Chris Hardwick’s role as nerd frontman to the world continues unabated as he’s just signed a deal to appear at more ReedPop events, including C2E2 and NYCC. The “Talking Dead” host will appear at several events at both shows, and Nerdist Industries will participate in another White Space B2B think tank event such as was held at the 2011 New York Comic Con.

ReedPOP, creators and organizers of the New York Comic Con (NYCC), the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), as well as other major events in the popular culture world, and Nerdist Industries, a multi-platform creator of genre and pop culture content, have today announced a continuation and formalization of a relationship that successfully began at NYCC in 2011 with the launch of the exclusive WHITE SPACE B2B conference.  This new alliance provides for a wide range of strategic and cross-promotional activities that include Nerdist interviews with ReedPOP guests and a prominent role for Chris Hardwick, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Nerdist Industries, at ReedPOP shows.  Hardwick, host of AMC’s Talking Dead as well as Nerdist specials for BBC America, founded Nerdist in 2008 and has nurtured its growth into a multimedia name now spanning blogs, a podcast, television, web-video, live-events and print.  Chris will be a leading personality at NYCC, C2E2 and other ReedPOP events.  
 
Nerdist Industries will have a presence on the floor of ReedPOP shows and will be significantly featured in several panels at these same events.   Hardwick hosted The Avengers and The Walking Dead panels at NYCC in 2011, and he will emcee similar marquee content in 2012.  In addition, Nerdist and ReedPOP will continue to work together to create another WHITE SPACE B2B conference this year as well as develop several live-events, tapings and podcasts at various ReedPOP shows.     
 
“As another nerd leading a group of nerds creating nerd-centric events, I could not be more excited to welcome Chris Hardwick and Nerdist Industries to join forces with ReedPOP,” notes Lance Fensterman, Group Vice President for ReedPOP.  “Our goal is to deliver great shows for our fans, but we also want to communicate the excitement, innovation and essential inner nerdiness of the pop culture spectrum to the world at large.  This partnership with Nerdist Industries is a win-win, providing both like-minded organizations solid ways to amplify what we do through collaborating on new opportunities for our fans, our customers and ourselves.  We’re both forces in the pop culture world, and we’re eager to see what amazing things we can accomplish together.  I look forward to working with Chris and everyone at Nerdist Industries to make this a great continuing relationship.” 

”I am THRILLED to be working with ReedPOP in an official capacity. I attended C2E2 last year, and, while still a young event, I was amazed at how well-organized and fan-friendly it was. Between C2E2, New York Comic Con and ReedPOP’s other events, this partnership makes all the sense in the world for Nerdist Industries. I know this because were we to not be in business with ReedPOP, I’d still be attending these events as a fan,” Hardwick said.
 
As noted, Hardwick’s first appearance on behalf of the joint promotional relationship with ReedPOP will be at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) which will take place April 13 – 15, 2012 in the North Building of McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, IL.   He is scheduled to appear as emcee for special events on Friday, April 13, and he will also be available for a public autographing session.  Specific details of his participation at the show will be posted in the near future on the C2E2 website.  Hardwick will then present a live podcast from Chicago’s Vic Theatre on Friday night.  Other guests who will be participating in C2E2 include Anthony Daniels, David Finch, Josh Gates, Adam Hughes and Joe Kubert.  Many more guest announcements will be made in the coming weeks.  For further information about these guests as well as purchasing tickets, please visit www.C2E2.com.  For more on Nerdist Industries, visit www.Nerdist.com.

Actress Goldie Hawn was not always the taut Hollywood Royalty you see at movie premieres today. Back in the ’60s, she was a teenaged girl looking to get into show biz after a casting agent spotted her on the street. The agent suggested she audition for a TV show hosted by cartoonist Al Capp. And the experience turned out to be rather demoralizing, as Capp came on so strong that she considered giving up her show biz dreams.

