The Thunder Brothers: The Lost Episodes Double - TopicsExpress

The Thunder Brothers: The Lost Episodes Double Feature! Saturday Saturday morning we made sure to head straight to the dealer’s room. We both had popular booths we wanted to hit. As we were in line to get in, we saw people with these newspaper print schedules of Saturday, so we grabbed one. It turned out to serve me well later. Anyway, I went to Bluefin, and Chip hit up Marvel. Bluefin is something that I hadn’t even heard of until we got to the Con. Apparently, they liscense a metric ton of collectables for established properties. The Con exclusive that had me the most interested was a set of 3 scouters from DBZ. When I got in line it was already at least 30 people, and most of them were exhibitors. At one point a Con worker came up and told the exhibitors that they all had to go man their boots now. The dude in front of me, who I knew worked at a booth, turned toward the wall while he pretended to be on his cell. I could have ratted him out, but that would have made me a swag blocker. No need for that. After that guard came and went, one of the people from the Bluefin booth came out to say that they were running low on scouters. I started to question my decision to let some exhibitors slide by, but there was nothing to be done about it now. All I could do was hope that they still had some by the time I got there. When I hit the front of the line, I bolted inside their area to see if they still had scouters, at which point, the girl at the register flagged me down. Turns out, this was the line for the cash register, and you’re supposed to already know what you want. Apparently, I should have poked around another time. I’d like to have checked out all their stuff, but I wasn’t about to lose my shot at the scouters, so I got them and a con exclusive alternate color Zaku II for Matt. In hindsight, it’s good I didn’t get anything else; because the nature of those boxes had me pretty loaded up. Successful in my Bluefin blitz, I called Chipper for us to meet back up. He was in line for something else, so I decided to amble a bit. In spite of being loaded up already I stopped by the Plants Vs. Zombies booth, and got a giant Sunflower pillow. Then, as I am walking around, people just keep giving me posters. I can’t refuse FREE posters. FREE. There I am looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame carrying 3 posters in one hand (unsuccessfully, I might add. I kept losing grip on those magnificently glossy posters), a giant sunflower pillow tucked under one arm, and my backpack that is just bulky on account of the shape of the boxes. I decided to grab a seat at the Monster Hunter DS playing after a Capcom employee noticed my plight. I waited there for Chip. Next year we’re bringing a for serious poster tube. When we met back up, Chip commented on my swag, and convinced me to leave the posters. They were too large to fit reasonably in the backpack without getting too messed up to be worth all the trouble. Also, he helped me tuck the sunflower pillow between me and the backpack. I told him that I decided I wanted to deviate from the plan and hit a panel clear on the other side of the convention center. He was cool with it, since he wanted to try and get in the Bates Motel thing instead of what we had planned, so we split up. What I wanted to do wasn’t for about 1.5 hours at this point, so I was just looking to kill time. I walked around the Dealer’s Room for a bit more, but, even though my hands were now free, the backpack/pillow combo was constricting and uncomfortable, so I figured I’d head over to the other end early at a leisurely pace. As I approached my destination, I realized the panel before the Writer’s Room one didn’t really strike me as all that interesting, so I checked the handy dandy Saturday schedule we picked up earlier to see what was adjacent. March caught my eye. The panel was about a graphic novel by the same name written about the civil rights movement by Representative John Lewis who lived it. For a panel I practically stumbled into, I found myself listening intently when the Rep. Lewis was speaking. He’s an excellent storyteller. One of his aides was also on the panel. He was the one that actually got the whole graphic novel idea rolling. Apparently, he had done some work a few years back about the effect that the Montgomery Bus Comic had on the civil rights movement and continues to have on other civil rights movements around the world. It’s been reprinted in several languages, and it’s still relevant. For example, it was reprinted in Arabic and distrubted around Tahir Square during the protests there. When he proposed the Rep. Lewis write a graphic novel about his experiences Rep. Lewis agreed provided that they wrote it together. The artist talked about the apprehension he had to get over in rendering iconic figures like Dr. King, and commented that his face requires very few details to be immediately recognizable. Interesting stuff for a panel I wasn’t planning on. Just goes to show there’s always something worthwhile going on. Satisfied from my last panel, I made my way to my intended room, one room over, to pre-game the Inside the Writer’s Room panel