The city of Boston has declared today Leonard Nimoy Day!

The Boston native is back in his hometown today as the headliner for New England Fan Experience for the convention’s Sci-Fi Experience.

The actor, famous for his role as the Vulcan Spock in Star Trek, will spend the day signing autographs and doing photo-ops with fans, as well as appearing at a Q&A panel.

Looking at the event’s schedule for today, it appears that Nimoy has already started some of the signing sessions, but there’s still more happening later. Tickets for today are still available at the door [...]

A Wizard Entertainment sales manager managed to royally tee off PvP creator Scott Kurtz just two words into a letter inquiring about the Toronto and Anaheim 2010 Wizard World* Cons.

What exactly were those first two words? “Dear Kurt,” (Mind you, not “Dear Kurtz” or “Dear Scott” but “Kurt”). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that screwing up a person’s name in a formal address to them is liable to not only make you look stupid, but immediately try the patience of whoever you’ve just sent the letter to. It also gives the appearance that you’ve sent the same letter multiple times to multiple people.

Kurtz posted the embarrassing letter from Wizard on the PvPonline Blog along with a colorful response that blasted the organization and its recent scheduling practices…

Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to visit this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con.

Now I can go on and on about how great the convention was. I could say how awesome it was to meet Terry Moore, Steve Lieber, and Marc Silvestri. I tell you how nice it was to see Cliff Chiang, Khoi Pham, and JG Jones again. I could also tell you how great of an artist colorist Laura Martin is but why not show you guys in a series of photographs?

Enjoy! [...]

Until the emergence of Adult Swim’s Squidbillies, never had there been an animated program that so eloquently embodied the life of an alcoholic talking squid and his illegitimate son in the rural foothills of Georgia.

Such is true of the voice acting for Squidbillies’s hillbilly squid Early Cuyler, who routinely provides a plethora of thought provoking philosophical quotes such as his dinner table prayer:

“Dear lord… please allow this dangerous combination of hair spray, bat slobber, and D.O.T. four automatic transmission fluid to excite my mind, occupy my spirits, and enrage my body, provoking me to kick any man or woman in the back of the head regardless of what he or she has or has not done unto me.”

Lines of dialog like that can only be delivered effectively by one man, Stuart Daniel Baker a.k.a. the legendary Unknown Hinson. And long before becoming the voice of Early Cuyler, Hinson made a name for himself as a Rockabilly musician who is still touring. His songs are exactly how you’d imagine them to be (ridiculous and offensive). Actually, the amount of ridiculous shit that comes out of this man’s mouth is pretty much exactly like his Squidbillies character.

For proof I’ve provided videos of Unknown Hinson’s performance at the Dragon*Con 2009 Squidbillies panel…

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 comic book series (Dark Horse) will tentatively conclude at issue #41, according to editor Scott Allie, who sat on a Dark Horse Comics panel at Dragon*Con 2009 earlier this month.

While Allie kept mum on all future plot details, he did say the final story arc would be a four-issue run written by Brad Meltzer (DC’s Identity Crisis mini series, Justice League of America) with art by series regular Georges Jeanty.

Buffy head honcho Joss Whedon will follow up the Meltzer/Jeanty run to tie up loose ends and set the stage for Season 9.

“We will do a Season 9 but there will be a break after Season 8 [ends],” Allie said, with no indication of how long the duration of the break would be.

Allie also said Season 9 could have a different editorial approach, possibly having one creative team as opposed to the rotating crop of writers and artists that was done in Season 8 [...]

As you may have noticed, our video team on the scene (I just made that up — gold star for me), Doug E. Karate and Rob E. Danger did a fantastic job of finding interesting things and people at Dragon*Con ‘09 and showcasing them for all who didn’t attend to see.

This time around we have three pretty epic videos for you to enjoy — two interviews, and even an in-depth lesson in the Gothic culture. The first chat is with a woman talks about how she fell in love with The Green Lantern while watching the cartoons in Spanish growing up, and who even attended the convention dressed as a Lantern herself. Next up, you’ll meet a real, live inventor who brought along one of his creations. I can’t honestly tell you what it is or what it does, but it does throws a bunch of random phrases at you. The contraption is rather big and hangs around our new friend’s neck as he strolls. It actually kind of looks like an ’80s computer and a calculator had a romantic romp inside Jeff Goldblum’s The Fly machine, and then was teleported via the ship from Galaxy Quest, resulting in some form of inside-out electronic device. [...]

The plus side to having everyone dress in elaborate costumes for an extended weekend is that it gives the fairer of the genders a reason to adopt the likenesses of their favorite fictional characters — even if that means causing them to go half naked and/or require the application of mass body paint.
I’m not going [...]