“I go to this big Park Avenue apartment; I’ve never been in so much wealth… he thunders through the door… and he said, ‘Well I’m going to slip into something more comfortable,’” Hawn told the Oprah Network. “And something went off in my brain like, ‘More comfortable? OK, well I guess that means he’s going to go in and take off his raincoat…’ So he comes in in a dressing gown and he sits down on the couch and I’m thinking, ‘This isn’t looking too good.’”

The cartoonist then asked nervous Hawn to show off her legs and when she obliged him by lifting her skirt, Caplin went too far, according to Hawn, who added, “He opened up his dressing gown and I looked at it… It was scary. I said, ‘Mr. Capp I will never get a job like this.’ And he said to me, ‘Oh, I’ve had them all.’ And I said, ‘Well it doesn’t matter, but I’ll never do this,’ and he said, ‘Well, you’re never going to get anywhere in this business, you should go home and marry a Jewish dentist.’ And I started to cry and I said, ‘Well maybe I will.’”

If you’re wondering how Capp, the creator of the L’il Abner comic strip, got in a position to allegedly open his dressing gown to pretty young starlets, from the ’50s on he was perhaps the biggest comics celebrity ever, hosting three talk shows — The Al Capp Show (1952 and 1968) and Al Capp (1971–’72), Al Capp’s America — and hosting two game shows. In addition, he was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show, a regular on the Today show and hosted or guested on many radio shows as well. Known for his right-wing views, he was, in short, somewhere between the Fred Thompson and Larry King of his day.

If you’re wondering if Hawn might have been exaggerating her tale a bit, unfortunately, in his later years, Capp became something of a horrible dirty old man. In 1968 he made indecent advances to four female students while on a college speaking engagement — a scandal that the school hushed up. In 1971, he was charged with sodomy, attempted adultery and indecent exposure following another college lecture in Eau Claire, WI. He pled guilty to the attempted adultery charge — a scandal that rocked all the way to Nixon’s White House.

In case you’re wondering, here’s Hawn early in her career:

And Al Capp somewhere in his:

Spider-Man stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone have been spotted canoodling as they shopped around NYC. The pair play Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy in this year’s THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.

While cast romance is manufactured or encouraged by press agents, some thespians can’t help falling in love — or lust — with their co-stars. Or sometimes two cute kids just can’t resist going steady. Somewhere, Jim Carrey is crying.

Comikaze Expo, a comic book, horror, gaming, anime and sci-fi convention that is debuting this weekend in Los Angeles, CA is reporting that tickets to their debut show have completely sold out.

Held in the LA Convention Center this Saturday and Sunday, the show features dozens of creators, genre celebrities, tabletop gaming tournaments, and big gets like Stan Lee, Mark Hamill, and the last ever convention appearance of horror icon Elvira.

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Elisa Ward of The Fangirl Files has an EXHAUSTIVE report that covers everything, from parking to programming layouts. Ward seems to have had a swell time:

THE SIZE: Comikaze’s size was ideal – not too big (like ComicCon in San Diego) and not too small (like the L.A. Comic Con at USC), but just the right size to feel like you got your money’s worth, but weren’t either let down or overwhelmed by the show itself. By the end of the day, I was tired, but not exhausted, and really felt satisfied that I had had just the right amount of con experience to satiate me.

THE GUESTS: The guest selection was fantastic. The good amount of guests made sure anyone wanting to meet their favorites would get their money’s worth. And although there were some of the familiar con regulars, it wasn’t all the usual suspects (Bill Moseley and Sid Haig were no shows). There were a few celebs I’d never seen at conventions previously (Noah Hathaway, for example), which made the selection refreshing and fun. Heck, Comikaze’s two “guests of honor” were Stan Lee and Elvira – you can’t get more polarizing than that!

Ward was more focused on the “nerdlebrity” aspect of the show — and even snapped a pic of Ernest Borgnine and Morgan Fairchild sitting together to prove it.

