San Diego Comic-Con 2012 is over and once again, it’s one for the history books. The panels! The crowds! The cosplay! The comics! The celebs! The …stuff to buy!

To put the ‘Essence’ of the Con’s five (including Preview Night) epic days in one little photo journal is a lot harder than I thought, but I’ll give it my best shot. I’ll tell you right away, I didn’t attend any of the big Hall H panels and I’m not into buying collectibles. I enter Nerdvana with a rough guideline of what panels and/or events to attend; and when it comes to the main show floor, I just go with the flow – wherever the spirit of the geek guides me! This year I also promised myself to check out more of the happenings right outside of the Convention Center.  Here’s a little breakdown of my own personal favorites:

Most Enlightening: Seeing the real faces behind the voices of all the cartoon characters and hearing the voice artists switch from character to real voice during the panels for Futurama, Family Guy, The Simpsons and American Dad. These people are simply amazing and it’s always a crowd-pleaser when Seth MacFarlane breaks into his Stewie voice!

‘Family Guy’ panel with Steve Callaghan, Alex Bornstein, Seth Green, Mike Henry, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane. Matt Groening receives SDCC 2012 Icon Award. Carrie Fisher crashes ‘The Simpsons’ panel.

Most Hair-Raising: Hearing the noises, screams and groans coming from PetCo Park at night. I didn’t dare go inside for ‘The Walking Dead Escape’…but if YOU did, I’d love to hear about your experience! It MUST have been trippy! I probably would have had nightmares for weeks afterwards…and I’m a devoted fan of ‘The Walking Dead’. I can’t wait for season 3 to start in October!

Zombie-Alert traffic signs outside of PetCo Park

Most Badass Directors: The Soska Twins, aka the TWISTED TWINS! (I started yelling TWISTED TWINS and pointing my finger after running into them for the 5th or 6th time during the course of the Con. I hope they didn’t think I was stalking them…then again, maybe I WANT them to think it..hmm). Anyway, I digress… Thursday morning Sylvia and Jen Soska had their own panel and showed us a promising and deliciously disturbing trailer of their upcoming horror flick ‘American Mary’. Holy crap! The feature film is about a medical student providing, um… unconventional body modifications for willing (or not so willing?) patients. I’ve been a fan of the Soskas ever since seeing their ‘Dead Hooker in a Trunk’ flick a few years ago. Keep your eyes and pointy ears out for these two – I think we’ll hear much more from/about them in the years go come! You can see their trailer, pics, panel footage and more right here.

L to R: Panel moderator Beth Accomando (KPBS), actress Paula Lindberg, TWISTED TWINS! <— and FX Genius Todd Masters at the awesome ‘American Mary’ panel.

Most Over-Looked: As I was giddily letting myself be steered by the shambling crowds outside of the Convention Center with my trusted Comic-Con buddy Jenn, we came across this little nugget: The immersive ‘COMA‘ experience of the Ridley and Tony Scott-produced TV miniseries, to be aired on A&E September 3rd and 4th later this year. All of a sudden we found ourselves in some tented set-up with patients walking around in hospital gowns and drips attached to their arms. Several ‘nurses’ ushered us through several hospital rooms, where we could get ‘COMA’ tattoos or have our photo taken as coma victims with some weird technical metal-hose stuck into our abdomens. Unfortunately I haven’t received my email photo yet, otherwise I would have proudly shown it here. Below are some of my own pics instead:

Experience the ‘Coma’!

Best Crowd Escape: If you need to get away from the crowds, noise and general madness, just head upstairs to the Art Show for a breather and take in some amateur and professional artists’ work. You’re not allowed to take photos inside the Art Show area and they have volunteers making sure nobody touches the art, which is a good thing, of course. You get to see some cool stuff and maybe even a little inspiration yourself. Yes, that’s what happened to me there last year and yes, I’m totally tooting my own horn now, because this was my first time displaying my own art at SDCC, which explains this fully approved photo below. If you like my stuff, check out more my, err, Her Dark Half!

My offering to the masses at the Art Show upstairs; and I’m happy to report I sold the upper left & upper right painting. Yay!

Best ‘Ahhhh’ Moment: Since Comic-Con always happens in July, chances are, it’s HOT outside. One of the nicest and most refreshing surprises outside of the convention halls was the ‘Grimm’ experience. My friend Jenn is a huge Grimm fan and I decided to humor her and stand in line for the trailer for a peek inside and walk into the Grimm forest. As soon as we stepped unto the forest path, the temperature dropped by a dozen degrees because of,  you guessed it, delightful WATER MISTERS placed throughout the exhibit. Plus it was shadowy which helped the cooling down even more. Ahhhhhh! Just for that I shall give Grimm another chance and finish watching the season!

Cool (literally) Grimm Forest display, Jenn – my fearless Comic-Con partner in crime, and the Grimm trailer interior.

Best Mini-Reunion: After the floor exhibit was closed for the day, we headed outside to check out the “Extra at Comic-Con” stage at Bayfront Park and got there just in time to see Flixter about to screen the ‘The Goonies’ in support of the release of the 25th Anniversary Blu-Ray Edition of this 80’s fun flick. Lo and behold, Corey Feldman showed up onstage and did the introduction, then Sean Astin showed up… and then CHUNK aka Jeff Cohen! No, he did not do the truffle shuffle 😉

Meanwhile…behind the convention center.. The Goonies!

Best Eye-Candy: Not to take anything away from the unquestionable talent of the actors, but let’s be honest here..who can deny the hottie/cutie factor of these (thankfully non-sparkly) vampires, werewolves and other heavenly creatures! Almost the whole cast of True Blood showed up for their panel. Somehow they talked Ryan Kwanten into doing a handstand, which he reluctantly did, but then he took it further and hand-walked across the entire stage. Another favorite moment was when the cast acknowledged the genius of Alan Ball and lamented his departure from the show. It all ended with a standing ovation from the cast and audience for Alan Ball. Definitely a tearjerky moment.

Top: ‘Vampire Diaries’ panel. Below: ‘True Blood’ panel at SDCC 2012

Last but not least favorite part of Comic-Con: Costumes! What hasn’t been said already about the creativity, dedication, skill and love of fanboys and girls? The pics speak for themselves:

..never a dull moment!

Honorable ‘Best Moments’ mentions:

– Ian Somerhalder during the ‘Vampire Diaries’ panel in Ballroom 20: A female fan was about to ask a question and made a quip about just wanting one of the cast members to know she exists, when her microphone got cut off. The panel rules state that it is not allowed for fans to be asking for personal favors, like hugs, kiss, etc, but this went a bit too far, imho. Ian stepped in and asked the staffers to stop censoring fans – of course everybody broke out in a huge cheer!

– Matt Groening and artist Stephen Sandoval had a drawing contest during the ‘Futurama’ panel and later wound up giving the big easel-sized drawings to fans after a costume contest.

– Four Battlestar Galactica cast members signing autographs at the Hermes Press booth: Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders) and Luciana Carro (Kat). Man, I miss that show!

– Panels for ‘The Cult’ and ‘666 Park Avenue’ – new tv shows that look promising.

– Running into my fellow geek friends. I’m always amazed that this happens because of the thousands of people there – I mean, what are the odds, right? But yet, I spot them or they spot me. Love it!

One last thing…how can I resist a PINK Tribble???

Mine!

That’s all folks – I hope to see you at the San Diego Comic-Con next year!