James Marsters gave details about the role his character will play in the upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica in a fan panel at Dragon*Con 2009.

“I saw the pilot. All I have to say is I was disturbed and had to shut it off,” Marsters said, after explaining that he can’t go into too much detail since the show is months away from airing.

He did add that playing a role with darker, most serious tone was very exciting [...]

Dragon*Con 2009 has come and gone now, but the goodies may just never stop. We really spoil you kids.

Today comes another harvest of mini-interviews composed of course by Doug and Rob, and featuring some more of the convention’s best in show. As we all know, conventions like this one are mass gathering points for those who simply love to dress up as their most-favoritest of geeky characters and walk the floors proudly. So who better to have a little chat with, I ask thee? No one, that’s who!

In this installment, we’ll meet two interesting folks. First up is Loxida Delude, the fittingly geek-named hairdresser from Tennessee who’s all dolled up as a Night Elf Druid. She’ll share her convention experience and her gaming vices us. Next up will be a young man who is attending the convention with his mother and father, and claims to be dressed as a character from the game Kingdom Hearts 2, though I kind of think he’s a closet Twilighter and actually dressed up as Robert Pattinson. That hair puts wild to shame [...]

So this was the beginning of our weekend adventure at Dragon*Con 2009 in Atlanta. A weekend with many highs and just as many lows. Sure, some of the costumes Rob and I saw were nothing short of incredible. But for every group of “Time Travelers” (who had the most artistic costumes I’ve ever seen at one of these things) we encountered roaming the halls, there was some absurd things I should never have had to see under any circumstance, i.e the four-hundred pound woman wearing a leaf-shaped thong. Poison Ivy indeed.

Before you watch our videos, know that we had a great time. Overall, the panels were wonderful, and the convention was run brilliantly. I’m proud to say that I walked away from that Con with some pretty cool memories. I loved exchanging wits with Dirk Benedict (Face from The A-Team, Starbuck on the original BSG). That man is hilarious. And I will never forget Rob and I begging James Marsters to march across the hall with us so we could all beat up the kid from Twilight. Marsters and his manager both thought that was pretty hilarious. But all of those moments closely compete with the smell in some of the hallways (The Nerdmosphere if you will), as well as the horrific image of a quite plump and defeated woman wearing patent-leather Catwoman suit.

Check out the video here below of Rob and me roaming the halls at Dragon*Con 2009 [...]

Leave it up to the Mighty Tide of Justice guys, Doug and Rob, to contract the Swine Flu while down at in Atlanta this weekend at Dragon*Con 2009.

While roaming the convention floor, our guys on the prowl happened upon a teenage girl wearing a very clever costume of the H1N1 virus, known more commonly as the Swine Flu.

What’s even more curious is that they found a teenage girl that wasn’t into Twilight.

Check out the highly contagious video [...]

The Mighty Tide of Justice boys, Doug E. Karate and Rob E. Danger, were on the scene at Dragon*Con 2009 for Geeks of Doom this weekend with camera in hand and once they found out there was a Twilight panel, they went right for it.

Apparently, the line to get into the panel was quite long, so they decided to stick around and interview some of the fans to learn more about the Twilight phenomenon and how the fans feel the series compares to other vampire stories.

Check out some of the video interviews here below with some of the Twilight fans. Note, the first video interview has spoilers for the later Twilight books [...]

Ianto Jones will not return in future episodes of the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood television show, should it return for a third season, according to actor Gareth David-Lloyd in a panel at Dragon*Con 2009.

“It looks very likely that they’ll get a full season, but all we know is that they’re in talks,” David-Lloyd said. “As far as Ianto is concerned, he won’t [be returning]…”

“But, there’s always a chance,” David-Lloyd said, perhaps giving fans a spark of hope. “I really don’t know.”

Ianto met his untimely demise in the Torchwood Children of Men special, which evoked outrage from fans of the series and several campaigns to rally the show’s writers to change their minds [...]

Sometimes a picture is worth… well, it’s own post. For instance, the shots captured below (done by geek photographer Derek Deweese) at Dragon*Con 2009 that depicts one very angry mutant. Of course this could have been inspired by the Penny Arcade web comic that shows how Marvel Comics’ new parent company Disney is dealing with an excess of characters.

I have to be honest though, I expected far more Marvel/Disney mashups from this group of creative costumers. News of the Disney-Marvel acquisition is still very fresh in the minds of fanboys, but as you can see from the disgruntled Hank McCoy pictures, a little effort goes along way.

[P. S. - If I've missed some Marvel/Disney mashups from Dragon*Con either add the URL to the comment section below or tweet @geeksofdoom. We'll make sure you get credit for the find.] [...]

Leonard Nimoy will not reprise his role as the Elder Spock in the planned sequel to the revamped Star Trek film directed by J.J Abrams, he said today at a panel discussion at Dragon*Con 2009.