Ward did mention that the show was unorganized — volunteers unaware of facility layout and so on — and we heard that confirmed from a more comic-based attendee, who wished to remain anonymous. In fact according to our source, the show left much to be desired — it was actually held in a parking garage UNDER the LACC, not in a hall, which led to “an echoing din…it was a brutal experience. Morale was at a low. Everyone wants a decent LA show, even a small local show like a nascent Emerald City, but no one wanted this. It was not a solid comics show or comics crowd. There were booths for lasik eye surgery and local attorney offices.”

Ouch.

Despite the drawbacks, there seems to have been a decent crowd on Parking Level C, and some folks had strong sales. As you can see from this video of the cast of the Nickelodeon sketch show ALL THAT leading a good-sized crowd in a theme song singalong, people were having some fun.

So… mixed grade.

New York was thought to be an impossible city to throw a comic-con in until ReedPOP put on the right kind of show. LA has a lot of logistical problems, most of them to do with getting people to come downtown on a weekend — Wizard recently cancelled their show at the same facility — but it might just take that kind of magic moment to get things to work.

[Photos ©2011 Elisa Ward. Used with permission.]

Even as nerd culture rages around us, some of the pioneers of the genre are going to be taking it a little easier these days, after many hard years in the con trenches.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, has been at it for a long time, but she’s not going to dress up for cons any more, GeekChicDaily reports.

CP: Oh, yeah! It’s kind of funny. I just decided that I’m not going to wear the costume anymore to appear at conventions. I’m definitely going to wear it for TV shows, movies, personal appearances, stage – but as far as sitting there for four or five hours in an incredibly uncomfortable and hot outfit, no.

You know, I looked around at my last convention and I’m going, I don’t see Robert Englund dressed as Freddy. I don’t see the Wookiee dressed up in his Wookiee suit. Why am I dressed like this?

GCD: Are you still doing cons without a costume?

CP: Yeah, I still plan on doing as many – maybe more now that I can be comfortable.

Considering that Cassandra Petersen, the real lady under the wig, is 60, the fact that she can still turn into Elvira at all is a marvel.

However, Leonard Nimoy is retiring in general, as Ty Templeton reported.

Leonard Nimoy announced on the weekend that he was permanently retiring Mr. Spock. Leonard Nimoy has had some health troubles and after 80 years on the planet, doesn’t get around as well as he used to. No more audio books, no more appearances at Star Trek Conventions, he will not be in the new movie, the character is over, unless you count the new guy.

Rest up, Mr. Nimoy, you’ve earned it.

However, about two months ago we saw William Shatner at a screening of his film THE CAPTAINS, and at 80 that guy is going strong. And of course there’s Stan Lee. So all is not lost.

Here’s one from the nostalgia files — if you’re not following Bruce Campbell on Twitter, you’re missing out on some great photos from the vault.

I never got around to writing a big meta post about this year’s San Diego, but one of the things I would have written about is the increasing frenzy over celebrity spotting. I was reminded of this by a content farm post I cane across entitled The best place to meet celebs at San Diego Comic-Con:

We didn’t really spend much time hanging out at the Omni, but had to pass by it on our way to our parking garage everyday and EVERY time we saw a celebrity. The hotel is not only a popular place for celebs to stay during Comic-Con, it’s also a popular place for parties and press events, making it the perfect place to do a little star-gazing.

The first time we passed by we saw Jon Favreau crossing the street to the Hard Rock Cafe, we saw Colin Hanks arriving for an event the same night, the next day we randomly saw Anna Torv taking a smoke break and Glee’s Harry Shum Jr getting into a waiting car. One day we even saw The Avengers’ Clark Gregg signing endless autographs for fans.

Well howabout that! The article goes on to give more advice on hotel lobbies to stand in and this gem:

And, speaking of badges, the absolute best way to get up close and personal with celebs is to have a press pass, which are notoriously easy to get for Comic-Con. If you have a blog or website that is updated regularly and occasionally mentions comics or comic book movies, it’s definitely worth applying for press pass. Press registration opens a few weeks before Comic-Con and compared to other fests we’ve covered is pretty easy to navigate (and get excepted). If you score a press pass, you’ll have opportunities to attend round table interviews, press conferences, photo calls, etc.

