My panel, my table, my stuff —just a corner of Trekland in the HUGE Star Trek year at Comic-Con San Diego

Wow.  Maybe it's because this is Comic-Con NUMBER 47?

San Diego Comic-Con has never been about Star Trek; it's always been about, well, comic books. And manga. Superheroes. And, for the past 20 or so years, the blockbusters derived therefrom. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror and anime, you get to come too.  

"Oh well, see you in Vegas" has been the cry among Trekfolk at SDCC the past decade or so, since I started going in 2006.  I've always felt badly that Star Trek's golden age and its incredible casts and creators came too soon for the bigtime, Hall H Comic-Con treatment.

UNTIL NOW. And good on CBS Consumer Products, and CBS and Paramount in general, for finally corralling an historically huge, Dyson Sphere-sized year for Trek. Having both the new mpovie AND the new series AND the 50th anniversary to play off is about as natural an opening as you're going to get, and they have not disappointed. Starting with a Comic-Con program cover featuring Leonard Nimoy's Spock (at right)!

Of course if you don't have a way in by now, you ain't gettin' in ... but if you're among the 150,000 plus on business and/or pleasure in San Diego his week...Here's a huge list of all things official Trek and licensees here. Huge! The MAC Trek cosmetics line and the 50 on 50 art exhibit with artist signings and that cover Spock image are among the panels and products.

And I'd just add to that, the first Trek pin collectibles from my old buddy Dan Madsen's FanSets (too new to get its own booth) will be at Comikaze and StylnOnline booths—and an even bigger hit now that folks can see "augmented reality" with the PokemonGO craze.

Now for my little corner of Trekland, here's my deets—and THANKS AGAIN to Cat Roberts, our Lt. Palmer of Star Trek Continues et al, and John for hosting our "Dr. Trek" crowdfunder again on Friday night!

—WEDNESDAYMaybe I'll see you before or after the 8 p.m. IMAX World Premiere of Star Trek Beyond?

—THURSDAY:
8-9 pm, 29AB: "Trekland's Between the Cracks Show: The How We Got To 50 Edition" PANEL — Our annual updated look at all things Trek in-perspective and in-jokey will also this year hopefully have a brand-new sneak-footage reel for The Con of Wrath! Plus we'll have a lightning PORTAL 47 beam-aboard bonus for this night only!

I'm up against some good folks in this slot, sadly, but you can click here in to the SDCC event site/app scheduler here as well. Please do!

—FRIDAY:

2:30-5:30 pm, AA23: Autograph Alley table— Easiest place to catch me! I'll have photos, On Speaker CDs, Portal 47 info, maybe even a book or two--and get into the Portal 47 prize drawing.  Oh and opinions and news on all things hot. Click here to save on your SDCC site/app scheduler.

Just be advised I must leave sooner than the normal 7:00 ending time because of ...

First SDCC doc crowdfunder, in 2012!

6:30-8:30 pm, Dr. Trek Show crowdfunder for The Con of Wrath, adjoining Petco Field*—The annual event supporting my doc wherever I am a live con guest—now wrapping up its final year of filming: as usual $20 not only gets you a screen credit but here live it's access to prize trivia, rare Trek footage and newest sneak-peek footage for the doc—including the latest, of Nichelle Nichols and Laura Banks.
*Check out the Facebook event page for the exact address and arrival directions. Share it if you can! 

—SATURDAY:

4:30-7 pm, AA23: Autograph Alley table—Ditto as above! But note I will be delayed past the 2:30 start time due to covering the big Hall H panel 2-3 and media afterward. Still, it's the last, easiest place to catch me—photos, On Speaker CDs, Portal 47 info, maybe even a book or two--and last chance for the Portal 47 prize drawing. Late news punditry, too. Click here to save on your SDCC site/app scheduler.
This schedule means, sadly, I will be timed out of Ben Robinson's Star Trek Ships panel immediately afterward with Rick Sternbach and Dan Curry...but again, it's all Treklanders all long overdue for a little Comic-Con love.



Here's hoping we all survive the Comic-Con crazy.... Especially me, because Tuesday starts our incredible #LA2Vegas / #SFx2  50th anniversary expanded edition of the Trek Film Sites Tour. And then right into sold-out, five-day #STLV.

Trek well!

STV: Mike McMahan, author of TNG's Season 8 'WARPED'

So many great book ideas for Trek fans this holiday, and with the 50th just around the corner next year.

Here's a great fun read I hope you heard about—WARPED,

the Lost Eighth Season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the latest creation born wholly of a Twitter account!—and my chat with the tweeter/author (and TV comedy writer!) who accidentally stumbled across me at San Diego Comic-Con, Mike McMahan!  What I wasn't expecting was the, uh, iconic praise for the TNG Companion…



FYI: Portal 47 members got to view this video up to 72 hours early before it went public—one feature of their deep-dive Trekland access. 

