SAN DIEGO – It turns out Jay and Silent Bob are big Legolas and Gimli fans (See Today’s Gallery). One of the joys of Comic Con is the load of pop culture icons peppered throughout the event. New Line brings Freddy Kruger sweaters for its booth workers and Warner Bros Pictures turns up with a fully dressed Terminator.
The real fun however are the fans. Along with the scads of Arwens and Legolai stomping around are characters from all corners of the fantasy universe. Obvious heros such as Captain America, Laura Croft, Indiana Jones, Neo and Batman are here but so are cultish icons such as Ash from the Evil Dead movies and Jack from ‘The Nightmare before Christmas.’ Plenty of the women/girls from Anime show up, all to celebrate the literature, movies, cartoons, comic books and all other potential media. The ghost hunters from Ghost Busters waited in line to meet Sala Baker (Sauron) while Batgirl was pushed by in her stroller. Soon (hopefully) we will post a collection of costume pictures that we gather in only a few minutes time.
Purple hair looks out of place here not because it is unusual but because it is toonormal. Muscled men walk around shirtless and women wear suits that would make bikini models blush. In short, Con is one big friendly freak show, and in the best way possible.
The Lord Of The Rings pavillion continued in its role as the center of Universe with fans at one point calling down the wrath of security because they were blocking the main walking-artery of the Con because of New Lines Two Towers footage. Organizers scrambled to keep the long lines of Sala’s fans snaking around New Line’s massive area organized and in control.
The TORn Day Three button, “What Are You Tolkien About” has become a rare collector’s item because they are all gone. Tomorrow’s “Gandalf For President” button is creating an actual buzz among LOTR fans and plans are being made to get to TORn early before the give away is given away.
The WETA crew milled around the Sideshow booth again talking with fans savvy enough to recognize the faces of Daniel Falconer and friends. As always the New Zealanders brought with them their friendly, accesable temperment and seem to truely appreciate those who marvel at their magic. Everybody, even non-LOTR fans, want to stop and gawk at Gollumn, Lurtz and the wraith and have their pictures taken. Sometimes this creates a laughable mixture of genres when Wonder Woman and Slinker meet. Sideshow unvailed its colored Gollum bust on a live web-camtransation. Tookish and Flinch spent time in Barliman’s to lend live flavor to our constantly updating live web cam.
Ringers continued to film its Tolkien confessionals and speak with notable professionals from the film and artistic media. The private booth allows fans to be alone with the camera and really pour out their hearts about their deepest Tollkien feelings. Staffer Quickbeam was excited about the level of quality of fans’ confessionals calling it “high octane.”
The newly launched and updating website for the film continues to gather momentum and present updates. The site is currenlty naming a “fan of the day” each day from the constant steam of confessors from the gigantic pool of Comic-Con fans. Several luminaries have also been recorded including the young Boba Fett from Episode II, Daniel Logan. Check out the website by click here.
Andy Serkis was in the house today, and as always, was a complete gentleman and gave TORn a “Gollumn smile” that will be posted as soon as possible. He signed autographs for fans for hours and hours in a little corner of the convention hall which featured lengthy lines despite not being featured in the most central areas. New Line trotted out Crispen Glover (Willard, Back To The Future) to an almost paparattzi-like attack of cameras and autograph seekers. Security was warmly familiar with the LOTR pavillion before the day was half gone.
Another aspect of the TORn booth and LOTR fandom that is difficult to “report” since it isn’t an event as much as an atomospheric condition, is the warm conversation and camradarie that exists between fans. The hardworking TORn staffers (no really, I promise) love to talk to website users and other Tolkien fans (yes, some of them have not YET discovered TORn) about the state of films, this histories of personal fandom and the fun of the convention.
On the gaming front, Sabertooth Games premiered their tradeable Lord Of The Rings miniatures game. It is a pre-painted game and it is lovely. Staffer Flinch will give full details in the days to come. Deciper as always is demonstrating its games and drawing busy crowd. Stay tuned for details. The gigantic day four lurks on the Horizon and a load of fantastic pictures will be posted…uh…soon.
