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Well, our crack Team Beat Elite are swarming all over San Diego, filing reports, having fun, and experiencing the Con in all its glory.  (Been there, done that, got the tote bag.)

Meanwhile, back here at Stately Beat Manor, at what we’ve sardonically dubbed “The Undisclosed Location” (just in case someone decides to recreate Lex Luthor’s beachfront plan with a few nuclear missiles aimed at California), we’ve been monitoring the systems, editing reports, and excavating the chest freezer (we’re making a jambalaya of the freezer-burnt meat tonight, to have for tomorrow).

This isn’t quite a “studio coffee run” post, as I tend to ignore the many celebrity sightings at CCI, and because other staff do a better job.  (I also don’t recognize most of the boldfaced names, so that’s another layer of disinterest.)  But I do love animation, and while I don’t have a television, I am somewhat cognizant of the various media tribes and denominations which comprise the Great Geek Nation.

That said, here are some links of various reports.  Stay tuned for reports for panels!

So, here we go!

➠  Nerdy Bird Jill Pantozzi interviews Thor Parker, Midtown Comics’ Social Marketing and Events Director, about National Geographic’s upcoming “Comic Store Heroes”.  There’s a special airing on the NG Channel Friday at 8 PM ET.

Jill: And that brings up something the press, and fans, are likely to be talking about. What you just described is similar to what AMC did with Kevin Smith’s Comic Book Men. It had a mixed reaction in the community as to how it portrayed us. I know I certainly had a strong opinion on it. What are your thoughts on that and the inevitable comparisons?

Thor‬: We all watched Comic Book Men when it came out. We’ve got a lot of big Kevin Smith fans at the store. When I saw it I could help but want more out of it I guess. I know that Kevin Smith’s name doesn’t go hand in hand with highbrow entertainment, but I think, and I beleive a lot of other people thought, the show could be so much more. I don’t blame the show for not providing the things the modern comic fan is looking for. That’s where we’ll come in I suppose. We’re striving to show how positive comics and the comic community as a whole is and can be. I don’t think Comic Book Men had a mission statement, but that would be close to what ours is.

National Geographic.  Comics.  *sniffle*   The dream is coming true…

➜  AHEM… sorry…  Elsewhere, the Hollywood Reporter asks, “Are Fanboys Still Worth the Time and Money?”

Here we go again, another July, another parade of movie stars and executives heading south to peddle their wares at Comic-Con. But before we all spend crazy money jetting in talent, booking lavish parties and crafting just the right teaser-trailer package, think for a moment: Is the Comic-Con crowd still the best audience on which to be blowing our marketing budget? A decade after Hall H became Hollywood’s must-stop venue on the path to the multiplex, what if Comic-Con is sort of over?

➙  SuperheroHype.com reports on Fox Studios (MIA at CCI) comicbook movies: Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Rust.  Yes, Archaia has optioned a movie!  Congrats!  (Might we see the Dapper Men soon?)

➟  Think “Rust” is an unusual choice?  How about “Creepy” directed by Chris ColumbusHow about “My Friend Dahmer”?

A press release explains, “although there are macabre elements to this story, this will be less a horror film and more a coming-of-age tale of teenagers teetering on the abyss.”  Think, Welcome to the Dollhouse meets Dazed and Confused by way of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

Hmm…  I hereby create a new game!  It’s called “Elevator Pitch”!  Take three movies, the more random the better (preferably at least one Oscar winner) and insert them in the following template:

Think [movie one] meets [movie two] by way of [movie three]!

You get three minutes to think up a two sentence (max) description of your movie, ending it with the templated phrase above.  Other participants then get to yell out movie titles and/or marketing tag lines for your movie.  You can also attach celebrities and directors to your film.

➲  From PR Newswire comes news that Genndy Tartakovsky has inked a deal with Sony Pictures Animation.  Tartovsky is best known for his work on Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone Wars.  Today he presented his upcoming feature Hotel Transylvania.  He’ll be developing a new take on Popeye, produced by Avi & Ari Arad (formerly of Marvel Studios).

➵  TrekCore interviews the Okudas about the upcoming high-definition remastering of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this year.  The original series was shot on film, but all of the special effects were done on video.  Cutting edge in 1987, today they are a bit…quaint.  It’s a three-part interview, and includes some interesting tidbits, like theatrical releases of some episodes, and the detective work required to find archived film!

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Okay…  you’ve probably wondered where the pictures are…

Here’s the illustrated section, with pics (and video!) from the Associated Press and Getty Images.

(Click on the pictures to uncover the source URL.)

Robert Kirkman's Zombie Survival Machine, courtesy of PR Newswire.
Preview Night
Is this the Golden Age Poison Ivy? I don't recall ever seeing her in a dress.
Ashley Lopez presents an interesting take on Supergirl/Superboy.
*KSZHT* Let me see your identification. *KSZHT*

I wonder if they’ve been introduced to each other?

Carlos Noguez, here are a few pointers, offered in solidarity and goodwill.

