Comic Con in review!

So, I’m almost recovered from Comic Con.

It was, well, vast. And tiring. And exhilarating, and fun, and overwhelming. Pretty much what I expected.

Jaime Paglia and me

I was there ostensibly to moderate two panels: The Science of Science Fiction, and the Mythbusters. The former was the reason Discover Magazine sent me; the panel was sponsored by them as well as by the Science and Entertainment Exchange. It featured panelists Jaime Paglia and Kevin Grazier (the executive producer and science advisor for “Eureka”, respectively), Glen Whitman, Rob Chiapetta, Ricardo Gil da Costa (writer, writer and suavely handsome science advisor for “Fringe”), and Jane Espenson (writer for “Caprica” as well as BSG and “Buffy”). That was huge fun, and instead of belaboring it here you can read reviews by Hyperborea, Script PhD, Discover’s own Eric Wolff, and my bud Jennifer Ouellette (who, as part of SEE, sponsored the panel). But I’ll note we covered a lot of ground, and I thought the topics were interesting and discussed thoughtfully and intelligently by everyone.

I had a great time sharing the stage with the panelists! I want to personally thank Henry Donahue and Tricia Gately from Discover for sending me to the con and for setting all this up. I’m a lucky guy to know them.

Tory, Adam, and Jamie from the Mythbusters, after the panel at a press event.

The scifi panel was Thursday night, and if it felt like getting three men on base, Saturday was the grand slam that drove them home. I moderated the Mythbusters panel, and that rocked the house. 3000+ fans filled the huge room, and the cheer that went up when I introduced Adam, Jamie, Grant, and Tory must’ve broken some windows in the convention center. We spent an hour previewing new episodes, discussing old ones, making jokes and generally enjoying ourselves. The four of them spent some time before the panel signing the insides of rolls of duct tape, and each person who asked a question of the panel got a roll. Discovery Channel also gave away a free iPod to someone who was able to identify Adam while he was in the exhibit hall in full costume, which was a great idea.

I’ll add that DC printed 40,000 giant swag bags with Adam and Jamie’s picture on the side, and gave them away for free. It was weird seeing thousands of people walking around with those bags!

What fun! I only get to see Adam at the odd TAM and other events, so it was very cool to hang with him and the other ‘busters. I met Grant and Tory at a talk in Alberta last year, and it was nice to see them again and joke around. I wish I could’ve gotten them all into the SyFy channel party, but that’s the topic for my next post…

My huge thanks to Katherine Nelson from Discovery Channel for organizing this madness and executing it so wonderfully, as well as to DC’s Nicole Reed. Both Discover and Discovery’s teams at Comic Con were incredible to work with, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Hint hint.

Pictures of all this and more are up on Flickr. I’ll have some back stories for those other shots up next. Stay Tuned!