JMS at San Diego Comic Con 2007

[frulad]

Originally Posted by Shabaz

I think I've seen some mentions that Best Buy may be packing in some comic book, so that may be it. Hopefully there will be some way for us non-Americans to get our hands on the thing. Although I suppose there always will be eBay.

Well, that's good, because I was planning a sick day for Tuesday and heading right up to the local BB.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Originally Posted by ljg701

Here's a link to a transcript of the JMS session on Friday.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/rant.a...070727_babylon

JMS alludes to a new TV project, but it's not clear from the transcript if it's B5 related or not. Does anyone have any more news on this?

JMS talked about this a little bit today, saying that this is something that if it's successful can change tv as we know it and involves 2 other high profile people that he seems giddy to work with. He said look out for news on it in September.

I recorded this session, so I will get more info to you guys later. This was a much more intimate setting where most of the questions were directed to the writing process, which he was more than happy to talk about. Also a nice story about Andreas was told which made me cry lol. It was pretty heavy and cathartic overall, not the typical con panel by any means.

As with last night, there wasn't any new information regarding JMS projects in this one. However, I enjoyed this panel a *lot* more because of the tone and interesting questions asked.

More later.

[Lunan]

any anouncments we would want to know abut

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Originally Posted by Lunan

any anouncments we would want to know abut

Nope, only project information I gave of note was in the post above. JMS did also mention that he does want to pick up The Book of Lost Souls again when he can, but nothing definitive about that. I can't think of anything else that would be along the lines of an announcement.

[Jan]

Okay, before I go prop my poor, abused feet up on a stack of pillows, here's my report on SDCC/JMS/Lost Tales stuff. I had a *great* time but I'm exhausted and won't mind going home tomorrow.

(also sent to the moderated newsgroup and Zocalo Today and B5TV)

The only B5 related thing on Thursday was a signing by JMS. Being mid-day on a weekday, there was a pretty small but steady line. Several people had sent me things to get signed so I got that accomplished right off.

Friday afternoon was a group signing for the Lost Tales folks. I understand that a goodly number of people missed it because Wed. and Thurs. nobody at the WB booth knew anything about it. By Friday they'd finally started putting up schedules of events for the current day and the next. A little more than an hour before the signing was scheduled to start, I stopped at the Warner's booth to find out when and where the line would be forming. As luck would have it, the woman I asked decided that the line would form right then and there with me at the head. In less than a minute there were ten more people behind me and they soon moved the line up closer to where the actual signing would take place. As is his wont, JMS arrived a few minutes before time along with Samm Barnes (producer of the Diaries and TLT extra features) and Bruce Boxleitner. There was a bit of a wait for Tracy Scoggins and Doug Netter who, I understand got stuck behind a train out in front of the convention center. While waiting, JMS went out and talked to fans for a few minutes. When Tracy and Doug arrived, the booth people started trying to call "Michael" back. Once the line was complete, the signing began and it was my pleasure to finally get to thank Doug Netter for his part in bringing B5 to reality.

There was a con exclusive mini-comic for the TLT folks to sign. I understand that they'll also be available for people who get their copy of Lost Tales at Best Buy as an exclusive. It's just a lovely, touching piece if you can get it.

A couple of hours after the signing was the highly anticipated Babylon 5: The Lost Tales panel moderated by writer/interviewer Joe Nazzaro who did a wonderful job. Before the panel began, Joe N. handed out some homemade sock puppets to the front rows of the audience. Just before starting time several people went out into the audience to give out Babylon 5: The Lost Tales flashing necklaces also. After introducing the panel (JMS, Doug Netter, Bruce Boxleitner, Tracy Scoggins, Peter Woodward and Samm Barnes), the first order of business was to play an extended clip of one of the segments. Then played the trailer that's been available online and then Joe N. had the player stopped but JMS wouldn't let him and wanted to continue to the third segment.

