(Or Can Matt Smith Make It as the Eleventh Doctor)

by @dracona1031

Last season, many fans of the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant, were saddened to learn he would be leaving his post on the hit BBC show Doctor Who. In his place, relative unknown Matt Smith would be joining the franchise as the Eleventh Doctor. Some long-time fans of the series were concerned with the change, as in 1976 it was revealed in “The Deadly Assassin” that the Doctor would only regenerate 12 times, for a total of 13 different forms before his final death. So this season, we wondered if the youngest Doctor Who since the series’ inception in 1963 could give the series enough staying power to avoid bringing in yet another Doctor in so short a time frame.

<<spoilers ahead>>

The season began with a new companion, Amy Pond, née Amelia. Amy brings a new adversary with her, in the form of a mysterious crack in the wall. The crack followed Amy and the Doctor throughout the season, sometimes overtly, and sometimes without notice. In a particularly heart-breaking episode, the Doctor, Amy, and her fiancee Rory experience first-hand the ability of the crack to remove a being completely from existence and memory. In the two-part finale, “The Pandorica Opens” and “The Big Bang”, viewers finally learned the reason behind the crack.

“The Pandorica Opens” brings the Doctor face to space with every adversary he’d ever met in his long hobscotching lifetime. They, too, have noticed the crack in the wall, and deduced that the Doctor’s sometimes heavy-handed meddling has resulted in a tear in the fabric of existence. As such, they’ve allied together to devise the most powerful and secure prison in the universe to hold the last Gallifryean. The episode closes with Amy dead, Rory plastic, River Song exploding in the TARDIS, and the Doctor imprisoned for all eternity.
In the final part to this season’s finale, viewers practically need to take notes to keep up with the chaotic timeline. We return to young Amelia, who finds a brochure for the museum in the middle of the night. In true Amy-fashion, she hides out in the museum until closing, when the Pandorica opens to reveal – not the Doctor – but Amy herself, alive and confusing. Soon the Doctor and Rory join them, along with a rescue of River Song from the exploding TARDIS. Amelia disappears (falling prey to the collapse of time and space), a Dalek chases the group through the museum before shooting the Doctor, and the Doctor sacrifices himself to stop the exploding TARDIS with the renewing light of the Pandorica. The Doctor is trapped on the wrong side of a healing crack, and the universe heals over him. That is, until Amy magically remembers him at her wedding reception.

It was quite a thought-provoking finish to a tumultous season. Writer Steven Moffat has certainly differentiated himself from last season’s Russel T. Davies, but I’m not sure how much of that differentiation is a good thing, or if there was enough. This episode certainly smacked of a deus ex machina, a la the memory ressurection of the doctor in “The Last of the Time Lords”, although the framework for the message-from-the-future-saving-the-day them was already laid in “Blink”, where an ontological paradox saves Sally Sparrow from the Weeping Angels. However, this was the first episode I felt restored the energy found in Tennant’s stay as the Doctor. The finale ends on a rather heartwarming note, with Amy Pond and Rory, a.ka., Mr. Pond (no longer plastic, by the way), joining the Doctor for more adventures aboard the TARDIS.

<<end spoilers>>

This season felt like learning to ride a bike for the first time – wobbly and uncertain while learning, then straightening out with confidence (although not entirely without shaking). Matt Smith has proven he can play the Doctor, but his staying power as the iconic British figure has yet to be proven. Hopefully next season will bring more confidence to the episodes, as he and Moffat seem to have found their groove at last.

And for a bonus in Matt Smith’s favor, I’ll leave you with this video (via io9.com) of Smith playing the synthesizer alongside Bristish electronic dance band Orbital, rocking the Doctor Who theme song:

by @katiedoyle

Before you all grab your machetes and shotguns, hear me out! I love zombies as much as the next geek. Really, I do. Hell, I live in Pittsburgh, which may as well be the Zombie Movie capital of the world! I’ve been fascinated as long as I can remember with the idea and have made appropriate plans (as well YOU should! The Boy Scout motto, “Always Be Prepared” does not exclusively apply to boys or scouts).  But, something in the back of my head recently moved through to the front of my head and now I’m FREAKING OUT!

I do NOT want there to be zombies! I don’t!

It would not be a good time and the human race…just…we can’t POSSIBLY survive! And honestly, I’m not sure I’d want to.