Fun AND big news from me at Comic-Con San Diego!

Hey, it’s time for the modern model and granddaddy of them all these days, San DiegoComic-Con—and as usual I’ll be there amid the ruckus helping hold up the Trekland corner of pop culture.

And—to finally unveil one of my new projects I’ve been teasing about for the past couple years!

With nearly 200,000 bodies, the entire downtown and most hotels in San Diego involved, this is no relaxacon—and any veteran will tell you you need a plan and some strategies for optimum enjoyment, much less survival; the fact that you actually have at least one day’s pass shows you are either very astute, very lucky, or have an inside track!

That said, the entire schedule for SDCC (or Comic-Con International/CCI, as they like to be called these days) is available online and as an ongoing mobile app for Apple or Android.

In there you’ll find three of my four events, and I’d appreciate it if you’d go ahead and click on the sched.org MySchedule ticker there if you think you’ll make it. The fourth, of course, is our own “Dr. Trek Show” crowdfunder for The Con of Wrath—this year on Friday night, and with an all-new relaxing venue thanks to our friends via Star Trek Continues, John and Cat “Lt. Palmer” Roberts.

So here’s where I’ll be, with those click-in MySched links:

THURSDAY
8-9pm, Room 28DE: The SDCC version of “Trekland: Between the Cracks: 2015 Losses, Rumors, and Birthdays Edition”—and boy, have we had a lot of them. (Well—69 clicks and counting already!) We’ll have some smile amid the pathos, as always—room for fans in the room to share….. and, plus, I’ll finally be announcing that NEW BIG THING. In fact, check out my follow-up Trekland post on that. 

FRIDAY
10 am- 2:30 pm,  Autograph Alley AA15, Sails Pavilion: Signing your program or any of the Trekland: On SpeakerCDs and my photos—plus you can see the Enterprise in Space orbiter model and non-profit program info.

7-9p.m., next to Petco Field*:  “Dr. Trek Show” crowdfunder benefitting The Con of Wrath, now wrapping up its final year of filming: as usual $20 not only gets you a screen credit but also access to prize trivia, rare Trek footage and newest sneak-peek footage for the doc—including now Nichelle Nichols and Laura Banks.

*Check out the Facebook event page for the exact address and arrival directions—and very special thanks again to Dr. Cat for hosting us!

SATURDAY
10am- 2:30 pm:  Autograph Alley AA17, Sails Pavilion: Back again, one table over from Friday’s spot.

That's it's for me…. but: I also plan to squeeze in a visit for the second edition, after its rousing debut last year, of Her Universe’s Geek Couture Fashion Show at 6 pm Thursday at the Hyatt —where I hear there are two Trek entries among the genres represented this year. That’s the one where old buddy Dan Madsen once again gets it together for Ashley Eckstein’s  growing HU feminine geek-chic fashion empire. 

You’ll also likely catch me at 7:30 pm Saturday for the latest edition of Drs. Ali Mattu and Andrea Letamendi’s “Psychology of Star Trek vs. Star Wars” I helped to lauch at WonderCon.  And there's all the big family of official CBS Consumer Products stuff going on, as well as the Roddenberry.com hour as well.

Off the con grid, for you Wrathers, I’m excited to say we’ll be getting Ali on camera for the doc as well this weekend. He was a tad young for being a “Survivor” from our June 1982 Houston subject meltdown, but I think his insights on both fandom and psychology, then and now, will be great context when we look at the actors, organizers, fans, and dealers  through that filter. 

Hope to see many of you at any or all of these touch points, amid the 200K!

And then… Vegas Khhaaann is just around the corner, baby!

Kevin Dilmore shows Hallmark's new Trek ornaments —plus sneak peeks at the 2015s, AND his new book

Hey, it's that time of year again: Time to chat again with Trek novelist and Hallmark hangabout Kevin Dilmore...

Because it's THAT time of year again: Here's Hallmark's new Star Trek ornaments for 2014! And even 2015...

As usual, Kevin—my onetime Communicator magazine hire;ing—and I have way too much fun looking at all the new baubles and their subject matter, which find a way to get cooler and cooler each year. And what better backdrop than the raucous roar of Comic-Con #SDCC behind us?

What's more, hang on to the very end for a word about Kevin's latest Trek novel now out from Pocket Books with co-author Dayton Ward, whom I've caught at SDCC before as well. The new title is second in the Seekers series, Point of Divergence ... in stores now.

I'll give a prize if you can watch this and list off all 47 Star Trek riffs we took off on....!