That segment was about how JMS tried desperately to convince WB liaison Gregg Maday of his fresh, original idea to use sock puppets in place of the live actors. It'd be artistic, innovative and certainly within budget. He demonstrated a Londo puppet (in purple), a Sheridan puppet (including a necklace), a Lochley puppet (with hair) and a Galen puppet (in black with a cowl and a Sharpie as a staff). They filmed a scene with the puppets but Gregg seemed unimpressed...or was that horrified...definitely speechless...and simply turned away. At the end of that, Joe N. assured JMS that all of the fans were behind him and his artistic vision 100% and asked for a show of hands at which time we all raised our sock puppeted hands.

This was the beginning of a bout of give-and-take among the cast and crew that was a lot of fun. Joe N. did a great time with questions and kept things going nicely and at least some semblance of order, a not inconsiderable task. I'll be able to transcribe it at a later time. Everybody wants to know if there'll be more Lost Tales disks and at this point no decision has been made.

Saturday was JMS's spotlight. He updated everybody on 'The Changeling' starring Angelina Jolie and being directed by Clint Eastwood and that he's writing the screenplay for 'World War Z' for Brad Pitt's production company. He said that he got some really great news about WWZ but that he can't share it yet. He also mentioned that he's turned in the screenplay for the Silver Surfer movie.

Before turning things over to questions, JMS said that he's had three stages to his career that he likened to a three stage rocket. First he started writing at 17 and was writing articles and news and everybody told him that as a New Jersey street kid he had no business thinking he'd be a writer. Then he started writing for TV and comics and was told that he'd never make it without the right connections. Now he's writing amazing movies for amazing talent and suddenly, at last, he no longer hears the roar or feels the push of the rocket. When asked if he'd ever consider doing another TV series, JMS replied that he also had something going on there that we might be able to hear word on around September. He was very excited about the people he'd be working with.

The questions for this spotlight were really good, ranging from B5 to comics to writing questions. Again, I'll post a transcript at some point but it was a really good panel.

Sunday was one more signing. The line was quite a bit larger this time but not nearly as long as I've seen at some cons. Before JMS arrived, some friends and I observed that across the hall was a group of young people screaming over a celebrity and we got the group in line to join us in giving JMS a rock star greeting, too. He pretended to turn around and go away but came back and started signing.

It was really great touching base with some of the people on the moderated newsgroup and on JMSNews.com and meeting new people who just love B5. Seeing the stars and crew of the new DVD was a lot of fun and it's obvious that they enjoyed being involved with B5 again.

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

Just got back from San Diego a little while ago, so apologies if I’m rather less comprehensible than usual, but I was up at 5:30 a.m. to leave for the airport. Almost stole J.J. Abrams’ car, as we both have the same first and second initials, but having watched the Murphy episode of Seinfeld some years ago, it didn’t seem like a sensible idea.

Anyway, I’ll post a lot more over the next few days when my brain is working again, but I wanted to address a few comments about Friday’s TLT panel. My apologies for a few minor glitches that took place, but right up until the time we went on stage, I still couldn’t get a definitive answer about what clips were going to be shown. I was told it was just going to be the trailer and that was it, so I was as surprised as anyone that such a big clip was also being shown. And I certainly didn’t know that Joe had planned to show the sock puppets clip until it came up on screen; otherwise our little audience gag would have been a lot funnier had we waited until it was over.

I too was a bit disappointed about some of the questions. Before the panel, I asked Joe if he would prefer most of the questions to be moderated (i.e. asked by me) or to come from the audience and we pretty much decided to see how it went. Believe me, I would have been happy to ask all of the questions, but with something like two thousand people in the room, I thought you folks would have been disappointed if you couldn’t speak up. But until somebody actually steps up to the mike, you don’t really know what they’re going to ask, so in a way, it’s sort of a no-win situation. That being said, if I had taken more of the time, I certainly would have brought Samm and Doug even more into the discussion, so I wish I had done that. Having spent a big chunk of the weekend with Doug, I wish more of you got to know him better because he’s a dear man, but he’s also the first one to step into the background and let Joe do the talking. A couple of us pretty much had to drag him along to the WB signing and I’m glad we did.

