Walk The Line

Thanks to horrific jet lag, I was up and about at about 5 a.m. San Diego time, with Amanda dead unconscious and nowhere to hide except the hotel room bathroom, and, well, a man can only shit so much before he gets antsy. So I ventured out to take a little just-past-dawn walk past the convention center, hoping to find that maybe a Dunkin’ Donuts had opened up sometime since last year’s convention.

No such luck (Although the Starbucks downstairs was open, providing something close enough to coffee to prevent me from dying), but I found that the Gaslamp District is busily in the process of being nerded up for the convention proper tomorrow.

Also, it wasn’t just the Twi-Hards that were lined up; at this point, there was a line of about twenty or thirty people queued up to get their laminates.

Boots On The Ground

We have arrived in San Diego and begun the frantic set up of our Southern California Stringer Bureau Office at an undisclosed location downtown, just steps away from the San Diego Convention Center… and by “frantic set up,” I mean “sipping an IPA at the closest bar while battling jet lag and fatigue hysteria.”

Things are quiet now; Preview Night is tomorrow, and things are generally quiet. Yes, quiet.

Except for the Twi-hards. Who have already begun lining up for the Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 panel…

…which doesn’t take place until Thursday.

That’s all the news we have the energy to muster now. For now, we will drink away the jet lag, and prepare for more coverage tomorrow.

Pros And Cons: Tips For Attending SDCC 2012

If you’re as fortunate as we are, you are in the throes of final preparation for disembarking to travel to San Diego for the 2012 Comic-Con. And, if you’re anything like us, you’re running around like spastics, pulling together those final bits and pieces to make the trip.

Now, this isn’t our first rodeo – we’ve been attending SDCC annually since 2006 – so we want to share just a few tips that we’ve picked up along the way to help make the trip as simple as possible.

Nerd Prom’s Fantastic Conclusion – Sunday Programming For San Diego Comic-Con 2012 Now Available

Sunday is Kids’ Day at Comic-Con. Much of the day’s programming is kid-centric, but if you poke around there’s also some panels that will be of interest for fans of any age. The full list is available at the official site. Here’s a selection of the offerings:

The Nerdpocalypse: San Diego Comic-Con 2012’s Saturday Programming Schedule

Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con. The Nerdpocalypse. The day when the convention stacks up their A-List programming. ,Meaning that you will be around more lines than Tony Montana, and if the humidity rises above 40 percent, by noon you will smell like a foot.

It’s the day we Nerd Prom-goers wait for for about 364 days a year, and yesterday SDCC posted the entire preliminary programming guide for Saturday, July 14th. So let’s take a look at the panels that looked most interesting to us here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office, and the ones most likely for us to attend, cover, and really foot the place up.

San Diego Comic-Con – Friday, July 13th: The Schedule

Ok, so, as we started yesterday, here’s a preview of some of the programming that will be brought to you on Friday of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Friday looks like a weird day that will be mostly appealing to those who are interested in television programming, The New 52 (can we still really call it “new” at this point?), and the Whedonverse. Here are some highlights from the official site:

Twilight : Comics :: Herpes : Picasso: San Diego Comic-Con 2012 Wednesday and Thursday Programming Schedule Release

We are a mere two weeks away from the official opening day for the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con (with the unofficial start occurring at the Nicky Rotten’s bar next to the Arrogant Bastard Ale tap about two hours before Preview Night opens on Wednesday night), and that means that the Comic-Con programming schedule is starting to drop, with Wednesday’s and Thursday’s schedule revealed today.

Now, be aware that this schedule is not official and utterly finalized, since it doesn’t include the annual “Rob yorks raw whiskey and bile into the toilet near the gaming room and screeches ‘Bring me the head of Roberto Liefeldo!'” panel. If by “panel,” you mean “trauma center event.”

Anyhoo, here’s what we have in store (and some of which we will be reporting on in damn near real time) for Wednesday’s Preview Night, and Thursday, July 11!

Scrounging For Mangers: San Diego Comic-Con Hotel Booking Aftermath

The mad dash for discounted downtown hotel rooms for the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con is all over, bar the cancellations. Registration opened – and closed – last Thursday, and yesterday – April Fools’ Day, purely by coincidence – confirmation emails went to people lucky enough to snag them, leaving many disappointed. Not us, however… at least not completely.

Let’s start with the positives about the experience; unlike other years, the Web server for submitting reservations appeared to be more robust than a Vic-20. Thursday at the stroke of noon eastern time, I was able to get the Web page with the Magic Green Button to bring me to the registration page to load almost immediately, with only a couple of presses of the F5 (or: “Goddammit!”) key.

The registration form page opened immediately, and I was able to get my form submitted in its entirety by about 12:03. It was painless, at least compared to the last time I tried to obtain a room through the convention (2008), when it took me about two hours to get the page to load and by the time it did, the Hyatt, Sheraton and Hilton – Holy Grails of many convention goers – were a distant memory, like the dodo bird, or times when it was easy and hassle-free to attend SDCC.

Save The Date: Morgan Spurlock’s Comic-Con Documentary Featurette

Some days move faster than others, and it has been a speedy one here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office… and not necessarily in a good way. Any day that starts with waking up upright on the couch stinking of IPA with a copy of Wolverine spot-pasted to your forehead and ends with an emergency call to the dentist for a busted tooth is one best put to your back as quickly and quietly as humanly possible.

So let us move past today and look forward to better days… namely, San Diego Comic-Con. Which is still 107 days away (108 for you poor rubes without Preview Night passes, but either way: who’s counting, right?), but you can get an early taste from Morgan Spurlock’s upcoming documentary Comic-Con Episode 4: A Fan’s Hope. Which will be available in a limited theater release and via video on demand on April 6th. Which, given the day we’ve had, still seems too Goddamned far away, so to whet your (and our) appetite, here’s a short behind-the-scenes featurette on the flick, right after the jump.

No Was All He Said: SDCC Hotel Sales Start 3/29

Considering we here at Crisis On Infinite Midlives are still waiting with bated breath to book the room of our choice for San Diego Comic-Con 2012, I would like to inform you that there is, as of yet, no word on when convention hotel sales will start, and that you shouldn’t bother looking, and to go fuck yourselves besides.

However, Amanda reminded me that we at least pretend towards things like “journalistic integrity” and “simple human compassion,” so I guess I need to tell you that it all starts Thursday, March 29th, at noon Eastern time. You can book your room via the Comic-Con hotel page, or via  phone at 1-877-55-COMIC. Although if you love me, you won’t.