“There are no plans for me to return for the second movie,” he said in response to a question asked by an attendee.

William Shatner, who has been absence from the convention scene for the past few years, joined Nimoy on stage for a discussion that began with a playful exchange about why Shatner wasn’t featured in the new movie.

Shatner admitted he’s never seen the movie, but not because of any sort of grudge.

“I think the Spock character is very well established as portrayed by Zachary Quinto. And I think if you saw the movie Bill, you’d say the same of Chris Pine,” Nimoy said [...]

Plenty of people have heard about Dragon*Con, the fan-centric geek convention that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as Comic-Con. With a stacked guest list and decades of culture, it’s more than worth the price of admission.

But if you still need convincing the Geeks of Doom have provided a list of reasons why you should attend Dragon*Con, which starts today in Atlanta, GA.

Once you read the list, be sure to check back here at Geeks of Doom, as a bunch of us rowdy geeks are down here and we’ll be providing coverage of Dragon*Con 2009 all this weekend [...]

The Official Twilight Convention, held in Parsippany, NJ this past weekend, was my very first convention experience of any kind, so I had no idea what to expect. It did not disappoint. (See my brief report from the Con from the first night — Official ‘Twilight’ Convention Underway In NJ…; also check out all my images from the Con at the end of this post).

The event was hosted by the Hillywood cast, and they made it a great time, showing their uber popular Twilight parody and performing scenes from the movie before introducing the guests.

The first Q&A I had the pleasure of attending was with Gil Birmingham, who plays Jacob’s dad, Billy Black. He made a point of saying what a great kid Taylor Lautner (Jacob Black) is and how unaffected he seems to be by all the chaos surrounding him (may I say now that EVERY TIME Taylor’s name came up…it was met with significant squeals from the primarily female audience). He mentioned Breaking Dawn and how he’d be busy for the next few years between Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, adding more fuel to the rumors (hope…please please please) that there will in fact be a movie for the fourth book. Gil apparently spends a good amount of time with the Wolf Pack boys, and he and Alex Meraz (Paul) have a little battle of embarrassing facts going on at these conventions [...]

The Official Twilight Convention is underway in Parsippany, NJ, this weekend and long-time Friend of Doom and Twilight fanatic, the lovely CrueChik is on the scene for Geeks of Doom.

The convention kicked off yesterday with guests like Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke and stars Gil Birmingham (Billy Black) and Edi Gathegi (the vampire Laurent) and members of the Wolf Pack from New Moon on hand for Q&A panels and autograph sessions.

Our reporter has called in a few times to let us know the happenings at the Con and sent the image here at right (click for larger, full view), which is a sign at the entrance to the Con (there’s another sign with an arrow pointing the other way for ‘Werewolves’ — CrueChik is on Team Edward, which is why we have such a bias pic). But, I think she’s living it up so much that she hasn’t had much time to write in her official report (we don’t blame her — we told her to party hardy!) [...]

It’s still Tuesday somewhere right now and I said I’d finish up my Comic-Con coverage by today, so here it is! My San Diego Comic-Con 2009 SWAG round up.

In Hall H, which is the biggest auditorium at the convention center, there’s typically volunteers handing out items at the very beginning of the day. Sometimes it’s freebies, while other times it’s a ticket you can use to redeem a bag of swag from one of the exhibit floor booths. Thursday was a Tron coin, which led to a scavenger hunt that resulted in a trip to Flynn’s Arcade; Friday was a ticket to redeem a bag of Warner Bros. freebies at the WB booth; and Saturday was a poster and pencil for Lost and I found out that those entering the Hall later in the day got a ticket to get Iron Man 2 items (I was there bright and early, so I missed out on this last ticket).

I feel like I snagged a lot more swag last year, but there were still a few goodies to be had this year [...]

Those of us lucky enough to check in on the smaller panel “Cartoon Books and Abstract Studios Happy Hour” at the San Diego Comic-Con last weekend by Jeff Smith (Bone) and Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise, Echo) were privy to some exciting news from both of the artists, as well as just a fun discussion.

The first news of the day was that Terry Moore’s newest book, Echo has been given a film deal by producer Lloyd Levin (Watchmen, Hellboy II) which means that we will be seeing a film adaptation at some point in the future. Echo is a sci-fi tale that tells the story of Julie Martin, a young photographer whose life gets turned upside down when she gets coated in a layer of metal that gives her strange powers. The series is currently on issue 14, with a planned run of 30 issues. Moore also said that his next goal is to get Strangers in Paradise produced as a TV series.

The other big news of the day came from Jeff Smith, who revealed much to the enjoyment of every Bone fan, that two new books will be coming out in the next two years [...]