CONjecture 2010! The Sci-Fi / Fantasy Convention In San Diego That Was Held Friday October 1st through Sunday October 3rd at the Town & Country Hotel Resort In Mission Valley Part 2: Panels & Events That We Attended 
|  |
- - A Guide to the CONjecture 2010 Photos Pictured Here! - Above Photos: Top - A Steampunk couple who, IMO, should have been in the Masquerade! - Bottom - Tina LoSasso with Amy Berner, who is holding one of her many published books at the CONjecture 2010! - Photos At the Left - Top to Bottom: The Banner for CONjecture 2010 as seen outside the registration room. - The Dr. Who, New and Old Panel: Marc Biagi, Ronald Oakes, Amy Berner, Neal Hallford and Tadao Tomomatsu. - The Now That It's Over: LOST Panel: Jean Grahm, Amy Berner, and Stephen W Potts. - The Now That It's Over: FlashForward Panel: Marc Biagi & Robert J Sawyer. - The Now That It's Over: Dollhouse Panel: Marc Biagi, William H Stoaddard, Amy Berner, Hector Reyes, and James Floyd. - The Now That It's Over: Heroes Panel: Tadao Tomomatsu, James Floyd, and Ryan Layton. - The Conventions 101 Panel: Ronald Oakes, Christina B McGuire, Val Ontell, and Chaz Boston-Baden. - The Now That It's Over, What's Next? Panel: James Floyd & Amy Berner. - The CONjecture 2010 Masquerade: Judges at the Judges Table on Saturday night. - NOTE: Please See the Below Write Ups for Each of the Above Mentioned Panels / Programs! | | |
|
TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3249: Today's blog is a little more in depth about some of the activities and events that Tina and I attended while at the CONjecture 2010. It was held from Friday the 1st of October, through Sunday the 3rd. I'll be sharing more photos at my Facebook Group Page at Facebook Comic Con | Make It So Marketing in the upcoming days. Yesterday I shared Tina's and my Top 3 things about this con that we enjoyed the most. Today I am going to mention most of the panels and events that we attended, of which a few of them made the Top 3 Lists of what we enjoyed most at this con for us. At the top left column of this blog post, viewing down, from top to bottom in order are: The Dr. Who, Then and Now Panel: The panelists were very well informed on the subject! Which had to be tough, as the show is the longest running Sci-Fi show in history on TV...(with a gap!). Marc Biagi, who was the moderator, wants to be the first American to play Dr. Who! With his great knowledge on the show's history, more power to him! His factor actor as Dr. Who was Tom Baker. Neal Hallford's favorite Dr. Who was also Tom Baker. Tadao Tomomatsu says watching Dr. Who was how he 'learned English'! He has a great command of the English language plus accents, that's for sure! Although Tina and I are NOT Dr. Who Fans, we did catch Torchwood, a spinoff from Dr. Who. Unfortunately for us, when the panel did discuss this series we were elsewhere, as this panel ran over into another panel we were not going to stay for. The other panel did not take place, so the Dr. Who panel stayed on. The Now That It's Over: LOST Panel: This panel was smaller in size in the number of panelists, but not in the number of opinions! However it seemed at times that the panelists were watching three different shows...so Tina stepped in when she disagreed with a panelist's comments. That's because with the smaller number of those of attendance in the room, those attending had more input than what I've seen at a comic con of larger size. Nothing bad about that...Actually it was pretty good. Even though I had become 'Lost' during the time of Strike in Hollywood, Tina had grown even fonder of this TV Series. And for her busy schedule, that is saying something! She read several LOST blogs during the years the show ran on TV, even contributing her own posts to this blog. That's how interested she was in LOST! There we started finding that one of the panelists, who we first saw on the Dr. Who panel, had very similar tastes to our own. That would be Amy Berner, who is shown with Tina near the top right of this blog's photo header section. Very entertaining panel discussion and audience input. Now That It's Over: FlashForward Panel: Tina was more of a fan of this show than I was. For me it had to do with the Olympics being shown inbetween episodes of the show. For both Tina and myself, this panel had the best presentation of all the panels / programs that we attended. The fact that FlashForward's creator, Robert J Sawyer gave the presentation is why. In truth it wasn't really a 'panel', nor was it an interview, although there was a moderator, Marc Biagi, who we first saw at the Dr. Who panel. Instead it was basically the Guest of Honor, Robert, outlining exactly what he wanted to present to the audience. There were only a few minutes of derailment, when one attendee would ask drawn out questions, but other than that, the presentation was put forward and wrapped up by the time the hour was over. Now That It's Over: Dollhouse Panel: This hour covered a lot of ground by the panelists. Yes, all of the panelists were Whedon Fans, but even Amy Berner stated that Dollhouse was the weakest of Whedon four properties that have made to TV. She was shocked when it got a 2nd Season! William H Stoaddard stated that the show was a "totally brilliant failure", and that Season One was a 'formulaic action adventure". James Floyd kind of put it all in perspective with his thought of what probably went through the minds of those producing the show: "Crap! We got a second