SDCC 2017: Best Cosplay Part 2

* Stone Age Lumpy Space Princess and Finn from Adventure Time - Crazy inventive, dynamic, and the right attitude.

* Batgirl and "Batman" - Both costumes are spot on and anything can be done with Deadpool and feels true to the character.

* Turnip Head from Howl's Moving Castle with bonus No Face from Spirited Away in the background - Miyazaki's movies are amazing and it's almost like they came to life with these equally amazing cosplays.

* Bucky and Frozen Captain America - A fun, unexpected costume with just enough Monty Python humor. 

More Comic Con to come!

SDCC 2016: Panels Part 3: Luke Cage, John Barrowman, and Once More with Feeling

More panels!

* Luke Cage

I had to see the Luke Cage panel. I'm a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I'm especially impressed with Marvel's Netflix series Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Luke Cage made a big impression in Jessica Jones and I can't wait to see him in his own TV show. Most of the panel was clips from the new show and it looks amazing! The cinematography is awesome and Luke Cage is badass. The villain is introduced and he's pretty menacing. The music is different than the other shows as it focuses in rap and hip hop. It's not my favorite genre, but it fits with the show and the Harlem setting. All the stars were there: Mike Colter, Mahershala Ali, Simone Missik, Theo Rossi, Alfre Woodard, Frank Whaley, and showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker. Theo talked about emoting through dark sunglasses as Shades. Alfre described how the script drew her in. I wish they could talk a bit more, but I also wanted the panel to be an additional hour. They also announced the Iron Fist TV show and a tiny teaser for The Defenders show. This was the best panel I've seen even if the security gestapo tried to get people to stop taking pictures.

* John Barrowman

John Barrowman is crazy fun and delightful. He has a huge personality and isn't afraid to laugh at himself or his own stories. He dressed in a Zack Branagan costume for the event. Soon after his arrival, he was told he was flashing too much (as the outfit was quite short) and donned a rainbow tutu to help with coverage and white "slut heels" (as he describes them) just for fun. He sang songs when requested (except for Springtime for Hitler) which you can see in the short videos I took below. He also shared bunches of hilarious stories from the sets of Arrow and Torchwood plus his every day life including peeing in a fountain at hotel unwittingly on camera, playing pranks on coworkers and at fan photo-ops, and accidentally showing his husband naked on a live video on Facebook and the fallout afterwards. John made sure to thank us and reiterated many times that he wouldn't be where he was without his fans. I look forward to seeing him at many more conventions.

* Once More with Feeling

Every year, the musical episode of Once More with Feeling is played at the end of Comic Con a la Rocky Horror with people shouting things at the screen and singing along. I love it! It also got my fiance to give the series a chance because the songs are integral to the plot instead of just silliness. This year, Juliet Landau, who played Drusilla, introduced a documentary series she's doing called A Place Among the Undead where she and her team interview various famous people about vampires, including Tim Burton, Anne Rice, Gary Oldman, Joss Whedon, Willam Dafoe, and many more. It looks pretty interesting, but she has some dramitization (where she stars) that look honestly pretty cheesy. I would watch it for the interviews though.

That's it for panels, but there will be more cosplay and stuff!

SDCC 2016: Favorite Cosplay Part 2

Some cosplay is elaborate and detailed, but other cosplay is clever but simply executed. Both are amazing and make Comic Con an even more fun event.

* The Dude from The Big Lebowski

* Deadpool (pointing at my fiance in a Deadpool hoodie)

* Ronald McThor

* Genderbent Princess Leia and Han Solo

* Hunter S. Thompson Bat(man) Country edition

* Steampunk Jesus with Disciple

If any of these photos feature you or someone you know, please send me an email so I can credit you. More posts to come!

SDCC 2016: Panels Part 1: Teen Titans Go and Jim Lee

My first priority at San Diego Comic Con was to see panels and I went to quite a few.

* Teen Titans Go!

Teen Titans Go! is an adorable, comedy based cartoon show on Cartoon Network. Tara Strong (Raven), Greg Cipes (Beast Boy), Scott Menville (Robin), and Khary Payton (Cyborg) with producers Aaron Horvath and Pete Michail were on the panel to discuss the show. I personally enjoy the show. I never watched the original unfortunately because I didn't even hear of it until after it was over. This show is very light, over the top, and enjoyable.Each episode pretty much starts fresh because the characters can die or get into crazy situations. They mentioned their new season is starting tomorrow (August 1st) with a new episode every day for 5 WHOLE DAYS on their island adventure. We saw the first episode including the new theme song to go with the event.

The panel talked about the organic, crazy way they make the show. They talked about the easter eggs in the art may not be seen by anyone else until the show is out. The actors can brings improvised material that makes it into the show. It was fun to see each of the actors going in and out of their character's voices. Tara Strong also performed her Bubbles voice to allay awkwardness about discussion of the crossover with the new Powerpuff girls TV show. Most of the actors talked about how much they love the show, how much they love working with their Teen Titans family for so long, and how they came up with their characters' voices. Tara, Khary, and Greg came up with their voices in the studio during their auditions.

The one thing that annoyed me about the panel was that the children asking questions never paid attention and always asked the same questions. Someone should have been screening them and maybe prompting them to think of a different question since it was already answered. This sucked up a lot of time and made the vibe a bit awkward. Other than that, I enjoyed the panel.


