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).

Why “unauthorized”? Well, it’s not written or approved by any of the fine folks at Comic-Con International. And although the book contains no scandalous revelations of behind-the-scenes shenanigans, it does give you a number of tips and tricks, to get where you need to go and do what you need to do in order make the most of your trip, that they couldn’t necessarily include in their official literature.

And this book is a MUST HAVE for Comic-Con newbies. I’ve seen the questions asked all over the web on how to handle the lines, autographs, exclusives, hotels, food, and more. It’s all in this book. Even I re-learned some things I forgot while I was writing it. No matter who you are or why you go to the show, The Unauthorized San Diego Comic-Con Survival Guide has something for you.

The best part about The Unauthorized San Diego Comic-Con Survival Guide is that it comes in a pocket-sized 3 1/2 x 5 inch format that easily fits into your pocket, purse, or backpack, for easy access whether you’re sitting in line or racing around the floor. It’s a great compliment to the big official event guide they provide, but so much easier to grab when you’re in a pinch.

The book not only gives you what you need to survive the convention center floor, it also prepares you for the event before you even buy your membership ticket (well, next year’s). And let’s not forget the all-important post-show recovery. It’s got more information than you ever knew you needed to survive the biggest geek event of the year!

And for a limited time, if you help get the word out about The Unauthorized San Diego Comic-Con Survival Guide, you could win a free 4 day pass to San Diego Comic-Con 2011! Just “LIKE” our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter (doing the same with popculturegeek.com doubles your chances).

For more information, check out http://sdccsurvivalguide.com/.

Grab the book now and get it delivered anywhere in the world BEFORE the doors open on July 21st!

Yeah, I know it’s taken me a week to write this up, even though I’ve not said a whole lot. I figure I’ll let the video and pictures speak for me…

Check out more Anaheim Comic-Con pictures at the official popculturegeek Flickr site

                   

For those of you who don’t know, WonderCon is the San Francisco-based little sister to the mega-sized San Diego Comic-Con. At about 1/4 the size of the San Diego convention, WonderCon gives fans a little more breathing room to soak up comics related goodies, events, and more. Sure, the movie studios definitely made themselves known more than ever this year, with Disney, Warner Bros, and Lionsgate showing off what they’re bringing to theaters in the coming months (Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Toy Story 3, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Resident Evil: Afterlife, The Losers, Nightmare on Elm Street, Splice, Inception, and of course, the ubiquitous Kick-Ass). Directors Christopher Nolan, Lee Unkrich, and John Turteltaub, and stars like Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Jackie Earle Haley, Jake Gyllenhaal, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Milla Jovovich, and Jeff Garlin all came out to show off new footage and take questions from the standing room only crowds.

Disney went above and beyond to promote Tron: Legacy by hosting a press conference with the fictional ENCOM Industries a mile from the Moscone convention center. Alan Bradley (actor Bruce Boxleitner) addressed the crowd and announced a new online version of Space Paranoids will be launched very soon (a game that never really existed except in the Tron movie universe). Those loyal to Tron creator Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) overtook the stage to voice their outrage over ENCOM’s lack of initiative in finding the missing genius, followed by an ENCOM helicopter swooping over the crowd and a man parachuting from it to the stage at the end of the event. It was reported that the jumper was actually Kevin Flynn‘s son, Sam (actor Garrett Hedlund). It obviously wasn’t the actor who plummeted to the ground on that cold, windy night, but it was fun pretending we were part of a movie’s back story for just one night. And, hey, we got free t-shirts and posters and Space Paranoids pins. More information on the mysterious goings-on at ENCOM can be found at FlynnLives.com.

 
Television was also well-represented with special advanced screenings of the new Doctor Who and panels focusing on Happy Town, V, Fringe, Human Target, and perennial fan-favorite: Chuck. Many of the panels featured full screenings of upcoming episodes, hoping to catch the interest of non-viewers and reward longtime fans of the shows for sticking with them. Chuck, with easily the strongest representation of fans, is still astoundingly on the chopping block after this season. I don’t understand how that is, but apparently Nielsens don’t lie. Or they’re outdated and not nearly as effective at gauging viewer interest as it had been decades ago when it was created to track viewing patterns and numbers. But that’s my opinion. So’s this: Chuck is an amazingly fun and exciting show with a talented cast and deserves a long life on the now digital airwaves. I’m sick of worrying if a series will get canceled before it is allowed to get proper closure, like Lost, but unlike Veronica Mars. Hopefully Warner Bros (studio) and NBC Universal (network) will take notice at our fervor and keep it around for a long time to come. But I’m not holding my breath.