Have you read Y the Last Man? No!? Well, I won’t spoil anything for you, but you should really just go read it as soon as you can. Anyway, the premise of “Y” is that every male on Earth has died. Awesome!!! Except then you read about the effects of the catastrophe and think, “Gee, I guess him leaving the toilet seat up wasn’t THAT big of a deal!” No, no it was not.

While not exactly the same premise, the zombie apocalypse would create some very similar situations. What happens when a massive percentage of your population DIES? There isn’t a large enough of a workforce to meet demand, people panic, chaos ensues, and then there are the dead bodies. Just read any account of the air quality in cities struck by natural disaster. One of the big things they mention: the smell. Just because all of the dead bodies are animated doesn’t mean they’re still dead and rotting before you blow off their head.

Getting back to the workforce-besides the fact that there are a ton of people turned living dead, how many people do you think are braving the streets to get to their jobs? Not many. Not such a problem when you’re a grave digger, (you don’t have much work to do anyway, you can’t bury a walking body!) but it’s a huge problem when you work at say, the power plant. Or a water treatment center. Or perhaps an ice cream shop (hey, at least I have SOME priorities!)?

What are we gonna do?
Drill a well for water?
Do you know how to do that?
No? Google it!
Oh, wait, YOU CAN’T! YOU CAN’T USE GOOGLE BECAUSE THE INTERNET NEEDS ELECTRICITY TO WORK!

Can’t use your cell phone data either. And god help you if you try to get some help at the genius bar for that fancy (but now almost useless) iPhone, because I’d bet money that you local, friendly, Apple Genius is sitting somewhere with his zombie kit ready to kick something’s ass. And ice cream? Forget about it! You better find a pail, some salt and a cow while you wait for a hailstorm. Fuck that!

And if all of that isn’t bad enough, I’d like to bring up my last point. TV (movies too, but god help me I LOVE television!). On an episode of The Big Bang Theory I re-watched recently, one of the main characters has this conversation with a colleague who is staying in his room:

Sheldon: In here, you’ll find emergency provisions. And eight-day supply of food and water, a crossbow, season two of Star Trek: The Original Series on a high-density flash drive.
Plimpton: What if there’s a disaster that destroys all the USB ports? 
Sheldon: Then there’s really no reason to live, is there?

INDEED, Sheldon! I’m not suggesting that zombies will destroy all of the USB drives in the world, only that zombies would be detrimental to our entertainment consumption. You think you’re going to spend all of your time fighting zombies but what about when you’re NOT? Don’t know about you, but I DO NOT want to live in a world where I can’t pop in a DVD and settle down. This really goes for every kind of DVD, but it would be a devastating and unbearable loss to never see a Joss Whedon show again.

Never again would I see “Once More, With Feeling” or hear the crayon speech. Oh, the crayon speech! Never would I see River Tam kick some ass or see Jayne sung to by Mudders. What? I worship at the alter of Joss, got a problem?  I’m sure some of you would be unbothered by a would without TV, but I am not one of them!

Shooting guns and running around looking all badass with a sword sounds like a lot of fun, but it would get really old really quick. Bottom line is I don’t want to spend the rest of my life running from zombies or searching for the last bag of Skittles in the country. I like electricity and my gas stove I use to make baked goods. I like Google. I like all of YOU who I wouldn’t have without the internet! I’ll be prepared, and I will plan, but I am no longer wishing for our zombie overlords. And I will not welcome them.

by Violet

Do you like old computers? Have you heard of chip music, then?

Geek girls are all over the geeky domains nowadays: we work in science, read comics, go to conventions, play role playing games, and bake nerdy cakes. But so far in the 8-bit radio communities and the retro-computing demoscene, girls still seem to be rare. Or at least I rarely meet other women who are into chiptune music. So I thought I’d tell you a bit about 8-bit music and about my favorite CD: Evolution (8-Bit Girl).

So, what’s chiptune music? Chiptunes are songs created by programming hardware: old home computers such as the Commodore 64, gaming consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System or the Gameboy. The sound of the notes depends on which sound chip is used to generate it. It is called 8-bit music because those (now vintage) devices only had 8 bits of memory to work with. This used to be the pinnacle of music technology during the 70s and 80s; now of course it is something for nostalgics, retro gaming nerds and audio-science tech geeks. There is a whole scene devoted to this music, and various internet radio stations play chiptunes and other associated electronic music, such as modern remixes of classic computer game soundtracks.