Barf. Like it isn’t hard enough for legitimate members of the press to cover their beats without battling lookieloos.

There was also a post from Wil Wheaton that I made note of. Wheaton is about as accessible as a celebrity can get with blogging and tweeting and generally being a friendly and open person, but even he has his limits:

On the way out of the Syfy party on Saturday night, a pretty horrible thing happened. I wasn’t going to talk about it in public, but I can’t stop thinking about it, and I think this needs to be said.

[snip] When we walked out of the SyFy party on Saturday night, a pack of people — probably 12 or 15, I’d guess — appeared out of nowhere, and surrounded me. They shoved pictures into my face, thrust pens at me, and made it so that I couldn’t even move. They separated me from my friends and my son, and, quite frankly, terrified me.

Let’s stop for a second and think about this: in what kind of world is it acceptable to surround a person you do not know, separate them from the people they are with, and essentially trap them? Maybe in crazy entitled psycho world, but not the world I live in.

I tried to scrawl my signature on a couple of things, just so some of those people would move and let me keep on walking, but whenever someone took something away, something new immediately took its place. Somehow, +Felicia Day saved me. She reached through the mob, grabbed my hand, and said, “Sorry, we have to go meet some of our friends,” before the literally pulled me away, to safety.

This is when the mob lost its shit. They yelled at me like I had done something wrong. They called me names, and they booed at me. (Seriously). A woman stormed up next to me and said, “If you don’t sign these things for me, I’m going to tell Twitter what an asshole you really are.”

I don’t respond well to threats like that. Though my instinct was to explode at her, I took a deep breath, looked her square in the eye, turned on my dad voice, and said, “Really? Are you serious? We’re done here.” I quickened my pace, and for the next two blocks she followed us, screaming and ranting and raving about how she’d waited there for hours, driven all the way from someplace far, and that I basically owed her as a result of her choice. I eventually tuned her out, and I guess she went back to the Syfy party to harass whoever else came out next.

That’s ugly. In past years, Comic-Con has been known as a friendly place for anyone who liked nerd culture to come and hang out. In the olden days, celebrities were fairly free to peruse the dealer’s room, come meet their favorite cartoonists or hang out after hours because they were there on their own time. Now, it’s all about wearing masks, security details, and back entrances. As getting a badge becomes more and more difficult, it stands to reason that the most motivated people are the ones who are going to go the furthest to get them—one of the signature images of this year’s con was attendees lining up at 4 am just to get a badge for next year. And I’m guessing that a lot of that motivation is going to be seeing celebs.

As the action has moved to the railroad tracks crossing of the Hilton, Omni, and Hard Rock, even people without badges are hanging out and—increasingly—getting stanchioned off. Needless to say, part of the excitement and glamour of Comic-Con is getting to breathe the same air as your celebrity idols—the Twi-hards definitely pioneered this aspect of the con, but it’s spreading.

You don’t have to be all that famous to get a stalker—I can guarantee you that even the most supporting of supporting cast members on any given TV show has inspired a scrapbook or two — kinda like Gaddafi and Condoleezza Rice.

Comic-Con has long been viewed as a fun, party time for the actors who are there to promote their projects, but this kind of negative interaction makes that harder. (Although the increasing media pressure has helped make it more nerve-wracking, as well.) And of course, security and crowd control have also increased to deal with the influx of fans. Hopefully the Wheaton incident was an aberration. We don’t need anything else to ratchet up the anxiety level.

Heck, as along as I’m writing about something that happened more than a month ago, I should note the other thing that really struck me about this year’s show: it was fantastically well run, and the volunteers, staff members and organizers went out of their way to make sure that the vast beast ran smoothly. I was most impressed when I moderated the Legendary Comics panel in the Indigo Ballroom. I never caught his name, but the floor manager, or whatever his title was for the room, was so well prepared and alert that potential problems in an event with a huge number of moving parts could be corrected on the fly. I can only imagine the kind of pressures that come with media presentations, but the Comic-Con staff seems to do a fantastic job of dealing with them. Whatever we think we know about running Comic-Con, the CCI people know more about it.