But beyond movie and television properties, the show is about comics. All of the major publishers were well represented (although Marvel, considering it’s one of the Big Two, could have had a bigger presence… or any presence) in booths and panels for their various properties. Actor Michael Chiklis (The Shield) showed up to promote a new book he co-created for IDW called the Pantheon. He’s one of my favorite actors from one of my all-time favorite tv series. Unfortunately, due to the madness that comes with personal schedule management, I didn’t get to meet him.

The evenings held an array of geeky opportunities, such as the Doctor Who new season premiere screening, the annual Masquerade (tons of hand-made fan costumes), and an advance screening of Kick-Ass to which hundreds of passes were handed out, most of which went unused due to the fact that nearly a 3rd of the seats were reserved for a local radio station promotion, not WonderCon guests who stood in line for hours in hopes of seeing the film (including yours truly). Yeah, not a big fan of that. It was the single biggest disappointment of the week, not only for myself, but also for people who drove from out of state to stand in multiple lines throughout the day only to get turned away, with no hope of a later screening (I was told their “digital license” ran out at 11pm. Can’t the studio that owns it have control over that?) to assuage the anger of the hundreds who wasted hours in line for nothing. If you’re going invite WonderCon attendees to an advanced screening, it should be for WonderCon attendees only. If I had known, I would have tried to get a hook up from the local radio station instead, since they had 5 rows of the 500 seat room reserved just for them. Big sigh.

In all, despite the Kick-Ass fiasco and the rain, it was another great weekend in the city by the bay, courtesy of WonderCon. I grabbed the goodies, snatched up the swag, and got a sneak preview of what’s to come in the world of movies, tv, video games, and, of course, comics in 2010 and beyond…

Lucky WonderCon 2010 attendees get to see it a few weeks early when it screens at the annual San Francisco geek gathering on Saturday, April 3rd! I hope to be among the lucky few in the crowd as this new era of The Doctor.

Doctor Who premieres Saturday, April 17, 9:00p.m. ET/PT. Doctor Who premiere episode is an extended version with limited commercial interruption. Check out the brand new trailer below…

The series has episodes written by Richard Curtis (Pirate Radio, Love Actually) and Toby Whithouse (Being Human, Torchwood) and guest stars including Alex Kingston (ER, Flash Forward), James Corden (Gavin & Stacey, The History Boys) and Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo (The Secret Life of Bees, Hotel Rwanda) and Tony Curran (24). For more visit http://bbcamerica.com/doctorwho

The 2010 PaleyFest event wrapped up a week ago at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills and I’m already jonesing for next year’s schedule to be announced. I’ve been going to select events hosted by the Paley Center for the last few years and the PaleyFest is easily the pop culture highlight of my spring. I can only afford to hit up a few of the events, so I was happy that I was able to snag tickets to two of the best: Dexter and Breaking Bad. Both are shows with stellar, award-winning casts and creators/writers that take astounding storytelling risks, not just season to season, but episode to episode. They fall into a sub-genre of television that I like to call “Consequence Television”, where the characters are in a constant state of change and the events that shape the characters are not forgotten by the time the next episode airs a week later. I’m not the first person to make this observation (certainly the producers are aware of what they’re doing and why they’re doing it), but it needs to be said. This is not “safe”, friendly television that you cozy up to after work (well, they do air on Sundays). These shows are tense, thrilling heart-and-mind benders that make Mondays in the office seem not so bad in comparison. These are the types of shows that you expect to be affected by. After watching the season 4 finale of Dexter, I was shaken for days afterward. I have friends that still have trouble talking about it. And Breaking Bad usually sets up the beginning of each episode with a visual cue, a mystery that is either solved by episode’s or season’s end, but never in a way you see coming. And I love it. Going to editorialize and put it right out there. I enjoy being made uncomfortable by television. I LOVE it (and hate it and love that I hate it) when the characters I care so much about, like Breaking Bad‘s Walter White (portrayed with such engrossing rage and subtlety by Emmy-award winning Bryan Cranston) make such bad decisions… even if it’s for all the right reasons. Most people can’t handle this type of storytelling. They want their heroes pure and their decisions true and just. And if there is a wrongdoing, it’s done by mistake or it’s done to the hero by the clearly defined bad guy. Dexter and Breaking Bad are not those types of shows.