* Jim Lee

I stumbled on to a Jim Lee panel the last time I was at Comic Con waiting for a Neil Gaiman panel after his. He charmed me and my fiance with his hilarious commentary, beautiful art, and crazy talent. Now, we try to see his panels whenever we can. This panel was a little different than usual. He didn't complete as many drawings this time, but he was also demonstrating his technique and answering many fan questions. The main piece he drew was of Harley Quinn with hair buns. The minor piece he completed was to demonstrate how he draws mountainsides and then later added Batman throwing tons of pokeballs at a Pikachu (based on his own experience playing Pokemon Go).

Jim is hilarious to listen to and he can poke fun at his fans a bit, but it's all in good fun. He shows his drawing process, but admits he doesn't usually do the undersketching. He just didn't want to intimidate people away from drawing. He talked about moving to the US as a child and not knowing the language. He cited his experience to being more attentive to visual communication cues like the way people stand and their expressions among other things that helped him become a better artist. He mused over the new Alfred from Batman vs. Superman who not only works as a butler by day, but also helping Batman at night with weapons and backup. The conclusion was he must be on meth and it totally sucks for him since Batman can sleep during the day. Jim Lee is always a joy to watch and it's interesting to see his artistic process as he draws.

More tomorrow!

SDCC 2016: I'm Back and Best Cosplay Part 1

This year is my triumphant return to San Diego Comic Con! I haven't attended for three years, due to either not getting tickets or lack of funds. This year was AMAZING and I hope you won't get too tired of my posts about it. I only had tickets for Thursday and Sunday, but I got to see everything that I really wanted PLUS I went to Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, and the San Diego Safari Park (which I might do a separate post on). I'd like to start with some of my favorite cosplays that I saw during the convention.

Negan from The Walking Dead and B-Mo from Adventure Time

Punk Flame Princess and Finn from Adventure Time (with their own mathematical sign!)

Hellgirl

Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th and Michael Meyers from Halloween

Tubbs from the addictive mobile game Neko Atsume

Wonder Woman

If any of these photos feature you or someone you know, please email or comment so I can credit you. More posts to come!

Panels Part 1: Soska Twins, Bones, and SHIELD

I went to tons of panels this year, mostly due to the fact that my boyfriend and I got 4 day tickets with preview night. Before, the time seemed much too precious to waste standing for hours in line just to get into a panel. I still like to stick with the smaller panels, but I did get into one or two popular ones.

1) The Soska Twins

The Soska Sisters, twin directors extraordinaire, were in 2 panels. The first was on Warp Comics, an indie company actually called First Comics that published comics from 1983 to 1991. They are reopening and publishing new material. The majority of the panel was Ken F. Levin talking about the history of the company. While interesting, no one else on the panel really got to say anything. The time could have been used more effectively and even having the audience ask some questions would have been nice too. It was just kind of dull and sad.

The other panel was called Horror on the Panelled Page. In this one, all of the panelists, which included Mark L. Miller, the Soska sisters, Tim Seeley, Brandon Seifert, Matt Pizzolo, Mark Miller, and Adam Egypt Mortimer, were asked questions about their opinions on horror and there was time for questions from the audience. The most memorable question was one from a woman asking how they felt about violence in the real world, heavily implying that it was at least partly their fault for creating horror fiction. Some said that making horror helped them cope with horror in the real world. It allows the viewer to get close to something they normally would not be able to walk away from and leaves them unscathed afterwards. I really enjoyed the panel and I want to read more of some of the panelists' work, such as the Hellraiser graphic novel and the Witch Doctor comic books.

2) Bones

I waited in line for Ballroom 20 for about 2 hours to see Agents of SHIELD and got in just in time to see the Bones panel. I don't watch the show, but I'm a fan of David Boreanaz ever since he was Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I figured it would be cool anyway. It turned out to be a blast. The two stars started out by reading scenes from the last season finale, but reading as the opposite character. Deschanel as Booth had a deep, surfer dude kind of voice and Boreanaz as Bones was super high and squeaky. There were spoilers galore. Booth and Bones will finally get married and Boreanaz showed what a proper proposal to Bones would look like. Most of the fan questions were directed at Boreanaz and mentioned his previous Whedon work like what kind of character would Deschanel be. The panel was awesome and hilarious even though I have never once seen the show.

3) Agents of SHIELD

I purposefully avoided any sort of spoilers involving this show so I would be surprised if I somehow made it into the panel. So the panel started with a Q&A, which I thought was odd since they hadn't talked about the show at all yet beyond introducing those on the panel, which were Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Clark Gregg, Ming Na Wen, Iain DeCaestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Chloe Bennett, Brett Dalton, Jeffrey Bell, and Maurissa Tancharoen. The last question asked about a clip. Joss Whedon mentioned some legal difficulties with Disney, but said we would then watch the whole first episode. It was amazing! There were lots of Whedon alums, such as J. August Richards, Ron Glass, and Colbie Smulders. The writing makes the characters come alive. Each of them has their own flaws and fully realized personalities. Of course there is the trademark Whedon humor and rapidfire dialog. The episode introduces SHIELD outside of the Avengers, some sort of nefarious and unscrupulous organization, and a conspiracy theorist that lives out of her van. I can't wait to see the rest of the show, which premiers September 24 on ABC. Because it isn't FOX, maybe the show will last more than a season or two.

More panels to come!