So yeah, the Year of Acceptance.

While not as bloody an incident as the 2010 stabbing, this year the fever pitch of Hall H at Comic-Con was again marred by violence when Welsh actor Rhys Ifans, who plays the Lizard in the upcoming Spider-Man movie, got into a scuffle with a security guard, which resulted in a citizen’s arrest by said guard.

The incident was said to kick off when Ifans, who might have had a tiny bit to drink that afternoon, him being Welsh and all, went outside for a smoke with his entourage, and upon trying to get back in, found his entourage didn’t have the proper credentials. After a shouting match with the guard, Ifans reportedly gave her a shove, went on stage looking pale and rattled, and upon getting offstage, was arrested.

However, the charges won’t stick. Police were unable to find enough evidence for an indictment.

Gina Coburn, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Office of the City Attorney, said: “After reviewing differing witness accounts, our prosecutors concluded there was not sufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

This event is part of a whole new theory we’ve developed for San Diego, namely that it’s now way more stressful for Hollywood types than for comics folk — after all we understand that getting our entourages anywhere without a badge or a wristband is impossible. Actors just aren’t smart enough to figure that out yet.

We’ve been assembling some other evidence to support this theory which we shall perhaps present to you before Comic-Con 2012.

This is from the Enquirer so salt and all that, but apparently Maddox Pitt-Jolie, adapted son of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, is dying to be an action star, so they are grooming him to play the lead in the movie adaptation of Paul Pope’s upcoming BATTLING BOY comic — which PItt’s production company has optioned.

According to the insider, Angelina is pushing hard to get Maddox the lead role in “Battling Boy,” a science fiction epic being produced by Brad’s Plan B production company.
 
Based on a graphic novel, “Battling Boy” is about the young son of a god who leaves his immortal mountaintop home to fight monsters.

Right. We’ve often posited on this site that Maddox will indeed grow up to be “The One,” but a spin as a kid actor might be too time consuming.

What about Battling Boy the comic? It’s been in the works a while but is almost complete, we hear. Colorist Hilary Sycamore posted a page or two of the colors on her website. Can’t wait.

UPDATE: Paul Pope hopped on Twitter to set the record straight:

I am here to tell you officially it is not true.

Too bad!

As many have noted, Frances Bean Cobain, long the innocent ping pong ball in a custody battle with her stability-challenged mother, Courtney Love, and other family members, will be 18 in a few days. And to celebrate, she’s been photographed by fashion designer Hedi Slimane, best known for his ultra-slim cut suits. Along the way, Cobain shows off a tattoo based on a character by cartoonist Al Columbia (Pim and Francie) — which should come as no surprise, since Cobain’s artist alter ego Fiddle Tim lists Columbia as an influence.

These pictures from Slimane have gotten wide play and they are beautiful. If you scroll down the page, you see his previous subject was Amy Winehouse. Given Cobain’s genetic influences, (and her swift evolution from relatively healthy looking girl to goth idol) this all looks kinda creepy. But hey, it’s probably all the lighting.

big bad blue tidings

Not much happened for me personally at Comic Con on Sunday except for getting the frack out of there before getting quashed by a giant menacing smurf.

But other stuff did in fact happen on Sunday. Like, new Doctor Who clips, which the lovely Charlie Jane Anders of io9 has up, along with many other vital Who-vian tidbits.

