San Diego Comic-Con 2006: DAY TWO – Live Updates

Day Two has begun, we’ve got our Jamba Juice and already have had a productive first 2 hours of the con, despite the chaos of the night before. I won’t go into details, but Tijuana was involved.

Keep checking throughout the day to read our live updates of the panels and how we make it through the day. Later tonite we’ll be posting our complete report on the con as well as the pics from the day.

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12:09 PM – Ron here, finally got a chance to sit down and boot up the laptop. Gordon and I were the first out of the hotel this morning at 10 AM and after a short pedi-cab ride, we hit the con floor. Josh and the newly arrived Lindsay met up with us shortley thereafter and we walked the floor, spent some time with Greg Rucka and Joe Casey, both were super cool and gave some great interviews. Conor caught up with us around noon and now we’re sitting in the Star Trek panel, solely to ensure we have good seats for the presentation of NBC’s new show Heroes. So we’ll be here for the next 2 hours. After which we’ll be heading to another DC panel on the JLA/JSA.

12:15 PM – This is Conor. I like Star Trek. But not this much.

12:22 PM – I feel like I’m undercover at some weird grouping of rabid wacky fans. Oh, wait, we are.

12:26 PM – The panel just ended, and as far as I can tell Dave, Star Trek is still cancelled, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by this packed room. Which actually is pretty cool. Gordon just ran off to go take pics of celebs

12:38 PM – Jeph Loeb just came out to introduce everything. We’re going to be watching the original unedited 72 minute pilot, which apparently will never be shown in this long format again, which is pretty cool. Jeph is introducing the cast now and he’s pretty excited about this show.

12:41 PM – Milo Ventigmilia formerly of Gilmore Girls fame just came out on stage. Rory totally should be with Jess. I never thought I’d see someone from Gilmore Girls on stage with Tim Sale…what an odd pairing.

12:43 PM – The screening is beginning, so I’m gonna put my laptop to sleep for a little, I’ll be back in 60 min or so with coments.

1:30 PM – I think we’re halfway through the pilot, pretty good so far. They just used a Bright Eyes song for a transition, which is pretty cool.

2:03 PM – Heroes JUST finished and Conor and I had to navigate the masses to get to the JLA/JSA panel. LOTS of people in the hallways. Annoying. Real quick Heroes thoughts: it was good, definitely has potential. We’ll be watching in the fall, although I wonder if it will last more than 6 episodes. We’ll write more thoughts later tonite. On to Justice League!

2:07 PM – Brad Meltzer is discussing Justice League of America #0. I thought it sucked, did anyone else read it? I thought it was just too confusing. Good idea, but poor execution but that’s just me. Meltzer explaining it still makes it sound good, but again, the execution lacked. Meltzer sounds like a big fan. He clearly loves Red Tornado, I bet he’ll end up on the new JLA team.

2:11 PM – This is Conor. Justice League of America #0 didn’t suck, but it was a real big disappointment. Regardless, I am really excited about this series. I can’t wait for it to begin.

2:14 PM – BREAKING NEWS – Geoff Johns just arrived to the panel a little late and made the announcement that he and Richard Donner are going to be writing Action Comics!

2:18 PM – They’re taking questions from the audience and DiDio is doing the same thing he did at the DC Nation where he’s asking questions of the audience after they ask their question. This is a great interactive element that both companies seem to have been doing, which is really cool as it gets the fans involved. I’m glad to see this happening a lot at the panels.

2:32 PM – Every question is pretty much centered around trying to find out who the roster of the 2 teams will be. We’re getting a lot of dodging and jokes, but its pretty clear who the main team members will be. Regardless, it will be a good read I think, or so it sounds. Meltzer is obviously a good writer and we think the world of Geoff Johns, so I think both these books will be great. They just gave the 15 minute warning, so I’m going to put the laptop away so we can run from the panel as soon as its over. We’re going to walk the floor for a while and then we’re heading to the DC 52 panel (ANOTHER DC panel?) at 6, so we’ll back online then.

5:48 PM – Ron here, found Josh, Lindsay, Conor and Gordon and have been scouring the con floor for interesting people and who did we find? Joss Whedon AND Bryan Singer. Yup, they’re both down with the iFanboy now. More on that later on. Right now, we’re sitting in a panel room waiting for the DC 52 panel which should yield Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns, so that should be fun. Stay tuned for updates.

6:04 PM – The DC panel finally begins. We’ve got a big crowd that is going nuts for the writers. Grant Morrison just got a huge crowd response. Mark Waid, not so much – but we like Mark!

6:11 PM – As I thought would happen, the love fest begins when they talk about the collaboration and way they all write the stories together. It’s been described as a a “rock band” of writers and they all seem to be very friendly with each other and it shows on the panel.

6:13 PM – They just remembered that there is an art aspect to this project as opposed to the writing.

6:15 PM – Greg Rucka is hypnotizing.

6:19 PM – They just opened the panel up to questions from the audience, given the crowd and ruckus already over the past 20 minutes, this could get ugly.

6:23 PM – Grant Morrison loves writing Lobo.

6:28 PM – Someone just played the race card in asking for more diversity in DC comics and Greg Rucka has brought the hammer down on him, explaining that to write characters specifically to be black, latino or gay, would be a disservice to the characters. The room is silent as he talks… it’s amazing. And then Grant Morrison stole the show.

6:36 PM – Okay the panel is getting wacky. A 6PM panel apparently causes both the creators and the fans to be a little giddy and a little bit testy too. My laptop battery is dying, so I’m going to call it a night. Hope you enjoyed the coverage!