I was interested in.At which point I realized I made two excllent calls. The first was to attend the March panel instead of the entirety of the one I was currently in. It just did not hold my interest. The second was pre-gaming it. When the panel started they commented that we were the lucky ones and plenty of people were outside. I’m not entirely sure what I expected from this panel, but it was different from the other stuff I’d been to. Not bad, just different. To this point, most of my Con experience, with few exceptions, was about a product or brand or thing. This was just a bunch of people sharing insights and idiosyncrasies of what they do, and it was a look behind the curtain. If there’s any one thing that I picked from them is that every idea comes from somewhere. It might just need a new context to change it from “WTF?!” to “That actually works pretty well.”. Also, got to meet up with Ash afterward, so that was fun. As I left the panel, I started making my way back to the other end of the convention center to the panel Chip and I agreed we’d meet up at. Turns out he was heading my way. I think I was easier than usual to spot on account of the sunflower pillow. We met halfway, and he affirmed my decision to skip out on what we had originally planned. It turns out the DC comic panels were for people “riding the wave”(a phrase we picked up during the “IDKS About Comics” meaning reading umpteen comics a month with every single instance of your hero of choice), and so he figured he’d come find me instead of hit another comics panel. I decided I really need to go back to the hotel to drop my stuff off, so we did. On the ride back we got to talking with this pretty cool guy. He told us his name, started with a P, but we all know how ridiculously bad I am with names. Anyway, we talked for the duration of the ride, as it turns out we were going to the same hotel. He told us some of the stuff he did. Like the not con-proper stuff down in the Gas Light quarter. It turns out they had some sets from Ender’s Games which you could walk around in, and the alchemy shop from Grimm which you could get a picture in. On the subject of Grimm, I told him my problems with the show, but he talked me into giving it another shot on account of the second season. It’s back on my list. Also, Chip showed the both of us his spoils from the Bate’s panel he went to. A Bate’s Motel room key. Pretty swanky. We dropped our stuff off and boomeranged back to the Con on the next shuttle. Now, what’s the most logical response to being recently unburdened from swag? Go back to the dealer’s room, naturally. I wasn’t looking to buy anything in particular. I just wanted to swing back by to see if the Cyanide and Happiness guys were doing sketches yet. There was a massive line, so I resolved to come back Sunday. Chip pointed out before we dropped stuff off that we should probably already be in line for the TBA 20th Century Fox panel, so that’s where we went next. The line was pretty brutal. Its only saving grace is that there were chairs next to it, so Chip held our spot while I sat. I wouldn’t have made it otherwise, and I was ready to give it up multiple times. in fact, the group in front of us left after being in line with us for some time. An oddity of the line, which Chip can attest to, is that every time I put down my bag, we moved. It’s a cousin of Dad’s “Light the cigarette so the food will get here.” theory. After a long time waiting, we made it into the Fox panel about 15 minutes after it started. When we went in they were handing out 3D glasses, and my first thought was “Great. We waited all that time, and I am gonna get a massive headache to show for it.” For those of you that don’t know, ever since my most recent eye surgery, I can do 3D movies. Then we sat down, and they were talking about the new Planet of the Apes movie, and I’m thinking “This is what we waited for? I didn’t even catch the first one in the reboot.” They showed a 3D teaser. It was ok. I was more excited about a place to sit than what was going on with regard to the Planet of the Apes. Then they did a panel and trailer for Wolverine. Which, while cool, was also 3D and coming out in a week or so. Not exactly the groundbreaking stuff I expected at a TBA panel. Don’t get me wrong. The clips for Wolverine were very cool, and actually have me motivated to see this one. Which I didn’t think was possible after origins. Then we hit something more along the lines of what I expected. They brought out this huge ensemble cast (to the point that they had people sitting in chairs set up at the end of the table) for X-Men Day’s of Future Past. Take everyone from First Class and everyone from the current X-Men series, and you’ve got a lot of star power on stage. Additions to the already large cast include Quicksilver, Bishop, and Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask. They showed a fairly long trailer for it. I know I shouldn’t get jazzed for it, but I am. Hugh Jackman was a real standout from the panel. He joked around some about a Wolverine musical, and he said the Comic-Con is the only place he can walk around in costume and not be bothered. It seems like he got two comments. “Hey, that’s pretty