So it was with great pleasure that I got to witness the PaleyFest events/screenings featuring Dexter and Breaking Bad over the last 2 weeks:

The Dexter screening featured the season 4 episode “Hungry Man“, where Dexter is faced with possibly the worst Thanksgiving day ever. Afterward, the primary cast, including Golden Globe-winner Michael C Hall (Dexter), his real life wife (and on-screen foster sister, Deb) Jennifer Carpenter, and cult tv favorite Julie Benz (Rita), mostly spoke about the devastating season 4 finale and what the future holds for Dexter as a result of that game changing episode. Between the sometimes usual awkward questions, the cast opened up about their favorite moments on set, the show’s odd connection to Lost, and the need for humor on a serial drama where the hero is a serial killer.
[Dexter pictures are available at the popculturegeek Flickr site]

The Breaking Bad event wasted no time in giving the packed house what it wanted: the season 3 premiere, directed by star Bryan Cranston, almost 2 weeks before it’s official debut on AMC (Sunday, March 21st at 10pm). I won’t give anything away, but it starts with one of the most bizarre openings I’ve ever seen anywhere, introducing us to 2 new characters that will likely play a big part in Walt and Jesse’s futures in the coming weeks. The main cast chatted about the often shocking turns that their characters are faced with and why main character Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) had not been killed off in the first season as originally planned. But what stood out most through that evening’s discussion was that Bryan Cranston is an astoundingly funny story teller.
[Breaking Bad pictures are available at the popculturegeek Flickr site]

The videos show some of what was discussed much better than I can. There are 6 videos for Dexter and 7 for Breaking Bad and they are all worth watching, especially if you’re already a fan. Just make sure you’re caught up on each series or you might be in for some unsettling surprises.

Bryan Cranston talks about directing the two new “bad guys” in the Season 3 premiere (no story spoilers).

The Dexter cast talks about their favorite moments of the series so far.

Breaking Bad season 3 returns to AMC on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 10pm.
Showtime rolls out Dexter season 5 on Sunday, September 26th, 2010.

For more videos and information on the Paley Center and its very busy event schedule that goes year round in Los Angeles and New York City, go to paleycenter.org.

Pretty much all of the panel is included below. Sorry about the darkness of the video. He had requested low lights to show his slides. But that’s fine because it’s what he has to say and the stories that he tells that matter.

Among the highlights of my weekend (in no particular order):