BTW: Would you believe the gummy "RECORD" button on my HD cam? We actually did this entire bit once through before I realized it had not been captured—and thus our extra giddiness at diving back in for an even more brilliant chat.

Trekland at Comic-Con San Diego: fast and furious edition

Considering this IS Thursday already of my two-day #SDCC visit cut short by the LA2Vegas Trek Tour start on Saturday back in LA.... here it is: Short and sweet!

My stuff--in the strictest sense:

THURSDAY:
2:30-6 pm—Autograph Alley signing, Sails Pavilion

FRIDAY:
2:30-7 pm—Autograph Alley signing, Sails Pavilion

8-9 pm—Room 28DE: State of the Trek fan forum, where we all can learn from each other.  (Click on that link to give me a head count, if you are plannign to come.)

But, in this very tight two weeks—that's it.

Note that we are NOT having a Dr. Trek fundraiser this year for "The Con of Wrath:" I'm simply too pressed for time to put my shoulder into it this year, as it needs to be done, so I'll catch you hard-cores Saturday night in Vegas!

Still, there's a slew of Trek related programming and vets going on here too—the most in ages. I'm looking forward to seeing my old boss Dan Madsen, who's running the Her Universe fashion show tonight for Ashley Eckstein. Some of my good Trekland buds doing panels and such on the list here I'm going to have to miss by leaving "early," or even via overlaps (I'm looking at you, my new Nobility castmates), but that the way the tourbus tumbles.

Trekland in Comic-Con: Lots to see & do amid the mob!

Whoa! Time to go attack another San Diego Comic-Con!

Trekland will be making its usual rounds and appearances across all four days of San Diego Comic-Con—with two sales sittings in Autograph Alley and a Saturday night panel—and of course a meetup for "The Con of Wrath" after our San Diego hootenanny was a hit last year (below). We'll also be moderating the panel for the New Starship Foundation Ent-D restoration and museum with Huston H., and around their huge floor photo-op.

So, check it out—my known whereabouts for San Diego:

FRIDAY:

2:30-7 pm: Autograph Alley Booth 25, 2:30-7 p.m. Trekland CDs, photos and Star Trek Continues goodies: and flea market old 80s movie buttons!

SATURDAY:

2:30-5:30 p.m.: Autograph Alley Booth 25 (ditto of Friday).

5:30-6:20 p.m.: I moderate Huston Huddleston's New Starship Foundation panel on the Enterprise-D bridge restoration museum. Boy has THIS been building from the original exciting yet simple idea we showed you before anyone else did... you have to come hear the latest, and throw some feedback as well.

7:30-8:20 p.m.: OUR Panel: The Con of Wrath update and more—some raw footage, and who knows what else from Trekland (new projects, anyone?). Welcome DP Neal Hallford and our other associates Lex Wochner and Dawn Gagliano, too!

(If you are going, click HERE to "Log in" early at the SDCC site. There's already 51 signed on ... and you can do the same for other panels.)

9:30-11:30 p.m.: The "Con of Wrath" benefit meetup: Once again, as we've been doing live at cons across the country: you chip in $20 for a screen credit BUT get two hours live of the Dr. Trek Show!: prize trivia, rare Trek clips and raw doc footage.... and a screen credit, of course. Site in Gaslamp area backroom bar TBD.

I'll also likely try to support the projects of friends like the new version of Trek-vs.Wars psychology debate, the Roddenberry panels and Mission Log podcast, and Marc Zicree's Space Command...to name but a few.

I won't be camped there 24/7, but it's a good bet I'll be around Huston's gye-normous Enterprise-D photo-op spread on the Main Floor at times as well.

It's amazing how much SDCC has changed just since I started going in 2005—or that I feel like a battle-hardened veteran about it all now. I already know I'll be seeing a lot of old friends and maybe even transact some commerce.

So please—any Treklanders in the neighborhood, come by at least once to say hello. AND survive the week. I have slots open ... !

STV: Still time to get a Trek ornament—right, Kevin Dilmore?

Are you a fan of the Hallmark Star Trek holiday ornaments?

This may have been shot at ComicCon last summer, but it's a reminder that a) the Hallmark line has been a part of tree-trimming for fans since 1991 (!!) and b) with two weekends to go, it's still not too late to grab your ornament of choice—ship, figure, or scene?

Plus—you get: A sneak peak at the real 2013 ornament prototypes (as at right). And our nerdness over Scotty's prop, Kirk's hair... etc... etc...

Kevin Dilmore, of course, is not only a noted Star Trek fiction scribe with Pocket Books, —usually with writing partner Dayton Ward—but a writer (and Trek think-tanker) for Hallmark greetings in Kansas City. He also gets to show off a couple of his new franchise greeting cards, too. And a Batman?

Enjoy the madcap frenzy of ComicCon behind our talk... it could just as easily have been the buzz in a December department store display, right?