season...What do we do?!! Now That It's Over: Heroes Panel: Tina stayed for this one, while I went on to another panel. Tina really enjoyed this panel, basically because Tadao Tomomatsu shared a lot of what went on at the Heroes set. That's because Tadao was an actor on the series! His behind the scenes accounts were really vivid. I'm sorry I missed this panel! The Conventions 101 Panel: Instead, I went to this panel, which was running at the same time. Years ago I decided to 'specialize' in what kind of conventions I wanted to go to, because I was a high school / college student. Conventions were really starting to come into being for comics in the late 1960's, and quite honestly, comics became my collecting interest. True, I read Lord of the Rings, Heinlein, Bradbury and other sci-fi / fantasy books, but comics were my main collecting interest. Besides, I could always 'taste' some sci-fi at sci-fi programs at those early comic cons. So I wanted to see what I had missed out on, as the program guide stated it would be about the history of conventions and discussion on various local, regional and travelling cons. And that it was! The panelists were definitely qualified to talk about the panel's topic! Ronald Oakes worked on Chicago cons, including Chi-Con 7, and World Con boards. Christian started working on LOSCon in the mid 1980's (14 & 15), after starting with gaming cons in the early 1980's. Val Ontel, who was the Chair of CONjecture 2010, started in 1974 with the Star Trek Con in NYC. Chaz has worked in multiple departments at different cons, including the daily newsletters, registration, con suites, etc. The earliest known history of the convention scene was in the 1930's where both London and Philadelphia vie for having the first sci-fi con. The sci-fi con really hit the big time with the 1939 New York Con, and in 1940 with the ChicCon. Then there were a few years off for WWII. World Con is the longest continually running con, with the MidWest Con being the 2nd longest running. WesterCon is the 3rd longest running con. There is a LOT of activity in Southern California for cons now! The Gaslight con is May 6th - 8th. CONjecture 2011 will be held with dates TBD. Condor Con is in February of 2011. Anime-Conji was a success in San Diego in 2010, so there will be another in March of 2011, (March 25-27th). World Fantasy is being held October 27th-30th. That is where authors and publishers get together with large amounts of books for autograph sessions. More cons were mentioned, but I have only so much space in this post, and time to allow for one post... The Now That It's Over: What's Next? Panel: This panel had two well informed panelists and a small group in attendance. So it was perfect to have a Q&A between the panelists and the attendees. As mentioned earlier, Tina and I realized we had similar tastes to what Amy Berner was watching, so I took a lot of notes for us to follow up on. James is the Vice President of 'Star Force' - a Star Wars Club in San Diego. What's their top choices to watch on TV right now? Amy: #1 - Fringe now in its 3rd season. #2 Caprica - in its 1/2 season. Plus tied with Caprica as #2 would be Supernaturals now in its 6th season. Amy hopes that this new season can keep up the quality of the earlier seasons. James: #1 - Warehouse 13! #2 - The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network now in its 3rd season. New shows we should be watching: Amy: The Event. James: Futurama! Both Amy and James also mentioned that 'V' is one that we should be watching, (which we do), but it hasn't come back yet for its 2nd Season. Genre show Not living up to its promise: They both picked Stargate. (Interesting...) Too early to call it: Amy: No Ordinary Family - "didn't blow me away...Can I keep watching this?!" Couldn't get into it: Both Amy and James: Smallville! Show to avoid: Both: Ghost Hunters! Other shows worth mentioning: Amy: The Cape looks interesting. James: Leverage on TNT - but its not a sci-fi genre show, but really enjoying it. As I said...a LOT was covered in this panel! Thanks Amy and James for your opinions of the TV Shows! Most we are already watching, but we are ging to catch up on ones we don't and you suggested! The 2010 CONjecture Masquerade: This show, like several other programs and events didn't start exactly on time. However, the M.C. of the show, Tadao Tomomatsu made the show worth waiting for! Besides being knowledgeable in several sci-fi shows, he is a very funny guy! Perfect choice for a M.C.! The CONjecture had as of Saturday mid afternoon, over 300 paying attendees. So I wasn't expecting that many contestants in the Masquerade. There wasn't...Only a half dozen! But it was fun! Plus the fact that we didn't have to wait for 3 - 4 hours just to get in like we do aat the SDCC. Which is why we have stopped attending that Comic-Con International Masquerade... Tadao was fun to watch and listen to. The six entries were fun to watch, and then Intermission hit, while the Judges made their Judge's Decision. BTW, the fact that audience had a say in the results for two awards was great! However...partway into the Intermission's program, Tina and I looked at each other. There had been a warning that the Intermission's program was not suitable for young children. We soon found out why. It was a lip-synching re-enactment spectacle to a movie being shown from Lionsgate. A HoRRoR film, that if I had known what it was, I wouldn't have bothered to stay into Intermission. Tina is