Jon and Jan, it would have been great to have more time to chat, and thanks for your kind invitation. To you and everyone else, I’m sorry if I seemed about distracted at the time, but I just wanted the panel to go as smoothly as possible, so most of my concentration was firmly fixed on that until it was over. That often meant being minder/bodyguard for some of the B5 people to make sure they got to where they needed to get to; not an easy task in a crowd of a hundred to a hundred and fifty thousand people!

[Jan]

Get some rest, Joe, you've earned it. You did a GREAT job! I'm looking forward to more of a report after you've rested.

Thanks!

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

What rest? I've just finished answering all the e-mails that piled up while I was gone, checked my mail, unpacked and tried to make notes on all the stuff I may forget. I think four coffees should help a bit.

By the way, for anybody who went to the WB signing and didn't get a comic or one of those flashy things, I really tried to make sure that everybody who waited on line got them. Some of the WB girls started handing them out to anybody who put their hand out, and I had to keep insisting that they make sure the actual B5 fans who waited patiently on line got them first. I managed to put aside a few extra comics, so maybe we can try and get them to a couple of our distant friends.

[Jan]

Hey, have 5 coffees if you need 'em!

I missed seeing you at the signing but it was pretty frenetic right then. Glad to hear that you got a few extra comics to share. I'm glad that Best Buy is a source, as well. Not that that helps people who've already pre-ordered. I looked at the BB ad and winced a little at the comic being called a graphic novel. People may end up feeling cheated instead of touched by the contents.

Thanks for 'dragging' Doug Netter to the signing. It was really great to see him and get an autograph from him.

Now...when do we get the JMSNews.com exclusive transcripts of all of your interviews, huh?

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

Well, I've got a Tracy Scoggins interview on Dreamwatch Online that just went up today:

http://www.dwscifi.com/articles/show...category_id=25

As I've mentioned previously, DW ran a Bruce Boxleitner interview a week or so ago. There's a Woodward interview coming up in TV Zone, and a nice big TLT piece in the next issue of Starlog. Hope that should keep everybody happy for the time being.

[PMvanova]

It was great meeting Jon (without an H ) and Jan and wish I had met up with them earlier. I don't check this board as often as I should and therefore missed them posting their phone numbers!

Everything they posted was about how I remembered... except you left out the straw we placed for Valen. It was a wonderful convention and it was a 180 from last year.

Oh, by the way I am listening to the soundtrack to TLT right now having downloaded it from iTunes last night as soon as I saw a note about it.
The music is awesome, not as grand and orchestrated as the series music, but still good and I think it fits the feel of the movie from what we've seen. A little touch of Thirdspace and Crusade feel, with some familiar phrases from the series music in the Intros. About half of the tracks are what they call 'incidental' music that last less than a minute.
If you have iTunes be sure to check them all 'Gapless album' to there's as little gap as possible between them. There's an almost 2 minute long track titled G'kar that is rather tense and mysterious. I'm curious to see what that involves for sure. The music is a lot more electronic than some people may be familiar with or like, but as I said, it fits this movie. He's got the pathos and emotions all there that will touch us in the right places. (wait...that didn't sound right...)

ROFL!
(I just realized that I may be behind on this with most everyone else. You know... I have this other life away from the computer...kind of makes me look slow.)

TLT is making the cover of Starlog! I haven't picked up that magazine in ages! ::sigh:: HAVE to go get one of those too I suppose.
Still nothing in my email about the movie shipping from Amazon so I'm dragging my granddaughter over to the nearest Best Buy tomorrow and getting it of course. I have to after the emotional breakdown I had at lunch Sunday.

(MY personal report is over at my LiveJournal under this same name. I have a different take on things as you can see.)

[Triple F]

Originally Posted by Joe Nazzaro

I too was a bit disappointed about some of the questions. Before the panel, ..........