Evolution (8-Bit Girl) is a tribute album that pays homage to the olden days – inspired by this early electronic music and computer gaming tunes. Composer equinoxe programmed and sampled an array of chip-sounds from various old machines, and added old analogue and modern digital synthesizers to the mix. The musical style of Evolution is, according to equinoxe, “Retro-Electro-Geek-Synthpop!”

For the audio-science-tech-savvy – the following hardware was used: Commodore 64, Commodore 64C, Commodore Amiga running OctaMED, Nintendo NES, Korg MS-20, Korg Polysix, MicroKORG, Emulator II iPhone and Fairlight CMI.

If you listen to the title track, Evolution (8-Bit Girl), you’ll notice that it starts out with some beeps. This is not a modem sound, but the sound of a computer program (the game “Ghostbusters”) being loaded into a C64 from datasette. (Back in the eighties , computer programs came on old-school audio tapes…) But the song also uses modern sounds, and is spiced up by cell phone interference – usually an unwelcome noise, but in this particular song, it really works and is in fact my favorite bit about the song!

http://soundcloud.com/equinoxe_uk/evolution-8-bit-girl-1

The other songs on the album feature 8-bit sounds as well, but the beeps are less extreme. Another favorite is His Name Was SID, an upbeat, happy-making dance tune featuring sounds from the Commodore computers C64 and Amiga.

http://soundcloud.com/equinoxe_uk/his-name-was-sid-radio-edit

Especially the long mix of His Name Was SID is worth a listen as the second half comes up with a completely new audio landscape and a gorgeous additional melody. ConsciousNES has the groove of an original computer game soundtrack, and the soundscape of the NES, and an added choir which makes it a smooth listen. 1984 on the other hand is a driving and somewhat dark piece of dance music with rather racy percussion.
All tracks, including a remix of the classic retro-gaming tune “Thalamusik”, can be previewed on equinoxe’s website:

http://www.equinoxestudios.co.uk/music

The title track, Evolution, is available as a free download. And if you like it as much as I do: the CD is for sale for 6 British pounds (just under $9) or as a digital download for 3,50 (approx. $5).

His Name Was SID

Violet has been a geek for all her life. Her interests (read: obsessions) include, but are not limited to, solving everyday life problems by spreadsheet processing, constructed languages, writing postcards from imaginary places, and devouring all sorts of media. 8-bit music is a recent addition to the list.

by @geekgirls

So much was going on during the convention that I was a little overwhelmed this year. Although nothing truly buzz worthy was announced (well except for The Walking Dead panel) I promise to get you the rest of the Comic-Con news this week. In the meantime, here are all the other minor events that I felt were noteworthy:

Zombie Walk

Literally hundreds of people donned in blood and decay stumbled through the streets of San Diego for our entertainment. While many creative and authentic zombies participated, I was surprised to see so many hipsters joined the group, sporting a few blood sprinkles and carrying on conversation about what to do at the mall later instead of moaning. Weird. Anyway check out the Feature Video at the top of this site to hear @GreatWhiteSnark verbally teach them a lesson in zombie-ism.

Drunk Guy         

Now there were tons during the convention, but this encounter was definitely note worthy. Jill (aka @thenerdybird) and I were taking a nice walk around the downtown area in search of sustenance, when I suddenly felt a wobbling presence near me. I turned to meet a gentlemen breathing heavy, eyes barely open, and battling a great fight with gravity that he would almost surely lose.

Guy: Hey… Can I ask you a question?

Me: *sigh* This is a terrible way to start a conversation, just so you know… but go ahead.

Guy: So… I’m a a-hole, I’m a jerk and no good… (near burp).. but I am a sailor.

Me: blech. You have already taken up way to much of my time *points at naked wrist*. Listen I have to go now.

Guy: Really?

Me: REALLY?

Sketchbook

During a super fun podcast on Graphic.ly, Molly McIsaac shared that it best to have a themed sketchbook during conventions. I took her advice and decided to have a Zombies and/or Kittens sketchbook to present to my favorite artists. The first entry was “I can has brains” done my Dane from Monkey Minion Press. Check out all the sketches here.