NOT a HoRRoR fan. Which is why she doesn't bother reading HoRRoR graphic novels / comics, nor does she attend HoRRoR films or HoRRoR panels at comic cons. I respect that, and quite honestly, the program being presented during Intermission wasn't to my taste either. I do sell HoRRoR / MoNSTer comics and graphic novels, but I leave the most graphic ones off our online store for the most part. Thus before the program finished...We left. Unfortunately nothing else was happening during the Masquerade's Intermission that we wanted to stay for. We did drift back near the room to see who won the Masquerade's three awards. But we left soon after...with a bad taste in our mouths after a really good day at CONjecture 2010. A shame, as it was Tina's 1st Sci-Fi Con, and a new one for me after years of not attending any... However, in general, we did have fun at this sci-fi / fantasy con for most of the day / evening... I'm not going to let the Intermission spoil my memories of the CONjecture 2010, but it would have been better to leave on a higher note... Our thanks again to Mysterious Galaxy (MG) bookstore for sending us a Facebook Event Invite to check out this event. MG is our favorite Independent Book Store in the San Diego area! --------------------------- PLUS: My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over 3,245 total posts in number! I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog! ~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com  Note: Our online comic book shop carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items at the link seen below.
http://www.comicbookscircus.com/
"Hammering Out the Web For You Since May 12th, 1998!" 
Note: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:
Make It So Marketing Inc.
PO Box 130653
Carlsbad, CA 92013
ComicBooksCircus.com - It's Under The Big Top Of Comics! Click the Above Circus Tent to See Our Current Listings!
| |  My thanks to those of YOU that have read today's blog post! I do appreciate that!
For those of you that didn't know me before today... I first set up as a 'dealer' at the 1972 San Diego West Coast Comic Con (SDCC) at the El Cortez Hotel. So I've been around comic conventions for a little while, LOL! My wife Tina and I now have an on-line exhibitor (dealer) table at the first "virtual" comic con titled the "Facebook Comic Con" (FBCC)! Plus I have a chapter in a new book coming out in December of 2010, that is pictured above, "Gotham City 14 Miles"! You can view our dealer table and interact with us there on Facebook by clicking this link, which takes you to our table named: 'Facebook Comic Con | Make It So Marketing'. So if YOU are a Facebook member, please 'join' our Facebook Comic Con - Make It So Marketing exhibitor table for updates, specials, links to this blog, and other wall comments that we post every day!
 Also, if you are a Facebook member and would like to also join my Facebook Network, feel free to send a 'friend request' to 'Michael D Hamersky'. Please Note: I have reached the maximum of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so it might be a while before I am able to accept your request. Just send a message along with the invite that you saw my Blog! -------------------  Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review!
I've made a special blog post about: "How To Best Submit YOUR Publication For Possible Review!" for those creators / publishers that would like to possibly have their publications mentioned or reviewed. Just click on the link provided in this paragraph! ~Michael @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com  WEB PAGE NOTE: This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently, sorry about that!The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer. NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners. |
| 
caffeinated
Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review!
WEB PAGE NOTE: This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently, sorry about that!
Here is what the mini-series, (#1 is pictured above at top left of this blog post, #2 is to the left), is about: 
Issue #3 wraps up the storyline, and sets the stage with a new developement...Sonambulo is believed to have died...Which could have been a 'spoiler alert' except that this mini-series was produced in 2004, and there have been other subsequent stories since then.
Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review!
WEB PAGE NOTE: This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently, sorry about that!
Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review!
WEB PAGE NOTE: This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently, sorry about that!
I was a Sci-Fi Convention Virgin...Until This Weekend! 
We spent a slow morning checking out the vendors, some intriguing books and fantasy jewelry, and perusing the art show, (as seen to the left). 
I confess: I led the revolt at the LOST panel. 
Robert J. Sawyer, author of Flash Forward, the inspiration for last season's cancelled show, gave a well-prepared presentation on his involvement with the show. Not having read the book, I'm now itching to check it out. 
The Heroes panel was way more fun than Season 3, thanks to Tadao Tomomatsu, (pictured at the left in the photo), who had a bunch of silly stories about appearing on the show. 
Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review!
WEB PAGE NOTE: This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently, sorry about that!
