Show Notes

UPDATE! Click through to see the pics and the DETAILED report

Well, its over. We made it home in one piece and got together to do one last wrap up podcast. We hope you enjoyed our coverage. We’ll be posting pics and reports from Day Three and Day Four tomorrow, so stay tuned

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Running Time: 00:33:56

Music:
California Dreaming
Hi-Standard

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Saturday came and lo’ did the people arrive. And in greater numbers.

We had been fearing Saturday ever since we saw the crowds during preview night. Thursday and Friday threw us off slightly because that’s the day that most of the hard core comic people are at the convention and a good portion of them go to the panels, leaving the convention floor relatively maneuverable. But Saturday brings out the masses and the whole building was packed.

The day began with a staggered schedule. Ron and Gordon the Intern made their way to the floor to check out the Lost panel where, sadly, specific season three discussion was kept at a minimum. They then met up with Conor, Josh and Lindsay at the Cup O’ Joe panel while Patrick the Intern walked the convention floor. The Cup O’ Joe panel is an open forum for people to come to the microphone to lob questions at Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.

But before that panel could begin, we caught the tail end of the Marvel and Activision panel featuring Stan Lee and, for some reason, Gabrielle Carteris. We got to hear Stan chat a bit about his favorite movie cameo (Mallrats), and his cameo in Spider-Man 3, which will be a bit of dialogue between Stan and Peter Parker (the audience gasped and then applauded at this). Stan thought that this particular cameo would garner a big audience response. An audience member suggested that Activision put an unlockable Stan Lee in their next game (which would be awesome) which led to thunderous applause and Stan saying that although he didn’t know what that meant, a video game cameo was something he’d really like. As that panel wrapped up, we made our way to grab some front row seats which allowed us to witness firsthand that absolute media frenzy around Stan Lee. It was insane. There’s a reason that the guy has to have a cadre of burly bodyguards at these things. Ron even ran up to get an interview, except, he wasn’t after Stan Lee, no, he grabbed a few words from Gabrielle Carteris.

Finally, the Cup O’ Joe panel began and, with publisher Dan Buckley joining the dais, Joe Quesada announced that they had unearthed an old, unused Jack Kirby Fantastic Four story that they were going to release. At first iFanboy smelled a Sentry-like rat, but Quesada indicated Lisa Kirby in the audience and she was backing up what he was saying and they showed a few slides of the art and it sure looked authentic so we’ll just have to wait and see. Later on, Quesada showed some slides and he wasn’t going to explain what they were or what they meant, it was just three titles – Marvel Comics Presents, Loner, and Silent War. This was followed by the most interesting part of the panel, Quesada relating the story of how Steven King’s Dark Tower comic came about, and the fascinating meeting they had where King related the entire plot and story beats of the book while in a trance-like state. Ron was not impressed. Josh and Conor were. At some point towards the end of the panel Quesada repeated his metaphor that he used in the Civil War panel – that most fans were anti-registration, but if there were a bunch of guys walking around the convention wearing masks and carrying machines guns saying not to worry they were there for our protection then most fans would be very pro-registration. There’s a certain amount of truth to that, but it’s not 100% accurate.

After the spending 90 minutes with Joe Quesada we decided to abandon plans to stay another 90 minutes in the same room and skipped the DC Universe: One Year Greater panel. Sorry DC guys, you were still our favorite panelists, but we just had to leave that room. After a short bit of floor walking, Ron, Josh and Lindsay headed off to the Terry Moore panel, Patrick the Intern began his marathon Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis/TV Guide: 2006 and Beyond/Veronica Mars three and a half hour marathon session in room 20, and Conor and Gordon the Intern resumed floor walking until meeting up with the rest of the group after Terry Moore ended.

Floor walking on Saturday was a challenge in and of itself. The crowds swelled to the point where the convention center had to restrict access. Certain sections of the floor were completely impassable. While this caused a lot of frustration, it also lead to a lot of impromptu meetings, and iFanboy interviews, with some big names. There’s a lot of luck involved in this game, and this year iFanboy seemed to have it in spades.

We wrapped up Saturday with the First Annual iFanboy Party! We had a blast meeting some of the listeners who came out to see us. So much fun, in fact, that Conor and Patrick the Intern had to be dragged out of the bar at 2am. Thanks again to Mike, Whitney, Josh, Mark and Lorrie for stopping by!

Sunday, of course, was all about the Comics Podcasters panel featuring our own Josh Flanagan, as well as most of the other “big names” in modern comics podcasting. Josh did a great job and a good time was had by all. Special mention goes to Ron for holding a microphone up to the sound system speakers for 90 minutes because the convention didn’t set up a way to record the panel like we had requested and they had agreed to. The reason you can hear the audio is thanks to Ron and his very tired arm.

