Death Sentence Breakfast
Afterwards, we were able to interview both James Wan and Garrett Hedlund. We did not want to take up too much of their time, so I kept it simple and different, hoping to leave Withersin's mark. Starting with Mr. Wan, I asked "Can you describe your movie in three words?", he paused for a few seconds... "Perhaps my favorite question of the day." Then a solitary reporter behind me quipped, "Watch Death Sentence"; Wan, not hearing him or simply ignoring it, finally replies, "Protect What's Yours." Funny enough, exactly what is on the movie poster and does sum up the movie rather nicely. He was asked by another reporter if the theme of vengeance is relevant today, where Mr. Wan replied, "The theme of revenge is more relevant today than any other time in history", pointing to the attitude of most Americans towards terrorism. He also felt that the movie had enough love and family to counteract the drama and voilence, making it "a nice balance". We thanked him and proceeded to where Mr. Hedlund was.
We decided on two quick questions for Mr. Hedlund before he needed to be rushed off. I asked him also to give me three words to describe his role in the movie, he paused for a good length of time, then finally started with "Non-sympathetic, no wait, that is already two words". I told him we could say it is only one since it is a compound word, then he paused for a bit again........ "Big"........"Pissed-Off"... "Leader"; he looked relieved to be done until I asked my final question, "What is your favorite vegetable?", "Vegetable?", he aksed, looking confused. "Yes, vegetable", I replied again. Another pause...... "I would have to go with a carrot." he finally said. We then concluded the interview, thanked him for his time and got on our way.
Vegetables obviously have nothing to do with acting or his role in the movie, but I thought it made a unique personal question and why not, he probably won't forget that he was asked it and hopefully that it was asked by Withersin Magazine.
It was an amazing opportunity to be invited to this preview and we would like to thank Fox Atomic and Danni Pearlberg for the opportunity; also a big thanks to Mr. Wan and Mr. Hedlund for attending the event and answering our questions.
PAOLO PARENTE'S DUST Definitely the best artwork I've seen in a comic book and a lovely gentleman to boot. Mr. Parente and Mink's Dust Comic is published through 12 Gauge Comics and they both were very gracious to talk with us a bit and personally sign the newest issue of Dust for me. A bit of a history buff, I was excited to hear the background story for this comic; set in World War II, the germans have discovered futuristic weapons and it is now up to the American's and British to play 'catch up' with their own technology and defeat their enemy. If you do nothing else, please check out their site and enjoy the beautiful illustrations.We did visit numerous other booths and hope to hear from everyone that we dropped a press kit off with; we also came home with so much review material it is overloading my living room at the moment. We certainly know to keep our visits to the Small Press area next year and try to avoid the craziness of the rest of the hall.
Shadow Hunter is due to be released December 15, 2007 (right: Issue one cover art), the storyline is about a sexy, kick-ass superheroine who has a brush with death and finds herself battling for her sould with the legions of hell. Mr. Devarajan was quick to point out, that although the character is provocative, there will be no nudity within its pages. As they were finishing up with their intro Jenna appreared and the whole room took on an electric feeling. She is definitley a force all her own, no wonder she was able to build her own empire and remain atop it this long and still manage to keep a sense of humour. She was asked by a reporter, "Do you play a hands on role with the comic?"; her body guard quickly replied, "Wrong choice of words", everyone laughed, then Ms. Jameson said, "Yes, I am in full control of the content, emailing in the middle of the night when I come up with an idea".
If the execs were not excited enough, Jenna is to the moon saying, "I have my own line of soap, but I'm not excited about that", finishing with, "I'm excited about this, for sure!". She is in love with her concept and is determined to see it rise to the top and more, setting her sites on a future movie version of her comic. Asked if she would play herself in her autobiography turning movie, she replied "No, I've lived my life once, I don't feel the need to live it again" and then proceeds to let us know that Scarlett Johanssen was picked to play her role, "She's talented and beautiful, who wouldn't want her to play them (in a movie)", said Jenna. Ms. Jameson loves her critics evenmore than her supporters it seems, "It's what motivates me", she stated confidently, also adding "I'm known for being a sexual icon and I embrace it!". If she tackles this comic like she has everything else in life, it is certain to be a hit.
