This posting is for both Friday (7/24) and Saturday (7/25) at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con. First and foremost I would like to apologize for not posting an article everyday as I had promised, but things were happening into the late hours of the night and started in the wee hours of the morning. And, if you had read the previous article, for Thursday (7/24), you will have noticed I wrote under the influence which was another deterrent for me to write each article at night. I could attempt to edit the Thursday article, but Ethan forbids it so it will serve as a reminder of what happens when you write while heavily intoxicated.

[That makes it sound like writing while drunk is a bad thing, which may be true, but such sentiments are expressly prohibited by Vitamin C4 bylaws. The previous article was posted unedited because of our deeply-held belief that it is not the "what", but the "how" and the "why" that truly make for great journalism. If you're at Comic Con and you're totally blotto and possibly writing wearing a complimentary Tim & Eric t-shirt and nothing else, then you do your readers a dis-service by pretending otherwise. That and it's funny to make Austin squirm. -- Ethan]

So instead of editing I will just make notes to develop some of the things that happened Thursday.

THURSDAY (7/23):

For the Cartoon Network: Chowder/Misadventures of Flapjacks/Adventure Time panel. Things got scary for a moment because the line was exceedingly long and I feared I was not going to get in and meet Pendelton Ward, creator of Adventure Time and artist of Flapjack, with whom I have been in correspondence for two years. At last, I entered the panel and saw Pen on stage, just sitting there, so I made a direct line toward him. I approached and introduced myself in person and he responded with a sincere greeting. We chatted for a few, caught up on things, took a picture, and then he gave me a t-shirt for a knock-off of his own show (it reads: Bad Denture Rhyme), and a Comic Con exclusive interactive comic book. Very funny stuff. The panel itself discussed the future of all of the aforementioned cartoons with clips and previews of all the shows. While Adventure Time (series to be released in 2010) did not have clips, Pen took us through the storyboards of the first episode in which he included funny voices and sounds.

FRIDAY (7/24):

I ride early in the morning in order to arrive with no complications, or waiting, for the Battlestar Galactica: The Plan/Caprica panel. In order to do so, my friend Stacey and I got into the panel room early and caught the preview for the new Stargate Universe series. Starring Robert Carlyle, the show looks to be the best in the Stargate canon. After this nice surprise, the big event was here! The panel consisted of a moderator, Ronald D. Moore, David Eick, Edward James Olmos, Jane Espensen, and Esai Morales. Later in the panel they introduced a special panel guest – Grace Park. The content of the panel itself gave previews of the new show Caprica, released 1/22/10, and BSG: The Plan, scheduled to come out this fall. They also talked about the possibility of expanding the BSG universe further, and so much more.

Then I got lunch and a beer. That was nice.

I refueled and went back for the Mighty Boosh panel. But, because they are now so popular in the US, Jamaica, Stacey, Rebecca and myself sat through the two panels prior. The first was for a new science fiction television series that I did not care for, so much so I’ve forgotten the name. Then was the spotlight panel of Stan Freberg who was a famous voice actor and comedian from the 50’s to now. Some of his work includes the Looney Tunes cartoon The Three Little Bops, The United States of America: The Early Years, and so much more. He turned out to be an amazing old man that had amazing stories to tell, good jokes, and hilarious voices. Then it was time for the Boosh!

These guys are just as funny, if not funnier, in real life – especially Rich Fulcher (Bob Fossil). They talked about the creation of the show, the process by which they create the episodes and characters, and finally the future of the show. Sadly, they did not offer much insider information as to the future of the show other then saying there is one…. Good enough for me.

And now for the exciting part: Jamaica and I took a shot of whiskey with Warren Ellis.

Here’s how it happened: This was something I had been planning for quite some time. On his website a week before the con he solicited that people do not bring him bottles of whiskey because it has happened several times in the past but he has to get on an airplane shortly after the con. So, I thought it would be a clever idea to bring him a shot instead of a whole bottle (’cause I wanted to drink it – duh). So Jamaica and I got in line right after the Boosh panel, which was quite long, and almost didn’t make the cut. They originally capped the line several people ahead of us but moved it back to be a couple of people behind us. We had carefully planned out exactly how we were going to execute it and what we were going to say. When we finally approached him, Jamaica and I introduced ourselves (even though he already knew of Jamaica), and then casually asked if he would like to take a shot of whiskey, to which he responded: “Absolutely!”

Jamaica threw up the shot glasses while I quickly got the bottle out and poured the shots, posed for a picture, and then took our shots. It was amazing. It was right in the middle of the Marvel booth where they do not allow alcohol. We were so suave and smooth.

The rest of the night was the mighty Mighty Boosh party held at 4th & B, the same venue as the Vice/Gwar show. They performed, the entire cast, for about two hours. And it was hilarious and vulgar. Following the performance they put on a DJ playlist that turned into a massive dance party (that Pen Ward was also at). When we got out of the party I saw Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. Last year I had supposedly been creepy (well, I was drunk) to them, and I guess I did something similar this year. I asked him, Jackson, if they all wanted to come back to our room and drink more booze. He laughed and kindly declined.

So I went back and drank more with my companions.

End of night.

