San Diego Comicon 2008

The crowd at this year's Con is enormous. The last count I heard was 220,000. In theory, Saturday is the busiest day, so tomorrow's numbers may be larger.

Apparently the internet has changed things from 2007, the last time I did the Con. Author Robert J. Sawyer said that thanks to the power of the internet, the movie studios have really started to court audiences, so they create these massive displays and bring in stars...and that has made the Con expand exponentially.

It's been enormous fun hanging out with all the other Gatch fans. Last night one member of the group brought some of the original BotP reels over. We watched Attack of the Alien Wasp, Peril of the Pyramids, and The Great Brain Robbery. Not quietly. There was much MST-ing going on. A great shot of Joe earned shouts of "drool, drool, drool!"

I went by the Imagi booth today to see the Gatch promo video. The material looks similar to the images that were released --what, a year ago?-- though we got to see Joe. I was impressed with the quality of the CGI, but I thought Joe --especially his eyes-- looked just a touch too OAV. I'm not going to complain too much, he was completely clothed and looked good, but I prefer Joe's distinctive eye shape over the slitty blue eyes. Maybe -- if the project isn't stifled to death in the meantime -- they'll make those changes, who knows? Apparently the material we saw is not going to be used, it's conceptual, like the shots we saw before.

Tired. More later.

Oh -- as an aside, for the writers out there. I'm participating in a writers' blog chain. We're currently writing about our writing methods. Not sure what the next topic is, I think I have to pick it!