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July 30, 2007 
UPDATE: See the bottom of this post (if you can find it) for a lengthy, nearly-unlistenable podcast Brian and I recorded in the car on the way to Comicon. Topics covered include the con, Ratatouille, our creative history together, and a spoiler-filled, depressing conversation about the storyline to Chronicle. It ends without resolution to that conversation, but trust me that it all worked out and the story for my comic is in better shape than before. Thanks, Brian!
OK, here we go!
The weekend began at Brian’s house, where I was privileged to meet his new (extremely friendly) dog Sachi. Hope I spelled that right.
Then it was off to beautiful San Diego, pictured above.
The Con was sold out this year, and the place was packed. Not Disney-World-in-August packed, but quite busy.
Luckily for us, we had pre-registered, and picked up our Friday and Saturday badges when we arrived.
Friday was webcomics day for me, and I didn’t waste any time finding the area of the exhibition floor that was designated this year as "Webcomicon." The line at the Penny-Arcade booth was still reasonable when we got there, so I bought a book, got it signed, asked for a sketch (inset) and traded some banter with Jerry (Tycho, right). Both of them are severely cool and very friendly.
Next stop was Blank Label comics and a visit with Kristofer Straub, author of my current favorite webcomic Starslip Crisis. He was ridiculously nice and humble, and even politely pretended to laugh at my jokes. He’s seen here adorning my new copy of his book with a sketch of Mr. Jinx (inset). Also note the bumper sticker he was selling that says "9/11 for President."
The remainder of Friday was spent combing the hall for cool stuff and neato costumes. Some highlights:
On Friday night we did something weren’t able to do last year with only one day to see the con: We went out into the Gaslight district of San Diego and had a great dinner at a Thai restaurant with some of Brian’s friends. Shrimp, broccoli, and geeky conversation were enjoyed.
On to Saturday…
Saturday morning was the Simpsons panel, and it was awesome. Among the Simpsons dignitaries present were Matt Groening, show runners Al Jean and David Mirkin, legendary animator/director David Silverman, and Yeardly Smith (the voice of Lisa Simpson). It was a lot of fun, and they showed two clips: a deleted scene from the movie and the opening of this year’s Treehouse of Horror show. Groening is a really cool guy and was genuinely excited to be at the con. He told a story about walking around San Diego on Friday night and having people drive by shouting "the movie was great!" We saw the movie on Sunday. It is very good.
We saw plenty of other cool stuff on Saturday. Some highlights:
I met Bender! (Significantly less metallic than I would have thought…)
A family of Fetts!
The lovely Rosario Dawson was on hand hawking her new comic book.
I’m posting these photos of this young lady because I felt really sorry for her. She was at the Grindhouse booth dressed as Rose McGowan’s character Cherry from Planet Terror, who has a machine gun for a leg. This poor girl really is an amputee, and that kinda made me feel icky on her behalf. Well, not too icky to post photos of it on the internet… (Also, check out the first photo - is that an extra belly button?)
2007 is the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars, and there were lots of Lucasy items on display. Including…
Mr. Peter Mayhew, better known to the world as Chewbacca. He wasn’t the nicest person I’ve ever met, but it was still kinda cool. I bought an Empire Strikes Back photo for Carl and asked him to sign it:
PM me your address, Carl, and I’ll send it off to you.
On Saturday afternoon I had the extreme pleasure to meet the funniest man on the planet and one of my heroes, Mr. Mike Nelson of MST3K, RiffTrax and The Film Crew.
He was funny, friendly, and politely pretended to laugh at my jokes. It was also nice to meet some of the RiffTrax staff who were hanging with Mike at the booth. Mike was signing some exclusive RiffTrax posters, so I chose Episode One and he was kind enough to emblazon it with his review of the movie, the most succinct I’ve ever read:
It was really cool to hear from the RiffTrax guys that they’ve all enjoyed my Fun With Shorts videos. Mike even nodded, but I have a feeling that was another polite gesture. All in all, this brief encounter was a huge thrill.
The Nelsony-goodness continued later Saturday evening with the Film Crew panel:
Mike, now joined by Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo) and Bill Corbet (Sci-Fi era Crow), showed some (surprisingly long) clips from the new Film Crew DVDs and took questions from the crowd. Almost every question was about Mystery Science Theater, which is well and good. The guys were really "on" that night and the whole panel was a blast.
These two dudes (don’t recall their names) brought a homemade Servo and got it signed by the crew.
And that was about it. Before driving back to L.A. we stopped for a bite of food and met this friendly chap:
His name was Bob (forgot his girlfriend’s name - man, I’ve got issues!) and I asked if I could take his picture at the bar. Something about the image of a Scout Trooper grabbing a brew at the end of a long shift on the Endor patrol highly amused me. Brian bought him a beer to break the ice, and we chatted for a while. Really cool guy. He bought the helmet, but he made the armor himself!
And that was Comicon 2007. Brian and I recorded a long podcast that spanned both car trips to and from the convention. Topics discussed include the con and Chronicle. I’ll be editing those down to a manageable length and posting them soon.
UPDATE: Here is the long podcast from the trip to Comicon. I also have a shorter one we recorded on the way home which I will post soon.
Click HERE to download the MP3, or use the player below.