SATURDAY (7/25)

This was my last full day at the con, and it did not disappoint. I was kind of burnt out on the floor which was perfect because Tim and Eric was performing in the park for the Adult Swim AwesomeCon ’09 which was about a ten minute walk from the convention center. On the way to the show we saw a booth next to a boat that read: “Casting”. So we inquired and discovered that Titmouse Productions was casting for a reality television show about animators, artists, and writers. We were shocked and excited but were also in a rush to catch AwesomeCon. So when we arrived at the show they were hilarious! With contests and karaoke. Some douche-bag even won an hour-long jet-ski ride with Tim and Eric. I also met Richard Dunn.

So on the way back we stopped back at the casting boat and applied. Once on the boat they asked us questions and they seemed to like both Jamaica and I a lot. We pitched a show together followed by an extended audition on the deck of the boat with the casting director where we both got to pitch more ideas. Fingers crossed on this one! Seriously.

After this I raced back to the convention center for the Venture Brothers panel. THIS WAS AMAZING! They showed an extended trailer for season 4, briefly talked about it, and then opened the floor up to questions from the audience. I took a deep breath and made a run for the microphone. I went to the mic and quickly apologized for being creepy last night (to Jackson), after which Doc asked where the hell he was because he would have gladly come over, then he thought he was going to wake up naked in my hotel room and not remember the night before. I responded by telling him that is exactly what would have happened. They laughed, and I laughed too. We also get to see Dean’s penis in the new season.

Austin & Rebecca with Jackson Publick

Following this amazingly hilarious panel I found myself at the final True Blood party, and definitely the biggest. Again, with copious amounts of free beer, they added free Skyy vodka and Tru Blood drinks, gave out shots, and actual bottles of Tru Blood. They also had a screen where you could get your picture taken with “Bill”. SEVERAL, and I mean more then several, drinks later it was off to the hotel room to party more with my motley crew of rugged adventurers!

SUNDAY (7/26)

Damn it, I just drove all day long. Boring.

In conclusion I had a blast this year, yet it also gave me a great feeling of motivation regarding my own career. I took so much from it and I was very grateful to of had the opportunity to go to the Con as well as do all of the things I did. Thank you for reading these posts and I hope to see you down there next year!

Much geek love,
Austin <3man.

P.S. There is discussion of moving the Con to Las Vegas in 2012. Your thoughts?

“[sic] x ∞” –Ethan

This morning opened with two eggs over easy, two slices of Canadian bacons, sourdough toast, one mimosa, and one cup of coffee – not to mention the small handful of cigarettes. Walking with Jamaica to the con, as she had to be at work to sign her books, I planned out my day.

I returned to the Adult Swim booth to find an employee of the company with whom I needed to discuss the submission of my own television show. I found her, and that was neat. I even introduced myself and seemed all professional.

After this exciting development in my career as a budding writer, I walked the floor looking for freebies and insider scoops. This is what I found in one word:

ifoundclipsfromgijoe,thatsethgreenisthegreenhornetandthatAMCisremakingtheprisoner.

Following the floor prowl I headed towards the “Entertainment Weekly: Wonder Woman – the woman in power in sci-fi” panel. The panel itself consisted of some guy who was an editor for Entertainment Weekly, Eliza Dushku (Bring It On, Dollhouse), Zoe Saldana (Star Trek-09, Avatar), Sigourney Weaver (Alien, Ghostbusters), and Elizabeth Mitchell (LOST, Nurse Betty). They discussed the ways in which Science Fiction has always been far more progressive as a genre, but also as a platform for the development of feminism and gender equality. It was quite an amazing experience to hear Sigourney discuss the ways in which she approached the famous action hero Ripley and how it was written to be a male character, or how Zoe discussed the ways in which film, in the recent decades, has found a way to transform the African American and Feminine discourse in the commercialized film market. That was an amazing panel.

Then I got a tall-can and a couple of quesadillas.

Woot-Woot. This is one of my favorite parts: I met Pendelton Ward (creator of Adventure Times & artist of The Misadventures of Flapjack). I had written to Pen a couple of years ago after I got a tattoo of his AT characer. He gave me a free t-shirt and recently, and limited, comic book. My heart melted a little bit.

This is the part of the segment where it gets weird.

I went to a True Blood Party, turns out all of the beers were free and they handed out several free items. Several beers later, my friends and I continued to hunt down the remaining missing pint glasses from the collection. I felt slightly tipsy, and the bartender had tattoos in his ears; Stacey had a crush on him. I continued my journey with the motley crew that I travel and we had found ourselves committed to going to a Vice Magazine sponsored GWAR performance for the new Jack Black voiced video game Brutal Legend. With an even more continuous flow of free alcohol, and exclusive clips and demos from the game, I saw numerous people, unaffiliated from the con, really drunk. Then, a friend of mine bequeathed a bit of knowledge onto me that confirmed my suspicions about nerd and geeks being better drinkers:

“You know why nerds and geeks are better drinkers? They know long division.”
Gideon

Well another amazing day had passed and it was everything I had hoped for thus far. Stay tuned daily to twitter.com/arhartman for frequent updates or check back here 24 hours from when you are reading this now. [Whoops – Ethan]

Tomorrow is…

• The Mighty Boosh party
• BSG/Caprica panel
• and taking a shot of whiskey with Warren Ellis (hopefully)

love and unicorns,
Austin <3man