Gordon the Intern’s Special Report

Day Three and Wrap Up

Saturday was to be my final day at the con due to flight times. That means I had to make the most of what to be the busiest day on the floor. Fortunately, Ron and I arrived a few minutes early, so the numbers were low and the AC was still kickin’.

We hit the Lost panel. It was pretty fun. The clips that they showed were ridiculous. They were just silly things from the DVD — outtakes and what not. Nothing too exciting… but it was fun to see some of the stars. No teasers or leaks though. Blah.

After that I was on the floor for the rest of the day – taking pictures, looking for interviews and just generally watching my life flash before my eyes before I got crushed by the throngs of people looking for cheap comics and scantily clad “booth babes” (there were plenty of both).

And speaking of walking the floor — thank god for Gold Bond. Seriously.

But, all in all it was quite fun. The crowd, although large and insatiable, made the event a lot of fun and energetic. It is surreal to see children and adults all dressed up in costumes and getting excited about comic books. It was like Christmas in July.

And, for those of you that have not been to San Diego… HOLY COW. You have to go. It is beautiful. I got to spend a day on the beach, and walking around Balboa Park. The weather was absolutely perfect. Some of the locals complained about the heat… but it wasn’t that bad. At least not downtown.

I feel like I should mention the hotel. The pool was great. The elevators sucked. Location was great. We managed to fit seven people into one room. You do what you can for the fans.

Most importantly — I cannot wait for next year.

Patrick the Intern’s Special Report

Day Three

woke up… showered… vanilla bean frappuccino from starbucks… smoke on bench=2 cigarettes… back to room… apply gold bond… conor and i leave for con… meet up with gordon… conor goes off to the joe quesada panel… i do a quick lap with gordon and then go off to buy comics… i find a great deal 20 for 15 bucks. i clean up… then conor, gordon and i meet and go change into shorts at the hotel because it was hot and then go for lunch… baja fresh… i get the baja burrito with jalapenos… all the jalapenos were on one side… i started on the wrong side and was full by the time i got to the jalapenos, so that was a waste… after lunch it was back to the con… i walked around the autograph area… the sister from night of the comet was there, she was looking rough… as was boomer from the original battlestar… they had the black fbi guy from die hard… erin grey from buck rogers… still kinda doable… saw oscar goldman from bionic woman and six million dollar man, looked good, he could do another bionic tv movie i bet… i went to the sg-1 and sg-atlantis panel… telc was very funny and was offering sexual favors to the sci-fi channel exec to give them another season… he also freaked out when someone called them star trek, and threw a chair… the atlantis panel was good, dr. wier is actually really hot… hotter than on the show and i guess she’s welsh so that was hot too… she didn’t really speak all the questions were for rodney… the chief from battlestar galactica came out for a pitcher of water during the panel and the crowed went nuts… nothing was really leaked for either show… though rodney from sg-atlantis has a new movie coming out that he wrote and directed and stared in with some of his pals from atlantis… looked okay… ohhh and the scotsman on atlantis was funny too and i could definitely see some sort of sexual harassment suit in his future… then i went out for a smoke and to look at the water, bridge, joes crab shack, and boats… also opened my vitamin water which we bought at ralph’s that morning which i forgot to mention… then i went back in to see this tv guide panel and was psyched to see hurley from lost and jennifer love hewitt… not sure what was going on some guy who had something to do with that show threshold i think was bitching about being cancelled… and some other guy said there are no cowboy shows on tv and 5-7 people yelled out deadwood and then there was a cocksucker joke then when conor arrived near the end he said yeah deadwood is a good show… then we watched the end of that panel and stayed in the room for the veronica mars panel… then after the veronica mars panel we went downstairs and i went off comic and tpb hunting again, because on day 1 i remember i heard some guy say all trades 50% off, so i went looking for that booth… i bought a ton of books and i remember walking back to the hotel thinking what the fuck did i do, no way i can carry all this back. i bought two back packs worth of comics… somehow i made it happen though… then we showered and went out… i had some really, really good thai – drunken noodles… very spicy… which we ate on the curb by the dark alley… then we went to the bar for the ifanboy party… played pool… left bar with gordon to look around and saw what i believe was tgi fridays after dark, where just above tgi fridays there was a window of a dance club and girls in thongs dancing… back to bar and then back to hotel… i stopped by the hot tub to see if it was open and it wasn’t but this couple came with a gallon of water about to go in… i proceeded to go to the gym and into the locker room and helped myself to free speed stick and bars of soap… coming out of the locker room i noticed all the couples clothes on the floor and proceeded to flee for fear they might think i was peeping… then i passed out… the end

Overheard At The Con

• “Do you ever foresee the day you’ll pay twenty or thirty bucks a month and get your comics on the on-line?”
• “Oh my god, where are all these people coming from?”
• “Watch the wings!”
• ‘WarCraft? What is that?”
  “Weeeell…”
• “I could stay here for four more years.”

PHOTOS