a picture of her hugging me (and looking like she enjoys it): 0.000000028%
- Chance that I’ll be doing or witnessing something at Comic-Con one of these nights that I never, ever expected at the time I’m writing this: 110%

That’s all I can think of right now, because I still have to pack for tomorrow’s trip down route 5 to San Diego. If I could write and post this from traffic, I would. I’m already exhausted and it’s not even begun. Swing by the Kirby Krackle booth if you get a chance as they will be selling my book, The Unauthorized San Diego Comic-Con Survival Guide at booth #1803. I expect to show up there every so often to restock the books that will obviously be flying off the shelves (I’m bringing shelves! …sort of).