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We’re still running around and have yet to assimilate all that happened, but here’s some highlights of our reading of other reports, other voices at comic-con:

§ One of the best stories coming out of Comic-con? After they had camped out for two days, diehard Twilight fans got a huge thrill when cast members showed up with some breakfast:

Just a little after 6:15 a.m., faithful Twi-hard fans, who have long been lined up outside of Comic-Con’s Hall H, were rewarded for their efforts when cast members from Breaking Dawn showed up to give their thanks with with a surprise breakfast. Nikki Reed (Rosalie), Ashley Greene (Alice), Elizabeth Reaser (Esme), Boo Boo Stewart (Seth Clearwater), and Julia Jones (Leah Clearwater), sneaked up on on Camp Breaking Dawn. Fans, who were just waking up from a long night in line, thought the surprise were the free Twilight posters and mugs being given out by the studio. Little did they know! Unsurprisingly, when members of the Cullen clan and the wolfpack showed up (with apples, bananas, muffins and water), a delighted cheer rippled down the line, as Reed and Greene posed for photos and signed autographs.


That story is definitely going to inspire about 350,000 more people to go to Comic-Con but its really nice.

§ Chuck Rozanski reports a similar story:

Seventeen year-old Povi Romero was sobbing uncontrollably yesterday afternoon in our booth here at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con international. Povi’s tears were not motivated by sadness or despair, however, but rather by uncontrollable joy and happiness. After traveling 800 miles to be here from her home near Santa Fe, New Mexico, Povi accidentally ran into Alexander Skarsgard, the luscious vampire Eric Northman from the HBO series, TRUE BLOOD. Despite having just participated a wonderful presentation, he graciously signed Povi’s convention badge for her, and then signed her mom’s badge, too. Povi was still so overcome and shocked at her unexpected good fortune that, even ten minutes later, she was still trembling, had tears streaming down her cheeks, and could barely speak.

I am passing Povi’s wonderful story on to you because I think that it clearly illustrates that San Diego Comic-Con is a place where even your wildest dreams can come true. Your personal interests may be vastly different than Povi’s, but I’ll bet that you would at least take a passing interesting in the stunning GREEN LANTERN sketch that Neal Adams drew for Povi’s dad, Mateo Romero, or running into Stan Lee, Joss Whedon, or Lou Ferrigno walking to a panel. Whatever your personal tastes and/or fan enthusiasms, San Diego has it for you!


Once again, these stories are going to fan flames of fan desire even more but, as CCI:SD has become more of a fanfest for entertainment, these kinds of interactions are what will make it all the more special.

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§ io9 rounded up Comic-Con Badvertising— the lowest nadirs of awfulness to be seen from a giant, glaring Smurf to other marketing plans gone terribly wrong. We missed about 80% of these — where the heck were they?

§ If it was the movies you were interested in, io9 also rounds up The Biggest Winners and Losers of Comic-Con, including films and TV mostly. No mention of Trickster? Among the losers — Marvel’s confusing Avengers booth, and DC’s attempts to talk directly to fans about The New 52.

§ Vulture has its own Comic-Con news round-up. We never set foot in Hall H, but apparently there’s a movie coming up that features Gia Carrano beating up Michael Fassbender. SOLD. Among the losers, mentioned by many, Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola’s abortive attempts to fiddle with his iPad at his panel. It’s always the AV.

§ Vulture also has a fine photo gallery of oddities and wonderments.


The highlight of the con was probably this well-staged moment with Andrew Garfield pretended to be a weird fan and then delivered an impassioned speech about how much he loves Spider-Man. Dudue is skinny.

§ Vulture also looked at the Tintin movie

Unfortunately, Tintin himself didn’t escape the same fate. There’s something off about this character, and it’s clear why he’s been minimized in the trailers for his own movie. Aside from the swoop in the front of his hair that lends him some cartoonish verve, Tintin looks simultaneously too-human and not human at all, his face weirdly fetal, his eyes glassy and vacant instead of bursting with animated life. The voice performance by Jamie Bell is fine, but the look is lacking.

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This dog riding a motorcycle was the undisputed king of the show.