Comic-Con 2012 and another fun "Wrath" meet-up

All the recent news and events delayed my simple Comic-Con wrap up after San Diego, but I do want to make some points and share some pics ... as we look forward to ramping up for Vegas Khhaaann.

I especially want to thank everyone who came out for my big gamble: the latest edition of my 2012 meetup/fundraisers for THE CON OF WRATH—Comic-Con size (right)! To have two dozen come and go to make it was very gratifying and encouraging—especially doing this on the wing. To have everybody have a great time was just a kick.

Yes, these brave Treklanders get big props from me for the support in making our documentary... and purely from my Tweets/Facebook feed, and the announcements made at our 7 p.m. panel just before.  We shoot for no-overhead sites during cons so as to get the most bang from our donated bucks as possible, and Seattle and Phoenix, so far, are pretty big shows. But Comic-Con San Diego was a whole new huge scope unto itself, and biting off this same set-up on the scale of SDCC was a big risk to take if the logistics and venue were a disaster, and that's too much to ask of any Trekfans kind enough to come out. Aside from our louder-band-than-normal, everyone had a great time, enjoyed the trivia, clips, prizes and talk ... and I met all kinds of new fans who will now follow our progress feeling a small stake in it. (A big thank-you also to manager Mike at Hennessey's and waitress Jenna, who got this together on a day's notice and played patient with our audio-visual tech weirdness.)

Remember, as a relatively new and small-scale player at SDCC (ie, not a studio marketing guy, and just since 2006), I was lucky enough and thankful for the second year to have had my panel accepted (right)—the second flirtation with my "Between the Cracks" slideshow format, which is pretty flexible. I advertised it as a TNG anniversary celebration from my archives, but of course was thrilled to also offer the world-premiere of our new teaser for THE CON OF WRATH, put together for the occasion by my DP, Neal Hallford. (You can see that, and more, after I sneak-peek it at Vegas Khaan, as well)

So a big THANK YOU as well to the 500-some who turned out at 7 p.m. Saturday for "Trekland: Between the Cracks!" And to all of you who signed up your new names to our news list there. As usual, we ran out of time, but —if Eddie and his bunch have us back next year—we'll have some real Q&A quality time in 2013, I promise.

Otherwise, realizing how few pics and parties I got in this year at Comic-Con made me realize I'm working way too much there and playing way too little!


My normal gang o'guys was disrupted this year due to birthday plans for buddy Lee Wochner—my web guru/marketer at his Counterintuity Inc. and my entree into SDCC in the first place—so I had to shift "residence" mid-con and commute in with my Con of Wrath DP Neal (helping me set up, left).

Still, it was great to be a red-carpet  guest at Rod's Trek Nation/White Room premiere showing on the big screen... meet up a lot of old friends out of the blue, like Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore, or some totally out of the blue like the great John Eaves himself (right) ... and table once again a few hours in Autograph Alley, and see who else could find me. You never know, you know?

Just took one costume pic all weekend—and "she" had nothing to do with Star Trek, of course (do YOU know who she is, below? I can't believe I have to tell you. ). But I love the unique costumes—rare, skewed or with a sense of humor, like Dragon Con—and not just the obvious and trendy recreations that I feel Comic-Con has fallen into. Vegas Trek is tilting toward the more and more rare/unique in cosplay all the time, a good thing—and time will tell what 2012 brings there in a few weeks. Stay tuned ...

Meanwhile, how cool is it to take a big bite out of Comic-Con and not get bit back?


Thanks to Dwayne Day, Jana Hallford, Stephanie Sullivan, and Justin "BayouCon" Toney for help with the pics. Best coverage ever!

Where to grab me at Comic-Con—plus, a surprise ...

UPDATE: Our meetup/fundraiser (below) for CON OF WRATH will be 9-11 p.m. Saturday, after "Between the Cracks" —and we'll Tweet, Facebook and live-announce (at panel)  the SDCC-adjacent location that day.

------------------------------------------------------------

 It's that time of year again! San Diego fanmob, here we come.

The SDCC program folks have seen fit to return my TREKLAND: BETWEEN THE CRACKS "slideshow" to its very same slot as last year (below): 7-8 p.m. Saturday, in Room 25ABC.  For the sophomore opus, I'm looking at not only an anniversary party for TNG and ST II but also a sneak peek at our newest CON OF WRATH teaser ... don't miss it! We realize you have many options for your 7-8 p.m. Saturday Comic-Con entertainment-informational options ...

And STAY TUNED for a special Saturday night tweetup event TBA for CON OF WRATH... truly the final info to be sent online, and also to be announced live at the panel. Hack out some time in your busy SDCC Saturday night for it, willya?