Cowboys and Aliens is coming out of the Con with buzz stronger & bigger than a gi-normously towering big blue bad, which bodes well for the flick based on Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s 2006 graphic novel opening next weekend (via Retuers)

Also coming out on Friday with solid, although somewhat softer but pleasant murmuring buzz is Attack the Block. Here’s the trailer for the Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim) produced film from the Comic Con panel that took place on Friday (via Geeks of Doom)

People were also talking about Rhys Ifan getting citizen’s arrested by a security guard! As pop culture savvy Beat reader @Cary Coatney pointed out, the upcoming Amazing Spiderman villian is a bad ass. While it might not beat last year’s pen face stabbing incident in Hall H, don’t you just love a good Comic Con celebrity arrest story? (via MSN)

Cartoonists Jeffrey Brown and Simon Gardenfors at the Top Shelf table

Here’s a little something people weren’t talking enough about: Did you know that critically acclaimed, top selling auto-biographical cartoonist Jeffrey Brown has written a screenplay and contributed art to a rom com called Save the Date to be released in 2012? The first I heard of it was from Eisner award winning cartoonist and all around suave lady person, Hope Larson’s twitter feed. Some of Larson’s artwork will be used as set pieces in the upcoming film, along with a lot of Jeffrey Brown’s art as well. I had the pleasure of speaking with Brown at the Top Shelf booth yesterday about it. Apparently he filled up a sketch book for the lady artiste main character that appears in the film (played by Party Down’s and True Blood’s Lizzie Caplan). He also had postcards on hand for a band logo Caplan’s character draws that figures into the reportedly (although not to me) loosely autobiographical plot.  The film also stars Alison Brie (of Community and Mad Men fame) and Martin Star (also of Party Down). Why aren’t more people talking about this!!?? Talk about classy and understated yet undeniably intriguing.. this film already is all those things.

As for some of the under-buzzed but over promoted yet intriguing items coming out of the con and onto the smaller screen in the near future, Ringer, the new series produced by and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, will premiere on The CW on Tuesday, September 13 marks the return of Sarah Michelle Gellar to the network, the home of her iconic role as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her legions of fans from Ballroom 20 on Friday sounded like they’ll be tuning in. Although the show was almost picked up by CBS, they ultimately passed on the “modern noir” thriller about a drug troubled, foxy fugitive who assumes the identity of her twin sister after a mysterious accident, only to find that her seemingly perfect and rich doppelganger has even more dangerous troubles of her own.  While Gellar gamely kept turning fan questions back from Buffy to Ringer, she did say that she often has to “remember that my character doesn’t have super slayer strength when fighting” and said (in answer to a fan question about whether or not viewer’s will see any Buffy in the twins she’s playing) that she “likes to think of myself as putting a little Sarah into all the characters I play.” You go, girl. BT-Dubbs, Ringer also features Richard from Lost (Nestor Carbonell) as an FBI agent.

Reggie Lee and Sash Roiz from the cast of GRIMM

GRIMM Producers, Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt (of Buffy/Angel)

I also got to attend a screening and press roundtable of NBC’s upcoming fairy tale police procedural GRIMM from another pair of Whedon-verse alums, Angel and Buffy writer/producers, David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf. The show (a joint production from Universal Studios and Hazy Mills) uses the premise that Grimm fairy tales (along with other mythological cautionary tales from around the world) are actually warnings from a long line of prophetic, crime fighting/monster hunters known as GRIMMS. Apparently each episode is a stand-alone police procedural but the storyline about the GRIMMS and their interactions with the monsters, myths and legends they come up against will be an on-going narrative. Show runner David Greenwalt (who the cast kept referring to as “Greeny”) said that “what I learned from the master, Joss Whedon, is that there’s tremendous emotional power in so-called genre stuff.” You tell ‘em, Greeny. While fellow producer Jim Kouf commented that, “just like Buffy and Angel, we hope to deliver the same great, very scary and horrific events, plus great comedy when you (don’t) expect it.” Apparently, another running theme of the show will be addiction, supporting character, Sgt. Wu (Reggie Lee), will have an as yet to be named addiction problem which will wreak some havoc in his life and on the show and may have some fairy tale roots. Another cast member, my boyfriend, Sasha Roiz (from the unfortunately short-lived Caprica) plays a police chief with a hidden agenda and says that, “we’re entering Jim and David’s world which gives us a fabulous foundation of imagination” in reference to a question about how the series seems to share some similarities with Angel. Both Sasha Roiz and Reggie were late additions to the supporting cast (and picked specifically by Greenwalt and Kouf for the on-screen juju) and were my personal favorites of the cast members to chat with. They were actually on their way to Portland the next day to begin shooting the remaining 12 episodes of the first season that NBC has ordered. All the cast members parroted the NBC party line that Portland will be it’s own character on the show. And I have to say that, after viewing the pilot, they do make what I think of as kind of podunk little town look quite lovely and storyb0okish. The pilot, btw, was pretty entertaining but I’ll need to see more of the clever humor and organic character development that Greenwalt and Kouf are famous for before I can advocate whole-heartedly for it. I think the odds are good they’ll achieve something interesting tho, so tune in when that shizz hits the air.

