Comic-Con Notepad: Vol. 2

A panel for the Fox animated series “Bob’s Burgers”. (Fox.com)

TV shows, trailers dominate for the second day

(Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Tumblr due to a recent site outage. A trailer to “The Defenders” and “The Punisher” – which weren’t linked in the original Tumblr post were added and the original YouTube video for the “Rick And Morty” panel was replaced. – T.H.) 

Friday’s Comic-Con from San Diego featured tons of panels and trailers from movies and TV shows. Presenters this day ran the gamut from The Big Bang Theory to Bob’s Burgers, from Archer to The Walking Dead to Game of Thrones, who season premiere set viewership records for HBO on July 16.


Friday was a big day for Marvel Television as the outfit made announcement and released trailers regarding several television series, including the most buzzed-about show, The Defenders.

The pilot – which brings together the stars of four Marvel Netflix series – Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage – was screened in Hall H Friday to a very surprised and raucous crowd. On hand were Charlie Cox (Daredevil) Krysten Ritter (Jones) Mike Colter (Cage) and Finn Jones (Iron Fist) and the President of Marvel Television, Jeph Loeb, who quipped “Let’s face it — we have a guy who was in a bad Ben Affleck movie, a character no one had ever heard of who drinks a lot, the first black superhero and a guy with a glowing [fist].”

On stage, the stars talked a little about the show – including the drinking, fighting, lawyering up, and of course, the physical sex.

Yes, this isn’t the failed CBS legal drama Defenders from 2010, a different series featuring Jim Belushi (more on him below.) And it certainly isn’t the unrelated 1960s court drama of the same name. Defenders debuts August 18.

A second trailer of The Defenders debuted at Comic-Con: you can view it here.

Meanwhile, Loeb announced a second-season renewal for Iron Fist, which wasn’t critically received as well as the other Marvel Netflix series. And a trailer was shown for yet another Marvel/Netflix series The Punisher, a spin-off (of sorts) from Daredevil. You can view the trailer here.

Another Marvel series debuting this fall (The Inhumans) will be covered in the third volume of T Dog Media’s Comic-Con Notepad.


The series’ slow ratings start did little to dampen the enthusiasm for the first-ever Twin Peaks Comic-Con panel held Friday, which featured an unannounced appearance by series creator David Lynch – via video. Moderated by Leftovers producer and creator Damon Lindelof, who said the original Peaks changed his life, and pointed out the Golden Age of Drama wouldn’t exist without its presence. On the video, Lynch was making O.J. Simpson jokes and was constantly interrupted by an intruder in a running gag (the ‘90s never leave some people.)

Afterwards, the rest of the cast came out to talk to Lindelof and answered questions from the crowd. Much of the cast talked about what it felt like working for Lynch. Per Deadline: “When you’re reading a David Lynch script you don’t know where it’s going to go. I got to the scene in Episode 9; it was intimidating, the scariest scariest thing I ever read as an actor. In the middle of it, the character breaks down sobbing,” said Matthew Lillard, who plays William Hastings on the show.

Jim Belushi (yes, he’s in this. Really.) tried to have a little fun by improvising at the panel by going off-script. Kyle MacLachlan, who was in the original ABC series told him impersonating Lynch: “Mr. Belushi, do I have to report you to the principal’s office?”

Belushi starred in the critically panned movie The Principal 30 years ago.

Twin Peaks airs on Showtime on Sunday nights.


In the world of film, comics guru Todd McFarlane and production house Blumhouse are teaming up for a new Spawn movie, due out in theaters next year. In a statement released during Comic-Con, the duo plan to produce the follow-up to the 1997 theatrical release, which grossed $87.8 million worldwide. Published by Image Comics, Spawn has “spawned” (no pun intended) several media-related spinoffs, including an HBO animated series Todd McFarlane’s Spawn and two video and one arcade game. An animated revival was announced in 2009, but no further information on the status of this project was available.

The story of Spawn centers around an Detroit-born ex-Marine named Al Simmons, whose soul is sent to hell after being held responsible for the deaths of several people while he was working in a highly classified unit within the CIA. After making a deal with an evil character named Malebolgia, he gets to see his wife again, but is sent back to Earth as a creature and finds out his ex-wife is remarried to his best friend (now there’s a Jerry Springer episode in the making.)

The comic book is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, first released in 1992.


(Politico)

And here’s someone you wouldn’t expect to see at Comic-Con, but glad you did: On Saturday, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) led a “march” through Comic-Con – as in, presenting his trilogy of his critically-acclaimed graphic novels March. The civil rights icon made the presentation in San Diego along with co-writers Andrew Aylin and Nate Powell and received a standing ovation from the close to 1,000 people in attendance.

The books are based on the real-life experiences Rep. Lewis had during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. The first book is about Lewis’ early life and how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong influence. The second book on the the Freedom Riders campaign and the Birmingham Church bombing, and the third book recounts the obstacles African-Americans had in the South – culminating in 1965’s Bloody Sunday showdown in Selma, Ala.

And after the panel discussion, Lewis led an actual march through the San Diego Convention Center. And to top it off, the book’s third volume received a Will Eisner award for best reality-based material later that evening; the second volume won the Eisner award in 2016. The three volumes won four other awards, including the Coretta Scott KIng (Author) Book Award and the YALSA AWArd for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults.

I’d say not a bad haul for a great man – and a great collection.


Thought I throw this in: although a little bit away from the main convention center, Turner’s adult swim held their Comic-Con panels at the Indigo Hilton Bayfront. While little in the way of actual news was announced, at least the panels were entertaining, including the one from Rick and Morty. You can view it here.

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