If low-key is more your style, I'll be in Autograph Alley #22 (again!) from 2:30-7 pm on Friday and 2:30-6:30 p.m. Saturday, with info on all TREKLAND projects and books and archive goodies to sell.  Chat me up... I never know who will come by when the time is all public and out there like that. Then, right to panel-and-party land. Whew.  You can also spy us, for one, at the Roddenberry Trek Nation/White Room screening Thursday/12th, and Fluxx club party Friday/THE THIRTEENTH.

On the personal side, I"m going to be a bit lost in routine this year: my Comic-Con instigator and mentor, Lee Wochner, and suitemates will be departing in mid-con to take up his FIFTIETH birthday bash back home in Burbank while I stay behind to do all THIS stuff.  I will be truly sailing solo after Friday afternoon--right when my weekend heats up, as you can see.

Hey mobile users—don't forget the Comic-Con APP via iTunes.

Panel rookie no more!—ComicCon '11: some reflections

Get ready for a big wrap-up ... even video below! .... because the phenom that I've only tasted since 2006—an eon ago now, it seems—this year was a very different Comic-Con experience for me, as it was planned. I gave up purely fanboy moments ages ago—even though I still make sure to find one or two, like Chuck before, Looney Tunes this year. [See yesterday's photo.]

I barely got around the exhibit floor, and had to apologize to a lot of boothing buds that I didn't get to see—but I was still present enough to be struck by all the sudden elbow room, even at midday Friday and Saturday. You could breathe! But was this due to a big dropoff at the "long sold out" show?

Hardly—just the effects of the big push do centralize events out of the Convention Center and into the bigger adjacent hotels. Lots of events, and new maps to show it all—big program book/app revamp. (And thumbs up for it to SDCC staff). Seems to be working, too—and ending all the talk of recent years about taking mushrooming SDCC to L.A. or Vegas—that, and the city bond issue recently passed to expand the convention center soon.

No surprise, as the city tourism booth folks told me that nothing brings it to San Diego like Comic-Con—other events at most are 1/5 the size and money impact of SDCC. So locals sit up and listen when this fandom barks ...and even tax themselves more!—a far cry from all those years of being dissed by the hotel help and diner waitresses, ridiculed in so many cities while at cons, even as they added to the tax base and local economy just as much as any straight-laced trade show or sports event. There's another culture sea-change for fandom!

And here's another:  The first thing to hit me on Thursday, though, in a tweet-exchange I shared with dear @Televixen: even more teenage girls, streaming into the center, en masse. NORMAL ones. Not even of the anime/manga cosplay variety: these looked like "ordinary" freshmen, like they skipped 4th-hour cheerleader practice or a mall meetup to come over to Comic-Con for the day's kicks. In a pack. Over and over. I wish I'd snapped a few of them without seeming like a weirdo ... but the Twoint is: "Corner is turned: How much longer can we call fandom "geek"?

Friday I had the pleasure of hosting Alison White, our creator-producer-actress of the L.A. Comedy Awards-nominated webseries "Divine White's Introduction to Hollywood" that coaxed me back onscreen as a guest star . OK, so it's not really genre—unless you count as the Brits as aliens!—and then Sunday I scooped up two licensee vidchats I'll get up ASAP with Dana at Andovos high-end costumes and Neil Bulk with the new TNG CDs released by LaLaLand Records. Their presence, as well as Roddenberry's and those of say IDW and CBS and Hallmark, for starters, made sure there was a Trek look to Comic-Con, even in an off (ie, non-movie) year.

But most of all, I had my serious hat on for just one thing, like never before: my commitments. A longer-than-normal table slot in prime time Friday and Saturday in Autograph Alley?—thank you Katherine! It cut down my con roving time, but I learned long ago for me a SDCC table wasn't about "sales bucks" but about having a stated place where anyone could find me in this sea of humanity—old friends, new business contacts. Indeed, this year I look up to see a fellow approach, saying he had done all the official translations into Japanese for my TNG Companion editions, and wanted to meet me! How cool is that? So thanks, Norihiko Nakajima, for tracking me down!


The topper, though, was my DEBUT for Comic-Con—thanks Eddie!—in what would be the oxymoron of a "solo panel." Here's a truism: You can do the same thing for 10 years, but no one takes it seriously until you NAME it—so, my slideshow... ahem, "Trek: Between the Cracks" ... finally came to SDCC. But, running low on prep time to puff it into an SDCC-worthy level, and up against all Saturday-night competition... anxiety reigned until Friday night's prep. Then, even a sinus cold Saturday couldn't stop us, and the result—a whoopin' 500-some SRO crowd seemed to have a good time.

Best of all, at the end of the hour,  that crowd got the WORLD PREMIERE of our first public promo trailer for The Con of Wrath, featuring teaser clips of Harve and Walter, along with my intro. Thanks to DP Neal Hallford for helping there...