• Winning that Randy Bowen Wolverine statue from the Comic Bug and the Hero Initiative Wolverine 100 covers fundraising promotion.
• Getting to see the lovely Jennifer Wenger (aka Wonder Woman) again, an actress from the amazing Confessions of a Superhero documentary.
• Getting to play the newest entry in the Legend of Zelda series (i’m a Zelda fanatic) called Spirit Tracks for the DS and DSi.
• Getting the opinion of a real roller derby girl on the movie Whip It (short answer: it was funny, but not really realistic… but, hey, plumbers would say the same thing about a movie featuring plumbers. Hollywood always has to take a bit of creative license with everything.)
• Getting my Amazing Spider-Man #606 convention exclusive sketch variant signed by J Scott Campbell and snagging a sweet big format sketchbook.
• Seeing Thomas Jane looking down upon the crowd and urging the crowd to come to his 3D screening of Dark Country (directed by him).
• Meeting David Petersen and getting each of my mini format books of Mouse Guard signed by him.
• Did I mention all of those Wolverine 100 covers from the Hero Initiative fundraiser? So many I’d love to own when they go up for auction, especially Bill Morrison‘s full color recreation of the classic Captain America annual cover originally done by Mike Zeck.
• Seeing La Bamba from the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien roaming the floor as a fan and repeatedly getting asked to have his picture taken with fans of his (he’s seriously part of the best band on late night television).
• Finally getting around to picking up The Boys by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson. Upon learning that I had never read a page of The Boys and was buying it on reputation alone, Darick warned me of its graphic nature. I assured him I could handle it (I haven’t yet pulled it from the stack of books I got this weekend, but expect me to Twitter my disgust when I do).
• Even though I’m not a pro wrestling fan, it was fun to watch the acrobatics involved in entertaining the crowd.
• Grabbing more than a few trade paperbacks and hardcovers at HALF PRICE, including Runaways, All-Star Superman, and more. Plus, lots of other fun stuff.
• Getting to meet Bloom County and Opus creator, Berkeley Breathed, and getting to attend his panel. This man helped form my sense of humor in my impressionable teenage years (don’t ask when) through his comic strips (David Letterman, Monty Python, and Star Trek reruns had an influence too, but I digress).
• At every convention, I try to pick up at least one completely indie creator’s book (I wish I could grab all of them, but 1. not all of them are good 2. i’m not rich 3. and i really prefer unique concepts that look like writing skill is required, not the ability to draw big tits or fetish costumes. This time I picked up both issues of Punks the Comic by Joshua Fialkov.
• Finding artist Tom Hodges at yet another convention and still having a hard time picking just one of his many amazing works to take home with me (again, i’m not rich). In the end I picked up a Yoda. You should see the Princess Leia I have on my wall.
• Picking up these sweet dot painted 4×6 inch works of art featuring the Venture Bros henchmen of the Monarch. I have a feeling these won’t be the last ones I buy from Giddy Girlie.
• Seeing the now ubiquitious Lady Deadpool dancing to the music of Black Bolt aka Ian Frazier.
• And speaking of music, I got to witness the massive, lumbering bluesy rock of Bigfoot and geek rock heroes Kirby Krackle Saturday night at the Hero Initiative after party. I became an instant fan, bought a CD and shirt, and I plan to do a little feature on them here on popculturegeek in the near future. My only complaint is that they should have been put in a better venue where the lighting wasn’t controlled by whoever was leaning against the light switch at the time. But I have to admit, despite the tiny sound system, the bands sounded really good.
• Oh, and one last thing… so many gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous girls in costume. Not the least of which is the young lady I shot at the Auld Dubliner across the street at the after show drink up. Is that a great pose or what? There are so many more that I couldn’t put them all here (and still others that I missed!). Check my entire Flickr stream to see all of them! Thanks to all of the ladies (and the guys too) for being so gracious and standing still for me every time.

As the years go by, I know that the crowds will grow and, sure, the convention’s proximity to LA will increase Hollywood’s presence at the show, but that certainly won’t be a bad thing as long as comics remain a vital part of this convention’s focus. Any opportunity for geeks to get together with those of their own kind, grab some rare collectibles, meet their favorite comic artists and writers, and get the chance to dress up in that revealing spandex outfit at any other time than just Halloween, is a good thing. Here’s hoping to many more conventions at the Long Beach Convention Center! Seeya next year, geeks!

Meet living legend and Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee! Artists Jim Lee, J Scott Campbell, and Tim Bradstreet will be on hand to sign autographs! Seth Green and the boys from Robot Chicken will host a panel showing off behind the scenes clips and previews for their show and the new series Titan Maximum! Nintendo will have a booth that will let you demo their latest games! Thomas Jane will premiere his new film Dark Country in 3D at the event! DC will give you the inside scoop on the state of DC Universe! Marvel will be reviewing submissions for prospective artists! See the highly acclaimed but never really released horror film (what, did you think it would be a kiddie flick?), Trick ‘R Treat, starring Anna Paquin of True Blood and X-Men movie fame! Get an exclusive Amazing Spider-Man #606 variant comic (J Scott Campbell cover!) when you buy a 3 day pass! Plus lots more reasons for me to type sentences that end in exclamation points!!!