good.” and “Way too tall, buddy. Too tall.” The other day, the swag room lady told us that we really wanted to hit up this panel, and, sure enough, we got swag tickets.Anyway, I’ll be glad to see Bishop get some screen time. Now if only they could give Cable some too. Thankfully, we could hold our seats for the next panel on the agenda. Chip was good enough to grab food in the interim. Marvel w/ Thor and Captain America. Helluva show. You gotta love when a guy comes out and says they’ll kick it off with Thor: The Dark World. At which point they kill all the lights, and we hear Loki speaking. Everyone just figures it’s one of those “we’re gonna preamble the trailer while the screen is still black.” things. Then, as he’s speaking, we realize he is addressing those of us at the convention. The crowd goes nuts. Then the stage lights come on to Tom Hiddleston in full Loki garb. Addressing all of us in character. People have posted this online. Instead of me describing it you should really just go out and find it. He ushers us into the trailer as we chant “Loki!”. The whole experience was electrifying, and the trailer has me ready for Thor. Next up in the double feature of awesome was Captain America. If I had to single out one property of the current Avengers stable that I feel has the weakest standalone potential, then I would have to say it’s Captain America. That said, I thought the fight scene they showed leading in the trailer was phenomenal, and I believe having Cap in the modern age for his next feature will help a great deal. Apparently it’s tradition to give the sub-title at Comic-Con, so this is actually Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I don’t know enough about the source material to be excited, but that was good enough to set the rest of the room on fire. I’ll be looking forward to this one too. Ok, so we saw Thor and Captain America at the Thor and Captain America panel. All done, yeah? Nope.They flew in the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy just for that panel. I couldn’t take in a whole lot from the panel because I was too shocked that the chick who played Amy Pond in Dr. Who SHAVED HER HEAD for the movie. She even tossed away her wig to the crowd, and the moderator was all “Uh, we’re gonna need that back.” Seriously though, I’ve been wondering what the deal was with Rocket Racoon, and now I know. Some people that stood out on this panel for me besides Pond were Michael Rooker of Walking Dead, and Batista of WWE.The teaser they threw together was damn impressive since they’d only been working on it for a few weeks. I’m not exactly invested in Guardians of the Galaxy, but it’s a post Disney Marvel thing, so I’ll definitely watch it. I almost forgot, Joss Whedon came out during the Marvel panel announce the new Avengers title. Age of Ultron. Again, I don’t know the source, but it seems pretty awesome by the reaction garnered. With our high profile panels done the only thing we had left to do that night was to hit the Masquerade. We figured that it’s an iconic Comic-Con event, and we’d miss out on the full experience if we didn’t go to that our first time out. Chip already secured us spots, but we had to be there before too long to be seated. Unfortunately, everyone who was in Hall H was in there through Marvel; because it was shoulder to shoulder getting out of there. All I could do was grab Chip’s backpack handle and hold on for dear life. The security did nothing to alleviate this congestion; because they wouldn’t let anyone back inside on this end of the convention center. I’m sure they had their reasons, but it didn’t make it any less of a nerve wracking experience. We walked the length of the convention center with about ¾ of it in the unreasonable traffic when we came to a crossroads. We had to decide if we should continue to the fulfillment room to get the first crack at shirt sizes for our tickets from the Fox panel, or go ahead and get seated at the Masquerade. Given the chance to leave the throng of people, we decided to go ahead and take our seats for The Masquerade. It’s a good thing too; because they had just started seating as we walked up. Ok, so The Masquerade is a SDCC defining event. Everyone should do it once. It’s just a shame the crowd sucked. I say that as part of the crowd. I don’t know if that’s par for the course or what, but the crowd had no energy. I was doing my best to give every entry a holler or something, but nobody was into it. Granted we were exhausted from our day, so that may have had something to do with it. There were the big things that rallied people, but it just didn’t carry through from one performance to the next. The entire thing is on youtube if you’re interested in watching it. I can say that because I went searching for my favorite act when I got home, #31 Tatooine. After all 38 acts we were ready to call it a night, but then the judges had to deliberate, and we weren’t about to leave early. That took forever, but while it was going on some local lightsaber club put on a pretty damn good show for being more passion and less training. There were a lot of people involved too. I didn’t realize there were that many people dedicated to swinging a lightsaber