During the course of the conference we were privy to find out that Ms. Jameson loves horror, which indeed perked my interest and my need to find a way to slip her a copy of Withersin. Fortunately enough, she accomodated the press by giving photo ops, which we took advantage of while giving her a copy of the magazine; she then quickly packed it inside her purse. Hopefully, she will find it entertaining and worth talking about; we certainly will not forget this conference.
The wanderers attended the Comic-Con again this year, but were the wiser. We went on Saturday and Sunday only, although there were some of the craziest days to attend they are the most entertaining and we accomplished quite a bit, collecting lots of review materials and passing out some magazines and promo stuff. 
It was a whirlwind time, but we were able to get a couple photos. 
Lots of stormtroopers this year, much to the happiness of Misty who is a bit obsessed with them. We were able to catch glimpses of a few stars this year... Milo Ventimiglia from the upcoming series The Bedford Diaries, Gigi Edgley from Farscape and John Cho and Kal Penn from the famed Harold & Kumar movies.
Well, here we are again, another year, another Comic-Con and another lesson in how to deal with Comic-Con. We decided to get ourselves organized and what used to take us four days to accomplish, 
we've managed to cram into one long 10 hour day; that and we also brought on a new independent journalist, Michael Scalzo, to do the rest of the dirty work (Thanks Mike!). Mike attended four full days and covered tons of events, hopefully we will have a link of his travels to add soon. We only chose to attend the Con on Saturday arriving bright and early at 7:30am. Mike found some great spots on the street, so no $20 parking and no dealing with the long trolley ride. A quick jaunt and we were at the Convention Center waiting in line for the pre-registered doors to open at 8:30am. Once we got our passes, away we went. We did not have much on the agenda this year, private press panels were not on the schedule as much as last year and the really good press parties booked up so quickly that we got bumped, so we perussed the upstairs rooms and noted a few public forums we wanted to attend and then waited for the actual doors to open at 9:30am. We headed downstairs and started our run on the small press tables, passing out our digital PR kits and collecting new review materials. We hit most of the same people as last year, thanking them for review materials and collecting new stuff, we also met some new ones. 
Mr. Oblivious and his new Story Posters. These things are hilarious and so unique! There are so many comic producers out there and some are good and some not so, but this guy took a unique approach to telling a story. We also loved his Tinker Toy stands, very nice. Please check out his site and have some laughs. It didn't take long though to fill up our bag with a good 50 pounds of books, so we trekked to the car, dropped them off and headed back to the Con for more.
Each item has its own type of energy that will effect the people around it and the agents are 
sent out to find and retrieve these objects. The panel was really a lot of fun, all the actors as well as the executive producers, Jack Kenny and David Simkins, seemed to be having fun together. The panel was moderated by Michael Logan of TV Guide and included the newest addition to the show, Allison Scagliotti as Claudia Donovan. We got to hear the usual on the show and its origins, where its headed, etc... but I enjoyed hearing some off the canodr. Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly spoke about their auditions for the show and Eddie recited his angst over waiting for the final answer. "I'm waiting and getting really anxious".. he went on the describe how he completely melted down when he thought another guy got the job, "I'm like the bird and my kids are the chicks waiting for the worm", "All I want is the worm... where is my fucking worm!" (as he's flapping his arms like a bird). The crowd busted out laughing and Ms. Kelly had to bring him back to reality. 
It seems that this is what ultimately brought these two together in the roles, is their ability to work off each other; keeping their personalities in check and it certainly showed during the panel. At one point Mr. McClintock asked the SyFy Executive Vice President, Mark Stern,
to come up and he did a bit of kiss-assing to the network before asking, "So, when are we going to be picked up?"... again, lots of laughs and cheers from the audience, but Mr. Stern reminded everyone in the room that it was up to them and everyone else that tunes in, "Tell everyone you know." he said. "It is ultimately up to you." So, again, if you have not checked it out, take some time or DVR it and check it out later, well worth it! We finished off our day with more visiting downstairs and passing stuff out, our celebrity sightings were few and far between, we did see Seth Green, Gene Simmons and his son as well as the cast of theTV series Chuck, but the crowds and security are so insane that you either get trampled or get a picture and neither one of us are ready to die that death, yet. Until next year, enjoy these pictures from our 2009 Comic-Con experience!
