Comic Con 2009 - A Post mortem

I hadn't really thought about blogging on our trip to Comic Con this year, as I spent most of the weekend in our booth evangelizing the art of Ralph McQuarrie. That said, we did have a few interesting encounters, and a couple of folks have expressed an interest, so here's a brief recap.

We spent the week below a huge hi-def video screen promoting the latest offerings from Lucasfilm, including the fan favorite trailer for The Old Republic MMO game, as well as Star Wars in Concert that's coming to San Jose on October 11.

We met up with some of the art department from The Clone Wars, and supervising director Dave Filoni stopped by the booth to chat with us for a bit about his fondness for Ralph McQuarrie. The trailer for the next season of the show looks pretty amazing.

Joe Hill was there promoting his current comic series Locke & Key. If you've never read any of his work, I highly recommend his novel Heart Shaped Box. His highly acclaimed short story, "Pop Art", from his collection 20th Century Ghosts is also very much worth tracking down.

There were several celebrity near misses by our booth, from Wesley Snipes to Nick (son of Gene) Simmons. If you caught any footage of the G4 show in the Lucasfilm Pavilion, it's likely we were no more than 10-15 feet away. Also signing not too far from us were three of the stars of the Battlestar Galactica remix - Edward James Olmos, as well as the actors who portrayed Col. Tigh and Baltar. Mark Hamill was also signing, but I didn't see him on this trip.

We were able to meet up with artist Tim Bradstreet, who we're looking forward to working with in the very near future, and he introduced me to Thomas Jane, star of The Punisher, The Mist, and most recently the HBO series Hung.

I also met the creators of Hoops and Yo Yo. If you've been in a Hallmark store in the last few years, you'd recognize them instantly.


There was a lot of talk around the con about James Cameron's Avatar, Tron: Legacy, and Time Burton's Alice in Wonderland - I unfortunately didn't get a chance to take in any panels. I previously posted a link to the Tron footage - I'm amazed at how much buzz this is generating.

I did manage to come away with several nice art books, and a small plastic tub of zombies.

After trips to SDCC in 2004 and 2006, I swore I'd never return due to the size of the crowds and the related insanity they bring. but it was an interesting opportunity to have a booth in the Lucasfilm Pavilion. Will we be back? That remains to be seen - but there are aspects of the show I do continue to enjoy, and would be willing to brave the crowds to experience yet again, so who knows...


Fortunately, we had a nice place to stay on a hillside about 15 minutes north of downtown, and Vonna prepared amazing meals for us each night of the show.

Next up for us will be Star Wars Fan III Days in Texas in October - and then next year's Star Wars Celebration V... date and location TBD.

Tron: Legacy

Are you Ready for the return of Tron?

We obviously are...

Get ready for a Vacation Smackdown!

Next month, with your help we'll settle a long standing debate in The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema. I have always believed that the original Vacation is by far the best film in the series. Vonna is equally vocal that the second sequel, Christmas Vacation, is the best.

Come enjoy the pair (both are great comedies), and cast your vote for the greatest vacation of them all.

The vacation starts on Saturday, August 22 from 6pm-10pm. And stay tuned for the September announcement, which we're currently referring to as the Class of 1979 party!

The Prisoner revisited

If anything, I should probably be surprised it's taken more than 40 years for a remake of The Prisoner to get off the ground. While I think McKellan will make a good #2, I'm already somewhat disappointed that #2 would appear to have such a prominent role in the entire series.

Only time will tell... For now, you can check out this teaser trailer for the series, coming this November...

Cemetery Junction

Ricky Gervais and Stepehen Merchant team up for a feature film! If it lives up to The Office and Extras, we may have a winner.

Check out the amusing teaser trailer here.

Flickchart

A time waster to be sure, but as time wasters go, I've been enjoying this. Watch the trailer, sign up, and start rating movies. Look for me, resrvordog, so we can compare notes.

Return of the SLC History of Horror

This Wednesday we resume the Slaughtered Lamb History of Horror with the Universal Frankenstein sequels (as well as The Wolf Man, for reasons that become apparent in time), and we'll close things out with Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein in HD.

7/8 The Bride of Frankenstein with The Mad Ghoul
7/15 Son of Frankenstein (solo feature)
7/22 Off week - No Programming scheduled
7/29 Ghost of Frankenstein with The Wolf Man
8/5 Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man with House of Frankenstein
8/12 House of Dracula with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

While we have not yet selected our next Wednesday night series - we are considering a 50th anniversary screening of the first season of The Twilight Zone. We can watch 4-5 episodes a night, completing the series in 7-9 weeks. Keep checking the blog for the final announcement!

First annual(?) Pick Your Poison Wrap-up

I wanted to post an official follow up to our first run of the Pick Your Poison program that wrapped up last week.

Here's the official program:

5/13 Kyle
Wild Man of Borneo (Little Rascals short)
Dreamgirls

5/20 Vonna -
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (Academy Award winning short film/Twilight Zone episode)
The Beguiled

5/27 John
George A. Romero's Knightriders

6/3 Martin
The Last of Sheila

6/10 Paul
Caprica

6/17 Mikk
Kentucky Fried Movie

6/24 Stan
Quills

7/1 Michael
Northwest Hounded Police (Droopy cartoon)
The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (short subject)
Forbidden Planet

The group managed to select an eclectic mix of films that all in all were greatly enjoyed by everyone, and for the most part had gone unseen by the majority of the group. It was such a success, we will definitely be doing it again. If you want in on it - all you have to do is join us on Wednesdays!