If you were in 7AB that night, too, thanks much for sharing your time with us... (and if you took any pics of me, feel free to share! Just use LN.com's contact form.) I trust you learned and laughed, equally... and hope you can give The Con of Wrath's webpage and Facebook page a look and a Like—especially the small-donor and thank-you's gifts page.

And thanks to the mob that stuck around afterward, including current ST Magazine writer Dwayne Day—good to meet!

So, yes—a more serious Con for me, more work-mission-oriented and tiring, less friending and partying. General trends were obvious as well, mostly for the better .... but overall: Unique and ever-fun as always.

Especially when you consider I got two shout-outs: the panel, previewed by the Nikki Finke bunch at deadline.com (see 7:30 p.m.)—pretty funny, sadly accurate!

And, finally, the showstopper: my old college buddy Steve Myers, now anchor at ABC Channel 7 in Amarillo, threw this special tag out Thursday to close a network feature on Comic-Con. He  shared a little code with all those Panhandlers whom I bet had no clue what he was talking about:

And oh—you want a happy ending, even after that? Literally, on my way out the front door Sunday on final exit, I was able to trade my SDCC "big bag" adorned by Fringe for the one featuring LooneyTunes' Bugs and Daffy. Seriously—just as I stepped outside.

So that's it: a few random thoughts on all things Comic-Con and Me.
Okay, okay, a token costume shot, too:

What ComicCon and fandom are really all about

Forget the bucks and booze and bigscreens and parties and promos... here's what it's all about:

I spied this mom sitting ahead of me, neither one in cutesy costume—but she's just making sure her son knows the classics ... in this case, a newly remastered Blu-Ray LooneyTunes with Daffy in "Duck Twacey" that's about to roll...:

This year—we're panelizing at Comic-Con! Come see!

Forget Carmageddon.

There's this mass mashup of people and genrehood looming next weekend off the real San Diego Freeway called Comic-Con International, and if you can survive the crush of humanity, we'll be there in a bigger role than ever before.

I mean, I was one of those who never attended comic-cons because, well, I wasn't a comics guy. The Hollywood invasion of CCSD took a while to sink in—that, and Trekland getting a little less hectic—before I finally made it for a day in 2005, and full-time in 2006. In fact, kiddies, I'm now such a battle-hardened Gaslamp veteran I recall when there were "only" 60,000 attendees on hand—not today's ceiling-bumping 125,000.

I'm proud to say the 2011 powers-that-be have accepted my good ol' "Star Trek: Between the Cracks" grab bag show for a panel slot, and big news is we'll have some exclusive, first-ever sneak-peek looks at raw clips from The Con of Wrath, our documentary now underway about Trek's most amazing meltdown-turned-miracle ever.

Of course we'll also have the regular review of Trek goodies, trivia and stories—amped up to Comic-Con scale—and including Divine White too.

So here's your invite to come by and chat up during the panel (aww, who needs those other Saturday night prime time parties, cool panels or Masquerade line-up?) ... or two sessions in Autograph Alley, as in recent years.. This time, don't forget like you always do to bring your TNG Companion to be signed, because I was one name among a million and you had no idea...

Here's the specs:
FRI: 2:30-7 pm, Autograph Alley AA22 (Sails Pavillion)
SAT: 2:30-7 pm, Autograph Alley AA22 (Sails Pavillion)
SAT: 7:30-8:30 pm, Rms. 7AB: "Star Trek: Between the Cracks"

Hopefully we will catch you at a few other clambakes that weekend as well!

STV: BLTN*: Open 'The Gates' TONIGHT for Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Thanks to my "lost August," I'm only now getting to blog this video I grabbed with Robert Hewitt Wolfe at Comic-Con. Aside from Majel's memorial service in early '09, I had not really seen much of "Wolfie" since his days in the Hart Building as a young writer on DS9—starting with the Bareil/Winn debut, "In The Hands of the Prophets."

Though slow to post it, this "Switching to Visual" is a good reminder TODAY that his second ep of the season for The Gates airs tonight on ABC (10 PM PT/ET). In this, we cover that AND the funner stuff of Comic-Con San Diego, too... all from the sparse decore of my signing table.

Just goes to show how the serendipity of any con for anybody at any time can be a fun thing... So thank you, Mrs. Fields, for being the magnet that drew us together!



*Better Late Than Never!

