Pictures from the 2015 Comic-Con International, part 3: Thursday (William Shatner, Nerd HQ, MTV Fandom Fest, Skeletor's Lair and more!)

Here's a bunch of pictures from Comic-Con, these ones from the Thursday of the show.  Was it awesome?  Yes, it was.

I had mentioned this in a previous post, but the New England Comics booth seemed more crowded at this show than it had in previous years.  At least part of this was due to the sketch covers that were available at the booth, which proved to be pretty popular.  Here's a shot from the booth early on Thursday.  Note the loving faces of people who were paying no attention to me.  I'll take it.

This kid was, I think, 16 years old and he made his own Galactus costume.  He's going places.

While waiting in line, this gentleman approached me and asked if I was in Franks and Beans.  I mean it.  It actually happened.  Apparently he had bought the DVDs that Larry and I took to Comic-Con a few years ago...and he watched them...and recognized me.  Phillip (who I found out works on the show "Bob's Burgers") here is in the Franks and Beans Hall of Fame from here on out.

Mary Marvel with...that rabbit Marvel character.

The Taco Truck was back for another year, thanks be to all that is good.  Best place to eat at the convention is outside the convention.

I probably scare this guy by asking him to take pictures with me every year.  But I'm just so dang excited about the Taco Truck.  So excited, it seems, that I capitalize the first letters in "Taco Truck".

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the William Shatner panel being held early on Thursday at the new Nerd HQ location.  After leaving the Taco Truck (with a tear in my eye), I walked to the offsite location.

This year's Nerd HQ moved from Petco Park to the brand new Children's Museum a few blocks away.  I picked up my wristband and took a quick look around before heading down to the panel area, which was separate from the rest of the building.

I had pretty good seats for the panel, which was probably as crazy as you might expect.  I came hoping for a Shatner-esque time and was not disappointed.  The aggrandizing, the aloofness, the fun of it all...Shatner even hit on a few women during the hour-long show.  It was a great time and I left happy.  The new panel room was a bit stuffy and cramped compared to years past.  It's the only thing that I thought Nerd HQ had done better in previous incarnations.  But there were bound to be some growing pains the first year at a site.  I expect that they'll work out some bugs for 2016.




Here's a video of the entire panel, which is worth watching from beginning to end.

Scott Pilgrim's Ramona continues to be a popular costume choice.  This one was pretty good.

After the panel ended, I decided to try my luck with Skeletor's Lair once again, as there was a huge line late into Wednesday night.  On the way there, I spotted this car, which had been advertised leading up to the event.  Adult Swim was sponsoring free rides for anyone who could flag down this (or a similarly-outfitted) car.

I didn't have very far to go, but I wanted to get a chance to take a ride, so I hopped in the front, sharing the ride with the two folks in the back.  I got out after a block.

It was a good choice trying to get to Skeletor's Lair, the Mattel and Super7 pop-up store, on Thursday.  There were probably five people in line ahead of me when I got there, as opposed to maybe 150 the night before.  Still, it took me about 20 minutes to get in, as they were keeping the crowd inside to a safe number.

The store was tiny inside, but it was fun to see.  There were a few paintings of Skeletor adorning the walls.  The people putting it together had a lot of fun.

This is what the inside of the store looked like.  A lot of things had been bought by the time I got inside, but I still managed to get some M.O.T.U.S.C.L.E. figures (He-Man-style M.U.S.T.L.E. toys) before leaving.

Someone had his collection on display, and why not?

The nicest addition to Skeletor's Lair was this Battle Cat trophy behind the register.

On the way back to the convention center, I saw more of the mysterious "Bart Club" art that I had seen the night before.  Was it a part of the convention?  Was it advertising anything?  What's the story with these things?

Here's more from the same block.  I checked, and "@bartclub" is not a Twitter handle.  Instagram, maybe?

Ketchup is also a theme on these things, apparently.

Bart Club.  I hope it's not some horrible sex club advertisement that I'm posting here on the blog.  But I guess that's the chance I'm taking.

The new Sharknado was advertised fairly heavily during the show, including with a parade that had people dressed in shark costumes and stilt-walking Uncle Sams.

This Lego mashup was outside of the Hard Rock Cafe' in the Gaslamp district.

Back to the convention floor.  Disney remains a popular costume choice at Comic-Con.