Would you be meaning ones like this. lol. He says himself he was caught a bit on the hop (time wise) but didn't want to miss asking "the Great Maker" a question. Still pretty funny/interesting to read something like that from the person himself.

http://www.b5tech.org/forum/viewtopi...t=2414&start=0

Just hope the Techmaster over there reconsiders what he suggests in the second page though.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Originally Posted by Number6

Would you be meaning ones like this. lol. He says himself he was caught a bit on the hop (time wise) but didn't want to miss asking "the Great Maker" a question. Still pretty funny/interesting to read something like that from the person himself.

http://www.b5tech.org/forum/viewtopi...t=2414&start=0

Just hope the Techmaster over there reconsiders what he suggests in the second page though.

Well..i registered over there because I didn't like a lot of the "He has such an ego...success has gone to his head" remarks that were being made. So I made a long rant in JMS' defense. Probably going to get flamed.

[Joe Nazzaro]

While I think the guy did absolutely the right thing by showing the presence of mind to be self-deprecating in front of a couple of thousand people, I can't say I had a lot of sympathy for him based on the question. Having gone to countless conventions over the past couple of decades, it's been my experience that the best way to piss off a crowded room of fans is by A) asking something that is completely self-serving, like, 'Can I have a hug?', B) making a long speech to show how clever you are (which often has the opposite effect), or C) asking about minutiae that nobody else could possibly care about, or even begin to answer. While J.K. Rowling may know every tiny detail of Harry Potter's world, I can't think of that many creators who have so totally invested themselves in their worlds. Add the fact that most television is being done on a hectic schedule with a clock ticking in the background and these questions become even more ridiculous. Maybe you could ask a costume designer how many insignias there are on a Klingon costume, but the most likely answer is, it just looked good at the time, or that costume had to be on set the following morning. And asking the creator of a show such detailed questions is naive at best. These guys have dozens, if not hundreds of people on the payroll whose specific job is to create things like costumes, sets and visual FX. And even then, those craftsmen probably won't know those tiny details, which are generally reserved for tech guides and role playing games.

The best example I can give is in the British TV movie Cruise of the Gods, in which a washed-up actor from a seventies sci-fi series is invited on a fan cruise, where he's surrounded by people who know absolutely everything about this series. Near the end of the piece, the president of the fan club is doing a panel about the derivation of each character's name, complete with lots of Powerpoint graphics, only to be interrupted by the show's creator who explains that each name is actually an anagram of a curry, so Damsar actually comes from madras, and so on.

The thing that still puzzles me is how somebody could possibly stand up and ask a question that nobody else could possibly care about and then get their feelings hurt when people make fun of them. Just remember kids, it's just a TV show; it ain't real.

[Triple F]

Originally Posted by Joe Nazzaro

. Near the end of the piece, the president of the fan club is doing a panel about the derivation of each character's name, complete with lots of Powerpoint graphics, only to be interrupted by the show's creator who explains that each name is actually an anagram of a curry, so Damsar actually comes from madras, and so on.

Ohhhhhh that is so so true, maybe more than even YOU (I’m saying that because of who you’ve interviewed) know. There’s a few bits of funny trivia like that which I suspect may be popping up in a web site near here in the not so distant future.

Originally Posted by SmileOfTheShadow

Well..i registered over there because I didn't like a lot of the "He has such an ego...success has gone to his head" remarks that were being made. So I made a long rant in JMS' defense. Probably going to get flamed.

I wouldn’t expect so, or at least hope not. B5tech is, as the name suggests, approaching things from a more technical (maybe rpg) perspective and as such are actually a little less familiar with jms, on the whole, but are regarded (by some) to be quite knowledgeable. Which might seem a bit of a contradiction, but there you go. It’s why the CGISociety mentioned that the CG FX guys working on The Lost Tales referenced the site.

Though it can get a bit intense at times, they’re not a bad bunch really, I’m a member there as well (Triple-F).