As the most highly anticipated nerd fest event on the east coast there are a lot of great expectations to live up to. With a chalk full line up of stars, vendors, panels, and companies New York Comic Con 2013 shined brightly against San Diego’s convention with their own North East flare and stamina. Every day had multiple amazing things to offer and so many events for con-goers to attend.
Of all of the amazing things that were announced through out the entirety of the show I can say that a couple popped out and made my inner nerd girl scream. First and foremost I will state that it is without doubt in my mind that Joss Whedon’s Firefly has been cancelled for almost a decade and still holds a special obsessive place in all of our hearts. This being said, I was thrilled to hear the announcement that there will be a Official Serenity sequel comic in the works. Dark Horse Comics will be putting it out, and it will be called “Serenity: Leaves on the Wind.” The sequel comic will be written by no other than Zack Whedon and will pick up the broken pieces of our hearts where the season ended and carefully construct them back together with a continuing story line. Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #1 0f 6 will hit the comic book store shelves on January 29, 2014.
We were also informed that Kevin Smith is in the process of working on Clerks 3. News dropped that the script for the third film of the cult classic has been completed. This news comes in tangent with that of Smith’s long time friend and colleague Ben Affleck being announced as Gotham’s favorite hero. Considering the rise of both of their careers together its nice to see that they are both taking initiative to better franchises that are close to theirs and their fans hearts. A release date has not been announced due to the fact that filming has not yet begun however, we are excited regardless.
The X-files had a panel speaking about a potential new film that was being bounced off fans for ideas. Screen Rant gave a detailed play by play of everything that occurred at the panel:
PANEL
*The crowd sang happy birthday to Chris Carter – who wasn’t at the panel – while David Duchovny recorded it on his phone.
*When Duchovny and Anderson first started the show, they had no idea how huge it would get.
*According to Anderson, Chris Carter doesn’t believe X-Files would have been very popular during the George W. *Bush administration, but he does think it would be popular today.
*Both Anderson and Duchovny would have very little idea of what would be happening in the plot until they got the script a few days before shooting.
*Anderson talked about how Scully made science cool for girls and inspired many to enter the field.
*The actors talked about the kind of research they did for the show. Duchovny said it wasn’t important to know all the details of their jobs as FBI agents because they constantly broke the rules of the bureau and almost never solved a case. Anderson, on the other hand, looked up all the “big words” in the beginning, but eventually stopped and just “acted.”
*Duchovny and Anderson were asked about their current projects – Duchovny stars on Californication and Anderson stars on The Fall and appears on Hannibal – but Duchovny cut the host off and said that the panel attendees just wanted to hear them talk X-Files.
*On the topic of a third X-Files movie, Duchovny said that he wants to do it, Anderson wants to do it, and Chris Carter wants to do it. Of course, this isn’t particularly news. The real question is – does 20th Century Fox want to do it.
The franchise hasn’t been in the medias eyes nearly as much as it was back in the 90’s and I think I’m not the only one waiting for it’s triumphant return to glory. Let’s just hope it’s not a flop.
Panels and announcements aside fans had to chance to meet, greet, and obtain signed paraphernalia from many of their favorite artists and writers. Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard were doing signings all weekend for their Walking Dead Omnibus that was recently released. It was almost impossible to be able to get into that line. I was extremely disheartened when I was incapable of getting a ticket for signatures upon arriving 15 minutes early for the passing out of tickets. After walking around with a frown of disappointment I stumbled upon Tony Moore’s booth. Tony Moore is responsible for the first six issues of the Walking Dead comic’s art. I grabbed a a signature from him on my reprinted issue number one of The Walking Dead and then got to speak to him in length about his newest project that he has been working on, Venom. Moore has completely redefined this villain as we know him. For years, even with the luxury of leeway due to his symbiotic suit, Venom has stayed essentially the same with very little change from artist to artist. Moore took twenty minutes out of his day to speak to me about how much fun he had with the project and I gushed about the intricacy and dedication that showed through his adaptation of the character. Tony Moore is officially the man in my eyes. Accompanied by his wife the two of them manned his booth while he did sketches and signed things for fans all weekend long.
I had another really awesome experience down in Artist Alley with Chris Claremont. Claremont who is the mastermind writer behind The Uncanny X-Men has been writing in this industry for nearly 40 years. After waiting in a shamefully short line to speak with him and have him sign some things, we got to talking about his favorite part of his X-Men career. This legend shared a personal story with me about speaking to Hugh Jackman about potentially doing a duet with Halle Berry in the films. Hugh Jackman towering over him said to him in a stern voice that “Wolverine doesn’t sing”. Claremont wasn’t about to argue with the cinematically tones and 6 foot something Jackman so the idea was dropped, however, Claremont still laughs at the prospect that it could have been there. This man was the most snarky, enthusiastic specimen of a human being that I encountered at this convention. Being near him was an absolute joy. He is single handedly responsible for all of the personalities that we know and love about the X-Men, and you can see where their wit and humor come from easily within two second of speaking to this man.
The convention was an absolute blast and it was jammed pack every single day. Every year the attractions get better and more people keep attending. I’m very excited to see what happens in the next couple of years to come. Perhaps it will be for an entire week! Who knows!