10 COMMENTS

  1. Having been a life long Tintin fan, I was never a fan of Tintin himself, curiously enough. I always thought of him as bland, characterless and lifeless. However, I believe that might have been intentional, as Herge may have painted Tintin that way so that readers can take over the role in their heads and be Tintin.

    It is the supporting characters of the books that have the most life and character. Consider Captain Haddock, my favorite comic book character of all time: mad, irascible, hysterical, lovable, and fiercely loyal. Consider Calculus, Thompson and Thomson, Snowy and even Jolyon Wagg… all of them bursting with life. They, along with the terrific adventures, are why I love the books.

    And if the movie reflects this, then it would have done a great job.

    Oh by the way, nice meeting you at last, Heidi!

  2. How much did it cost Summit to purchase breakfast? How much amazing PR did they receive?
    BRILLIANT

    The dog was interesting, but what about the Centaur?
    (and will CCI turn into Hollywood and Vine, attracting freak shows hoping for free press?)

  3. I’ve said it for years and will continue to say it: Comic Cons are no place for movie mush. They called Comic Cons because they’re supposed to be about COMICS – not movies.

    And no, I’m not one bit impressed that some movie or TV director dweeb made a show about some fantasy character(s), which likewise prompted a comic company to hastily print off some lame movie or TV version of it.

    Comic Cons are for comics – for movies, go to a gall darn movie con!

  4. “DC’s attempts to talk directly to fans about The New 52.”

    Okay, I just had a vision of Dan Didio walking around with a DC promo comic/flyer trying to talk to each person walking by asking, “Have you heard about ‘The New 52’?”. Not unlike religious zealots at sporting events. Made me giggle just a little.

  5. I thought the DC 52 stuff was fine. I was only in 1 panel though. DC was probably more open than they needed to be but then not enough for fans, so that created some friction. From a marketing and business side, there’s only so many things they can say without blowing things and fans didn’t take kindly to some of that.

    I did think they were remarkably frank with fans about everything in a way Marvel never would be.

    John Mayo got a fairly in-depth interview with Bob Wayne and John Rood around the numbers, motivation, sales tactics, how they’ll react, etc. It’s a very good listen if you are interested in the how’s and why’s along with the numbers.

    http://www.comicbookpage.com/Podcast/?p=561

  6. There’s an article in the latest National Georgraphic about androids, where they talk about the ‘Uncanny Valley’ between robots and people that applies greatly to these mo-cap movies, (like Tintin), as well.

    It states “Up to a point, we respond positively to robots with a human appearance and motion … but when they get too close to lifelike without attaining it, what was endearing becomes repellant, fast.”

  7. @Ed

    re: “I’ve said it for years and will continue to say it: Comic Cons are no place for movie mush. They called Comic Cons because they’re supposed to be about COMICS – not movies.

    And no, I’m not one bit impressed that some movie or TV director dweeb made a show about some fantasy character(s), which likewise prompted a comic company to hastily print off some lame movie or TV version of it.

    Comic Cons are for comics – for movies, go to a gall darn movie con!”

    This years comic con was more about comics than it has been in years, in over a decade actually. The major news coming out of the con, the majority of the panels were mostly all about comics related projects. It was a breath of fresh air.

    For years now studios weren’t just “testing the waters” for comic/sci fi/action/adventure films, but they were giving us lame dramas that had nothing to do with any of the various nerd genre. That had been scaled back greatly this year.

    As far as not wanting any movie related stuff at comic con, I think about 99 percent of the attendess would disagree. Especially when it comes to things like Captain America which was a movie that was chock full of awesome comic book greatness. I was also excited to see Marvels tv comic book adaptations on Mockingbird and Jessica Jones.

    I could only go two days this year but those two days were a blast and probably the most fun I’ve had at the con in ten years.

    When I compare the mood of this con with the “year of the Watchmen” con, it’s not even comparable. That particular year was pretty miserable and souless and made me want to never go back to SDCC again. SDCC 2011 actually restored my faith in their ability to return to their comic centric roots. I’m not saying there were no negatives about 2011. But, for me at least, they were completely overwhemled by the positives.

    If you were a comic book fan you had to try pretty damn hard to NOT have a good time at SDCC this year.

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