JJ Boosh

I am so pleased to have finally met JJ Boosh, who crashed the Tweet-Up event with my friend Bean. If you didn’t have the chance to meet him, you missed out. JJ, the hilarious alter-ego of my friend James, gets treated like a rock star and seriously brings people together, even if he’s a out-of-towner or out-of-country-er. After taking numerous photos with my camera, JJ left the party and apparently was able to walk right into a few high profile SD clubs, by-passing any line, and thoroughly angering those waiting in lines. I’m sure we will see more of this character in the future.

That Guy from True Blood

While Jill and I were in search of food (yes, there was a lot of eating during my trip) we passed by a super hot guy that Jill recognized as Jason Stackhouse from True Blood. Once she realized who he was and gained the courage to say hi to him, he had already walked a block or so away from us. Determined to satisfy her fandom, we immediately picked up the pace to “chase” after Jason. We had almost closed the distance gap when Jason suddenly made a b-line through a dim-lit parking lot. Realizing that at this point, if we continued, it could almost certainly end in restraining orders, we decided to accept our fate. Jill was heartbroken to make matters worse, since I don’t watch True Blood (yet!) I couldn’t truly empathize her specific pain at that moment.

A few days later she found out that Jason wasn’t even on the True Blood panel, so we basically just stalked some random hot guy that night. Ah-well.

Tweeps

The best part, for me, was finally meeting so many of my online friends in real life and thus proving that relationships can be built online. I met so many wonderful people who are even more adorable and more fun in person than on Twitter and I can’t wait until the next con so we can all hang out again!

by @geekgirls

After hosting a successful NY Tweet-Up this past February, I knew there had to be a bigger and even better one during the San Diego Comic-Con.

Despite popular belief, Comic-Con is not already a geek tweet-up. In fact, during the convention, most attendees are so busy waiting in lines, running to the next event, taking photos, getting swag, attending panels, that there isn’t time to just hang out with friends. The GGN Tweet-Ups have been a great way to spend time with the friends you don’t see that often, finally meet online friends, and be introduced to new people who share similar interests and passions.

Thanks to the unbelievable hard work of my friend @ArkhamAsylumDoc, my west-coast representative; we were able to secure Jolt N’ Joe’s upper level party room to host the event. I also teamed up with @thenerdybird, and @GeekGirlDiva to spread the word and plan the event. Once we realized how much this event world cost, we knew we needed help…and thank jeebus for the internets!

Science Channel graciously sponsored our event! And along with Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Think Geek, Geeky Boutiquey, Gaming Angels, Luxury Lane Soap, Hallmark, and Quantum Mechanix, we were able to provide food, some drinks, and tons of swag!! And oh boy was there swag – lucky party-goers walked away with a BPAL purple velvet bag full of brand new scents and polish, Star Wars ornaments, key chain light saber, custom tweet-up buttons, tee shirts, video games, and hopefully a ton of pictures and memories.

Aside from the prizes and good company, Arturo aka @aboynamedart co-host of Hour42, kept the night going with fantastic geek flavored music all night! There were even geek movies playing on all the LCD screens in the room! A great time was had by all!

Check out all the photos on the GGN Facebook page.

Don’t take my word for it.. read what other’s said:

From The Last Blog on Earth
Comic-Con Girls | Comic-Con Coverage (special thanks to Kinsee for the interview opportunity!)

From San Diego City Beat
Of noise and fanboys

From ThinkGeek
Toasters, Wookiees, and 102 photos from SDCC

From Larry Nemeck
Comic-Con time! And some reflections..

From NBC Los Angeles
Comic-Con Fun: No Ticket Required

From Geek-Tastic.com
Geek Girls Network Tweet-Up @ Comic-Con

From LA Weekly
Comic-Con vs. Anime Expo: Our Picks

And to all the attendees who couldn’t get in because of capacity, I am so sorry and promise we will plan for a bigger room next year! For those of you who couldn’t make it out to San Diego this year, stay tuned to GGN for the chance to win some Comic-Con swag including Tweet-Up Exclusives!

Did you go to the Tweet-Up? What were the highlights of your night? Leave a comment :)

by @geekgirls

It’s truly unbelievable what can be accomplished with a little confidence, a bit of motivation, and Twitter!

For those of you who haven’t heard how this came about, my friend Jill (aka @thenerdybird) announced that she would be on a panel Where Are All the Action Chicks this year at the San Diego Comic-Con and while I was so happy for her I also wanted to be part of a panel, or better yet, moderate an panel.

