Well, I've just returned from San Diego, California, after having attended my first ever Comic-Con, and let me tell you, I am kicking myself for not having gotten down there before this! I've wanted to go for years, but always had some excuse not to make the effort (laziness key among them). Well, it was absolutely worth it! I had tons of fun and I plan on going every year for the rest of my days!

I went for all five days, and you really have to. There is SO much to see and do, one or two days is just not enough! As it was, I never did see every booth in the exhibition hall! The San Diego Convention Center is HUGE, and this year it was chock full of programming, activities, costumed characters, fans, celebrities, you name it! It was pretty darn crowded. There was no way to see every panel you wanted to, as they were all scheduled to overlap each other, and even if something you wanted to see ended at 5 and the next thing started at 5, you might have a ten minute walk to reach the next room! It was crazy! And you also had to go early to most of the panels, as they were so crowded that sometimes, you couldn't even get in! I lined up at 3:40pm to see Bruce Campbell in the Brisco County Jr. panel that started at 4pm, and I didn't get my seat until 4:24pm! (I figured I would get in easily, because who had watched Brisco County and loved it besides me? Well, it hadn't occurred to me that every fan of the Evil Dead films would be there too! I, by the way, played a zombie extra in Army Of Darkness!) And I never even got IN to the LucasArts panel! The room they had it in was much too small. Thank the maker that Steve Sansweet told us all about the upcoming Star Wars and Indiana Jones video games in his panel on Friday! Steve, by the way, very friendly, very nice guy; I stopped him in the lobby area on Thursday and shook his hand, and he had to shift around all the stuff he was carrying to be able to do it, and he still made the effort to check my name badge so he could call me by name, since I am too brain dead to remember that type of "introduction" thing! Hey, Steve, this is Don, by the way--Xocc Nodd to all of you! Anyway, Steve's panel was great, and oh, yes, I was wrong in my previous blog, the Secrets Of '07 artwork is indeed for the new Star Wars videogame, which looks FANTASTIC by the way, but it is NOT KOTOR III! I will be eagerly awaiting the arrival of this one, and I will definitely have to buy an xBox 360 when it comes out! If you haven't yet, check out the Force Power Pre-viz on the front page of StarWars.com! Amazing. We won't be seeing the new Clone Wars CG cartoon until 2008, and as for the Live action TV show, it sounded like that would be closer to 2009! Sorry for the bad news! I was more than a bit disappointed to hear that myself!

I also attended the Star Wars Fan Film Awards, which was absolutely wonderful! All of the winning films were excellent; if you haven't seen them yet, I recommend going to http://www.atomfilms.com/af/spotlight/collections/starwars/ and watching them! You'll get to see The Return Of Pink Five, which is awesome, I don't know if volume 2 is posted yet, but if not, keep an eye out, it's great! It was world premiered at the awards; even Steve Sansweet and LucasFilm hadn't seen it yet! We also got to see the trailer for the film Fanboys, which looks hilarious! Look for that next spring. Oh, and Kristen Bell was there to introduce the preview, along with Sam Huntington, who plays Jimmy Olsen in Superman Returns! And the winner of the Fan Film Awards? Well, for the first time ever, someone won the top two awards! George Lucas Selects and Audience Choice both went to Shane Felux, for his film Pitching George Lucas. Great stuff.

The Star Wars Fan Club Breakfast was also really fun. Everyone received their 501st Stormtrooper figure, along with a gift bag full of Star Wars goodies, a tasty breakfast, and a raffle ticket. Some great prizes were handed out, the largest of which was a banner from Celebration III! Cool. We even got to have a Q&A with Steve Sansweet and members of the Hasbro team. My question was, when can we expect the video games to come out? The answer-- not sure yet! Oh well. Speaking of Hasbro, I attended the Hasbro Panel on Friday (Star Wars Day) and got some great first looks at the new line for next year. Let me just say that there are some really cool things coming out soon, and for next year! Some of my favorites: Darth Vader's all-black Jedi Starfighter, as described in James Luceno's book Dark Lord: The Rise Of Darth Vader, the team of Republic Commandos, the Dagobah X-Wing, which comes with Luke and is covered in swamp moss, a battle pack featuring Mace Windu and his team of purple-accented clone troopers, oh, there's just too much to tell you about! It's going to be great.

Speaking of Mace Windu, I was also privileged to get to see Samuel L. Jackson at the panel discussion for Snakes On A Plane. Other great people I got to see and hear speak were Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, Rose MacGowan, Kristen Bell, Amber Tamblyn, Takashi Shimizu, Bruce Campbell, Julius Carry, Jorge Garcia and the creators of LOST, the cast of Reno 911!, Borat as played by Sacha Baron Cohen, Peter Jackson (these last two were on video), and I saw lots of actors who played characters in sci-fi and horror over the years, such as Dean Haglund from the X-Files, Erin Gray from Buck Rogers, Clare Kramer from Buffy, and so many more. They were all signing autographs for the fans, most at a price of course. And there were so many I missed, because I was in some panel or screening or another. Oh, and did I mention I saw the first screening of the Ultimate Avengers 2 animated feature? Great show.

Well, that's all I can remember for now! I had a blast, and I highly recommend you all go next year! In my next blog, I will tell you how to be prepared for the event! I'll give you a small hint for now: pack some sandwiches!

May The Force Be With You!

http://www.comic-con.org/index.php

http://wwww.Hasbrotoyshop.com