Tony's SDCC Coverage Day 2!

SDCC Day 2:

Today I got to sleep in which was always nice. I went to the SyFy sponsored restaurant called SyFy Diem. The get up was super nice and all the meals were TV themed (Battle Star Galactica, Eureka, WWE even). I had some of the most amazing french toast ever and then I was off to the convention.

I started wandering around upstairs and finally made it to the con floor. I tried to pick up the Skeletor vs Mol-arr action figure from Mattel, but they were super crazy about their lines. I tried waiting for the second line to hop in, but a security guard kept telling me to move and keep walking. I asked him why, because I wanted to wait for the figures. He just repeated himself. I asked why again and then asked if he really expected a couple of thousand people to really respect his authority and not stand wherever they feel like it. He stared at me then told me to move again. I left. F that guy.

After that I tried to get a sketch by Francis Manapul. That guy was a machine, busting out beautiful stuff while standing up and talking with people. Sadly the line was crazy long and I didn't have enough time to wait around, perhaps tomorrow.

I did see Christina Strain, one of my favorite colorists (Runaways, World War Hulk). I picked up a beautiful print from her, and she held onto it so that Adrian Alphona could sign it as well. Writing this now, I realize I forgot to pick it up. Crap.

I then went to the Scott Pilgrim vs Comic Con Experience...but I will get to that in a bit.

After SPvCC I went to Hall H, the line wasn't ridiculous so I was able to get in pretty quick. I saw Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, and others promoting the Warren Ellis adaptation "Red". It looks pretty funny and interesting, but I think I'll wait until it comes out on Netflix.

Right after that was Entertainment Weekly's Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams conversations. This was really fun and entertaining. Two legends discussing their favorite things, their upbringings and what they are doing in the future. Joss Whedon confirmed for Marvel that he is, in fact, directing the Avengers movie. Yes!

After that was the Expendables panel. Now...you know what the Expendables is already. It's the over the top action flick with almost every action star of every genre in it. It always looked fun, but the idea was so ridiculous (Let's stuff all these people in a film!) that I didn't think I'd be really interested in seeing it in theater. Well, Stallone, Dolph Lungren, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, and..uh...the dad from Everybody Hates Chris came out and talked for a while and then showed some exclusive clips.This changed my mind on the whole film. It's completely over the top in the best way possible. People are getting shots with huge guns and body parts are practically flying off with blood splatter everywhere. Bones are broken in three different ways. It was just brutal and entertaining. I'm definitely seeing this in the theater.

Next was the Scott Pilgrim panel...but let me start at the beginning.

Last night I had a dream, and in that dream was Ramona Flowers. Yes, I understand how weird that is. We just hung out and talked. It was a very calm and pleasant dream. Little did I know that this was a sign of the amazing day I was going to have.

From now on SDCC is changed to SPCC, Scott Pilgrim Comic Con. Throughout the day I saw a lot of cosplay, but Ramona Flowers was the most cosplayed person throughout the day. Around noon I went to the Scott Pilgrim vs Comic Con Experience. It was outside the convention center so not a lot of people knew about it at first. I was within the first 30 people in line. Bryan Lee O'Malley came out at one point to check out the crowd and we talked briefly about Walking Dead and I snapped a picture with him. Chad put it best as "Not Pictured: Tony's boner. Upon entering the outside deck we were greeted with Dan the Automator and Kid Koala. spinning on a higher deck. and all around us were huge posters from the film. Also, I must add that Scott Pilgrim fans are awesome. Everyone was super friendly and talkative, I made friends with a really cute girl dressed up as Ramona. I really should have gotten her number...
Anyway, we were able to make our own t-shirts. By make I mean we chose a t-shirt color then a design (from about 10 different options) and they pressed it right there. I got the Gideon club symbol, but the lady doing it totally put it on crooked. We Hate T-shirts they are not...

Afterwards we could make our own flip books (Seriously, flip books! How fucking awesome is that!). Then the cast came out little by little to sign autographs. I met Bryan Lee O'Malley again and Edgar Wright. At one point Erik Estrada was watching us from an upper balcony. Wright went a little fanboy for a moment.

After getting autographs I went to play the Scott Pilgrim video game. It is freaking awesome!Iit follows the book pretty closely and the gameplay is just so much fun. At one point I found out the rest of the cast would be coming out little by little to get autographs, but I decided to pass and make my way over to Hall H. Also, I knew if I saw Mary Winstead (Ramona Flowers), I would have told her I dreamed about her the night before and then I would be escorted off the property.

Aaaanyway, flash forward to the Scott Pilgrim panel. Before the show they passed down buttons in the aisles. Not everyone got all the buttons though. I at first got a red Knives Chau pin which is pretty cool, but I really wanted someones 1-Up pin that I saw in the aisle in front of me. Right before the panel started a guy came up to me with a small bag of white pins. Success!
The panel was awesome, Michael Cera dressed up as Captain America and Edgar Wright was just hilarious. The footage they showed literally gave me chills.
They did a quick Q&A and right after the last question Edgar Wright interrupted the cheering audience and said:

"Hey, pins were passed out before the show...if you got a white 1-Up pin you are officially invited to a screening of Scott Pilgrim that is playing...uh...right now! Follow me!"
Holy crap...holy crap. Hall H was huge so it took a long time to get out of there and when leaving there was two huge groups of people walking in opposite directions. I followed the crowd to the right....when we got to where we thought the movie was being played we all found out this was for a showing of Penn and Teller, not Scott Pilgrim. Shit! Me and a few other guys literally began to run while screaming "Wrong way! Wrong way! Scott Pilgrim is not showing here!" I was with five other people literally running about 8 blocks until we found the theater. It was an old vintage theater and even had balcony seating. Simply Beautiful. Going in they gave us free popcorn and a soda and then I found a seat in the second row right in the middle. Dan the Automator and Kid Koala were there again spinning, and then Edgar Wright came out and told us he had more news....METRIC, the band who wrote the music for Clash At Demonhead will be performing after the credits! Awesome!!

Okay, the movie, the movie was simply fantastic. Literally laughing out loud the whole time and cheering throughout the film. I can't wait to see it another five times. It was extremely similar to the book and the changes that needed to be done were not a big deal at all. People had the most doubts about Michael Cera (Scott) and Kieron Culkin (Wallace Wells), but I thought they both did an AMAZING JOB! Of course, they had to adapt six graphic novels worth of material for a movie so the pacing was really fast, but it was awesome. This is a perfect movie for all types of nerds. Music, gaming, comics, movies, etc. It was fantastic.

After the credits, the screen lifted up and Metric performed. They did their Clash at Demonhead song and then played about 4-5 more songs. It was a lot of fun. They aren't necessarily my favorite band in the first place, but the music is nice and live it was really fun. The bassist is also super sick. The (almost) whole cast then came out and bowed.

Anyway, that was my day at SPCC. It was amazing...I know the rest of the weekend won't top it. Also, I mentioned Walking Dead yesterday, but I was mistaken, that is tomorrow!
Also, my new mission is to find that Ramona again...I dreamed of A Ramona....that must mean something!

-tony