Informed Art - Comic-Con Revealed

Trying to get in the door

Jabba!

Phil Yeh with his spanking new book

Phil’s book

Ain’t it cool?

Super Mario!

They stopped aisle traffic

I think I see Danny Antonucci

More later,

Gina

Lionsgate closed out the Hall H programming for Thursday with stars on hand for the crowd. Fantastic Four star Jessica Alba was out to promote her new R-rated comedy Good Luck Chuck with co-star Dane Cook. The premise of the film is that Cook plays a guy who when he sleep with a woman she breaks up with him and then finds their soul mate. When he meets Alba’s character, he tries to resist her to see if she’s the one for him.

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Casting Announcements Come to Hall H

Comic-Con has never opened the 6,500 seat Hall H venue on Thursday before this year. Paramount took the gamble on going first and it paid off. Crowds are larger for Thursday than any other year before. Friday and Saturday are already sold out. Paramount’s panel is one of the premiere panels of the entire event, including looks at Iron Man, Star Trek, Indiana Jones 4, Stardust, Beowulf, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Hot Rod and Drillbit Taylor.

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San Diego Comic-con 2007 started with an early morning train ride for AWN’s Managing Editor Rick DeMott and myself. We met at Union Station a little before 6:00 a.m. lugging our laptops, luggage, schedules, floor maps, phones and cameras.

Rick loves the train!

The ocean is the last calm thing we see

Two hours later we were in San Diego and gawking in amazement at just how much the Con has grown in one short year. I couldn’t believe that it was only Day 1. At 9:00 a.m. the streets were completely packed. Thousands of people packed the blocks of the Gaslamp District. Everywhere we could see was a sea of people. We weren’t the only ones amazed at the volume. News crews and the general public were all commenting on the crowd.

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News from Dark Horse Comics:

Lucasfilm’s celebrated action/adventure hero, Indiana Jones, the forerunner of popular characters such as Lara Croft, will be making a triumphant return in 2008 with the yet-to-be-titled fourth installment of the Indiana Jones film series. Starring Harrison Ford and directed by Steven Spielberg, the film is slated for release in May 2008. Dark Horse Comics is excited to announce that it has acquired the comic book rights to the world’s most famous adventurer and will launch a new series in 2008. Fans can plunge themselves into the adventures of the fedora-wearing archaeologist well before then. In February 2008, Dark Horse Comics will publish the first of two Indiana Jones Omnibuses collecting Dark Horse’s previous entries in the saga. Then April sees the release of volume one of Indiana Jones Adventures—a digest-sized graphic novel designed for the enjoyment of young readers as well as adults. The Indiana Jones Adventures volumes and the Omnibuses will continue on a quarterly basis—including Omnibuses for the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the original Marvel run of Indiana Jones comics.
A comics adaptation of the film will be released simultaneously with the motion picture, followed immediately by an all-new Indiana Jones comics series.

The magazines that gave a whole generation the shivers are back. Creepy and Eerie were the definitive horror and sci-fi comics of the 1960s and flourished up until the early 1980s. Dark Horse Comics has entered into an agreement with New Comic Company to create archive editions of this classic material, as well as launch new Creepy and Eerie comics for modern horror fans. The licensing deal will encompass publishing, select film and TV development, and merchandising. Many of today’s brightest stars will lend their talents to the venture, including horror legend Bernie Wrightson (City of Others) and modern master Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre).

Creepy is best remembered for its classic horror and was hosted by Uncle Creepy, while Eerie often ventured into science fiction and featured Cousin Eerie as its host. The rest of the gang includes Hunter, Child, El Cid, Marvin the Dead Thing, and the newly developed Creepy Family. The magazines, originally published by Jim Warren are remembered as presenting some of the era’s greatest genre comics work.

“Both Creepy and Eerie are fondly remembered by comics fans as representing the best of science fiction and horror, and Dark Horse is proud and excited to relaunch these classic titles,” said Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson.

“Mike Richardson and Dark Horse have an impressive and deep understanding of what it will take to help us correctly re-launch Creepy and Eerie. It’s a great fit for our brands,” said New Comic executive and Submarine Entertainment Co-President Dan Braun, who negotiated the deal in cooperation with CAA—who represents both New Comic and Dark Horse. Deals in TV and Film are expected to be announced shortly.

New Comic Company acquired all rights in all media to the Creepy and Eerie comic book series earlier this year and was formed by New York based Submarine Entertainment and Los Angeles based Grand Canal Film Works.

New efforts are expected to debut this fall with the classic tales being prepared for the hardcover Dark Horse Archive series.

New Comic and Grand Canal Film Works executive Craig Haffner added, “The depth of this library across the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy genres makes it truly tantalizing for a multitude of different platforms. Our association with Dark Horse will take us one step closer to realizing our goal of returning the Creepy and Eerie brands to their former stature and beyond.”

Dark Horse has set a tentative release date for the comics in early 2008.

Amy Winfrey and Peter Merryman talk up their series to their fans.

Based on the popular web series, Nickelodeon held a panel on its upcoming series Making Fiends. Amy Winfrey created the original web shorts in her apartment by herself and talked about how she used the Internet to reach her audience directly. They tell the story of a little girl named Vendetta, who creates little fiends (aka monsters) to do her bidding, but is thwarted at every turn when Charlotte moves to town and only wants to make friends. As the show gained in popularity, Winfrey began selling t-shirts and DVDs based on the show and said she actually began making money on her independent work.

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Besides covering the mega-event. AWN staff will be featured on panels at Comic-Con. Come stop by and see what we have to say.

State of the Animation Industry
Saturday from 2:00-3:00 pm
Room 8
Industry experts assess the year in animation and take a look at the future. Panelists include Tim Johnson (co-director, Over the Hedge), Bill Plympton (independent animator extraordinaire), Sarah Baisley (editor, Animation World Network), Aki Umemoto (creative director, Mattel for 25 years and currently creative director of Base Station), Stephen Chiodo (Chiodo Bros. Studio), Aubry Mantz (formerly of ILM, chair of animation at Laguna College of Art & Design), and Kent Braun (DigiCel animation software).

The Animation Production Process
Saturday from 6:30-7:30 pm
Room 3
What goes into bringing an animated script to screen? Producers Stephanie Graziano (X-Men: The Animated Series), Tad Stones (Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms), and Greg Weisman (Spectacular Spider-Man) take you behind the scenes and into the trenches. Moderated by Shannon Muir, project management coordinator at Animation World Network.

AWN will have multiple staff blogging from Comic-Con in San Diego from July 26-29, 2007. This post is just an introduction to what is to come. This will be the place to check for breaking news and impressions of the on-going event as it is happening. Check back soon to get all the animation and visual effects news and happenings from the Con to End All Cons.