A Rogue’s Gallery On- and Off-stage

Having seen the annual ComicCon hoopla on the local news for years, I thought it was about time to go downtown and take in the madness for myself. As he was my houseguest for the duration of this year’s ComicCon, I hitched a ride with our senior correspondent C. W. Oberleitner, who also acted as guide for my first ComicCon visit.

I was prepared for throngs of convention goers dressed in brightly colored spandex underwear mixing it up with the thickly spectacled nerdful, their shirts buttoned all the way to the top and glasses held together with tape. Instead, the convention center was filled to capacity with everyday ordinary looking people; in short 120,000 potential serial killers.

The anticipated long line at check-in didn’t happen and within minutes I had joined o-meon editor and chronic ComicCon chronicler C. W. Oberleitner in Hall H an hour ahead of the scheduled Disney and Disney-Pixar presentation. Already in progress was the Rogue/Focus Studios presentation.

Rogue/Focus Studios’ presentation seemed to please various segments of the 5,000 plus in attendance: spoof (Balls of Fury), horror (The Strangers), and sci-fi (Doomsday). The scattershot presentation may have been a good thing. From the clips shown (and which we were the very first to see!), at least one seems ready to die a deservedly low box office death (The Strangers), while the other two may recoup their costs, but little more than that. But then I may have more faith in the movie-going public than I should.

Left to right writer/director Robert Ben Garant, actor Dan Fogler and producer/writer/actor Thomas Lennon from the Rogue/Focus feature film Balls of Fury.

Balls of Fury, Christopher Walken notwithstanding, may satisfy some, but audiences will probably be hungry for something more substantial an hour later. From Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant (Night at the Museum and Reno 911), Balls of Fury takes us inside the brutal and deadly world of extreme ping pong. Hmm. Yeah, that just about says it all. The panel began with Garant, the director, and Tony Award winning star Dan Fogler (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee). They were later joined onstage-to thunderous acclaim-by a red, black and gold leotarded Lennon, who also stars in the film.

James Hong and Dan Fogler appear to have become quite close while filming Balls of Fury.

The Strangers’ storyline, as explained by director Bryan Bertino, seems weak and implausible, and the film clip showed at least one instance of bizarre behavior for a character being attacked in her home. In this day and age, why don’t people in horror films seem to own at least one working cell phone?

Making her first ComicCon appearance, Liv Tyler endeared herself to the crowd by reciting lines from The Lord of the Rings in Elvish, and, in the process, probably became the Saturday night “woman of their dreams” for thousands of fanboys in attendance.

English writer/director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers) presented his decently budgeted film, Doomsday, to a legion of ComicCon fans. Doomsday seems an homage to a number of well-known films, not the least of which is the Mad Max series of the late 1970s/early 1980s. Taking a page from the U. S. book on civil liberties, Scotland, ground zero for a lethal virus, is quarantined for three decades until the killer bug resurfaces in London. Now specialists are sent behind the modern-day Hadrian’s Wall to find some answers. This should be an interesting look into what the Scots would do if finally left alone. I already know who I’m rooting for.

Between the different Rogue Studios panels was a fan question and answer time. This is the time you get to know your fellow conventioneers. Thankfully, the program lists guidelines for questions (“don’t ask for a kiss, a hug, an autograph, a baby…”). By the end of the day, however, I was fervently hoping that any fan at the microphone actually had a question.

Director Bryan Bertino, and actors Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler take questions from the ComicCon audience about their upcoming film The Strangers.

Following the Rogue/Focus Studios’ presentation was the Disney/Pixar presentation, which was featured in yesterday’s ComicCon update.

A Little Exhibitionism among Friends

Entering the exhibition hall through the southeast door we were immediately swallowed up by the crowd doing the shopper’s shuffle past heavily stocked booths of toys, dolls, costumes, and accessories. I felt like I had found myself in an English-speaking section of downtown Tijuana’s Avenida de Revolución-there were no striped donkeys, but I did see Godzilla wander about the convention center wearing a brightly decorated sombrero. Ole!

Big bag, Smallville, get it?
Someone with an income in the mid six figures probably stole this idea from someone with an income in the low five figures.
It was the hit of ComicCon 2007.

Eventually, we arrived at my ulterior motive for waddling Blade Runner-like down this particular aisle – the Utilikilts booth. Before you could say sporran, a burly, bearded young man in a kilt had spun around that shy, shrinking violet that is our Mr. O, snapped a sizing kilt on him, and then told him to drop his pants. With a kilt around his waist and pants around his ankles, Mr. O’s expression was one of a mixture of relief and bemusement about conduct somehow unbecoming the highly regarded international journalist he imagines himself to be. Unwilling or, more likely, unable to buy “off the rack,” our senior correspondent left the booth armed with measurements with which to order a custom fit kilt. All of us at o-meon happily look forward to the day he first models his new garment; don’t worry, we’ll take pictures.

After some convention food (trust me, there’s nothing new there at all), we began perusing the rest of the hall. It’s obviously “the place” to see and be seen. It can run the gamut of the artists themselves to a parade through the already crowded floor of too many Resident Evil clones. It is the place, too, for large companies to engage with the fans who love them most: Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, FOX, NBC, The Sci Fi Channel, Hasbro, Lego, Mattel and god only knows how many more.

Somehow in the midst of all the activities and techniques trying to get your attention, you can even run into real giants of the industry, such as stop-motion animator Larry Loc or writer, director, animator Tom Sito (read our recent News Brief about Sito’s latest project, a PBS TV series based on the NPR Car Talk radio program).

The last known sighting of our senior correspondent C. W. Oberleitner, seen here on the right, with author/writer/director/animator Tom Sito.

Wandering the corridors and exhibition floor aisles with Mr. O is quite an experience, as he seems to know someone noteworthy from every imaginable corner of the pop culture universe. Although, I had to laugh at the number of times that both fans and the famous came up to ask him if he wasn’t that other well known bearded blogger from the back woods of New Hampshire.

Comics? Really!

Finally, at the far end, the very far end, of the hall were the comics. Lots of comics. A full third of the hall is dedicated to standard-sized booths filled with comics. It’s not just the DC and Marvel of my youth anymore. No longer are they the only game in town. Not this weekend. Not by a long shot. I felt a bit like Alice falling down a rabbit hole created by stacks and stacks of comics. Here and there as I fell, I’d see publishers and comics and living representations of the characters having their pictures taken with legions of fans.

Later, seated in a pub in San Diego’s famous Gaslamp Quarter, a diner at the next table, upon hearing this was my first trip to ComicCon, laughingly asked, “how do you feel now that you’ve been deflowered?”

Well, you do always remember your first time, don’t you?

It wouldn't be ComicCon for us without a visit from the guys at Atomic Monkey
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