Personally, I’m most looking forward to being in the same room as one of my all-time favorite comic strip heroes, Berkeley Breathed, the Pulitzer-prize winning creator of Bloom County and Opus, and at one time the only reason I ever opened a newspaper (now it’s just coupons and that Best Buy ad). And even though I’ve had his collected works on my bookshelf since the 80s (wow, really?), I might be tempted to pick up his new Archival Collection book, now published by IDW.

But no matter what you’re interested in, there’s no doubt you’ll find it at the Long Beach Comic-Con, the first in a hopefully long-lived tradition for the West coast geeks who yearn for the smell of mylar in the morning, exclusive promotional trinkets in the afternoon, and the sole blistered trek back to the car each night, overstuffed goodie bags in tow.

Click here to learn more about the Long Beach Comic-Con and to GET YOUR ADVANCED TICKETS NOW!

If you’re a big fan of Lost, you NEED to watch these videos. It’s an example of just how much fun we have every year with 6500 other fans in one big packed-to-capacity room. If you want to see everything in the order it happened, pay attention to my notes below, pause at the designated moments (usually when they say “roll the clip”) and watch the other parts when noted.

If you watch all of the videos exactly in the order as listed below, you will have seen the Lost panel in its entirety, but without standing in line for hours (many people slept outside overnight to get front row seats).

Watching everything here will take about 45-50 minutes.

The opening FINAL SEASON image (worst video of the bunch, but it’s the best I could find… still has lots of fun clues…):

A quick little promo ad for Lost University, the latest alt-reality thingy from ABC:

PART 1 –

At 2:05, pause and go here to see the fan video compilation (very funny):

PART 2 –

When it takes a break at 4:20, pause the video and watch each of the following items, then resume PART 2 – THESE ITEMS ARE HUGELY IMPORTANT CLUES FOR SEASON 6!!!

The end of PART 2 leads directly into this video:

PART 3 –

(By the way, in the middle of PART 3, a guy shows up named Bob Stencil. If you’re curious about who he is, go here: http://www.firstshowing.net/bobstencil/
But it’s not necessary to view in regard to Lost itself. He’s just a hilarious “character” correspondent that is found all over Comic-Con every year.)

PART 4 –

Pause PART 4 at 2:59 and watch this video and resume:

Pause again at 8:10 and watch this video which will take you to the end:

However, watching the end of the PART 4 video will give you a little hint about season 6 that other videos won’t. Just mouse over the box that appears on screen when you see it.

And if you want to also catch the LOST meta-reality series that explores the secrets of the Dharma Initiative through a long lost investigative news series that never really existed, check out Mysteries of the Universe.

Of course, if you aren’t doing so already, make sure you’re checking out damoncarltonandapolarbear.com to get exclusive, limited edition artwork based on the characters and concepts of Lost.

And if you’re at all interested, check out our pictures from the final Lost panel and from the booth showcasing the Lost props that will be auctioned off next year.

Well, as you can see in the picture above, this Comic-Con wrap-up post features a little something about the Iron Man 2 panel. NO, YOU WON’T FIND THE BOOTLEGGED FOOTAGE HERE. THAT’S NOT WHAT WE DO. (we don’t like getting kicked out of the panels by eagle-eyed but overly-surly security guards) But you will find nearly all of the Iron Man 2 panel Q&A footage in the video below. I picked the best parts and streamlined it all into a fast-paced 10 minute HD video that shows how fun every panel should be. The capacity crowd filled the hall and were definitely primed for a good time. The cast and crew did not disappoint…

There are more videos to come (Lost panel footage maybe? how about Twilight?), but in the meantime, you should really check out all of the video that’s been posted to the official San Diego Comic-Con website. This is a good place to start if you want to get an idea of what you missed…

The hallway in which we lined up for the exhibition hall must have been 100 degrees in there, but while the stench was strong with us, no one wilted or died.