I immediately emailed Comic-Con to inquiry how one goes about pitching and securing a panel for 2010. They instructed me to email my pitch, I did, and they got back to me a few weeks later with my room number and date and time of my panel. (This is where I passed out from overwhelming excitement)

Knowing that I had less than a week to gather panelists, I teamed up with @GeekGirlDiva who graciously offered her assistance and support of my new exciting project. In one week’s time, we had 8 amazing women who were willing to join the panel and who represented the wide spectrum of geek culture; everything from TV to comics to gaming. 

• Morgan Romine founder of Ubisoft’s all-girl gaming team The Frag Dolls
• Bonnie Burton of StarWars.com and author of You Can Draw Star Wars and Girls Against Girls
• Marian Call musician inspired by Firefly/Serenity and Battlestar Galactica with her album "Got to Fly"
• Sarah Kuhn author of One Con Glory
• Jill Pantozzi writer for MTV Splash Page, Newsarama, Has Boobs Reads Comics blog, and Heartless Doll
• Veronica Belmont technology and gaming-centric video host of Qore and Tekzilla
• Kiala Kazebee writer for io9, the SFWeekly, GeekWeek, and featured extra in Felicia Day’s The Guild
• Kari Byron of MythBusters and host of new show Head Rush coming to Science Channel.

I got to Room 8 about 45 minutes early with @CapSteveRogers to check out my room and deal with my uncooperative nerves. Cap looks past the room and says “Hey, I think that’s your line.” In disbelief, Cap rushes down the hall on my behalf and then races back with a huge smiling shouting “Holy Crap, that’s your line!” the Geek Girls Exist Panel had a line that stretched down the hall and back four times!

Aside from the impressive line, I was also meeting most of my panelists for the first time, minutes before we were to entertain a room of 340 attendees! But these women were so excited to be there and could tell from the energy of the attendees in-line, this was going to be a lot of fun.

Finally we were allowed to enter and take our seats at the stage, through flashes of cameras and cheers. @GeekGirlDiva gave a wonderful introduction and then I took the podium mic to welcome everyone.

The ladies introduced themselves one by one and then Marian Call and her guitarist Scott Barkan performed “100 Ways to Lose a Man.” It was fantasic and such a treat for all of us! I mean, when has anyone heard a free concert, albeit a one-song-concert, during a panel at Comic-Con!?!

With that we went into the questions. I asked the ladies things like; When did you realize you were a geek, Who is your geek idol, What was the turning point for you to turn your fandom into a career? The answers were hilarious and honest and they made references that could shame any fanboy in the room. I also conducted a Quick Fire round challenge in where each panelist answered a single word or phrase to questions like; Mac or PC, super power, and guilty pleasure. (You’ll have to wait for the video on this ;)

And at some point, Twitter was brought up and the panel actually took a break so the entire room could decide how to hash-tag this event, during this event. Originally it was decided to use #geekgirlsexist, but then someone commented that is could be misconstrued as “Geek Girl Sexist”, so I’m not sure which was the true hash-tag.

We learned, we laughed, and most of all we were inspired by the conversations that took place on stage. The panelists offered a look into their lives growing up, dealing with being a geek when it wasn’t cool, and expressing that at some point you just have to say “F—It” and be yourself and turn your passions into a career.

I can’t even express my gratitude to everyone that came out to enjoy this panel and for everyone that is so supportive of females in the nerd world. And since the panelists and I had such a great time too, you can expect to see us all again for WonderCon!

Here’s what some other sites had to say about it:

From ChinaShopMag.com
Geek Girls at Comic-Con

From ChrisGore.com
SDCC: SDCCPILFs. My list of the San Diego Comic Con Panels I’d Like to F…

From Southern California Public Radio
San Diego Comic-Con Thursday schedule announced, geek brains overwhelmed

From Cinematical.com
Comic Con Thursday Schedule Announced

From ActionFlickChick.com
Comic-Con: Geek Girls vs. Sly Stallone, Bruce Willis, Michelle Rodriguez, Joss Whedon, Morgan Freeman, & Angelina Jolie!

From Discovery.com
Discovery Channel & Science Channel Take Comic-Con by Storm

From i09.com
What you can’t miss at Comic Con 2010

From BryanReesman.com
Geek Girls Invade Comic-Con

by @geekgirls

So far SDCC2010 has been amazing. I’m sorry for not posting here as mich, but please follow me on Twitter and Check out the GGN Facebook page daily for picks and updates live from the convention.