Meet me in Sandy Eggo: Comic-Con confluences

I guess I could be accused of "burying the lead" below my Comic-Con dissection Tuesday, but just for Quick Reference here's some good ways to stalk me this weekend if you need to:

—Selling and chatting all things Trekland in Autograph Alley at my times:
--11:30a-1p Thursday
--1-5p Sunday, for the dazed survivors
...or...
—Crashing the Roddenberry party earlier/Geek Girls bash later, both Friday night—with Daryl and Curtis' Twilight Zone interactive anthro panel in-between at 8p
—Finally checking out Wil & Co.'s W00tstock phenom Thursday night, off-campus
—Eyeballing all the chotskis for the new startrek.com at the mobbed CBS booth (4129)
—And grabbing any and all peeps wherever we run smack into each other .... including Gary's lineup at LightSpeed Fine Arts, of course (3745).

Again, this list is a sample, but loose and random. The way I like 'em. (Not to impugn at all the Star Trek booth babes from '08, above. You didn't really want to see just another CC square logo, didja?)

Don't forget, too:
2010 is the year we make contact... via Twitter. I'm so up-to-date.
You can always just twack me by tweets, Tweklanders!

Comic-Con time! And some reflections..

It's funny, this Comic-Con thing.

And I say that like I’m some battle-hardened San Diego veteran. Oh hell, maybe I am. But would only four real trips on the resume count as "veteran"? Or, do we count that one-day virgin visit way back in ... 2005? I mean, I'd meant to get down to San Diego for a lark during those crazy mid-Aughts years—but other cons, other conflicts got in the way. And after all, it was really just a "comic con," right?—and I was hardly ever a "comics guy"—even with the wild rumors that more and more Treklanders were turning up down there, just on general principle.

When Trekland itself turned upside down around here in 2005—end of magazine, end of producers, end of studio*—I suddenly found myself with a future in flux, an empty weekend in late July ... and old buds Neal and Jana in San Diego, ready to ease me over to Comic-Con consciousness. Just for a couple nights and a day visit, mind you, since I was a bit out of sorts. Just to see what the fuss was about.

Five years hence, my surviving standout memory of that day (at left) was actually watching those passionate Browncoats swarming all over their huge fan table—Firefly fandom, the only thing I've seen in my day that even comes close to the vibe and intensity of early Trek's. I felt young, as if the world was new... And the mojo began to flow again.

But my newfound bud Lee with his secret, fan-in-businessman's-clothing comic habit and longtime gang of CC suite crashers made it official when they dragged me down for a full-on stay the next year. I was now learning the ropes of this creature. I was hooked. And now I can talk tales from the trenches like the best of 'em, back to when you could still by a ticket on-site ... much less just park and walk in right there. There was none of this massive entrance/exit route room ballet choreography like Disneyland. Why, that first year I went, the attendance was only @ 80,000; now it's topped 120,000!

Well, Comic-Con was hardly a Trek con, either in the sacred fan style of things, or the oft-disdained pro set. Neither was it an old-fashioned lit-snob con. It was truly a trade show for pop culture—with ever more Hollywood studio folk and New York toy makers insanely swelling the ranks. I do love my Trek cons—viva Vegas, salute Starfest, take me on Shore Leave!—and I've seen the litcons hang in and make a comeback, too.

But this critter... well, forget the naming: Comic-Con San Diego—and various others around the country who share only the name and the intentions, nothing more—is very much a cross-genre beast of its own now. Oh sure—like Voyager 10 at the heart of V'Ger—there's still a revered core essence of the old 70s comics collectors' and artists' show in the center of it all that survives, even as all the other stuff that dwarfs it.

But the story of Comic-Con transcendence is very much the story of what's happened to fandom, and to mainstream tastes alike: it's all overlapping, all over the place. "Narrow-casting" may still be the key behind the 500-channel cableverse... or is it? These days, the lesson seems to be: Get out of your ruts!

And that may be the biggest and best Comic-Con lesson of all.
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Oh, and my 2010 Comic-Con highlights? Join me if you can:
—Selling and chatting all things Trekland in Autograph Alley at my times: 11:30a-1p Thursday, then 1-4p Sunday
—Crashing the Roddenberry party earlier/Geek Girls bash later, both Friday night—with Daryl and Curtis' Twilight Zone interactive anthro panel in-between at 8p
—Finally checking out Wil & Co.'s W00tstock phenom Thursday night, off-campus
—Eyeballing all the chotskis for the new startrek.com at the mobbed CBS booth (4129)
—And grabbing any and all peeps wherever we run smack into each other .... including Gary's lineup at LightSpeed Fine Arts, of course (3745).

Or you can always just twack me on Twitter, Tweklanders!
(See? Yes another Comic-Con first for yours truly).

------------------------
* = Communicator, Rick Berman Era, Viacom united—respectively

And Bob, you've won.. A NEW CAR!

A "fix" it was not:

Our own Bob "The Doctor" Picardo was on hand for appearances at Comic*Con and, lo and behold, got entered in NBC's daily Heroes tie-in car giveaway... and won the Friday drawing!

