• Star Trek – William Shatner, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes and Wil Wheaton
• Fringe – John Noble and Jesika Nicole
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer – James Marsters, Nicholas Brendon and Clare Kramer
• The Boondocks Saint/Walking Dead – Sean P. Flanery and Norman Reedus
• The Guild – Felicia Day and Amy Okuda

Even Bruce Boxleitner (Alan Bradley/Tron) from Tron was there!  I knew I was in for a weekend full of magic when I decided to go.   It was held at the same location as PAX Prime and brought memories of the fun had from roughly six months ago.  I embarked in my journey to see and experience all that Emerald City Comicon had to offer.

From the artist gallery I found a healthy mixture of known comic book artist, web comic artist, independents and hopefuls.  The amount of talent in each table was jaw dropping and they did keep in mind that we are still in a recession.  One of the artists, Jon Morris, was making Pies for a dollar.  Yes pies… not the eating kind, but he draws funny pies like “Death Pie” and you can purchase them for a buck.  Or if you had a better idea, then he would make the pie you asked for.  Everybody loves pie, even if is on a piece of paper.  My “Death Pie” now hangs proudly on my fridge, where innocents chuckle at the sight of it.  Other artists set their prices at $5.00, as was the case for the talented and wonderful Amanda Robinson, who quickly ran out of her sketches and started to take requests to be able to keep up with the demand.  The prices varied, but it was nice to have the choice to drop top dollar or just a dollar and not come out from the artist gallery wanting everything and empty handed.

Author of World War Z and the Zombie Survival Guides, Max Brooks, was there with tons of copies of the book and both guides.  He also had miniposters from the survival guides to sign.  He was a pleasure to meet and talked about how World War Z has affected my friends to the point of checking for zombies out the back porch or keeping the lights on before going to bed.  He leaned back and we both laughed.  He was thrilled that he had affected someone with his writing, as much as I was.  A few booths away was the DC booth, which had a healthy and steady line of people trying to get free copies of comic books, posters and pins.  Among these comics, a copy of the upcoming, first ever, openly gay character, Batwoman could be found.  Interesting read, I must say and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.  A few booths after DC’s was Top Cow and huge lines formed here, as it was the home of Sean P. Flanery and Norman Reedus.  The table was covered with pictures, posters, headshots, and photos from The Boondocks Saints, and even the DVD cover for Walking Dead for Reedus to sign.   They were very nice and approachable, and no fan walked away without a smile from the table.  I scored a nice mini poster signed by both Norman and Sean, but Sean added his own favorite quote from the movie.

Sean: “Can I add a quote?”

Xalaga: “OF COURSE!”

Sean: “Do you mind that is profanity?”

Xalaga: “Dude… I watched both Boondocks movies…”

Sean: “HAHAHA! Right on! Well said!”

And he signed.  Due to its nature, I can’t tell you what it is, but if you search my twitter, you’ll find a photo of it.

The rest of the convention was a menagerie of old comic books, toys, posters, shirts, and much more.  It had the feel of a flea market and only the savvy ones came out of it with deals.  The price on most things, did not mean you had to pay it.  A lot of the vendors would partake in the old art of haggling, making a lot of people happy, when the marked price was not remotely what they pay.  Even if you did pay it, a lot was marked appropriately and very few over $100 items could be found.   In the midst of it all, the guys from 343 studios set up a booth for all con goers to enjoy the Defiant map pack before anyone else did!  Plus they brought toys, which they gave out in raffle form during the day.  I wasn’t the only one happy to see them there and I hope that they make this an every year thing.

The downstairs of the conventions housed the line to meet and get autographs from the rest of the media guests, as well as the 501st and a booth to get your photo taken with the actors.  One of the things I am still not getting used to is the autograph system nowadays.  Call me old school, but I loved going to conventions with my backpack full of carefully wrapped items for a particular actor/actress and/or artist to autograph them.  I would brave lines for hours, or wake up early to be one of the first in line to get that piece of memorabilia I will treasure for the rest of my life.  I have not been to as many conventions as of late so this system still new to me.  The system I am referring to is the “pay for autograph” one.  Usually huge people like Shatner or Nimoy would be the only ones charging for an autograph fee, but at Emerald City Comicon, everyone charged.  With the exception of Wil Wheaton and I loved him even more for it.  Some charged for the autograph but you could get any of the items on the table with it, which makes bringing your own, already paid for item moot.  Others would charge for the autograph and for any item you wanted to get sign, if you didn’t bring something.  Some of the actors charged very high fees, the highest being William Shatner.  “I am a huge fan of Star Trek and Mr. Shatner, but I can’t afford that much in this economy,” one of the con goers told me as we waited in line for the Boondocks Saints.  I’d rather have the chance to buy merchandise from their table than have to pay for their squiggle.  I did not hesitate to purchase a photo from Wil Wheaton for him to sign, since if I would have brought something, he would have signed it either way.  That is something I can always support, even though I understand why some of these actors are charging for a fee.

The convention was large enough that it took you a while to go around and really look at each table, trying to pry yourself from buying more stuff than you actually needed.  But it was almost small enough that when it came to the panels, they were a welcome break and a very entertaining one at that.  Yours truly was not feeling very well the next day, so I sat in at most panels and I loved that I was not giving up something important at the convention for doing so.  It all came down to which panel I wanted to see the most and for most I had no problem getting in.  Some they had to tell people to leave as the room was over capacity.  Most of the ones I did were media related, and you can see  all the videos I took by visiting our Gaming Angels Youtube Channel.  I do apologize for the shaking in some of them.  On top of not feeling good, I have injured my hand and holding the camera for longs periods of time, made my bad hand tremble in pain ¬_¬.  I wanted to bring you all as much video as I humanly could, so I hope you enjoy them. Don’t forget to visit our Flikr account that has all the photos I took from the convention.