Party time with Jason Momoa

Last but in no f-ing way least, I got to sit down with Jason Momoa (aka Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones and Conan the Barbarian) on Friday night for a brief Q&A in the Time Warner Video on Demand Lounge. Man, he seems like he’d be fun to party with. I wish I could’ve gone out drinking with him afterwards. Except I might’ve died – dude was already three sheets to the wind and it was barely 6:00 PM! But then again Comic Con can have that kind of effect on people so who am I to judge. I asked him asked him what it was like to learn the made up Dothrakian language for Game of Thrones. Momoa replied, “Wow, it was…” then shook his head and shared how he was given CD’s to learn the Dothraki native tongue. I then asked if they were, like, Rosetta Stone CD’s or something and if he had to like practice verb tense and stuff. He answered that it was more like, “learning a melody.” Sounds like something you could do drunk! So, good for him. Another reporter asked him what it was like to be an APA actor getting so much work. Momoa response: “What’s APA mean?” The reporter enlightened him that it stood for Asian Pacific American. I didn’t know what that meant either! He seemed happy to have gotten that knowledge dropped on him.

I, on the other hand, am about to drop dead. Good night and see ya later this week at the regular Studio Coffee Run time of sometime on Friday!

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Well, another Comic-Con is drawing to a close, with the traditional annual Buffy sing-along, this time in Hall H.  (Perhaps they could also add a “Mayhem of the Music Meister!” event as well?)

So, here’s some more interesting tidbits from Comic-Con…

Rock it To The Bang Bang Boogie Dept.:

ComicsAlliance reports that Superman gets depowered, but not deflowered, in the next volume of “Superman: Earth One”.  J. Michael Straczynski states that Superman will be temporarily depowered, and tries to hook up with his sexy neighbor, but fails.

Holy SNOT, Batman! Dept.

Alex Schranz creates an amazing Batcave out of Lego bricks, to minifig scale!

(Here are some other Bat-Lego creations!  Click on the photos to be taken to the websites for even more amazing creations!)

The Cosplay’s The Thing Dept.:

Vulture has the video of Spidey’s biggest fan making an appearance at the Sony panel on Friday.  And you thought Spielberg’s #1 fan was amazing… (great t-shirt… and he got shot by both Spielberg and Jackson!)

Meanwhile… another famous actress adds to her cosplay wardrobe, this time posing as Electra-Woman!

That Sound?  That’s The Sound of A Million Fanboy Imaginations Overheating Dept.:

Nicolas Winding Refn, promoting his movie Drive,  speaks with New York Magazine, and tells who he would cast as Wonder Woman, were he ever hired to direct the Mighty Maiden.  All I can say is, cast Lynda Carter as Hippolyta, and maybe Sigourney Weaver as Hera.

Dōjinshi, Archie Style Dept.:

From the PR:

With the Archie ComicLab app, they’ve created an interactive, fully-functional and easy-to-use application that brings fans into Riverdale and into the world of some of the most popular comic book characters in history. Loaded with never-before-seen artwork, scenes, story options and the best characters available, the Archie ComicLab app gives users the chance to create a rich, dynamic visual narrative that is sure to bring endless enjoyment to Archie fans new and old.