The Geek Girls Exist panel was a hit! @GeekGirlDiva gave a great intro, Marian Call sang for us, and the panelists kept us in stiches talking about growing up geek. (I’m doing my best trying to find a video. In the mean time, click here to see some of the pics)

I met tons of tweeps in real life, which has been such a highlight of this whole trip! I’ve met: @CapSteveRogers, @KatieDoyle, @PhysicistLisa, @JurassicAlien, @MollyMcIssac, @JMStump, and many more! (sorry if I didn’t mention you yet, my brain is so mush today ;)

I went to the Threadless Comic Tees Luanch Party last night which was great! Check out the pictures of all the new tees here.

And tonight is the official Geek Girls & Friends Tweet-Up. I will be tweeting and sending twitpics live, so stay tuned.

by @geekgirls

I got to spend some time yesterday with Jonah Weiland, executive producer of Comic Book Resources which is the hub for all things comic. The site features breaking news, interviews, and a community link that allows fans and experts to connect and share.

Jonah has been attending the San Diego Comic Con for over 17 years and graciously offered his time and experience to GGN readers.

GGN: What do you find id the biggest difference between today’s comic-con, and comic-con 17 years ago?

JW: It’s the size and scope. Its was always nuts, and just keeps getting bigger and bigger. A lot of people say that Hollywood has adopted today’s con as their own. Its true that Hollywood plays a very big role here, but they were here 17 years ago: Lucasfilm had a booth here in 1976, a year before Star Wars even came out. So to say that Hollywood hasn’t always been here is wrong; they do have a larger presence today and that’s due to the fact that 17 years ago we couldn’t make movies like we do today. We couldn’t make Lord of the Rings 20 years. So the growth of Hollywood’s ability to create the spectacular films is directly proportionate to the growth of the con. And its still a comics show.

GGN: Has anything suffered as a result of the growth of this convention?

JW: Its depends on your perspective. A lot of people think comics have become overshadowed, but at the same time, the Cup of Joe and DC panels are always packed with 4000 attendees. And if you want to meet you favorite comic creator, you have a better chance of meeting him/her here than any at other show.

GGN: Are their any other substantial cons that you think are expanding to catch up to SDCC?

JW: SDCC is an entity on to its own; it is a special event, a unique event. The other excellent big conventions in North America are Wonder Con, NYCC, and Fan Expo in Toronto. Some of the other great regional shows are Emerald City in Seattle, Heros Con in North Carolina, C2E2, and the Long Beach Show in California.

GGN: There are rumors that this con will be moving from San Diego to LA.

JW: LA has a lot to offer, it’s the media capitol of the world and they can use that to their best advantage. Comic-Con will work where ever they want to put it. But San Diego is a great location. We’re sitting here doing this interview on a yacht, behind the convention center, away from the madness, and it’s really nice. And downtown LA has changed dramatically. 16 years ago the slums were right outside the convention center, just like in San Diego. In the program guide it even said “don’t go across the street.”

The first year the con could potentially move would be 2013.

GGN: Is their contract up in 2013 to the San Diego Convention Center?

JW: Yes. The city of San Diego has become very serious in keeping the show here. At this point, the reason they need to move is because they need more space and San Diego is working on figuring out how to expand the convention center. And although there are a lot of hotels in the downtown area, they are more people that want to come, so they would need the support of the hotels as well.

Getting back to your original question, I think it can work anywhere, and there could be problems anywhere they go. If the show stays in San Diego and the convention center cannot be added onto, there will be static growth.

GGN: From a fan’s perspective, if they expand anymore, its just means that there
is more stuff I won’t be able to see or get into. If I’m waiting in line for four hours to get into a panel, that means there’s four hours worth of stuff that I’m missing.

JW: But isn’t that true now? At any major convention, you as a fan, as an exhibitor, as a journalist, have to make choices. You have to make a plan, you can’t just walk around aimlessly. And if it gets bigger, their going to add stuff you don’t want to see also.

(While reading through my notes, Jonah pauses for a moment and says to me “I’ve never seen anyone do an interview off an iPhone before. That’s pretty awesome.” Ahem. Thanks so much, but I am a geek girl)

GGN: So what are the can’t miss events for SDCC 2010?

