#YayLife: T-minus 1 week til #SDCC

a hoi hoi nerdlings,

DUDES!!! I'm so effin stoked!! I just confirmed my plans for Comic Con!!!!!!! YAYYYYYY!!!

I'm leaving next Thursday morning, and I will be there until Sunday - I think. Hahaha, not sure when I'm coming back, but I'll for sure be down there starting Thursday night.

If you guys have any cool parties or anything I should check out, drop me a line! @JenFriel on Twitter, or Facebook.com/JenFriel

I can't WAIIITTTTTTTTT to hang out with some of you!!! Totes tweet me if you're gonna be there. We HAVE TO HAVE TO HAVE TO do a meet up!!

Yayerssssssss!! Now, it's Peanut butta jelly time!!

#nerdsunite

Countdown to @Comic_Con: 34 Days

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @AdamReisinger

Note: This is part of an ongoing series looking ahead to San Diego Comic-Con 2011, as contributor Adam Reisinger prepares to attend the convention for the first time.

Holy crap, we're basically a month away from San Diego Comic-Con. That's insane. Somehow it seems too close and too far away simultaneously. I didn't really realize quite how imminent the show was until I started getting multiple "pre-order SDCC exclusives" e-mails this week.

Now, when I'd originaly planned my SDCC trip, I wasn't too focused on show exclusives for a few reasons:

1. The cost quickly starts adding up, especially when dealing with stuff like statues and busts

2. When you buy them at the show, you have to deal with transporting them back across the country

3. Many of them aren't really "exclusive" anyway; some can be pre-ordered for non-attendees while others don't sell out in San Diego and are available for weeks after

But eventually the reality of "I'm going to Comic-Con and I can easily buy all this stuff" sinks in. That happened for me a couple days ago, when I finally put in a pre-order for the SDCC exclusive issues of the "Dollhouse" comic from Dark Horse and the "Charmed" comic from Zenescope, along with the Emma Frost statue pictured up top.

As for what else I'm going to get, well that's going to take some planning -- and even with that planning I probably won't know for sure until I'm walking the show floor. Bleeding Cool has a nice list of Previews exclusives, and AwesomeToyBlog is keeping an updated list of action figures, statues and the like that is regularly updated as new exclusives are announced.

Perhaps the most impressive list I've seen so far comes from the SDCC Blog, which has an ongoing list of exclusives along with pretty good pictures of each. Among the ones I haven't ordered yet, here are the top 5 items I want to get (in no particular order):

- Ultimate Fallout #1, White Cover Edition

- "The Simpsons" Comic Book Guy Ornament

- Gremlins Gizmo Comic Con Edition

- Ghostbusters Stay Puft Marshmallow Man - Carol Ferris Barbie Doll (for my niece, I swear!)

Be sure to follow Adam on Twitter @AdamReisinger or visit his website, www.adamreisinger.com

#nerdsunite

Countdown to @Comic_Con: 63 Days!

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @AdamReisinger

Note: This is part of an ongoing series looking ahead to San Diego Comic-Con 2011, as contributor Adam Reisinger prepares to attend the convention for the first time.

I generally don't go to "The Cleveland Show" for pointed social commentary (or, really, anything for that matter), but this past Sunday's episode was particularly relevant, as it was set at San Diego Comic-Con. One of the main stories of the episode centered around Cleveland's son, Cleveland Jr., leading an uprising of the traditional "geeks" at Comic-Con against the new media "invaders", who had taken over the show space but really had nothing to do with comics.

Though I've never been to the show, I'm well aware about how big of an issue this has become. In fact, almost every I've talked to who has been to the show has generally expressed two sentiments to me when I tell them I'm going for the first time this summer:

- You're going to have so much fun

- It's too bad you couldn't have gone before it got so big

In this case "before it got so big" is really code for "before Hollywood decided Comic-Con was the perfect venue to show off everything, regardless of its connections to the worlds of comic books, fantasy or science fiction." On "The Cleveland Show", that was represented by the fictional NBC sitcom "Schwim Team", starring David Schwimmer, but in the real world, things got out of control -- based on the reaction I could see around the blogosphere -- with last year's "Glee" panel. It seemed the only connection between the show and the convention was that fans of "Glee" call themselves "Gleeks". As much as I enjoy "Glee", when I think "Comic-Con", I think Stan Lee and Adam Hughes and Batman and cosplay and all that stuff. Not Lea Michele and overwrought teen drama.

As it is, that ship has sailed on Comic-Con, and while it might (read: will) result in having a harder time getting a seat for panels, I'm not going to let it get in the way of enjoying the things I want to enjoy at the show. And if it does, I'll just have to do this:

#nerdsunite

Countdown to @Comic_Con: 17 Weeks!

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @AdamReisinger

Note: This is the second entry in an ongoing series looking ahead to San Diego Comic-Con 2011, as contributor Adam Reisinger prepares to attend the convention for the first time.

17 weeks.

Still seems like way too long to wait until Comic-Con, but if you're in California, you don't have to -- at least, sort of.

If you're in San Francisco this weekend, you can stop by WonderCon, which is the only other comic book convention put together by the organizers of San Diego Comic-Con -- as it has been since 2001 (prior to that, the show ran independently). 

While there is definitely a fair amount of time and space devoted to non-comic media at WonderCon, the show still retains the majority of its comic book roots. If you're looking for the "Glee" cast or previews of "Breaking Dawn", this probably isn't the show for you.

However, because of that tighter focus, WonderCon remains a much easier show to attend. 3-day tickets are only $40 (compared to $107 for SDCC) and, amazingly, are still available. In addition to the normal comic book convention fare (dealers selling massive amounts of books, artists plying their trade, a masquerade), this year's WonderCon will have a presentation on the upcoming movie "Green Lantern", with stars Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively appearing on stage. Their panel at last year's SDCC was a huge hit, and considering how much closer we are to the movie's release -- June 17 -- this event could be the last real chance for the stars to sell the hardcore fans on the movie. 

I'm literally on the opposite coast from the show, so there's no chance of me getting out there (getting to San Diego is going to be enough of an ordeal), but if you're in the area, I highly recommend checking it out . It'll be like a taste of San Diego without quite the same level of insanity. 

Check back next Thursday for the next installment of "Countdown to Comic-Con", and be sure to follow Adam on

Twitter @AdamReisinger or visit his website, www.adamreisinger.com

#nerdsunite