The Lovely Erica’s San Diego Comic Con 2011 Roundup! With Game Of Thrones! Sarah Michelle Gellar! Alexander Skargard! And More! SDCC 2011!

Crazy times abound! And Comic Con is host to the crazy times! While I was able to hang with both The Novel Strumpet and The Lovely Erica we all had such different experiences at the convention this year.

And I know I am behind in my own Comic Con recaps, but it’s coming I promise! I feel like I’m just starting to decompress from the convention and can actually see it for what it was/is. This could be a good thing… lol…

Anyway, before I start to babble on mightily… check out The Lovely Erica’s recap after the jump!

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San Diego Comic Con keeps getting crazier and crazier as the attendance is completely maxed out and people are going to extremes to get to that one particular panel/signing.
I don’t know why the organizers are skeptical on whether or not TV shows can fill Hall H. They don’t seem to realize that hit TV shows which have large, passionate fan bases (The Walking Dead, True Blood, The Big Bang Theory, Dexter, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones), especially compared to some films that people don’t know much about. So the beloved TV shows can fill Hall H and they can fill and signing lines!

Case in point: The line for people to draw tickets for the Game of Thrones signing capped two hours in advance. I was one of the lucky few who got to waste hours waiting in line to draw a loser ticket. Sigh! Since that killed my morning, I basically swore off the WB booth and headed elsewhere for my fun this weekend!

Still, I couldn’t resist buzzing by the Game of Thrones signing to see the cast in the flesh. It was pretty chaotic, but I managed to get a few pictures!

Kit Harington (who plays Jon Snow) and the writer/creator George RR Martin

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jamie Lannister)

Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Nikolaj and Kit

Emmy-nominated Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister)

Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen)

I also spent hours waiting to get into the Ringer panel which marks the much heralded return of Sarah Michelle Gellar to TV and to Comic Con. It was a lively discussion with Sarah more personable than she was during her first visit to Comic Con (for The Grudge).

The cast also includes Ioan Gruffudd (Horatio Hornblower, Fantastic Four) and Nestor Carbonell (Lost, The Dark Knight)…

…and Kristoffer Polaha (Life Unexpected) who almost played Riley Finn in Buffy 10 years ago. Guess he and Sarah were destined to be co-stars!

We also ran into True Blood’s Alexander Skargard who was, as usual, fan-friendly. It was funny to see this invisible aura he has which just dissolves reasonably intelligent women into hopeless gigglers. He stopped to take pictures with a pack of incoherent women. And, no, I am not completely immune – especially when I think he recognized me and gave me some a look which said “don’t you want to take a picture with me?” Ah, good times!!

Torchwood was also in the house with John Barrowman, Mekhi Phifer, Alexa Havins and Bill Pullman:

There were also plenty of captains out to help promote William Shatner’s film The Captains. Avery Brooks, Scott Bakula and the Shat himself were around

Although there wasn’t a panel for Warrior, the stars came out to meet the fans! Joel Edgerton (Star Wars prequels, the upcoming Baz Luhrmann Great Gatsby) and the yummy Tom Hardy (Inception, RocknRolla and the upcoming Dark Knight Rises and Mad Max) pack a lot of charm into a quick meet and greet!

Jon Favreau, the director of Cowboys and Aliens and the hardest working man at the con this year, was out signing with Drew Struzan – movie poster genius. Drew is the brilliant artist behind the original Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Goonies posters. He came out of retirement to create a special poster for the Cowboys and Aliens premiere. (How many times has this man drawn Harrison Ford?!?!?)

Conan the Barbarian is also getting a re-boot with Jason Momoa (Stargate: Atlantis, Game of Thrones) wielding the sword and loincloth this time around. Jason loves playing with the crowd (with and without his hair loose).

Contrary to his characters, Stephen Lang (Avatar and the new Fox series, Terra Nova) is also a rather happy guy…

…and Rachel Nichols is chatty and mentioned it took 6 hours of makeup for her Orion cadet in Star Trek.

Another sword and sandal sort of movie, Immortals, was also in town. This one stars Henry Cavill (Tudors, upcoming Superman in Man of Steel). Even as Henry was swamped by professional autograph seekers, he remained pretty calm and casually remarked “So this is what it’s like…” Wait until Man of Steel comes out, Henry!

His Immortals co-star, Luke Evans (also in the upcoming The Hobbit), also was around and very friendly and charming. I can’t wait for The Hobbit to come out next year!!!

Do you like movies about gladiators? How about TV shows? There were more guys with swords around since Starz brought out the cast of Spartacus: Vengeance. Both Liam McIntyre (the new Spartacus) and Manu Bennett (Crixus) were just about as nice as can be. They posed for pictures and added some additional text to their autographs for my sister — Manu signed “Champion of Capua” (complete with drawing) and Liam signed “Revenge!”

Katrina Law (who plays Mira) is also around and she’s very friendly and stops to sign as well. As the cast heads off, they turn back to wave at us. Such nice people!

I also ran into Ray Wise who I will always fondly think of as Uncle Leland from Twin Peaks. He’s really warm, friendly, tan and has a big smile. So not Bob…

Also, the charming Dominic Cooper (Mamma Mia!, Captain America, upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) stopped for fans.

Eureka! It’s Colin Ferguson! He’s extremely friendly, even though a certain red-head is with him and doing her best to ignore all the fans. She is holding her phone in front of her face and is texting away, pointedly ignoring the fans around her. Thankfully Colin has a smile for everyone which takes the edge of this redhead’s rudeness. Yeesh!

BBC/Syfy’s Merlin also came back this year to weave more magic. There was a snafu on getting the posters up to the signing so those of us at the head of the line had extra time to take some pictures. Can I just say that Anthony Stewart Head is very expressive?

Colin Morgan (Merlin) was back for his second visit to Comic con

And this time, Bradley James (Arthur) and Katie McGrath (Morgana) also made the trip

And no trip to Comic Con is complete without seeing Joss Whedon! Even when the man is in the middle of directing one of the most ambitious films ever, he takes time out to visit with the fans at Comic Con. He came during Serenity and he’s back while he’s filming Avengers. God bless Joss!

Speaking of the Avengers, they also had Captain America’s costume on hand.

And the rest of the Avengers were around in miniature and slightly blocky – the Lego booth previewed the upcoming Marvel Lego figures. Adorable! Just another way to take Chris Hemsworth home!

Batman was also lurking around the DC booth – they had the screen-worn costumes for Batman, Joker and Two-face from The Dark Knight.

However, my favorite costume has to be Martians from Sesame Street. Om yip yip yip yip…

So that’s my 2011 San Diego Comic Con! (Well, all of this and the Cowboys and Aliens premiere.) It was great to spend time at panels and signings with shows that I enjoy and aren’t quite mainstream. Several of these shows are filmed overseas (Game of Thrones, Merlin, Spartacus) so it was especially nice that they took the time to fly out the whole cast to spend the day with fans.

Until next year then!