on stage. By the time everything was said and done it was after midnight and we were bushed. We trudged back to the shuttle and passed out when we got to the hotel. Sunday In spite of our late evening last night, we knew we’d have to get up fairly early in order to have our shot at the panels we wanted to hit Sunday morning. Chip really wanted to see Breaking Bad, and I really wanted to see the Dr. Who 50th Anniversary panel after that. Both of which were preceded by the Supernatural panel. All in one room. We knew that to even have a shot that we’d have to be in line first thing in the morning. Well, we were half right. The line we got in was the unsanctioned extension of the disability line. Our odds were not looking good, and we were sure we’d be standing outside at least all the way through the Supernatural panel. During our wait outside, we befriended one of the security guys. He seemed pretty cool. Told us he worked security for Rage Against The Machine once, right off of the stage. Said it was his best security experience. He asked us what we were there for, and that’s when I started explaining Dr. Who. He seemed genuinely interested, so I might have made another Whovian. Anyway, Eventually the line started moving, but it was in tiny spurts. It looked even less like we were going to be in than when the line wasn’t moving. Given our line experience yesterday when we caught X-Men by the skin of our teeth I wasn’t particularly optimistic. Then as the line moved more and more we got to the inside line. That’s when we knew we’d make it, and we did. There was plenty of space to pick from and plenty of time before the first panel when we got in there. We got our aisle seats, and Chip grabbed us some grub. Then, we got to revel in the fact that we made it and were set for the next few hours. My only complaint is that there was an old crotchety elitist Whovian right behind us that could not keep his opinions to himself. Before too long, the Supernatural panel started. It’s funny how these “I’m here because I want to see what’s after” things work out. It’s not that I dislike Supernatural. It just wouldn’t have made the cut otherwise Actually, I’ve seen 7 seasons. I’m just not caught up on 8 because they’re slow with Netflix. Anyway it was a fun panel. It’s another one of those where the cast just seems like one big family. (I’m too lazy to go find actor names for this next portion, and I think the mental images will work better with the character names anyway.) Castiel kept knocking over Crowley’s name plate. Crowley eventually knocked over Castiel’s. Then, they switched nameplates. Dean, as it turns out, is as attached to the car out of character as he is in character. He talked about telling the guys on set that he’d handle the car and take it back and all that.They showed a Season 8 gag reel which is a SDCC tradition apparently. There was a lot of talk about the season finale and what comes next, which is cool because it’s cool, but sucks because I was behind. Next, was Breaking Bad. I’m sure most anyone that cares about Breaking Bad has seen this by now, but Bryan Cranston came out for the panel looking exactly like Walter White. Not too surprising, it’s his character and all, but it was interesting to see he kept the look. Then he pulls off the mask. As it turns out, he was going around in a Walter White mask and talking with people in a squeaky high pitched voice. After the mask was off, he started messing around with it. The best was when he put it over his mic. Then he started getting real in close with it. It was almost like he was making out with himself. It was funny and creepy all at the same time. They showed a few minutes out of the first episode. It seemed like just the right amount; since it’s right around the corner. They gave out handbills, but I was more than a little disappointed there was no swag. I’m eager to finish the saga of the one who knocks. Dr. Who, the panel I’ve been waiting for, and, mercifully, by the now mouthy Whovian has moved up to get a better seat. It was everything I expected it to be, but there were still a few surprises. For one, Craig Ferguson was the moderator; excellent choice. Also, Balon Greyjoy from Game of Thrones was there. He’s playing the first doctor in some kind of special about the start of Dr. Who. As someone who hardly knows anything before 9 it still looks pretty cool, and he looks a lot like the original 1. Matt Smith seemed very humbled by the whole experience Conversely, Moffat comes off as really full of himself. I respect his work, but wow. For example, he threatened the audience not to tape the con exclusive footage of the special otherwise there would be no more SDCC exclusives. His reason was because the audio from the Sherlock footage leaked within minutes of airing in the panel the other day. I understand where he’s coming from, but it definitely left a sour taste in my mouth. As the room went dark before the footage there was a sudden increase in sonic screwdriver usage as people held them up like lighters at a concert. The footage was awesome. I. Can. Not. Wait. I won’t say much about it other than the room exploded when it showed 10 on screen. On that note, I kinda expected