Huw, Damian and I grabbed a (two-storey) train from L.A. and a scenic three hour journey later we emerged, wide-eyed and blinking, in San Diego. There was absolutely no mistaking that this was the right town - banners advertising the 'Con line pretty much every street here as if a giant eye were running for election and the fans were out in force, some already proudly sporting their badges. After dumping our bags at the hotel we headed straight to the convention centre to register and pick up all the bumph we'd need to get us through the next few days. The lines to get in simply to register were ridiculously massive, even for press and professionals, and snaked out of the building and right down the street but luckily the Gods of Geek were smiling upon us and just as we were resigning ourselves to first day queue-related sunstroke we found a very nice lady who fast-tracked us straight into the building. Thanks, nice lady!
The weird thing about Comic-Con (ok, ONE of the weird things) is that you never know who you're going to bump into and this was immediately illustrated to us when we found ourselves standing in line behind Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders from io9. The site wrote a brief article about 'Schrödinger's Girl' (www.schrodingersgirl.com) when the first teaser trailer was released (just a couple of weeks after shooting finished) so it was great to chat to them and put faces to the names.
After a quick food stop I headed back to the Convention Centre to check out the three pilots that were screening. None of these had even been aired in the U.S. so the audience was understandably excited and, for the most part, they weren't disappointed. I won't say that all three were exactly to my taste but there was definitely something in there for everyone.
'HUMAN TARGET'
Based on the DC Comics title, this pilot episode follows a mysterious private detective who will stop at nothing to protect his client, despite being stuck on a 220mph train ride to splattery oblivion. That's dedication, huh? But why is he doing it?
The 'tortured soul' overtones to the brooding male character initially gave me the fear that this was going to be all doom and gloom, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that as well as some bone-crunchingly good fight scenes there was also a lot of comedy in there, the lion's share provided by the super tech-savvy Guerrero played by the fantastic Jackie Earle Haley (whose appearance on screen was greeted by deafening whoops and cheers from the audience). It'll definitely be interesting to see how this series matures when it starts airing in the US in January 2010 (and it made me thankful that my own train journey from L.A. had been so uneventful!).
Lesson learned: If someone dares to challenge your knowledge of foreign languages the best comeback is to hijack their next important business conversation. In Japanese. For about a minute. Point proven!
'V'
Well, it's just an average day in an average town in a... oh blimey, look - a massive alien spaceship! What are the chances?
This was the one I was absolutely dying to see and I'm hooked already. Cleverly drawing the audience in with multiple storylines and characters (including Dale, played by my flavour of the month, Alan Tudyk) we're immediately chucked into the classic 'this could totally happen to me' alien invasion storyline. The difference with these aliens? They're all, like, really, really hot.
Luckily not everyone is fooled by their 'we come in peace' purring and so the PR war begins. I'd like to think I wouldn't be fooled if super-sexy aliens landed, declared their peaceful intentions, then started recruiting humans to be their own personal PR officers so I guess I'd be joining the rebels (but that doesn't mean I can't like the aliens, now does it?). It's got a style to it vaguely reminiscent of BSG, and that's a winner in my book. Who knew recycling could be so much fun? Definitely, definitely one to watch
Lesson learned: If you're looking for a peaceful life and accidentally utter the words "I'm not that guy any more" this means that a) you probably still are that guy, and b) you will immediately be flung so far into a complex, life-changing storyline that you'll be seeing stars.
'VAMPIRE DIARIES'
Isn't being a teenager a drag? First your parents bite it (not in a blood-sucky way), then the cute boy at school you like turns out to be a vampire and can't even come into your room. Bummer.
Described in the blurb as 'an edgy and romantic new drama in which two vampire brothers - one good, one evil - are at war over one girl' this was clearly one for the younger members of the crowd. Granted, it wasn't exactly Twilight but the comparisons were clear. Seriously, lads, fighting over a girl at your age? Tsk tsk.
Far too teeny-bopperish and heavy on the schmaltz/angst combo to be my drop of red but then again I'm not exactly their target market. If you're still in your teens or are prone to developing unnatural crushes on sparkly vampires then you might like it.
Lesson learned: Hormones = vampiric powers.
After the pilot screenings I had all of about fifteen minutes to join up with Huw and Damian again to sneak a look at some of the stuff in the main exhibit hall and let me tell you, that place is HUGE. More than huge. I'm fairly sure even SPACE isn't that big. I'll attempt to post a photo soon which fully captures the brain-melting enormity but I'm not quite sure if a still image could contain such concentrated levels of awesome so you may just have to wait for my video diaries. While wandering around suffering from major sensory overload we met a few people in costumes and discovered the work of a Mr. J. S. Lewis - a terribly talented author and artist specializing in a sort of steampunk style - and I bought a 1940s style poster of a rocketman for my wall. It rocks so hard that I'm already having mild panic attacks about how to get it home safely.
I'm also not entirely sure how I'M going to make it home if the temptations I sampled today are anything to go by. There are literally thousands of booths in there stocking everything from antique comics to Lego to t-shirts and all of them want to give me their cool stuff in exchange for all of my monies.
I'm in serious trouble.
Milly x
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