JW: If you’re a comics fan, you have to go to the DC Nation and Cup of Joe panels to find out what going on in those universes. If you’re really into the media stuff, you have to go to AMC Walking Dead, anything to do with Scott Pilgrim, Warner Brothers panel may have some Green Lantern stuff and of course, the Marvel Studios. Its no coincidence that Marvel has the last panel on Saturday and I’m sure their going to be showcasing Thor footage. Its a very calculated and smart move for them.

GGN: You were a fan before CBR. What was the turning point in your lfe that made you take your fandom to the next level?

JW: In 1995 I started a link page for comic book information. At that time there wasn’t a Google and Yahoo was in its infancy and I wasn’t able to find comic book information easily. So whatever I found , I started to assemble into a links page. In 1996 I started seeing previews for Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come and decided to put up a fan site, 3 days before the book was released. At that time I was also getting a little more into the technology side, so I built message boards and suddenly, I had a community. With one book out, people started posting and later that year, we were averaging about 200 posts a day.

This is 1996 remember; there was only 5 people on the internet!

After the four issues were done, we were averaging over 400 posts a day. I realized that I had a community here and I needed to do something. I need to serve them, I have a responsibility to them now.

People even met and got married from this community!

When the series ended, I took those links and messages boards and created Comic Book Resources. I had no plan, its just kinda happened. It’s really been growing organically ever since then.

GGN: What can loyal fans of CBR expect from the site for the rest pf this year?

JW: I don’t want to say too much, but we’re trying to fill voids and have plans to do things that maybe others are already doing, but that we think we can do better. We’ve recently launch an entertainment news blog called Spin Off Online. Although we’re expanding into televisions news, CBR will always be about comics. And social networking will play a large part into our future. Beyond that, I don’t want to say too much.

GGN: There has been a much bigger community of females attending cons. What your opinion fo their presence Comic-Con’s response to their influence.

JW: Having gone to the show for a long time, the presence of women has grown dramatically. When I first starting attending the con, the ratio was about 5:1; kind of embarrassing. But now you see women just as fanatic as guys are on the show floor. I see conventions changing the way they present themselves; they don’t want to be this guy driven thing anymore and realize the value of appealing to the female fan base. I see the softer side of comic-cons. Cons don’t look like 16 year olds’ bedrooms anymore. They are held in well lit convention centers, and professional, and appeal to everyone including families and kids. And parents aren’t going to bring their kids to conventions of it looks like a dirt-con. But if it’s a nice place and there’s other things to do in that city, more people are going to attend.

Thanks again to Jonah for taking time to share his con insights!

by @SaraDion

Welcome aboard again, readers! Today, we take a look at the first half of Lost Season 2. I’ve got a whole lot of “tailies,” DHARMA, and more to talk about, so let’s get started!

Upon starting season 2, there were 2 things that jumped out at me as being different from season 1. First of all, they revamped the music. That means no more sliding trombones (or trumpets? Not sure) to signal danger. However, the new music is just as enticing, although I have yet to pick out a single recurring musical theme that stands out as much as the trombones did. The other shift is that the flashbacks now connect more directly to the episode material. In the first season, the main purpose of the flashbacks was to introduce us to the characters and show us what they were like pre-island. Now that we know a considerable amount of everyone’s back story, it’s time for the flashbacks to dig a little deeper. What I mean by this is that, in many episodes of season 2, the character’s flashback and the character’s current island escapades are united by a common theme. We see the character facing some sort of problem on the island, and then we are taken back to a time in their past when they were challenged by essentially the same problem back in the “real world.” The first season flashbacks did this to some extent, but it gets A LOT more prevalent here. I find this unification of island life and pre-crash life to be fascinating. It very effectively conveys the idea that, even in dire circumstances, people will still be plagued by familiar problems, albeit ones that manifest themselves in unfamiliar ways. One of my favorite examples of this trend is in the episode “Adrift,” the second episode of the season. In both the island action and the flashbacks, Michael fights relentlessly for custody of his son. Granted, in the flashback, this battle involves his ex-girlfriend and some lawyers, while on the island it involves the barbaric Others who enjoy kidnapping children, but in terms of dramatic tension, they do mirror each other.

