Con Report: Comicpalooza 2014

Last Memorial Day The Blot attended my fifth Comicpalooza, and without a doubt it was the best one yet! I was blown away from the minute I walked in the doors on Friday. I’m honestly a little concerned because I don’t know how Comicpalooza can top this one. Their guest list this year was A+ and they continued to add big name guests the week of the show.

Without a doubt the stars of the weekend were Stan Lee and the cast of Marvel’s Agents of SHILED, with Doctor Who’s John Barrowman and the four Doctors a close second. All weekend long there was a mob of people waiting in line to meet and greet these geek icons. I couldn’t believe the autograph lines Friday at lunch time, a time when cons are usually a little slow. It was really interesting to note how many Arrow fans were in line to meet Barrowman. Now that he’s a series regular on Arrow it’ll be interesting to see if he’s still the Doctor Who/Torchwood guy or if Malcolm Merlyn is taking over!

It felt like there was a great emphasis on panels this year and the fans responded with long lines and packed halls! Another few years like this and Comicpalooza may be able to start competing with the nation’s top comic-cons. While the con definitely had some growing pains – the use of their new app as the only program seemed to be a huge flop – all in all the weekend solidified Comicpalooza as the preeminent comic-con in the state of Texas.

Beyond the rows of B and C-list celebrities, was one of the great comic-centric shows I’ve been to in a long time. The Blot ended up spending most of my time talking to some of the amazing talent Comicpalooza brought in like Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Don Rosa, Kevin Maguire, Aaron Lopresti and Nick Pitarra. I even learned one of my favorite inkers, Doug Hazelwood, lived in Texas! Who know? There’s nothing better than listening to their stories of life in the industry, especially Adams and Steranko. I’d heard stories of their showmanship, and neither icons disappointed.

Although I wasn’t able to take advantage of Comicpalooza expanding to four days, on Sunday I got to meet one of my childhood heroes, Bret “Hitman” Hart! The Blot’s always wanted to meet The HItman, and I was blown away by how nice and humble the seven time world champion is still today. I’m sure I sounded like an idiot as I geeked out meeting him, but what can you do!?!

All in all Comicpalooza 2014 was a really great experience. I just wish I’d had more time at the convention! There was so much I didn’t have time to do and see. I wasn’t even able to make it through my list of people to see and interview. I guess I’ll just have to make up for it next year!

The Blot’s Heading to Comicpalooza 2014!

We’re just a week away from Comicpalooza 2014, Texas’ international comic-con, and The Blot can’t wait! I’ve been attending Texas’ best pop culture extravaganza the past four years, and every year this show out does itself. It’s literally gotten bigger each year…bigger named guests, bigger attendance and bigger overall convention space! Comicpalooza is even expanding this year to four whole days! It’s really impressive what this small little comic convention has become, and 2014 is shaping up to be a banner year for Comicpalooza. Plus, The Blot will be there all weekend covering the event!

What really sets this show apart from other conventions is its amazing line up of actors, artists and sports entertainers. This year Comicpalooza is hosting some of my all time favorite comic book artists, including Jim Steranko, Mike Mignola, Kevin Maguire, Aaron Lopresti and Greg Capullo! I love the mix of old school icons like Steranko, Neal Adams and Disney’s Don Rosa, mixed in with up and coming all-stars like David Petersen, Shane Davis, Nick Pitarra and Paul Maybury. Mix in indie legend James O’Barr and there’s literally something for everyone at this show!

It’s not a true comic-con these days without a long list of Hollywood stars from comic book adaptations, sci-fi shows and cult classic movies. As I highlighted in The Blot’s Top 5 Celebrity Guests at Comicpalooza 2014 post, this year Comicpalooza is bringing in the cast of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Elizabeth Henstridge and J. August Richards), four Doctors from Doctor Who (Fifth Doctor Peter Davison, Sixth Doctor Colin Baker, Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy and Eight Doctor Paul McGann), Captain Jack Harkness himself John Barrowman, and Billy Dee Williams a.k.a. Star Wars’ Lando Clarissian!

Comicpalooza is also bringing in the cast of AMC’s Comic Book Men, a number of actors from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Power Rangers, as well as Cary Elwes, Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols, Lou Ferrigno, Rose McGowan, BSG's Tricia Helfer and so many more! There are even professional wrestling stars like Bret “Hitman” Hart and Kevin Nash! How can you not want to check out this event!?!

Comicpalooza 2014 takes place in Houston, Texas on Memorial Day weekend (May 23-26). Tickets (both weekend passes and individual day passes) are still available, so head over to the Comicpalooza online store and pick yours up today! The Blot hopes to see you there…

The Blot's Top 5 Celebrity Guests at Comicpalooza 2014

In just 10 short days Comicpalooza 2014 kicks off here in Houston, and The Blot will be in attendance all four days reporting on all the pop culture goodness taking place here! It’s really amazing that in just a few short years Comicpalooza has quickly become the biggest and best comic-con in Texas. If you don’t have plans for this Memorial Day weekend then you need to be scheduling a trip to Houston ASAP. The line-up this year is seriously amazing! Some of my all time favorite comic book artists and celebrities will be in attendance. To kick off our Comicpalooza coverage here at TheBlotSays.com, I thought I’d present my Comicpalooza 2014 Top 5 Celebrity Guests List!

5. The Cast of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe invaded our televisions this season with a new show featuring everyone’s favorite SHIELD Agent, Phil Coulson! The show started slow, but the past few weeks Agents of SHIELD has been insanely good. To celebrate the show’s renewal by ABC, Comicpalooza will be hosting five members of the cast, including stars Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Elizabeth Henstridge and J. August Richards.

4. The Doctors

The Blot still can’t believe how Comicpalooza pulled off this Doctor Who reunion! Here in the United States you’d be hard pressed to find an event that can bring together this many Doctors together at one comic-con. As a Whovian I am beyond excited to see what kind of panels Comicpalooza will be hosting to showcase these amazing talents: the Fifth Doctor Peter Davison, the Sixth Doctor Colin Baker, the Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy, and the Eight Doctor Paul McGann! Fantastic!

3. Bret “Hitman” Hart

Growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s every boy was required to have a favorite professional wrestler. The Blot’s has always been “The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be”…the “Excellence of Execution”…Bret “Hitman” Hart! Bret made wearing pink bad ass, and I’ve been wearing it ever since. The Blot’s never had the opportunity to meet one of the all time greatest performers in WWE history, but this Memorial Day weekend I finally will. It’s going to be legendary!

2. John Barrowman

The Blot loves me some John Barrowman. Whether he’s killing thousands of people as Malcom Merlyn on The CW’s Arrow or saving the globe as Captain Jack on Doctor Who and Torchwood, John Barrowman is the epitome of cool! I’d watch him reading a book if it meant more Barrowman on TV. I got to meet John at SDCC 2009, and he couldn’t have been nicer. Seriously, if you have an opportunity to see him on a panel at any convention I highly recommend it.

1. Billy Dee Williams

Sorry Han, but there’s no cooler gambler, scoundrel or smuggler in the Star Wars universe than Lando Calrissian! Everyone has their own favorite Star Wars character, and The Blot’s has always been the suave, debonair Administrator of Cloud City Lando. Who else can look killer as a spokesman for Colt 45 and helping kill Boba Fett over the Sarlacc pit!?! Billy Dee is another one of those celebrities The Blot has always wanted to meet but has never been at the same convention as him. If there’s one thing I’m doing over Memorial Day it is getting a picture with Billy Dee!

Honorable Mentions: Lou Ferrigno and the Cast of Comic Book Men (Bryan Johnson, Michael Zapcic and Ming Chen).

Torchwood: Miracle Day Cast Photo & Television Poster

So last Friday was Miracle Day, the day nobody dies. And you know what? The Blot has no idea what happened!!! Torchwood, one of my favorite television shows, returned to TV last Friday after a year hiatus and is now airing exclusively on STARZ in the US. This means I have no way of watching it unless I add STARZ to my cable service and it’s more than a little frustrating. Yes, I could pay for STARZ but does anyone really pay to watch STARZ? So, for those of you that did get to watch the season premier of Torchwood: Miracle Day, what’d you think?

For those of you that do have STARZ I highly recommend catching the new season of Torchwood. Captain Jack Harkness is one of the best characters on television and hand down my all time favorite Doctor Who character. It also doesn’t hurt that one of my favorite moments from SDCC 2 years ago was meeting John Barrowman in the dealers room and taking a picture with him. Here’s hoping Torchwood: Miracle Day is released on bluray soon after the 10 episode season ends.

One day, nobody dies. All across the world, nobody dies. And then the next day, and the next, and the next, people keep aging -- they get hurt and sick -- but they never die. The result: a population boom, overnight. With all the extra people, resources are finite. It’s said that in four month's time, the human race will cease to be viable. But this can’t be a natural event – someone’s got to be behind it. It’s a race against time as C.I.A. agent Rex Matheson investigates a global conspiracy. The answers lie within an old, secret British institute. As Rex keeps asking “What is Torchwood?", he’s drawn into a world of adventure, and a threat to change what it means to be human, forever.

Torchwood stars John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper, Mekhi Phifer as Rex Matheson and Bill Pullman as Oswald Danes.

Torchwood: Children of Earth Premieres Tonight

The Blot is unbelievably excited for the North American premiere of Torchwood Season Three tonight on BBC America! Torchwood: Children of Earth (a.k.a. Torchwood Season 3) is a five night miniseries event that starts tonight, Monday, July 20th and continues with a new episode every night for the rest of this week. Torchwood has consistently been one of my favorite shows since it debuted in 2006, and it has taken a lot of willpower to not read any spoilers or reviews of Children of Earth since it aired the week of July 6th in Great Britain.


I have no idea why the BBC decided to shrink such a popular show’s season down to just five episodes, but I am glad to know the show continues to bring in huge ratings and has graduated over the years from BBC Three to BBC Two and now airs on the more prominent BBC One channel. If you’ve never watched Torchwood before I highly recommend renting the DVD box sets, especially if you’re a fan of Doctor Who (the show Torchwood spun-off from).


Torchwood: Children of Earth airs every night this week (July 20-24) on BBC America at 9/8c. Each episode of this five part mini-series is an hour and fifteen minutes long and is then followed by a 15 minute “Behind the Scenes” show that looks at the making of each episode, so be sure to set your DVRs accordingly!

Chuck Returns This Thursday

For all of you Chuck-fanatics out there, or just the average television audience dying for some new, entertaining scripted television, NBC has just the thing for you this Thursday, January 23rd. The peacock channel will be airing two brand new episodes of Chuck to lift you out of your reality TV doldrums. Unfortunately, the airing of these two episodes also marks the end of Chuck’s freshman season since no other episodes were produced before the start of the WGA strike.

For some reason the two episodes aren’t being run back to back though. That means set your DVRs so we’re not all subjected to watching an episode of Celebrity Apprentice. The first new episode of Chuck airs at 8/7 Central, then a one hour Apprentice: Celebrity Edition, and then the second episode of Chuck comes on at 10/9 Central. I know the second episode has a pretty substantial secondary story centering around Chuck’s sister’s boyfriend Devon (a.k.a. Captain Awesome), so I’m especially excited for that episode. After that it’s anybody’s guess whether or not new episodes will be produced for any scripted shows this year or if we’ll all have to wait until the start of next season to see what’s in store for Chuck, Casey, Sarah and the Buy More crew.


Also, don’t forget that this Saturday, January 26th marks the Season 2 premier of Torchwood on BBC America at 9/8 Central. The new season kicks off with a bang with special guest star James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Spike).

The Blot's Top 10 Cable Television Shows of 2007

Well its officially 2008, but I figured there was still time left to recap 2007. I wanted to do a The Blot’s Favorite Television Shows of 2007, but thought I’d just be giving publicity to a lot of shows already getting tons of pub. So instead I decided to narrow down the focus and shine the spotlight on shows often over looked because they’re on cable and not on the big four (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox). Sorry CW, you’re not one of the big boys yet, but I’m still going to leave you off this list since you’re technically a broadcast station. And you won’t see The Sopranos or Entourage making the list this year, there’s no grandfathering in for past success. Both had considerably down seasons this past year and got pushed out by some little engines that could.

So here it goes, The Blot’s Top 10 Cable Television shows of 2007! If you want to find out more about these great shows, when they air or how you can catch up on past seasons, feel free to click on the names of each show and you’ll be taken to that show’s official website.

10. Little People, Big World - TLC

09. Doctor Who – The Sci-Fi Channel / Torchwood – BBC America (tie)



08. Psych – USA Network


07. Ace of Cakes – Food Network


06. Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations – Travel Channel


05. Damages - FX


04. Battlestar Galactica – The Sci-Fi Channel


03. Big Love – HBO


02. Burn Notice – USA Network


01. The Shield - FX

Capt. Jack and Torchwood Resurface this January

The new season of Torchwood (its second season) has been given a start date by BBC America: Saturday, January 26th at 9/8 central! Unfortunately, Torchwood is probably the best show you've never heard of.


Now I will warn you the show is both Sci-fi and British (it's a spin-off of the long running, extremely popular British show Dr. Who), so if those two things aren't your cup of tea Torchwood might not be for you. But unlike your standard variety science fiction show, Torchwood is very hip and mystery oriented. The American show Torchwood draws the greatest comparison to is The X-Files and I think that's pretty accurate. But I will say I never got into The X-Files and I love Torchwood.

I recommend searching your cable box for BBC America (its usually a pretty high number) and try catching the show in reruns. If you like it, Season 1 has just been released on DVD so you still have plenty of time to catch up with Captain Jack Harkness and the Torchwood crew's adventures before the start of Season 2. Plus, for all you Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans out there, James Marsters will be guest staring on Torchwood this season. If you'd like a sneak peek of the upcoming season, and for a brief Marsters cameo, check out the Torchwood Season 2 trailer below: