Preview Night
Spider-Man Deck Swings into MAGIC – The folks in charge of Magic the Gathering threw a launch party ahead of the September 26 release date to introduce a version of game filled with characters from the Spider-Man Universe. People were on hand to demonstrate, although I did throw off one staffer who asked for my favorite Spider-Man villain, and I said, “J. Jonah Jameson.” The gameplay is the same as the basic Magic game. There are five different color decks which focus on different characters, so White for Spider-Man, Blue for Spider-Man 2099, Black for Venom, Red for Ghost-Spider, and Green for Miles Morales.
An absolute highlight was a surprise concert put on by Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC. At one point, he talked about his love for Spider-Man, who came from Queens, New York like he did.
Thursday
Film historian Leonard Maltin and comic writer Mark Evanier united for Great Cartoonists and Comedians We Have Known. They absolutely made the room jealous sharing stories about their interactions with the likes of Charles Schulz and Chuck Jones, and Buster Keaton and Groucho Marx. It’s not every day one learns George Burns thought Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson were pricks.
Buy Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide: From the Silent Era Through 1965: Third EditionThis Just In! Comic-Con Museum’s Newest Exhibitions – Rita Vandergaw, executive director of Comic-Con Museum announced upcoming events: Sangre, Sudor y Mito: The Art and Tradition of Mexican Lucha Libre; Growing up Luann; and tokidoki: Twenty Years of Kawaii and Chaos. The guests talked about working with the museum and the appreciated they have for being recognized in this way. Visit the Musuem webpage to learn about dates for the exhibits and how to buytickets.
Collider’s Directors on Directing featured two directors that one doesn’t normally think of in regards to the genres of San Diego Comic Con, yet Paul Feig and Rob Reiner offered great insight to their filmmaking approaches, and when you stop and think about, Reiner has made notable fantasy (The Princess Bride) and horror (Misery) films. Rather than focus on the audience for questions, the moderator had pre-recorded questions from notable filmmakers, such as Christopher McQuarrie, Shawn Levy, George Miller, and Rob’s old friend, Billy Crystal.
Thursday got cut short so I could attend The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Will post a review at a later date, but the viewing experience at the AMC Mission Valley 20 was absolutely miserable as they had no air condition working.
Friday
My day started with Resident Alien Season 4 Panel, which featured showrunner/executive producer Chris Sheridan and cast members. I have never watched this show about an alien (Alan Tudyk) who has crashed in a small Colorado town and poses as a doctor before but was curious how things would go after news of its cancellation dropped the day before. Sheridan said he had approached the season like it would its last, and while goodbyes and thanks were shared, there was hope of reuniting for a movie what with all the projects that have been getting restarted/rebooted.
Buy Resident Alien: Season ThreeSpent quite a bit of time in the Indigo Ballroom learning about animated shows. The crowd was more accepting of the new voice cast members than I was expecting as fans, especially the kind that SDCC draws, can be unforgiving. News was broke that The President (Keith David) from Rick and Morty was gets his own show, which was going to be like The X-Files.
Smiling Friends co-creators Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack, who rambled quite a bit and didn’t seem like they wanted to be there, presented the Season 3 premiere, “Silly Samuel,” which is the name of a wacky-looking character rendered in 3-D CGI, who stands out in the 2-D world of the show. Charlie and Pim try to help him while Allan and the Boss deal with a building inspector at their headquarters. The show certainly seems tailor made for the stoner block of Adult Swim. The Solar Opposites creatives knew they came to SDCC to say goodbye fans on what is their final season, for now, they hoped.
Causing that hope is the return of King of the Hill, which will be airing on Hulu. The makers decide to show time had passed with the characters since they left the air. They showed an episode where Hank and Bobby, who is now a chef at a Japanese restaurant, compete against each other in a beer-brewing competition. The episode was very funny, and it’s clear the writing staff has a great sense of who the characters and are true to their nature. Cast members like Kathy Najimy (Peggy) and Pamela Adlon (Bobby) raved about the experience and how good it was getting back together.
The 50th Anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws! – As a fan of the film, this was of interest but the panelists weren’t particularly captivating in a way that made them any different than listening to your friends talk about Jaws, and after a long day pf panels, doesn’t a nice meal seems more satisfying? Had the same reaction to The WTF Did I Just Watch? 25 Years of Titmouse’s Craziest Animation Moments, which seemed to have little structure beyond friends reminiscing.
Saturday
Coyote vs. Acme was the breakout panel of the convention. The rescued film, an animation/live-action hybrud, premieres August 2026, and it drew an enthusiastic response from the crowd as we were the first fans to see footage of Wile E. Coyote getting an attorney (Will Forte) to take on the massive corporation that has repeatedly been his undoing. The panel itself was entertaining as Acme lawyers tried to shut it down multiple times and went after people in the audience.
In The Bad Guys 2, the Bad Guys try to go straight, but a trio of criminals want to use their powers. The voice cast was on hand, including new member Danielle Brooks as Kitty Kat. There’s was good banter between the cast, and Marc Maron went at the moderator when he tried to tease Marc.
Buy The Bad GuysIn the Star Trek panel, an episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds saw a fun murder mystery occur in the holodeck, which nods quite a bit to the Original Series. There’s a Khan podcast serial coming Sept 8. Starring Naveen Andrews and based on a story by Nicholas Meyer, it looks at the character during his time between TOS and the movie. George Takei and Tim Russ reprise their Trek roles of Sulu and Tuvok. The cast for Starfleet Academy was introduced, which hopefully won’t be too teen oriented.
The curtains of Hall H were pulled backed from the walls during the Project Hail Mary presentation featuring producers/directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, writer Drew Goddard, novelist Andy Weir, and star Ryan Gosling. The sci-fi film looks epic in scope as a first-time astronaut meets a new lifeform and must work together.
Peacemaker Season 2 finds Peacemaker discovering a parallel universe. Most of the cast was on hand with creator James Gunn oddly claiming Danielle Brooks was too sick to appear on the panel yet those of us who had been in Hall H for a while know she appeared a few hours earlier for The Bad Guys 2.
There’s always a few SDCC panels where those involved in scheduling pick the wrong room. That was certainly true for Svengoolie and his squad, who were making their SDCC debut. They talked about how the new squad actors were hired and about Halloween double features returning in October, but it was mostly a lovefest, which caught Svengoolie (Rich Koz) off guard, but he clearly appreciated it. I write “mostly” because one person who got to the audience microphone was an actor who didn’t make the squad and didn’t take it well. He tried to pitch himself again, which was very awkward to witness. On the way out, Svengoolie buttons and trading cards were handed out.
While this year’s convention didn’t draw the big stars as in years past, it still offered plenty to take part in, whether panels, the sellers on the exhibition floor, or activation outside the building. It certainly didn’t seem like the number of attendees decreased. Am very curious to see what next year brings.