  1. Don’t cover your sign when your 15 minutes start ticking…
  2. Display your URL
  3. Display your name (although, Getty did list it, and yours is quite unique.  Believe me, having a unique name is GOLD.)
  4. Update your Google Plus account.  (Especially with this pic!)  Sync your phone with G+ so all of your photos are automatically duplicated to your account.  Or if the photo is super-cool, share it immediately.  Do this for all of your social media sites.  There might even be a utility which does it in one click.
  5. Blog the stuff you can get to… not the stuff you can’t.  There’s a lot happening outside the convention center!  Why not be the one blogger who blogs alfresco at CCI?  Shoot all of the cosplayers as they walk by.  Hand each a little fortune cookie sized piece of paper with your URL on it, so they can check in and see their picture (and tag their name).  Each visit generates ad revenue.  Also, cosplayers love looking at other cosplayers.  They’ll probably tell their friends.  If it’s a site with thousands of photos, then other bloggers will link to you, generating even more traffic!  Or find a different take… what’s Old Town like at Three in the morning?  Does the Tin Fish look weird at night with no people around it?  Maybe interview those people camping out in the car.  Maybe you’ll find a “Nighthawks” scene with cosplayers.  Look for unique angles.  What do the wait staff think of the Comic-Con Carnival?  Cops?  Sanitation workers?

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You wouldn’t think it, but both AP and Getty offer video as well!  Getty offers only a preview, but AP has full video on their site!  Getty is deeper, going back to 2005.

I can’t embed, but here’s an awesome video of a working, to-scale, R2D2 constructed out of LEGO bricks, from July 14, 2005.

Here’s a 45-second AP video from today!  And one from July 26, 2010, showing cosplay, and a simple makeup technique from Sally Street that keeps the fanboys at bay!

And finally… today’s nominee for Best Boyfriend on the Planet: Jason Segel.  While his girlfriend, Michelle Williams, is in San Diego to promote “Oz the Great and Powerful”, he is back in Brooklyn, spending time with her daughter, Matilda Ledger (with a nanny close at hand).  (People also gets a gold star for having such a positive comments section!)

Well, that’s it for now… I’ll return in the morning with the non-Hollywood links.  Steve Morris, working on European time, has the night shift, and should be here at Midnight to relieve me.  Since SD is three hours behind, he gets to monitor the feeds for celebrities behaving erratically at PR parties.  (I’m hoping for some juicy Butterfinger Man photos!)

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1 COMMENT

  1. (Been there, done that, got the tote bag.)

    You have to admit, though, that Comic-Con back in the ’90s isn’t the third/quarter of what it is NOW.

    Hell, compare-and-contrast the SDCC captured in Mark Hamill’s COMIC BOOK: The Movie (filmed during the 2002 Con) and Morgan Spurlock’s COMIC-CON EPISODE IV (filmed at SDCC ’10): what a difference just eight years make!

    It’s a COMPLETELY different experience. And I don’t remember any Comic-Con tote bags from the ’90s; they just had those white plastic baggies with Rick Geary’s old Toucan logo on them… the ginormous WB bags just started appearing in the last 5 years…

    Just sayin’.

    /SDCCist

    /SDCC ’12 Day 1

  2. “Think [movie one] meets [movie two] by way of [movie three]!”

    Okay, I got this comic…

    Think BEYOND THUNDERDOME meets WANTED by way of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.

    Where do I sign for my millions?

  3. “Think [movie one] meets [movie two] by way of [movie three]!”

    Oh, then you’ve overheard my sales pitch at cons when I’m selling copies of THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK, my YA novel series, have you? ;-)

    “It’s about a 16-year-old Goth who teams up with a 400-year-old, shape-shifting monster hunter. Think Ellen Page and Salma Hayek in a Hellboy movie.”

    (Actually, I get the biggest laugh from that wordy description of the monster hunter, but the Hollywood high concept line is the punch line.)

    http://www.starwarpconcepts.com/?page_id=61

  4. Think SHREK meets THE PIANO by way of SUCKER PUNCH.

    We could market it as niche Oscar-bait, but I think it has real break-out potential.

  5. Or if you want to do it the easy way:
    http://theyfightcrime.org/

    He’s a benighted umbrella-wielding paramedic in drag. She’s a radical French-Canadian Valkyrie who can talk to animals. They fight crime!

    He’s a war-weary overambitious matador whom everyone believes is mad. She’s a transdimensional gold-digging wrestler who hides her beauty behind a pair of thick-framed spectacles. They fight crime!

    He’s a bookish native American rock star living undercover at Ringling Bros. Circus. She’s a blind nymphomaniac pearl diver from aristocratic European stock. They fight crime!

  6. “Yipee! It’s Mad Libs for movies!”

    And now you understand the awesome power of the “Hollywood high concept!” :D The most famous one is how SPEED was pitched: “It’s Die Hard…on a bus!”

    Actually, this approach does work to get your idea across, especially when you’ve got maybe thirty seconds to a minute to pitch your project (book, comic, etc.) to any visitor to your convention booth.

    If you can boil your concept down to one or two sentences, people will remember it. The “Ellen Page/Salma Hayek” line might sound goofy, but I’ve seen people quote it online when they mention my Pandora Zwieback series, and had others recall it when they see me at a show the following year. It’s a very effective method.

  7. 2002 was my last Comic-Con.

    I don’t remember any totes either, except for maybe some plastic bags. I think Viz might have done a few back then… I have most of the variations. Nowadays, I organize each show by stuffing all the loose papers into whatever free tote I pick up there. Then I toss it in a corner of my apartment.

    I’m still searching for a picture of the petite waif who took the big red Smallville bag and turned it into a tube dress.

    As for the new totes, it is not uncommon for attendees to sew the Warner bags into clothing. (dagnabbit! I can’t find a single photo! I coulda sworn I posted one from a previous Con!) Not just as as simple dresses, but as full Victorian clothing!

    Ah… I see… the site doesn’t exist anymore…
    http://www.thewb.com/comiccon/bagswardrobe

    Ah ha!
    https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Y2z8sCcAEC2XMsLS4NLsww