Disclaimer: The views expressed in this web log are the personal opinions of Ian D Smith, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff or members of the Official Lord of the Rings fan club. Comic-Con Day 1 "Comic book fans are very bright, very witty .... and very scary", a convention attendee tells me as we wait for the shuttle bus to take us to the Convention Centre. Clearly I must fall into the "scary" category as on an otherwise full bus I had the only empty seat next to me. I tell myself it was the "Sorry, I don't do nice." t-shirt I was wearing, but the rest of our fan club party seem less convinced!

The long queues outside the Convention Centre, when we arrive at around 9.30am, are frightening. Fortunately we don't have to join them as our badges let us walk straight through to another queue waiting for the doors to open at 10am. The sheer size and scale of Comic-Con is staggering. The Lord of the Rings "pavilion" occupies the centrepiece of the main hall and is arguably the most visible and largest exhibit in the Centre, with Decipher (who run the official movie fan club and produce the trading card game) and Sideshow Weta (sculptures and collectibles) having the most impressive stands. New Line have a stand too, but, frankly, it's a lacklustre affair. I am not the only one to find the staff less than helpful. The stand's main attraction is a screening of the DVD that will be released next week, but when every other stand has large plasma displays, the small "squeezed" pictures on display really don't help sell the DVD or New Line at all well. The tremendous enthusiasm of staff on the Decipher, Weta, TORn, Gaming Workshop and computer game stands is sadly lacking from this stand (and the Houghton-Mifflen one too), truth be told.

Decipher
Decipher and I have not always seen eye-to-eye, and there have been several occasions where I've felt they really are their own worst enemy, but at this exhibition they really do a fantastic job. Their enthusiasm and professionalism really puts some of the other exhibitors to shame. The staff work hard and tirelessly, attempting to introduce people to the trading card game, sell new fan club memberships and merchandise, organise autograph sessions, and just generally chat with the convention attendees. For today, two autograph sessions are arranged with Lawrence Makoare [Lurtz] and Sala Baker [Sauron] (pictured right with Decipher's Director of Fan Club Services, Justin Pakes). The two actors are clearly having fun - imagine a sort of bigger New Zealand version of Merry and Pippin and you've pretty much got the rapport between these two. They continually joke with each other and the fans, giving anybody who wants an autograph all the time in the world and really making everyone feel part of their "gang". They have both won a lot of admirers over the last two days. Making idle chit-chat while he was signing my Brian Sibley book I asked Lawrence what part he plays in the new Bond movie. He grimaced slightly before saying "A baddie of course", going on to confirm that, just for once, he'd like to play a good guy. When I tell Sala that the picture I took yesterday of him has already elicited a few "He's cute" responses on the fan club boards he high-fives me with a huge grin and a loud "Alriiiiiight!". LOL! Throughout the day teach-ins for beginners and expert games for advanced players are being run on several gaming tables set up on the stand, and the Decipher staff's love for their product - which seems to be winning one gaming magazine award after another - clearly shows. At the end of the day I see Justin Pakes and other Decipher staff packing up for the day - they look absolutely shattered - and they still have 3 more days to go!

Sideshow Weta
		The Sideshow Weta stand is the natural gravitation point for most fan club members since TORn have a table there and their enthusiasm for all things Tolkien is infectious. The Weta stand itself has some amazing new product, the most desirable of which is a limited edition framed lithograph 29" x 29" of the Alan Lee painting for Rivendell, signed by Alan Lee, film director Peter Jackson and special effects wizard Richard Taylor. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide the lithograph features a film cell from the film reel used at the world premiere in the UK, and includes a light switch to illuminate the film cell. A snip at $599! At the more affordable end of the range are some new miniature weapons displays. Featuring small-scale replicas mounted on neat wooden plaques that are inlaid with a map of Middle-Earth, these are available for pre-order for a very reasonable $40. Several fan club members I speak to have already signed up for them - they are hard to resist! Many of the fans have complained that they don't want "orc" -ish ugly figures in their home. I guess this is a girls vs guy thing, because I think the monsters are far and away the best sculptures that Weta do. That being said, I can see huge demand for the new book ends, featuring Gandalf knocking on the door at Bag End on one end, and Bilbo at the back of his hobbit residence at the other. Definitely one for those who love the Sam and Bill the Pony sculpture. The stand is manned by Weta's staff over from New Zealand, including sculptors and double oscar winner and head of Weta, Richard Taylor. Richard is as charming when working for his business as he was on the oscar party night. I talk to him about the problems I've experienced with Weta's sculptures (many breakages, and still no full figure Merry available in the UK as apparently all six sculptures sent to old Blighty arrived broken, according to my local retailer). He is genuinely shocked, makes notes and passes me on to the main Sideshow rep. Richard explains that although they don't manufacture the final product, part of their testing of the packaging involves dropping it from a height of 50 feet! Extremely apologetic, and clearly genuinely concerned, he gives me a very nice "Sauron's Eye" polo shirt (with Comic-Con logo on the sleeve and large Weta Creature Effects logo on the back) as recompense. I find it extremely hard not to go "Nyaaaa, nyaaa, nyaaa!" to my fellow fan club members as this shirt is the one being worn by the Weta staff themselves and not generally available. Richard and his team have a two hour talk scheduled for tomorrow on how they achieved the special effects for the three Lord of the Rings movies, and this is going to be a "must not miss" event.

Games Workshop
		Just behind the Weta stand is the Gaming Workshop stand. Staff there simulate battles very loudly and with tremendous gusto, but after 5 minutes my ears hurt.
I felt exhausted just listening to them. Their energy levels were amazing, but after 5 minutes it was very hard not to ask "Do you really have to shout quite so loud?". The kids loved them of course.

TORn's 'Lord of the Rings' Preview
		Throughout the day there were many panels, and I enjoyed a couple from Marvel Comics that featured such legendary figures as Stan Lee and Babylon 5 author J Michael Straczynski as well as great artists like John Romita Jr, David Mack and Mike Oeming. Alas, I'm running out of time and so will have to hold a report on these panels over until tomorrow. But, in keeping with the Lord of the Rings theme, I should just mention the TORn panel. There were several things worth noting about this: (1) the whole of the Weta team showed up for the panel - as panel host Chris (Calisuri) said: "Can you see the makers of Star Wars turning up at a fan convention?" The photo below left shows Gino Avecedi (with Richard Taylor sat behind him to his left) reacting to the question "Who liked the movie?". (2) host Chris and the quieter, but authoritive Jon (Tookish) made a great pair of hosts and really complimented each other with a neat presentation that was part history of Torn, part gossip (albeit gossip passed on with an air of New Line censorship fears hanging palpatably in the air) and part predictions about the next movie. (3) you can be a fan without being totally reverent - the frame by frame analysis of The Two Towers trailer at times brought the house down.

Ian's Footnote: An earlier version of this log complained about comments made by a Tolkien Society representative. Having since heard from the Society's publicity office, I have removed my comments while they investigate what happened.
More tomorrow - including 2 hour Weta Special Effects talk from Richard Taylor and his crew and the first Dominic Monaghan autograph signing session, together with reports on the Marvel Comics panels