Sci-Fi Storm

This is an article I should have written months ago…Rhode Island Comic Con, in Providence, RI took place in November. But various events got in my way (including a few medical issues), and just keeping caught up on the news was a challenge. But my wife mentioned who was coming to the con this year and booked us a room, I remembered – I never wrote anything! In fact, I thought I had at one point…

Luke’s Landspeeder

Several years ago I had planned to go to San Diego ComicCon, but had to cancel. Now it just seems like it is too crazy to even think of attending. Last year we all planned a trip to New York ComicCon, and I even had my press credentials in hand, but had to cancel that as well.
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Fashion Week may belong in New York City, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have our own version of it, and have it at the center of geekdom – San Diego Comic-Con!

Our dear friends at Her Universe, in conjunction with Hot Topic and Nerdist Industries, will bring the first-ever full-scale “Geek Couture” fashion show and design competition to SDCC this year, which runs July 24-27, 2014.

As part of the fashion show, Her Universe is offering a fashion design competition – amateur designers 18 years old and older can submit designs to HerUniverse.com inspired by anything that is celebrated at Comic-Con. 30 contestants will be chosen to participate at the show, modeling the fashions themselves or with their own model. Two winners will be chosen – one by a panel of judges (including fashion experts), and the other by the audience. The prize? An opportunity to co-design, with Ashley Eckstein, an exclusive Her Universe fashion collection for Hot Topic.

Check out the official release for more info! And my daughter is trying to figure out how to age five years in the next couple weeks 🙂

If you still aren’t sure what the anti-bullying panel at Comic-Con was all about, check out this video from the Nerdist Channel highlighting the panel.

Anti-bullying efforts are important to me. Although I was not a victim of systematic bullying, I did experience it several times…oddly, they were kids who had previously been friends. In one case, when asked why he answered, “Because I have to.” No, you don’t.

Now I have two girls of my own, big science fiction fans…and I am determined that they will not face bullying.

Just announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe – the next Star Wars Celebration (presumably Celebration VII – connection?) will return to California, and take place April 16th-19th, 2015 in Anaheim.

The previous two Celebrations were held in Orlando, Florida. Celebration IV was held in Los Angeles in 2007.

The stars of Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, were not scheduled to appear for the Sherlock panel at Comic-Con – but they did make an appearance – via pre-recorded videos, while co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss and producer Sue Vertue were in person. Freeman appeared in his full Bilbo costume plus sunglasses, asking the audience to scream a lot and ask the panel a lot of “belligerent questions”, while Cumberbatch joked that he was there for a Star Trek: Into Darkness press junket.

The audience enjoyed a scene from the second episode of the upcoming third Sherlock series, where Holmes (Cumberbatch) delivers a Best Man speech to the groom, Watson (Freeman).

The geek community knows about bullying. Now the geek community is working to stop it. And it will get a boost at San Diego Comic-Con on Sunday, July 21st (4:00pm Room 4), with its first anti-bullying panel.

The panel, moderated by author Carrie Goldman (Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear), who is also the mother of Katie, the girl who got teased for loving Star Wars, will cover all levels of bullying, be it wearing costumes, body shapes, gender roles, LGBT issues, etc. And it’s not just bullies vs. geeks – it’s geek vs. geek sometimes. (Hint: Don’t wear your Star Trek uniform to a theater when Episode VII premieres…)

The panel will include Adam Bouska and Jeff Parshley (founders of NOH8), actor Brad Bell (Husbands), actress Chase Masterson (Star Trek: Deep Space 9), author and journalist Bonnie Burton (Girls Against Girls: Why We are Mean to Each Other and How We Can Change), journalist Jenna Busch, actress and Her Universe founder Ashley Eckstein (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), and TV writer/producer Jane Espenson (Once Upon A Time, Husbands, and far too many other things to mention but you’ve watched them).

Participating organizations include the Anti-Defamation League, Cartoon Network’s Stop Bullying: Speak Up, the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, the International Bullying Prevention Association and the United Nations Association.

The nominees for the 2013 Hugo Awards were announced yesterday…here they are (with links when available if you want to check them out). The 2013 Hugos will be presented at LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio, Texas, August 29-September 2, 2013 – the 71st Annual World Science Fiction Convention.

Best Novel:

[asin=0316098124]2312[/asin], Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
[asin=0316081078]Blackout[/asin], Mira Grant (Orbit)
[asin=1451638450]Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance[/asin], Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
[asin=0765334798]Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas[/asin], John Scalzi (Tor)
[asin=B00B9ZEMN6]Throne of the Crescent Moon[/asin], Saladin Ahmed (DAW)

Best Novella:

[asin=1616960655]After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall[/asin], Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)
[asin=1616960922]The Emperor’s Soul[/asin], Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)
[asin=0956392458]On a Red Station, Drifting[/asin], Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
[asin=B0089EHIA4]San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats[/asin], Mira Grant (Orbit)
“The Stars Do Not Lie”, Jay Lake (Asimov’s, Oct-Nov 2012)
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If you are at SXSW this weekend, you can get a look at that the town of Defiance looks like, chat with one of the stars – and even eat Defiance-style!

Syfy is taking over SXSW Interactive with the transmedia adventure of the Defiance Container Village (San Jacinto & 4th) – an immersive environment that recreates aspects of the futuristic world of Defiance in downtown Austin.

The Defiance Container Village will be live 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. from March 8 – 11. Some of the highlights of SXSW & the village include the following:

– Cast member Jesse Rath will live-tweet from @DefianceWorld. Tweet #DefianceSXSW to join the conversation & possibly win some swag, including a private happy hour in the village.

– SXSW GEEK Stage: The Making of Defiance, A Living Transmedia World

– A Need/Want Social Bar will allow visitors to express & share their personal needs & wants with an app that aggregates the collective results and posts them to the bar’s interactive wall & individual’s social feeds. Throughout the course of SXSW, Needs & Wants will be fulfilled for some lucky participants.

– Chi’Lantro, a Korean-BBQ food truck, will be dramatically transformed & serving its menu Defiance-style.

– One container in the village will be open for the public to relax, charge mobile devices & use the internet.

– Experience Defiance, play the game, mix with cast members, & party with DJs.

If you go say hi to Jesse for me!

The winners of the 2012 Hugo Awards were announced last night at Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention. Neil Gaiman, with several Hugos already, picked up another – but instead of getting Best Novel, he won the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form award for the Doctor Who episode, “The Doctor’s Wife”.

Here is a list of the winners:
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San Diego Comic-Con kicked off formally today (have I mentioned yet that I’m not there again this year? :() and so far, most of what I’ve seen is Twilight, Twilight, and Twilight. However, there are a few cool things to be seen. One of the best may be the “The Walking Dead Escape”, set up over at Petco Park.

THR has a video giving a glimpse of it before unleashing the “survivors” (and the walkers) in it (see below). It’s a post-zombiepocalypse obstacle course, where “survivors” can pay $75 and take a run at it, which could take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour to complete. Spectators can pay $15 just to watch. And it will include 650 “walkers” in full makeup done by The Walking Dead‘s own Greg Nicotero and his team.
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