SDCC 2011: The Last "Chuck" Panel

The announcement that Season 5 will be the last one for TV series "Chuck" was already made some months back. This piece of information made the panel at SDCC 2011 especially bitter-sweet for the fans, co-creator Chris Fedak and the cast members.

For without the small bunch of fans who believed in "Chuck" right from the start, the TV series might not have even lasted for five seasons.

The special thing about "Chuck" was the relationship the cast members had with their fans. Lead actor Zachary Levi is not only a star on the show, he is also an A-star with the fans as he constantly interacted with them on Facebook and Twitter. Plus he's an absolute handsome hunk of adorkable friendliness if one were to meet him person.

Seriously - how many celebs are open-heartedly willing enough to send a video message to a Red Dot Diva many miles away? (See this post for the proof!)

And of course, Yvonne Strahovski is such a beautiful sweetheart that she melts both the hearts of men and women. Not forgetting, Joshua Gomez's funny antics and tweets, and all the other cast members on the show who seem to have their own little fanbase. Jeffster, anyone?

D, a fellow "Chuck" fan and Twitter friend, was at the SDCC panel this year and she sent this report with some info and spoilers about the last season. She also managed to squeeze some time out with Vik Sahay and Mark C Lawrence.

Comic Art Show 2011 - Day 1 Was Buzzing!

Set in the arty part of the Bras Basah-Selegie area, Wilkie Edge was a nice quiet spot to host an indie-styled Comic Art Show.

Red Dot Diva strolled in about 2 pm and immediately spotted a couple of familiar faces. To her surprise, several art pieces were already sold, leaving empty spaces on the exhibition wall! And a few more which were still on the wall, were already tagged with orange "SOLD" stickers. Wow.

This was just 4 hours into the opening of the exhibition. A great start to a local show focused on comic art!

Brea Grant In Indie Movie "Homecoming"

Red Dot Diva is sometimes terribly envious of those living in LA. For she loves most things indie and Lala-land is usually almost where "stuff happens".

She usually has to settle with living vicariously through various good friends who are able to experience these events first-hand.

Just this Monday 25 July, an indie movie entitled "Homecoming" was screened at the Downtown Independent in LA, as part of a monthly event by Film Courage.

The heartwarming movie, starring actress-comic creator, Brea Grant ("Heroes" and in the next season of "Dexter"), John Robinson, Tom Fox-Davies, Sean Hackett and Colleen Camp, has already won some awards in film festivals around the USA, including US/ International Best Narrative Film at the 2011 AMC Theatres Kansas City FilmFest. The tale about friendship and family was written and directed by Sean Hackett.

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:

SlamCon 2011 - An Inclusive Con Party!

Todd and the beautiful SArmy ladies!

Tired of not getting invited for all those hoity-toity exclusive con-parties during SDCC??

Then, there's always SlamCon!

"Heroes" actors and comic geeks Todd Stashwick, Brea Grant, comic artist Dennis Calero kick-started a casual party at the Hyatt Hotel, mezzanine bar at 9 pm last night! Together with them was "Warehouse 13" writer, Deric A. Hughes.

Many of Red Dot Diva's Twitter buddies like @Mabetini, @doubleshiny, @TsarMaxii, @beckyb731, @wikkibird, @TheReal_Rebel and @ebrown2112 joined in the geeky carousing, kicking it back with drinks and having a swell time with the crowd. Todd even called @Giddy4Gideon on the phone to say hi!

And there was even a great view of the fireworks at the marina! View Todd's twitvid where he and Brea say hi!

Other folks like "Heroes" producer Foz McDermott and writer Jose Molina ("Firefly", "Terra Nova") joined in later to party up with the rest too.

With such a laid back, easy-going mix of creators, celebs, well-known geeks and just down-to-earth fans, it's already becoming one of the best SDCC 2011 party ever. ;)

Red Dot Diva thinks that Todd, Brea, Dennis and the crew should try to do this for every convention they are at and get it to be is Devilish as possible.

After all, conventions are about having fun, meeting new people and making friends!!

PS: Don't forget to say hello to Todd and Dennis at their "Devil Inside" booth #FF-05 at Artist Alley. "Devil Inside" the webcomic was launched at SDCC last year, which makes this their 1st year anniversary!

Brea Grant will also be signing on Sunday with brother Zane Grant, Missy Suicide, David Hahn and Cameron Stewart for Suicide Girls at IDW's Booth #2643 at 12 pm!

Have an all-out geek-style FUN for Red Dot Diva, y'all!! *MWAH*!!

DC Comics Leaps Into STGCC 2011 With A Few Surprises!

The Red Dot Island may be small. And our conventions may be very much niche-based and less crazy than those held in the USA.

The locally-hosted conventions like ComiFest and Anime Festival Asia tend to serve the sizeable anime and manga crowd here and around the region instead of running a more generic pop-culture program.

Still, with a continued focus on a mix of East and West, Red Dot Diva thinks that the Singapore Toy, Games and Comic Convention (STGCC) 2011 has managed to get some pretty cool "Western-comics" guests this year.

Being so far-flung from most Westernized pop-culture hubs, she is always grateful when those who hail from USA, Canada or UK are willing to travel such long distances to our Red Dot Island, just to meet their Asian fans. That shows *a lot* of heart.

For one thing, it seems that DC Comics will be back at STGCC 2011 in a bigger way than before! DC has been a strong supporter of STGCC in the past years and last year, happy fans got to meet Gail Simone and Ivan Brandon.

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: