Day 3 (Saturday)

Brad & Christian at Comic-Con, July 2008

Saturday is the BIG DAY at Comic-Con. More attendees on this day than any other, and most of the big previews, premiers and panels take place on Saturday. Today, the big events are the Heroes and Lost panels.

So Christian & I head back to Hall H, catching the first shuttle bus at 7:00AM. By the time we get there, the line is already twice as long as the Watchmen line when we got there the day before. The people at the front of the line have their sleeping bags & coolers-- they were camped there since last night.

It's a long wait in line, but we finally make it into Hall H and grab some decent seats. Then it's time for the Heroes panel. The ENTIRE cast comes on stage and the crowd erupts. It sounds like a cliche, but the excitement in the room is truely palpable.

The cast of Heroes

After the cast comes on stage, Heroes creator Tim Kring comes out with a metal briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. He pulls out a DVD and annouces we'll be the very first to watch the premiere episode of Seanon 3 IN ITS ENTIRETY.

It does not dissapoint. Easily the best episode of Heroes since the first season. The crowd goes wild.

Then the cast returns to the stage; there's not much time for Q&A since the screening took up most of the time, but the fans are thrilled.

Jack Coleman, Hayden Panettiere & Milo Ventimiglia, actors

Dania Ramirez, Zachary Quinto & Ali Larter, actors

The Lost panel quickly follows. It's a much lower-key event, since the show won't be back on the air for another 6 months and the new season hasn't even started filming yet. But producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof field questions from the audience and give out prizes, then cast member Matthew Fox joins them on-stage.

Producers Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof

Cuse, Lindelof and actor Matthew Fox

Next up was the preview for the new Terminator film, Terminator: Salvation. Described as a "reboot" and a new direction for the series, the film looks better than I expected. And the fact that it stars Christian Bale, who's rocked the house as Batman in the recent films, doesn't hurt. (Bale was not in attendance-- he was in Japan promoting the new Batman film.)

McG, Director of "Terminator: Salvation"

Director McG

We left Hall H after the Terminator session and split up; Christian got into the massive Ballroom 20 to see the Chuck panel, I attempted to get into the Pushing Daisies panel. I waited in line for an hour but couldn't get in-- the room filled up, I was only 10 people away from the door but they just couldn't fit any more people in the room.

So I headed downstairs to the Exhibit Hall and took my first extended cruise thru the sea of people. So much to see on the show floor, it's just impossible to recount it all.

Christian stayed in Ballroom 20 for the panel on Fringe, the new series from Lost creator JJ Abrams. I went to see the Spotlight On Ray Bradbury session to see one of the greatest American writers in person.

Ray Bradbury, the legend:

Then I headed over to see the Sci-Fi Channel session on their show Eureka, returning for its 3rd season this summer.

Creators and Cast from "Eureka"

Christian left Ballroom 20 and spent some more time in the Exhibit Hall, then headed in to see the famous Comic-Con Masquerade Party. I went in a different direction, first to watch the In Search Of Steve Ditko documentary (which is fantastic,if you ever get a chance to see it), then I went to see the premiere of the new animated series, Wolverine & The X-Men. They showed the first 3 episodes. The animation is pretty standard-- not bad, but nothing special. The action is pretty standard fare, though I did like some of the character interactions.

After that screening, I joined Christian at to watch some of the Masquerade. Not really my kind of thing, but he enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the battery died in my camera (I forgot to re-charge it the previous night) so I couldn't get any photos of the Masquerade.We stayed until the intermission, then left to grab a late dinner. Then back to the hotel, to rest up before our last day.