Wizard World Comic Convention '05

[areaseven]

I attended the 2005 Wizard World Convention in Long Beach, CA, yesterday as a member of ReelMarks Studios. Our booth promoted the upcoming titles Code of the Assassins, Ancestral and Shoot It, along with Lawdog Comics' Territory 51.

Meanwhile, I toured the booths to check out what's new:

Manga Entertainment

The two booth babes cosplayed as Motoko (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) and Pandy (Dead Leaves). Meanwhile, I bumped into Keith Burgess again and he said he doesn't want to know the situation with Manga's license for Gunbuster. I guess he's tired of our bickering.

Vivendi Universal

One corner of their booth heavily promoted their upcoming Hulk game. The other corner featured the Red Ninja S14 Silvia race car. Speaking of which, I did a demo run on Red Ninja and I have to say that despite the shoddy camera controls, it's a rather fun and challenging game.

Gaming Booth

A large section of the convention featured a place to rest and play games on the PC, PS2, XBOX and Gamecube. Tekken 5 may boast better graphics, but it still feels like the same old game.

Now who was parading around as a Valkyrie?

[areaseven]

Here are the Manga Entertainment booth babes.

[areaseven]

Here's a shot of the Red Ninja race car.

[areaseven]

A closer shot of the hood.

[areaseven]

What's a comic convention without celebrities? I stopped by their booths to say 'Hi.'

Virgil

As usual, the former WWF superstar had his own booth. He told me he recently wrestled in Tokyo. He also visited the ReelMarks booth and was interested in helping promote one of our titles.

Lou Ferrigno

I swear, this guy's a dick. All he cares about is you buying one of his autographed pics and books.

Glenn Shadix

The voice of the Mayor in The Nightmare Before Christmas wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone.

Rob Van Dam

I didn't bother, as he's an ass in person.

Kate Jackson

The former Charlie's Angels star seemed bored.

David Naughton

I didn't really talk to him, but I noticed the pics on his booth. I didn't realize he was the star of An American Wolf in London. He was also the famous Dr. Pepper guy in the early '80s.

Cassandra Peterson

Even at 55, the actress best known by everyone as Elvira still looks good. She's also very friendly in person.

Catherine Bach

Daisy Duke herself was on hand to promote autographed pics, t-shirts and bobblehead figures. I mentioned that The Dukes of Hazzard was very popular in Asia, and she told me she once filmed a movie in the Philippines with Sam Jones and Patrick Swayze. Other than that, she has a very pleasing personality.

Erin Gray

I grew up watching Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and it was great to meet Col. Wilma Deering in person. Much like Cassandra, Erin is great to talk to.

Tiffany Taylor

Last year, I got an autographed pic from Miss November 1998. I got to meet her again. She really is sweet in person.

[BoBe-Patt]

wow, thanx for the coverage! I guess I'm glad I missed out on going. I was suppose to meet up with Solscud and another friend, but I decided it wasn't worth going to. But thanx to bobby and Nick for picking me up that heroclix dark phoenix exclusive!!

[gerwalk25]

A7,

Out of curiosity did any G4tv peeps show up? I know they filmed an old episode of Cheat! at Wizard World L.A. one year.

[areaseven]

A7,

Out of curiosity did any G4tv peeps show up? I know they filmed an old episode of Cheat! at Wizard World L.A. one year.

Didn't see any TV cameras around. Maybe they filmed on Friday.

[bandit29]

We've been getting some of those lame guests for years at the Chicago Wizard World. The only time anyone cared about Lou Ferrigno is when the Hulk movie came out. I talked to him once, he was alright I guess. Virgil just usually sits there bored running old WWF/WCW tapes while wearing a worn out NWO T-shirt. We have had David Prowse(the body of Darth Vader) and Peter Mayhew(Chewbacca) the last couple of years. Both were whining about Georg Lucas..