Bond at Comic-Con 2006
Athena Stamos w/ Darth Maul & Elvis Trooper
Ah the joys a geek girl gets from one of her annual conventions: Comic-Con International.
Comic-Con is the largest comic book and pop culture event in North America. This 4-day event drew an estimated 100,000 plus hardcore comic book and movie fans to the San Diego convention center this year’s 37th annual convention which ran from Thursday, July 20 though Sunday, July 23. Here are the company’s and people who kept James Bond alive at the con…
SIDESHOW COLLECTABLES
As always our faithful Sideshow had their massive booth which sported new figures from their 007 Legacy Collection and the new Premium Format Roger Moore. These stood along side the Premium Format Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan figures. Oh and some potentially good news for 007 Sideshow collectors; we heard a rumour on the floor that Sideshow will be continuing their Bond line with Casino Royale figures!
Order from SideshowToy.com
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On Friday there was a panel titled “Action Figures: Under the Knife.” The panelists included Sideshow’s Matt Fall, who is the sculptor of many of the 007 Legacy figures including. The panel focused on the fact that action figure sculpting has become pop art and the artists are now known by name instead of being the nameless, faceless sculptor. The panelists also talked about their sculpting techniques and gave advice about how to become an action figure sculptor.
On Saturday there was another panel called “Behind the Plastic: From Concept to Collectable.” Brant Bridges, production manager for Sideshow Collectables, was on the panel. This panel of toy professionals discussed each step in the process of how your favorite character goes from an idea on paper to an actual toy.
SONY PICTURES
Sony/MGM, the entertainment company who works along with Eon/Danjaq to bring us the James Bond films, actually was of course at Comic-Con. They were there to mainly to promote next years Spiderman 3 (2007) and Ghost Rider (2007). They had a “Sony Presents” panel where Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes and Mark Steven Johnson showed up to talk about Ghost Rider and as for Spidy… Sam Raimi, Kirsten Dunst, Toby Maguire, Topher Grace, Thomas Haden Church and Bryce Dallas Howard were in attendance.
Of course this is about James Bond though. In past years the MGM had nothing Bond related at there booth at all, of course in all fairness there wasn’t a 007 movie on the horizon for the past 3 years. Sony did actually have “something” (what was it?!) they were planning Bond wise for the convention, but time and lack of approval got in the way. Thankfully James Bond was not forgotten all together though. A huge Casino Royale tester poster was plastered on their booth twice along with other posters for the upcoming movies. The poster was also on a rotating plate above their booth. Best of all… free 007 goodies! They had plenty of Casino Royale movie postcards for the taking.
Visit Casino Royale’s official site: JamesBond.com.
DK PUBLISHING
John Cox
DK Publishing had a panel on Thursday where DK licensing publisher Alex Allan and senior designer Robert Perry revealed the work behind the DC Comics Encyclopedia, the Star Wars Visual Dictionaries and The Secret World of James Bond, and previewed their upcoming guides on Smallville, Stargate, and Conan the Barbarian.
At their booth they had displayed the brand new Bond On Set: Casino Royale as well as the reprint of James Bond: The Secret World of 007. The man we were speaking to about the reprint said that they had to change the cover because Pierce Bronson is no longer Bond and he was on the old cover. I wanted to slap the man… Bronson? Its Brosnan! Stop getting Bond wrong! Anywhooo…
Bond On Set: Casino Royale
release date: Oct 16, 2006
Pre-Order: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.ukJames Bond: The Secret World of 007
release date: Oct 02, 2006
Pre-order: Amazon.com
00-APPEARANCES
Grand L. Bush
John Cork
Grand L. Bush: He was signing autographs all weekend in Autograph Ally. He appeared as DEA agent Hawkins in Licence to Kill starting Timothy Dalton. A week earlier Mr. L. Bush was at the Hollywood Collectors Show in Burbank, CA… the man gets around! And not to mention he’s a pleasure to talk with.
John Cork: Co-author of James Bond: The Legacy was down on the convention floor at the Moonstone booth signing teaser copies (w/ artist: Christopher LaGasse) of Night Driver, a new graphic novel which he wrote! It’s about a family man who looses a day and keeps stumbling upon dead bodies. It’ll be out in September so ask for Night Driver at your local comic-book store or check their web-site to see when you can find stores who carry their books.
Gerard Butler: Remember him? CBn confirmed him as one of the Men Who Could Have Been Bond. He showed up on a panel promotion Warner Bros new movie 300 (2007) which is based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel, he stars as Spartan King Leonidas. Something else worth mentionin: Butler is also starting alongside Pierce Brosnan in the upcoming thriller Butterfly on a Wheel (2007).
PROFILES IN HISTORY
Profiles in History Auction House is the nation’s leading dealer in guaranteed-authentic original historical autographs, letters, documents, vintage signed photographs and manuscripts. They had a booth at the Comic-Con where they displayed film and television memorabilia from Star Wars, Star Trek, King Kong, The Wizard of Oz, etc. Oh… and James Bond of course, or else I wouldn’t be mentioning them. One of Pierce Brosnan’s ties and his P99 from Die Another Day were on top shelf display.
ARTWORK
Bob Peak (1928-1992)
Comp. Sketch for movie poster design
Stanging James Bond firing gun.
1988
Licence to Kill
pastel on toned board, 28 x 20″ not signed
priced at: $2,500.00
USAOPOLY
When you hit the dealer tables… James Bond Monopoly was everywhere. So… I bought one. Pretty fun too! Last week I took it for a test-play with CBn member John Cox, 007 continuation author Raymond Benson and his son Max. Benson won… damn him and his Bondian ways! LOL — But more on the game another time when it can be given a proper review.
James Bond Monopoly 007
available now: USAopoly.com or Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
ACTIVISION
I was hoping AcTiVision, the gaming company who now holds the license to proiduce 007 games, would have something Bondian set up like they did at E-3 this year (a huge 007 w/ gun statue). But alas, no… they were set up to all out promote Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Perhaps we.ll see something next year though when they get into the grove of actually producing a James Bond game.
SMART POP BOOKS
They had a booth and had a panel which they talked about their X-Men, Lost, Superman, Star Wars, Star Trek, and World of Warcraft books. But no sight of their upcoming 007 book: James Bond in the 21st Century which features anthologies by CBn’s own John Cox, 007 continuation author Raymond Benson, and Lee Pfeiffer.
James Bond in the 21st Century
release date: Sept 01, 2006
pre-order: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk