Thursday , March 28 2024
And all I could do was smile and know that this is why I keep coming back - to capture 60 minutes of magic.

Annoying Orange, DC Digital, and John Barrowman Panels on Day One at San Diego Comic-Con

Written by Shawn Bourdo

CARTOON NETWORK: ANNOYING ORANGE:  I don’t even know what to say about this show.  In one way, it’s very similar to what I consider the current “house style” of CN shows.  It’s a combination of music and animation and live action and talking fruit and musical numbers.  It’s a strange combination of Childrens Hospital and Aqua Teen Hunger Force.  I really reached the point through the sample episode that I lost track of which fruit was which fruit and was just plain annoyed.

DC DIGITAL:  This has been the year that I’ve really adopted the digital comic.  A majority of my purchases have been of the digital variety.  But most of the time I’m searching out comics that I’ve seen in-store or read about on review sites.  The next generation of comics have already arrived and I was ignorant to the fact.  This panel addressed the Digital Only titles that DC is publishing that don’t even get published in print form (at least not at the same release date as the digital versions).

DC has a new initiative to release a new title each day of the week.  I think it’s a brilliant idea because you get a new title no matter what day you log on and if you are a fan of a title, you get a weekly fix.  The titles that looked the best were the Tiny Titans-inspired title of Lil’ Gotham and Justice League Beyond (from the Batman Beyond universe).  The panel was little more than a commercial for each of the seven weekly titles but I’m fascinated with the digital movement.  I think the ability to release these digital-only titles is a cheaper way to try out new characters and concepts.  If they take off online, then you can invest in a print version and you already have issues ready to go.

ANYTHING GOES – JOHN BARROWMAN: There hasn’t been a panel better title than “Anything Goes” here.  Take the bisexual, recently married to a husband star of Torchwood and Doctor Who as Captain Jack Harkness and as the Dark Archer on Arrow – add his sister and new husband to the mix.  Put them onstage and give John a mike and you get 60 minutes of lunacy that is a top-five panel that I’ve ever attended.

It’s hard to do this panel justice if you weren’t there.  John had the audience in his hands from the very first moment he stepped onstage.  He let loose with sexual innuendo, singing (a little Katy Perry), and just hilarious storytelling.  The chemistry between John and his sister is amazing and even with hundreds of people at the panel – it felt like we were all just sitting around having a beer on a patio.

It was the perfect end to a first day.  Sitting there laughing and knowing that real people with funny stories and just flat-out charm are why we are attracted to science fiction on film and television.  And all I could do was smile and know that this is why I keep coming back – to capture 60 minutes of magic.

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Formerly known as The Masked Movie Snobs, the gang has unmasked, reformed as Cinema Sentries, and added to their ranks as they continue to deliver quality movie and entertainment coverage on the Internet.

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2 comments

  1. Seren ferch Dafydd

    Nice article about John Barrowman, however the author did make one major error. Mr. Barrowman is NOT bisexual, he makes it quite clear in his autobiography that he is gay and has been since childhood.

    His character, Jack Harkness, in Dr. Who and Torchwood is bisexual.

  2. I was also at that John Barrowman panel and I completely agree it was one of the best panels I have ever been to. He came out on stage full throttle and didn’t stop for the entire hour, too bad the panel couldn’t have been longer.