ne day it's a typical California city by a beautiful harbor;
Looking down on just some of the Exhibit Hall
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the next it's a Mecca of 70,000 plus fans of comics, television, film, Sci-fi and animation alike. Pop culture invades the San Diego Convention Center each year at the beginning of August, and for thirty-three years the International Comic-Con has boasted a program like no other in the entertainment field. Its three-day event is filled with programs from 8:00am until 9:00pm at night with special programming well into the late night hours allowing fans of all ages to experience all avenues of the industries in attendance. Presented with a youthful atmosphere for the entire family, fun and easily accessible on three floors of vendors, conference rooms, and with the largest floor ever presented at 300,000-square-foot in the Exhibit Hall. Friday, August 1st, marked the beginning (special preview night not withstanding) of the Convention, and once again, CityofAngel.com was there to bring you a blow by blow of the happenings. This year we elected to stay in town overnight, saving greatly on the fatigue factor of daily round trips; one thing that didn't change though was the need for caffeine with all there was to see and do, so the Starbucks a few blocks from the Convention Center got to know us very well in the span of two short days.
ONE CON TO RULE THEM ALL
The task of filling your daily schedule is mind-boggling and consumes a good portion of the first hour upon your arrival. Aside from the huge comic book presence including major booths in the Exhibition Hall by Dark Horse, DC, CrossGen, and Top Cow, there are collectible fan favorites as Inkworks Cards, SCORE, and Things from Another World. We spoke with two of these companies lead figures at their booths in-between their passing out freebies to the fans.
Gino Verna and Martha Modlin hosting the Inkworks booth
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On display, Buffy's Doublemeat Palace uniform
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Martha Modlin ~ Vice President of Inkworks Cards was on hand, manning the Inkworks booth with Gino Verna, the graphic designer on the Season 3 set of the Angel trading cards. Inkworks sponsored a mega VIP autograph signing over the course of the weekend, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Amber Benson (Tara), Alias's executive producer Jeffrey Abrams and Jesse Alexander, the women of Andromeda: Lexa Doig and Laura Bertram, and Witchblade's Anthony Cistaro who plays Kenneth Irons. Also on display were the first ever Pieceworks cards for Buffy and Angel. Within a series trading card there is an actual piece of the costumes worn by lead actors of the shows including: Sarah Michelle Gellar's "Doublemeat Palace" work shirt, James Marsters with Spikes' black t-shirt, David Boreanaz's "That Old Gang of Mine" dress shirt, and Charisma Carpenter's gown from the episode "Waiting in the Wings". As a surprise, waiters wearing the actual set costumes from the episode complete with Buffy's famous Cow hat served guests of the Inkworks pre-Con party Doublemeat burgers. Inkworks' writer Meloney Crawford Chadwick, along with Brian Neubauer, was making sure any and all questions about the cards were answered, as she has become 'research-girl' of all the littlest known factoids to the series; spending many an hour searching over scripts to pull just the right quote and creating the perfect paraphrase.
Jonathan Quesenberry of SCORE & BtVSCCG
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Jonathan Quesenberry ~ Key-guy for SCORE Entertainment in the trenches, who brings you the ever expanding Buffy the Vampire Slayer Collectable Card Game, was on hand to fill us in on all the latest additions to the current game, plus big news for Angel fans. Their third release, 'Class of '99', came out in September and has been a successful compliment to the basic set. "This is the next Starter Set. It has over 260 cards; it's a huge set." Jonathan explained, "It's going to finish up Season 3 and Season 4; we're going to break into two Booster expansions: 'The Initiative' and 'Slayer on Campus', so it'll be fun. And then the Angel game we're looking to be targeting sometime in January." That game was still under development back in August, "but basically it's going to be a paralleled game, set in the Angel universe exclusively, but will be compatible with the Buffy game," he told us. "We've already started looking at some of those elements, how it happens. I've heard the game design concept and it's unique, it's really cool." And true to the Angel-verse and what Joss Whedon has already established for fans, the launching set of the Angel card game is going to be called 'The Redemption'. SCORE had a huge booth and floor area set up with various demo games being explained and played as well as an X-Box demo of the new Buffy video game that was never in the non-slayage position. Attendees of the Con were very impressed with the games in general and offered positive comments on action and game play as well as the ability to easily pick up the concepts.
For a more interactive fan, Question & Answer panels and discussion groups, and appearances by novelists offering their latest books are scheduled throughout. There was a joint effort from the WB, combining a Smallville panel with a first look preview of the new Birds of Prey, FOX's Hauntedand film previews from New Line Cinema, Marvel Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, and Lucasfilm Ltd. Include the many seminars and workshops and the hands-on demonstrations such as Almost Humans' Robert Hall with special effects makeup from Buffy and Angel. Special effects genius Stan Winston (Batman Returns, Terminator 2, Interview with the Vampire) talked about his extensive work on films. Top that off with the abundance of personal appearances by celebrities from both TV and film with autograph signings and you have just a taste of the things you'll experience.
Beware the Ringwraith from Lord of the Rings
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Each year Comic-Con spotlights the anniversaries of specific events in the entertainment field. Whether it's comics, film or television, these milestones show just how far we've come in an industry whose endurance is never ending; two such events were the 40th Anniversaries of Spider-Man, Hulk, and Thor and the 25th Anniversary of Star Wars. In 1961, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Mighty Thor, and The Incredible Hulk were first introduced by Marvel and the company has never looked back. Their creators: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko brought a new edge to comics which has held its fortitude, so much so, that Spiderman has won over movie goers and Spidey 2 is in the works! Star Wars, the never-ending saga of a young man discovering there is more out there then just space. George Lucas created an idea that spans the generations twenty six years ago and first shared it with Comic-Con's audience and this year's release of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Lucasfilm presented an exclusive behind the scenes look of the latest Star Wars movie and had fans excited for a new adventure.
Dominic 'Merry' Monaghan, eager to share his Fellowship
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The fact that San Diego is located not far from Los Angeles offers attendees a unique opportunity at Comic-Con to experience some of the biggest films of the year and to preview the next anticipated epic, such as Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings ~ Two Towers. While there were many outstanding booths on display, one of the best was the Lord of the Rings setup. Adorned with a statue of the Ringwraiths and a live wondering Ork who mingled or shall we say frightened fans as monitors showed previews for The Two Towers. This booth was consistently one of the busiest throughout the weekend which including an appearance of Meriadoc 'Merry' Brandybuck himself - Dominic Monaghan, who greeted fans and signed autographs for a good part of the Con in his own unique enthusiasm. Television gets its fair share of sneak peek offerings every year as well, and this year was no exception. Each presentation offers a short Q&A period with the creators and/or stars allowing fans an opportunity not available anywhere else on this scale.
The Force will always be with Mark Mamill
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Star Wars' Luke Skywalker himself made his directorial debut with a tongue in cheek mockumentary of the con experience with his upcoming independent film Comic Book: The Movie. As someone who will always be mentioned as (and these are his words) Mark "Star Wars" Hamill, he has really done a great job of not letting it affect his attitude, and he was very gracious to his many fans. Extending the opportunity to his fans by including them in his production as the live audience for his film. Stan Lee talked about his life in comics and his Mutants, Monsters, and Marvels. The legendary Ray Bradbury joined with his life-long friend Julius Schwartz. With a career spanning books, comics, and film and television adaptations of his work, Bradbury remains one of the best-selling and most famous science fiction writers of all-time. Schwartz, the dean of DC Comic Book editors, and the architect of the Silver Age, is most famous for reintroducing the world to The Flash, Green Lantern, The Atom, and Hawkman. FOX brought in Comic-Con favorite Bryan Singer for the attendees and offered exclusive footage on the new X-Men 2 movie, along with Mark Steven Johnson, director of the eagerly awaited movie Daredevil giving fans a sneak peek as to what they can expect in February 2003.
THEY WHO HANG OUT IN CEMETERIES
In the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, the day began early for authors Jeff Mariotte (Angel, Stranger in the Sun), Maryelizabeth Hart (Angel, The Case Files Vol. 1), Nancy Holder (BtVS, The Journals of Rupert Giles), and Rebecca Moesta (BtVS, Little Things) who were all on hand to sign their latest novels and talk to fans about the expansion of their favorite characters. Emma Caulfield (Anya) appeared in Autograph Alley to talk about her new movie, Darkness Falls, due out January 24, 2003, and we ran into a couple of the more infamous recurring characters from the Buffy-verse sitting next to each other: James Leary, Clem from Buffy's Season 6, and Brian Thompson, who played Luke in Season 1 and the Judge in Season 2 on Buffy. And Amber Benson made an extra unscheduled signing to the delight of the fans.
