STGCC 2011 Media Preview: Cosplay, Comics, Toys!

Presenter Reiko and her shiny hat

Red Dot Diva would be the first to admit that she felt a certain kind of inertia after almost 75% of the STGCC 2011 guest list were officially announced.

There just didn't seem to be a buzz or sense of excitement leading up to this year's event at all.

The vocal reactions from the comic fans have already been well documented by the Straits Times (article by Nicholas Yong) and Here Be Geeks.

Whatever the case may be, Red Dot Diva felt it was worth supporting an event in a market that is already considered small in terms of the worldwide arena. Plus, many of her friends will be at STGCC at their booths displaying their art, or going as cosplayers and fellow bloggers to give their show of support.

Special STGCC Greetings From TV Lala Land

Many fans wish that our local conventions were more like what they see in the USA, with more celebrities and well-known guests. They crave to get close to the Hollywood stardust, but most of the time, acquiring such guests to events held on Red Dot Island simply hard to come by.

So, since many local fans miss the chance of meeting their favourite celebrities in person, Red Dot Diva endeavoured to digitally bring geeky STGCC-goers some greetings from a few popular personalities:

Michael McMillian Talks Mages, Vampires and Panda? - Part 2

Diva's just so Team Eric

Campy, blatantly outrageous and bloody sexy. That's HBO's TV series "True Blood" for ya.

And yet, the series has managed to amass a growing and dedicated fan base called Trubies.

Lately, there have been many pics of SDCC "True Blood" panel and autograph signing sessions floating around the interwebs. This year, hot fan favourite, Alex Skarsgard (Eric Northman) turned up to join his cast mates and Red Dot Diva noticed that he looked surprisingly relaxed while hamming it up with the Trubies at the convention.

Then, there's Rev. Steve Newlin, who was last seen in Season 3 but no one seems to know what has become of him these days! Newlin's real life alter-ego, actor Michael McMillian was last seen at SDCC though, busy doing panels and signings of his own.

Michael, who created the "Lucid" series published by Archaia, also knows how to vamp up a sexy story. Together with co-writer Mark Andreyko, the duo has crafted an interesting side story in "True Blood: Tainted Love", a 6-book series about spiked Tru Blood and its effect on the vamps at Bon Temps. The spin-off graphic novel is published by IDW.

In order to extract some more juicy info, Red Dot Diva attempted to glamour Michael McMillian about his work in the "True Blood" spin-off graphic novel and other upcoming projects in Part 2 of the interview:

Michael McMillian Talks Mages, Vampires and Panda? - Part 1

Gaining lots of comic creator cred in the last past year or so is actor Michael McMillian.

Not only has his comic series "Lucid" been published via the indie company Archaia, he has also co-written the "True Blood: Tainted Love" graphic novel series together with Marc Andreyko. And as one knows, the HBO TV series version of "True Blood" has a huge dedicated cult following!

It is crazy-geeky SDCC weekend right now. And last year, Red Dot Diva was delighted that she had the opportunity to chat with the very likeable, un-Steve Newlin-like Michael at Archaia's booth.

Ahh.. Good Memories. Fun times!

So to mark the one-year anniversary of "Lucid"'s book launch, Red Dot Diva thought this would be the best time to give Michael an extra signal boost for his current and upcoming comic creations!

Here's Part 1 of the interview:

Bitten and Poledanced - True Blood Style!

Guests at Bitten convention (pic by Jamie)

When it comes to "True Blood", it's never too late to share a convention report with fans of the series!

Red Dot Diva's Twitter pal @GamerJamie (who loves dishing out fuzzy-feelings from time to time) was at the Bitten convention, held in the UK last year.

After mysteriously holding back all those dirty bloody secrets for several months, he has finally decided to reveal 'em all.

Here goes:

Truly Bloody, Magically Lucid Interview With Michael McMillian

@calowder and Michael McMillian at Wondercon

Since Red Dot Diva lacks the supervillain ability to simultaneously own rich financial bounties and astral project to be at two places at one time, she has to rely on fantastic, equally geeky friends to stalk cool folks at various conventions.

SF-based friends @calowder and @douglowder were at Wondercon last weekend and enjoyed themselves tremendously. They also took up the Red Dot Diva Perv Challenge, and managed to get some very cute and interesting interview footage with actor/ comic writer and creator Michael McMillian!