I stood in line for more than an hour and a half to get a Harry Potter bag o’ goodies (giant RARE signed Luna Lovegood card!), but I missed out on lots of other swag that disappeared quickly (but hey, I did get a few of those shirtless dudes of Twilight card sets… Really Summit? Really?! *sigh* Well, I do have to admit they know who they’re marketing to…)

When the night was over, we grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant called Cafe Diem from the show Eureka on the newly renamed SyFy channel.

Pictures are uploaded to the Flickr site, but it’s this baby that makes me happy. Got to see Seth Rogen up close as he revealed the Black Beauty car from his upcoming Green Hornet movie to a exclusive gathering of press folks, including me. Here’s a little video I just threw together of the reveal…

Well, there’s just some packing to do, a night of sleep (my last for awhile), a super early visit to the comic shop, a trip to the airport tomorrow morning to pick up a friend, and we’re off to San Diego. I got a sexy new Sony camera with 720p HD video and it apparently captures billions of colors. See my sexy E3 2009 pictures for proof. Assuming I’m not partying too hard/getting kicked out of parties, expect to see tons of Comic-Con pictures nightly. Seth Rogan is showing up to unveil the Green Hornet vehicle Wednesday night on the Comic-Con floor and I’m hoping to capture some of that on video. We shall see…

If you want to keep in the know about what’s happening all over the convention center, you can either go right to our twitter site or you can swing by here to find a TweetBoard tab along the left side of the page. Just click it to see all of our posts. Feel free to comment and retweet to your heart’s content.

This week is gonna be chock full of geeky good times. Stick with us and get your geek on.

If you can’t be there with us, here’s an in the trenches video we shot last year to give you an idea of what it’s like to be a part of the nerdy masses (expect a number of posts mentioning that I’m in line for something)…

There has been much speculation as to what the convention center could do to keep Comic-Con in San Diego, where it brings in millions in revenue for the city every year. And since Comic-Con‘s current contract with the convention center ends in 2012, they’ve got some decisions to make. Some have suggested that they move the whole thing to Las Vegas, where there are more than enough hotels to handle the crowds (but it’s SUPER HOT in July and we sure wouldn’t be the only convention in town), or Los Angeles, where… okay, LA is just a horrible idea. Yes, downtown is getting better (safer, more interesting), but it’s still a long way from being able to accomodate the kinds of masses that overflow the Gaslamp District in downtown San Diego every year. That many geeks would destroy downtown LA. Or they’d wander one block outside of the “safe zone” and end up getting stripped for nerd parts, which would leave more than one geek without the money to buy lots and lots of exclusive action figures. Regardless, San Diego is doing something about it. In fact, Comic-Con is so important to the survival of the convention center and the prosperity of the city, that they were the only convention client invited to speak at the press conference held last September when the expansion project was first proposed.

The convention center currently has 814,000 square feet of space, which would be increased up to 1.2 million square feet with the expansion toward the bay side of the structure. They’re even planning on creating a footbridge that will arc from 4th street, right outside the Hilton, over the convention center and ending on the bay side of the building where all of the construction will take place, expanding not only into more meeting space, but also places for dining and shopping, including a rooftop restaurant. These conceptual renderings and the video below gives us an idea of what we can hopefully expect by the year 2014…

Yes, I know that much of the proposals made last year is old news, because I’m sure that some of you may have been following this story since then, but things really picked up on June 2nd, when SignOnSanDiego.com posted this article about the latest developments in the new expansion plans. I’m excited for the potential that will come out of this expansion, not just for San Diego (retail revenue, jobs), but for my fellow geeks. I’m not sure that making Comic-Con bigger is the way to go, but if they can make the area where we can hold Comic-Con bigger, then I’m all for it. I’ve spent many years at the San Diego Comic-Con learning how to walk sideways through sweaty crowds grasping for rare and collectible promotional goodies, but I’d be thrilled if I didn’t have to do that anymore. Breathing room is nice (did I ever tell you about the year when the air conditioners stopped working one day? phew!). Either way, I’ll be the guy standing about a mile and a half back in the line wrapped around the building, waiting to get into Hall H every morning, just like everyone else…

Yes, that is Felicia Day (Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and The Guild web series) pictured above. She also makes a brief appearance in the video below…