him at the panel, but I get it’s not his thing anymore. Some of the questions were great, like the one asking why Captain Jack won’t be in it. Moffat responded that he hasn’t been on the show for years, and asked coyly how she knew what was in it. Another question about the Dr. Who Experience said there were no plans, but they’re open to it. There were also some really bad questions where people either fanboyed/fangirled out or asked them to sign things. The whole making requests thing is just really bad form. Then there was one super personal and creepy question that nobody in their right mind would answer publically. “If you had access to a TARDIS, what would you change in your life?” Seriously. Who would answer that to a room full of people. Anyway, that panel was just awesome. Can’t wait for more Dr. Who. After our two big panels we felt like we accomplished what we set out to do at Comic-Con there was still time in the day though. I was determined to get that Cyanide and Happiness sketch, so that’s what I set out to do. Chip went to do other stuff while I waited in line. The line was an interesting affair. The way the booths were set up, there was no room for a right and proper line at the booth, so there were start of line and end of line signs made out of carboard held by whoever was in the line at the time about 20 feet from the booth. They’d flag you over if you were the person holding the front of the line sign. In any case, as I was in line, I got to talking with a couple of locals. They clued me in on some vital con intel. It’s the same it was my last day, or I would have made better use of it. First, they said that the place to get food was across the street. They were serving sliders and chicken strips for free. FREE chicken strips. I missed out big time. They said it’s served like you see them serving finger foods at fancy parties in the movies. They just carry trays around and you snatch what you want. Gotta do more comprehensive recon of the Con adjacent activites for sure. Also, a trick if you find yourself standing next to someone with “Professional” on their badge is to ask them what their latest work is. Some solid advice that I’ll definitely keep in mind for next year. After probably about 30 minutes I got up there and got my sketch. It made me happy. After standing in line for a half hour I just wanted a place to sit, so I sat down at a little cafe area and tried to call Chip a few times, but it didn’t go through, so I just waited there for him to call me. As I was waiting, I couldn’t help but notice this little handbill on the table for a perfect gift, and it was only a few rows over, so I went and got one, by that time, Chip called me back and met me there. We decided to head to our final event of the Con. The Starship Smackdown. In spite of neither one of us having a real history with Star Trek it seemed like a good time.The way it works is the panelists pit spaceships against one another in a bracketed format vote who wins. After the first round each ship gets a randomly assigned captain to add more spice to the selection. In order to save time, the ships were picked ahead of time this year. The TARDIS was in the running, but was summarily eliminated for not being a space ship. An argument could be made, but none of the panelists made it. Anyway, in spite of that snag there were a ton of great moments from the panel. I just wish I was more familiar with Star Trek to get more out of it. I met up with Ash afterward and informed him that they missed a golden opportunity when it was Rick Moranis (Dark Helmet) piloting a ship against the Borg Cube. Honey I Assimilated the Kids was just begging to be said. I won’t spoil the winner for anyone that wants to go find it on youtube. The final rounds were a wild ride to be sure. The con might have ended, but the experience wasn’t quite over. We were hungry for actual food, so we decided to go across the street and see what was available. We were so hungry we stopped at what was essentially the first place. It was a little swankier on the inside than my wallet is usually comfortable with, and that feeling was affirmed when there were only even dollar prices on the menu, but we were hungry for dining and on vacation so what. We went up and asked for a table for two. The hostess looked at us with a little apprehension in her voice and asked if it would be alright if we sat outside in spite of it being so chilly. It was probably in the high 60s, so I chuckled a bit and said that was alright. When we got out there we realized that they’d set up some heating poles, and I was about floored. Only in California could someone set up a heating system outside in July. I had swordfish to say I had swordfish. It was alright, but we got these teriyaki beef tips as an appetizer which were just amazing. Also, they had bread. Everyone knows how much I love bread at restaurants. It was a good sendoff meal to the Comic Con experience. On an interesting side note, we noticed Big Mike from Chuck with a small camera crew talking to people on the corner. Chip found out after the fact that it was probably something to do with the Nerd Machine. So ends Comic Con. The Thunder Brothers will (hopefully) return