Emerald City Comic Con Day 1: Doctors and Kings and Voltron
Thursday marked the opening day of Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle and rather than save the best for last, I think they started this year off with a bang! Clare Kramer (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) kicked things off in the afternoon with a visit from one of the most beloved Doctors, David Tennant, and his trusty companion Rose, played by the delightful Billie Piper.
If I’m being honest, I basically only watched the Matt Smith season (blink). I did, however, digest a few David and Billie episodes this week. Surprisingly, they were some of their favorite episodes (New Earth). Fans also know Tennant as the creepy mind-bender from Jessica Jones and more recently the voice of Scrooge McDuck, to the surprise of Billie. I’ll dive into these two more a little later.
Brian Herring might have been my favorite panel of the day. What? You don’t know who he is? Hard to believe. No, really. Brian brings one of the new standouts of Star Wars: The Force Awakens to life. Brian is one of the creators and puppeteers of new droid on the block – BB8. Folks might think BB8 was a CGI effect but he was actually constructed and controlled by a team of puppeteers. Brian brought along early sketches of BB8 and other creatures from the desert, clips of animatronic animals being sculpted and animated, and footage of how these creatures seamlessly became part of the film. As a kid, Brian’s teacher once wrote a note to his parents explaining how his obsession with Star Wars would get him nowhere and he needed to focus on his studies. I guess he showed that teacher!
King Ezekiel himself, the extremely entertaining Khary Payton, stopped by later in the evening to talk about how things are going with Carol, Rick and the Kingdom on The Walking Dead as well as his vast catalog of voice work on Teen Titans and Critical Role. If I knew Dungeons and Dragons players looked like Khary, I might have started playing a long time ago! Just don’t ask him who would win in a fight between Black Panther and Cyborg.
My last panel of the day was with the producers, creative team and talent behind the Dreamworks Animation series Voltron. Honestly, I’ve never heard screams like this at Comic Con. Fans were treated to a sneak peak of season five’s episode one, which officially dropped at 12:00 a.m. on Netflix. I had no idea what I was getting in to, but the cheers were infectious and I had to stick around to find out what it was all about. It was worth it to listen to the audience gasp and cheer at the screener. I think they were impressed. It looks like just about anybody who is anybody has done voice work for Voltron so I might need to check it out. Fans were treated to a special edition poster created by Seattle native Christine Bian, just for ECCC 2018.
Tomorrow I’m going to check out Artist Alley, so if you know of any artists who would like to share their story let us know! In the evening I’m going to find out what Jennifer Morrison has been up to. Another full day of fun in the Emerald City.
For more information check out the Emerald City Comic Con website.