Emerald City Comicon was a fun and entertaining weekend, where you got to hang with some of the coolest people on the planet.  It is a convention that caters to those of us that love all things geeky and delivers to its audience as much as they possibly can.  After the dust had settled, the guys from 343 studios made an Emerald City Comicon avatar shirt for only 80 Microsoft points in order to remember the good times.  I hope to see you all next year!

Can a successful Twitter account translate to a television show? The folks at CBS probably hope so. Last week was the premiere of $#*! My Dad Says, with William Shatner playing the dad.

@shitmydadsays, is a brilliant twitter feed run by a guy in his 20s that moved back in with his 70-something year old father after getting laid off from his job. And, it just so happens that his dad says about the funniest things ever. Most of it is heavy on the sarcasm and filled with curse words, but there is a realism about it that helps us identify with it. Little tidbits like this recent one:

Personally, I love the twitter account and I love William Shatner. Thursday night, I placed this show on my TIVO as a much watch later that night. The first episode is Henry (the son) spending most of the episode trying to figure out how to tell his dad that he lost his job and has to move back in. A theme that unfortunately, many people are probably familiar with lately. William Shatner delivers his lines flawlessly. In fact, I may be watching the show just for him because I really did not like the other actors. I found it really difficult to watch Johnathan Sadowski play the son. I didn’t find him likable or believable in the role. The brother and wife duo (MAD TV alums Will Sasso and Nicole Sullivan) were better, but overacted quite a bit.

If there is one thing I wish CBS would change on this show it’s the laugh track. My god. The laugh track was placed after every sentence. It seemed so out of place and such a very 80′s sitcom thing to do. And, it’s not even done well.  It was completely over done and annoying. Speaking of 80′s sitcoms, I felt that’s the feel this show was going for, but the timing seemed off and jokes were forced. Maybe that type of sitcom doesn’t work anymore, but if this show is going to stay on the air, CBS is going to have to figure out how to make it work.

I do recommend that you give the show a try, it might get better. It’s definitely worth watching if you love Shatner, because he does do a great job. But if you you really want a good laugh, buy the book and follow @shitmydadsays.

Granted I started playing during the Burning Crusade expansion, my guildmates who have been around since the beginning have told me about the “old days” and what it was like trying to do one of the 40-man raids. How much different leveling was back then, and how “kids these days have it easy!” I was interested in it back when it first came out, but after hearing about that $15/month subscription and how much time had to be put into the game, well my broke college student self just couldn’t afford it.

But I eventually was convinced to try it out, fell in love with it, and have been playing now for almost two years. And even in that time a lot has changed. You couldn’t get mounts until 40 for example, and it cost somewhere around 30+ gold to learn the ability and buy a mount. Now you can train at 20 for your first mount and it’s a paltry sum to do so. There are also shiny achievements that you can earn right off the bat. And Wrath of the Lich King has added in a cool new area and interesting storylines to the lore.

Very old official interface

It’s also just fun to see how things have changed look wise, from the character models to the user interfaces. Addons, which were for the most part nonexistent in the beginning now flourish, and raiding guilds require certain ones in order for you to run with them.

WoW has definitely made an imprint in pop culture, both positive and negative. And they’ve even received the honor of being mocked in an entire South Park episode. Now with their commercials featuring Mr. T, Ozzy and William Shatner they’re reaching out to more people and the world of Azeroth continues to grow.

Now we have the Cataclysm expansion to look forward to which will completely change Azeroth as we know it. Enhancing the game, changing the environment and creating new quests, this is an example of the kinds of things Blizzard is doing to keep things fresh and new for players.

So congrats to Blizzard for making it five years with World of Warcraft! And for you players, what are your fondest memories from WoW over the past five years? Do you have a character who is that old? Are you also a member of the group who started way back when and want these kids to know how you had to walk both ways, through the snow uphill both ways in Dun Morogh to get where you had to go? Share your memories in the comments below!

Sometimes it best to stick to your promises. Today, Greenpeace activists climbed to the top of Hewlett-Packard’s global headquarters and painted the message  “Hazardous Products” in big, bold letters on the roof.  Fear not Eco-friends! The message that was 11, 500 square ft.(the size of two and half basketball courts) was written in non-toxic children’s finger-paint.  That’s what I call eco-conscience activism!
Also during this protests, Hewlett-Packard offices in China and Holland were also affected.

What spurned on this?  According to a press release, the reason for the protest was because  Hewlett-Packard “backtracked on its public commitment to eliminate key toxic chemicals in its products by the end of this year (1).”

“HP continues to put hazardous products on the market despite promises made years ago to phase out these toxic compounds,” said Greenpeace International Toxics Campaigner Casey Harrell.  “Apple has led the sector in phasing out of these toxic chemicals. HP should be following Apple’s lead, instead of breaking its commitment and delaying action.”

But the protestors did not stop at the paint. Employees were also greeted by an automated phone calls from actor William Shatner, calling upon the company to phase out the toxic chemicals.

Listen, if William Shatner is calling for me to phase out the toxic chemicals, you damn sure I would start. Wouldn’t you?

Free Comic Book day is approaching. On May 2nd Comic Book stores will help fight illiteracy and do it in one of the most fun ways possible. With comic books! Over at http://www.freecomicbookday.com , you can put in your zip code to find the comic book store closest to you that is celebrating Free Comic Book day. Many comic book stores are having events or autographs too!

Over at Golden Apple Comics on Melrose, William Shatner will be signing autographs and there is a Rock Band competition!

There are all types of comic book samplers for people on Free Comic Book Day. Even if you like Manga, there is something for you!