Oni Press recently started publishing the comic tie-in to the Adult Swim cartoon "Rick and Morty".  The show is fantastic - easily the best new show on [AS].  Creators Dan Harmon (Community) and Justin Roiland (Adventure Time) showed up for a signing toward the end of the day.  It was a ticketed event, but the ticket was easy to grab (I just had to ask for it).  The line was long by the time I arrived and it moved slowly, but eventually I got to get a few autographs.

Also, Dan Harmon and I took a lovely, intimate photo together.  It looks like we're about to kiss.

This was as close to Conan O'Brien that I got all weekend.  I got tickets to the "Conan Bingo" event on Thursday evening, but I was part of the "B" team, I guess, and there wasn't any room for me once all of the A-listers showed up.  This is a shame as I would have loved to at least seen what this was all about.

After being rejected at bingo (a phrase I never anticipated typing), I went over to the MTV part at Petco Park.  I did this once before in 2013, but last year's event was so packed that I never made it in. MTV required badges again this year and I was able to get in with little waiting.

Some of the carnival rides from '13 made it back this time around.  There was free food again, which I gobbled up.

...oh, and a unicorn.

...and a plant person.

I rode some of the rides before the show (an awards program) stared.

I was on the Ferris wheel when the program started, and I got outta there pretty soon afterwards.  Not that this should be a big surprise to anyone, but I'm certainly not in the key MTV demographic so I snuck out after disembarking.

In contrast to previous years, Nerd HQ had two nighttime parties as opposed to one, the first being Thursday night.  I checked it out with my brother-in-law and some friends.  The photo booth is always a popular attraction, which is pretty funny to think about, because pictures have been around for 150 years.

Here's a shot of the main floor from the upstairs video game-themed section.

We didn't stay at Nerd HQ for very long as part of our party had to leave for parts unknown (or Los Angeles).  But it was a full day with more excitement to come.  I'll probably post pictures of that stuff.  Oh, heck, I'll absolutely post pictures of that stuff.  It's inevitable.

New Marvel Adventure Fantastic Four original art! Plus FF color guides!

I picked up a couple pages from the enjoyable Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four series a little while ago - let's check them out!

Both of the pages showed up on eBay at the same time, and I was lucky enough to get 'em both for a really good price!  They're both by artist David Hahn from two different issues.

The first page comes from issue 42, part of what I feel is a very underrated run, written by Paul Tobin.  Marvel Adventures FF lasted 48 issues (plus a zero issue and an oversized special), making it one of the longest-running Fantastic Four spinoff series, behind Marvel Two-in-One, Marvel's Greatest Comics and Ultimate Fantastic Four, and you could make the case that those first two don't really count.

I got page nine from the issue.

If you look closely at the line art, you'll see a purple hue in the background - the portrait of Dr. Doom that Johnny is holding is entirely in purple.  It looks like Hahn reproduced his rough sketch for the page, then pencilled and inked over it.

You might also notice that the '4' emblems are all near perfect - that's because they're also printed out on the page as opposed to drawn in almost all of the panels.

This is a great page with all four characters, plus even a little cameo by Dr. Doom!

The next page comes from just two issues later - Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #44.

Here's the cover.  Most Marvel books from this time period - and Marvel Adventure books in particular, had 'iconic' covers that didn't necessarily indicate what was going on inside the book.  The thought was that Marvel would then use that artwork for other promotional purposes, killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.  This directive lasted for a few years before they eased up a bit.

Here's the page - the very last of the issue - as it appeared in its final form.  Not only do we have every member of the FF, but there's also a Skrull and Uatu the Watcher.

This page also has the reproduced rough art, printed in a more familiar blue, but only pencils over top of that without inks.

The pasted '4' emblems are back in this page as well.

The Watcher approves.

And Johnny...does something.

There are at well over a dozen Fantastic Four series and spinoffs, and I'd love to get at least a page from each of 'em.  That's almost certainly never going to happen, but at least I can mark this one off the list.

I also picked up some new color guides!  These ones aren't from a Fantastic Four series, but they still feature the FF...so it counts.

These three pages come from an oversized Fury one-shot from 1994.  I wasn't even aware that this book existed before I bought the pages.  It's funny that the FF are in these pages more than Nick Fury himself, the star of the book.

Here's a nice page with all four members...oh, and Hate Monger, who has the same face as Adolph Hitler.  I think there was a time where it was thought that Hate Monger actually WAS Hitler, but that's since been pushed to the background, as it would not only be a bit implausible at this point, but it might not be in the best of taste, all things considering.

Happy to add all of these to the collection.