BiteSizedCandy created the app (click the link for sample screens), and is sponsoring a contest with a deadline of August 31, 2011. It seems to be only available for Apple iPad, and no link is currently available… (whoops… yes there is!  BSC didn’t link it via their website, I had to find it via Google)

The contest info, as well as a link to the Apple store, can be found here.  The app costs $2.99 .

The app looks like a digital Colorforms set, with pre-selected backgrounds and figures.

BSC also formats digital comics for Bluewater Productions (as well as Maxim).  (And, yes, I wonder how soon before we see Cherry/ Dee Dee slash-ups?

Yacketyyakking Screaming Vomiting Whispering Facts And Memories And Anecdotes Dept.:

William Shatner turns Hall H into a Comic-Khan.

But What About Dr. Horrible? Dept.:

First sentence from the article:

Writer-director Joss Whedon has said he’s ready to write a strong gay male character.

Last sentence from the article:

“I think it’s time for a little equal opportunity,” he added, then joked: “Besides, who doesn’t love cock?”

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And on that note, this ends my Watchtower duty.  Heidi should return soon, with lots of insights and insider info.  Thanks for reading!

We all know what it’s like for the average attendee of Comic-Con — comics, lines, swag, expensive hot dogs — but what is it like for the Green Room crowd? Nerdlebrities are people too, and the first time appearance at Comic-Con is akin to going over the equator for sailors: following their debut, first-timers put on clothes of the opposite sex, are put in stocks, and forced to eat eggs in the shell.

Okay, maybe that isn’t quite what happens, but The Hollywood Reporter has been interviewing various nerdlebrities about their Con experiences and there is much to be gleaned.

Eureka’s Colin Ferguson reveals that slebs already have their own little tricks:

THR: Do you have pointers for first-time Comic-Con goers?

Ferguson: Do anything you want. Run around. There’s so much going on outside of the actual Convention Center. My note to any actor going down is: Bring a mask, that way you can walk around and be able to move quickly and see a bunch of stuff.

Aussie Ryan Kwanten (True Blodd, The Knights of Badassdom) wins some nerd points for going even further, even if it was about as smart as something Jason Stackhouse would do:

THR: What’s your favorite Comic-Con memory?

Kwanten: I was supposed to be tailing security with the True Blood cast and I don’t know how, but I lost track of him and I wandered out onto the convention floor by myself. I had more fun wandering around and seeing all the things I could possibly buy than being upstairs in the green room waiting to go out. They had to send out a search party to find me because I wasn’t exactly willing to go back on my own; I was having too much fun out there. It was really a visceral out-of-body experience.

Asked about his dream panel, Kwanten reminds us that the Hall H crowd doesn’t even rate the cartoonists: “Jon Favreau, Harrison Ford, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Alan Ball.”

However, our favorite nerdlebrity thus far is definitely True Blood’s Deborah Ann Woll who really seems to be livin’ it by dressing up as a character to go to a panel!

THR: What panel would you stand in line all day for?

Woll: RiffTrax with Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. I own so many movies that I’m ashamed I own specifically because I have a RiffTrax that goes with them. They always do a panel with a live RiffTrax. Last year, we had our True Blood panel and the RiffTrax panel was right afterward. I dashed offstage, went backstage and changed into my Hit-Girl outfit, stuffed my designer dress in a duffle bag and ran to their panel.

But this quote this that sealed the deal for us!

THR: Any can’t-miss parts of Comic-Con?

Woll: If you go to Comic-Con, go to Artists’ Alley. Meet the artists and see their drawings; a lot of them will do commission stuff and for $50 you can get a drawing that’s incredible.

WOW a nerdlebrity who remembers the artists! Deborah Ann Woll, you are our NEW HERO!

Shopping in the Cuse. In your pants, indeed.

Via Cheryl Harris

An Englishman and a Scotsman talk about Doctor Who. Of Course.