Speaking of flashbacks, I mentioned in my last post that they were getting a little trite at times. I am very happy to report that, by this point, that problem has completely disappeared. There are a couple of reasons for this. First of all, as of the end of episode 6, “Abandoned,” the two characters with what were, in my opinion, the least interesting back stories, are both dead. That means no more uninteresting back story from either of them! But the other, more significant reason for this improvement is the introduction of 5 (oh wait, I mean 4) new characters. I speak, of course, of the “tailies,” the few survivors of the tail section of the plane, which broke off on the other side of the island during the crash. So it’s been about 7 weeks on the island, and the two groups finally meet up (not under the most pleasant of circumstances, I might add). This was a clever way for the writers to introduce new characters because, like I said in my last post, where else are new characters going to come from? I mean, they are on a deserted island after all, and the show would likely have gotten a tad boring if they had never added any new characters. I also love the manner in which the tailies are introduced, how we are first led to believe that they’re the Others. Anyway, new characters = new flashbacks! Thus, we have a few more people that we as an audience need and want to get to know, and the flashbacks of these characters give us this knowledge that we wanted.
Another interesting point of discussion involving the tailies that I’d like to bring up is how hardened and untrustworthy they are as opposed to the rest of the characters. This edge that they have to them is due to having had more traumatic encounters with the Others than Jack’s group did. This difference in character reminded me right away of one of child psychology’s major discussion points, “nature vs. nurture.” The landing on the island was a metaphorical “rebirth” for the characters in many ways, as discussed back in the season 1 episode “Tabula Rasa.” Thus, keeping with the childhood metaphor, we now see how the respective psyches of the two groups developed differently because of the circumstances they were each exposed to on the island. The tailies, who had a very tough “childhood” (48 days), are now distrustful of others, kind of mean, and –oh yeah— MUCH more ready and willing to kill. The main castaways have better retained their positive human qualities because their island experience has not been as traumatic. This example is only one of the numerous ways in which life on the island is a perfect microcosm representative of real-life society, a theme I will discuss further when we get to the 2nd half of the season.

I can’t speak about season 2 of Lost without bringing up the DHARMA Initiative (is it supposed to be all caps like that?). Wow. What a crazy plot twist. As of now, the viewer has yet to find out precisely what the DHARMA Initiative is, and the plot developments keep us guessing. The main thing I want to mention concerning the DHARMA Initiative is that I love the way a main problem of season 1 segues flawlessly into a main problem of season 2. With most serialized TV series, a problem will begin at the beginning of the season and then solved by the end of the season. Next season, a new problem presents itself. Not the case here. The solution of season 1’s “How do we open this hatch?” problem leads directly into season 2’s “What is this DHARMA Initiative thing?” problem. One of the reasons this works is because, unlike most other shows, season 2 picks up at the very MOMENT where season 1 left off. In many TV shows, it is assumed or even said that the characters took the summer off, just like the viewers did, and that now they are back from 3 months of not doing anything terribly important. Yet another way that Lost breaks the mold. I guess we can call Lost “super-serialized.”

One final point: I mentioned in my last post that “unseen horror becomes seen horror” in the first half of season 2. More specifically, the viewer gets to see both the smoke monster and the Others for extended periods of time in two consecutive episodes, “The 23rd Psalm” and “The Hunting Party.” I also said in my previous post that these foes, even though they have now had ample screen time, are still just as terrifying as before. The way that the writers pulled this off was by making sure to deepen the mystery surrounding both the smoke monster and the Others along with the reveals. In “The 23rd Psalm,” Eko and Charlie are ambushed by the smoke monster. Just when Charlie thinks they’re goners, Eko STARES THE MONSTER DOWN until it GOES AWAY. So, now we’ve gotten a clear glimpse of the smoke monster, but he/she/it is stranger and creepier than ever. Now, new questions arise in the minds of the viewers: “What’s special about Eko that made him able to win a staring contest with a bunch of black smoke?” and “Does the smoke monster have certain criteria for who it attacks?” The same goes for “The Hunting Party” when Jack, Locke, Sawyer, and Kate meet the Others. We see their apparent leader, a big man with a beard, and we now know that there are more of them than the characters had thought/hoped. As a result of this meeting, the audience is still inquisitive about these Others: “Why do they say it’s ‘their island’?” “How did they get here?” “What’s with their creepy fixation with children?” Thus, they’re still just as scary, especially since we viewers have a hunch that we won’t get treated to the answers to these questions for a good long time.

Well, Losties new and old, this is where my post ends, and your commenting begins! I’m already looking forward to reviewing the latter half of season 2; we’ll take a ride on the “Sawyer-coaster,” look at the island society as a microcosm, and explore moral relativism in the series. You stoked? I know I am!