"Clem's personality is a heightened version of me." ~ James
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James Leary ~ Clem, the endearing floppy-skinned demon. This being James' first American television début (having previously done a Spanish sit-com), he was happy and eager to talk with fans. We asked how he enjoyed working on Buffy last season he eagerly admitted, "It was awesome! I was a huge fan of the show before I got the gig so it was like a little kid in a candy store when I got to work on the show. It's been a great time." James is also one of the rare admirers of the original 1992 film, "I was actually a fan of the movie when it first came out, I thought it was hysterical! The scene with [Paul Rubins, (Amilyn)] getting stabbed, it was hysterical. And anything with Rutger Hauer (Lothos), it's good," he added with a laugh. As with most of Joss' actors, who are typically kept in the dark regarding their characters, James only knew that Clem was referred to as a 'loose-skinned demon'. "He didn't even have a name when I went in to audition for him, and they told me he was going to be a lose, Sharpei dog kind of thing." Knowing that helped develop the character as far as personality, but only a little. "Clem's personality is sort of a heightened version of me," he explained, "he's goofy and silly and all that stuff. When I went in to audition for it I didn't read it like a scary demon, I just used my own voice and I think they thought that was really funny." Indeed.
Amber Benson does some photo magic with her fans
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Amber Benson ~ Tara, one half of the dynamic-Wicca-duo on Buffy until last season when her character was killed off in dramatic fashion as is often the case for Whedon's ensemble. But this extremely gifted woman always has something a-brewing whether it's acting, singing, directing her original films or writing comics with Christopher Golden. We asked if she'd be doing any more collaborating with him. "I hope so," said Amber, "Chris is one of my favorite people in the whole world so I love working with him. We're talking about maybe doing something for the BBC in the future." As far as the possibility of working with him on a novel, Amber thought, "That would be cool, although I think Chris is the quintessential, fantastic novel writer. I don't know if I'd be able to give him any input at all on that, he's fantastic." And Amber's talking not just as a colleague but also as a fan, "I love his books, his Jenna [Blake] books, he's just such a fantastic fiction writer." She also hopes to continue doing her own projects now that her stint on Buffy is over and she can continue writing more screenplays. "Hopefully make my own movies, more, more," she laughed. We can be certain with insight and talent such as hers that fans will be seeing more, in the very near future.
During the Benson autograph signing at the Inkworks Cards booth we gathered up several of the fans waiting in line to see what they thought of Buffy and Angel past and present and what their forecasts were for the upcoming season. You'll be surprised at just how good their predictions turned out to be.
"I love that Angel is very realistic but totally mythical, and has monsters and things, but uses them in different ways to describe how life really is. This season I like how Angel and Cordelia's relationship is working out, and how he's discovering that she's a lot more of a person he likes in more of a friend way. I think that's really interesting."
~ Glennis, Buena Park, CA
"What I loved about the season of Angel is; I would be standing in front of my television, I couldn't sit down because it was just so intense and so dramatic and so fabulous. It was a great season; I loved it. I've always loved Wesley when he was so goofy, but I love Fred, Fred cracks me up. I think she's a great addition to the cast."
~ Amy, Sandy Diego, CA
"I got a kick out of it whenever Holtz pulled the rug out from under Angel by stealing his son and taking him to another dimension."
~ Grant, Pennsylvania
"I liked that they didn't keep the baby around for too long because I know that would have been tough, so I'm glad Connor's a teenager now. My most favorite is Angel and Cordelia kind of hooking up, that's pretty cool. I like it, it made no sense back in the early days of Buffy, like season one and season two when she had a crush on Angel but it works now. I didn't want to see [Darla] go, I liked her and Drusilla in season two when they came back as the arch-nemeses of Angel for a little while. But Darla being pregnant, that was a shocker, and then the baby and then her death; her killing herself was wild."
~ Dean, Memphis, TN
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