Comic Con 2011 review

 

 

This was the best Con I had in years, I think the lack of Hollywoods presence made a huge difference, and Comic Con itself made some major changes. A friend of mine calls comic con a world for geeks, but hollywood brought in "normals" or better yet who she calls "mainstreamers". And you can tell by this years schedule changes, that Con is trying to weed them out.


Everyone knows the hardcore fans attend con all 5 days, while the mainstreamers showup on weekends or when they can get off work, and con for years always catered to that by having the biggest panels be on Friday and Saturday, but not this year.

 

This year the biggest mainstreamer stuff were on Thursday, Hall H's first panel was Twighlight for goodness sake, after that all Geek stuff. You could pretty much just walk into Hall H anytime after that. They also took a lot of the congestion out of the convention by spreading things out of the convention, giving the hotels more big panels, as well as business and game studios running things downtown itself.

 

Bioware was set up in the Hilton Gaslamp, the promotion for Hugh Jackman's Real Steel was at Petco Park. Comedy Central literally built South Park in a parking lot downtown. Even if you can't get into Comic Con, you will not be disappointed hanging out downtown. So Friday and Saturday had trickles of mainstreamer stuff, which left everything else for geeks, which is good and bad. Example, it was a lot less of a wait to get into a room that was geek related, but if their was a thought of going to see one mainstreamer thing, just give it up, because they were all there. The line to get into Ballroom 20 went through multiple amusement park style rope lines all the way down the stairs of the back of the convention center to the harbor for the Game of Thrones Panel, fantastic show by the way. And the Exhibit Hall is packed, the picture to the left is a small portion of the exhibit hall of Sunday afternoon, the slowest day of Con.

 

But what made Con so great for me was my first panel I won the first of three winning tickets for "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: Bring Worlds to Life, From Concept to Pixal" Todd McFarlane was on the panel with Big Huge Games art director Tim Coman and other reckoning designers. More footage was shown and the game looks beautiful, artwise it looks like a mix of Oblivion and Fable. Reckoning has received a great deal of acclaim at the past E3 being nominated with 7 best of E3 awards, and Ripten naming it best RPG of E3. See why here.


 

 


After the Panel I went back stage to sign some legal papers for the raffle. Was able to hold a massive war hammer custom made for the game and panel. You to can have one made here, just not this one due to copyrights.

 

 

 


Later that day after getting called out by Hulk Hogan for wearing his shirt, (see warhammer photo above) I went to the Bioware / EA / Big Huge Games party, downtown at the Hilton; I was able to meet the panel, get an autographed poster and get a shirt autographed by the panel. Todd McFarlane took advantage of the massive canvas that was my back and drew on it.

 

 

Saturday of Con, I was able to get an interview with crew at the Wizards of the Coast booth. They did not have much to say on Drizzt himself, and the big Drizzt statue that made me stop and recognize the booth in the first place was just to promote Neverwinter itself. Since Drizzt is currently in the world of Neverwinter in the novels, they thought it fitting to have him there to promote their new game Dungeons and Dragons Neverwinter which will be for PC only. Check out the video here. The rep could not confirm or deny Drizzt being in the game as a playable charater or even an appearance, she just did not know. But sending them emails would not hurt, letting them know we want a Drizzt game.

 

 

Also coming out was the best looking Facebook game I ever seen, a bit cartoony but it kept the feel of D&D, and it is called Dungeons and Dragons Heroes of Neverwinter, due out sometime in August. Go to the facebook page to "like" them and get info as soon as the game is released.


 

 

Next was IDW Publishing booth, I was able to speak with Editor Denton J. Tipton who was doing a signing. He mention how the comics will take place in Neverwinter, like a bunch of adventures inbetween the novels just after Gauntlgrym. Of course he could not go into great detail, but he mentioned besides the great stories and art that we will expect, there will also be a character sheet in the back of every comic. You will be able to run mini D&D games of Drizzt and the crew in the back of each comic book, you will get dungeon maps layouts and everything you need to run a game, well everything but the 20 sided die, but most of you should have that taken care of already.

 







After that I went to two private parties, one held by He-man.org's Val Staples, and the other was TNA Impact Wrestling who were putting on exhibition matches and Jakks donating exclusive figures of Kurt Angle in camo to the Wounded Warriors. I have to say as much as I am a fan of Drizzt, seeing my childhood hero Hulk Hogan, meeting and talking with Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle, and other Impact stars, that made my Con.






Like I mentioned earlier there is not much to new Drizzt news going on, most of you might have known all of this already, but as much work as Comic Con can be, it was still worth it. Between the new Novel in October with the Boardgame, Comic Books starting sometime this month, and new Never Winter video games on PC and Facebook, the end of the year is looking good to be a Drizzt and D&D fan. As news come out on actual release dates, I will keep you informed.


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