This week Bob tells me: "See? Work for free and God finds a way ... See you in Vegas." No plans yet for the car, he says—but stay tuned.

And thanks to Highlander Films' producer Len MacLeod for the head's-up on-site...and for entering Bob in the first place!

Bob's 3rd annual charity auction/dinner for Habitat for Humanity that climax the weekend of the Creation Vegas bash is on again for Aug. 9.

Comic-Con candids!

SAN DIEGO (LN.COM)—Star Trek itself did not plant a big footprint at Comic-Con, but Treklanders were all over...

Like David Goodman, his Enterprise writing stint over not long before he became Seth McFarlane’s head honcho for Family Guy—a Comic*Con favorite of the big rooms, of course—and these pages, too....













..or the big room crowd Rod Roddenberry (fourth from right) and Co. had for the debut of the Days Missing comic with Archaia Comics …













… Or the Trek vets who are swelling the ranks of the writing staff of fantasyland on Legend of the Seeker, like head writer Ken Biller (on the big screen)…
… plus fan2pro Mike Sussman, here (second from left) with fellow Seeker writers—but absent former science advisor-turned-scripter Andre Bormanis, who just came aboard for Seeker’s Season 2.

Star Trek itself? There was the Paramount Home Entertainment booth—always busy this year. Here, Wrangler Joyce heads up a line of over 100 (!!) patient fans on preview night: with her souvenire foam Vulcan hand in, uh, hand, she’s about to take them in small groups from the back wall staging area over to the PHE booth 8 yards away, where …

..they stand in line for a seat in the Kirk Prime chair—before the Kirk Sub-Prime bridge backdrop?—a pic with more Orion slave girls, and a shot at more freebies!

We missed the pics, but Saturday morning also featured a twin bill: Ron D. Moore and the next generation of Galactica via Caprica, as Brannon Braga meanwhile helped preview his new series Flash Forward (with John Cho). And all those other Trekland actors? They were everywhere.


UPDATE: ... including Robbie McNeill, part of our big Trek2Chuck connection … and that lucky duck, er, doc, Bob Picardo …

Cool con news—and one more change

Five or six years ago, Comic-Con San Diego was almost totally off the Star Trek radar, as was its New York cousin. Even a couple years ago, the "mid-year" WonderCon in the Bay Area by the same folks was much the same: whaaaat?

All that is changed now. The drip-drip-drip news of details and the packed audiences for JJ Abrams' movie advance vanguard at WonderCon last weekend is merely the crest of the overall Hollywood tidal wave that now crashes into these multi-genre conventions and threatens to send their attendance numbers to flood stage. Especially at Comic-Con, where both hotel rooms and panel seating is as scarce as an albino Orion.

What of the traditional fan cons, especially the Star Trek variety, fan and pro? It's obvious that JJ's team comes from the current TV-movie crop of producers who have risen to the heights knowing chiefly the last decade's bi-coastal Comic-Cons— and now WonderCon—as a great way to reach the hard-core faithful and make a big media splash at the same time. The genre, online and geek press, plus the "fringe" of mainstream media, have grown well-equipped to be familiar with those venues and their across-the-board star power moreso than traditional fan cons. (And yes, I know full well that the Comic-Cons and WonderCon sprang full-bore as fan cons and technically still are ... and Atlanta's Dragon*Con is not far behind. It's the obvious beacon to reach the Southern audience. with skyrocketing and crammed attendance numbers of its own.)

For a lot of people, this is not your father's fandom, much less franchise. And the ripple effects are still shaking out, for good and bad. Are we in a transition time for fandom —online geeks versus their elders, a potential two-track population—as much as for the Twitterati versus those still just happy to be emailing in our overall culture?

Comments, anyone?
Stay tuned in any case—and more here on that ripple effect, later ...

STV: Author David Mack: Destiny and beyond!

Ol' 2008 is closing in, and boy do we have a pile o'good chats still to prep and share. The past couple months have interfered with my leisurely intentions, so we're going to get a few out vlogs out at a non-leisurely pace here ...

Although the three-volume Destiny megastory from Pocket Books is now out, this visit with Pocket Books author David Mack from Comi-Con San Diego in July is still insightful—there's news from his 2009 to-do list as well, and it's a good intro overall if you've never gotten to meet David at a con or other event. A wry wit, that one...

STV: A shout-out from our #1 Number One!

Guess who's shuttering his Rutgers office and headed back to L.A. with projects already in the pipeline?

Get it all in this quickie catch-up with Jonathan Frakes—and midway through catch my new "unframed unhinged" cinematography, courtesy the ever-present Comic-Con mob...



(And no, trivheads, this entry's title is not a knock against Majel's original character.)