Beginning July 23, over 130,000 people gathered into the San Diego Convention Center for four days of panels, discussions, celebrity sightings and lines. Lots and lots of lines. And though attendees came from all different backgrounds all over the world, they all shared a common interest: a love of sci-fi, fantasy, comic and cult culture. When it comes right down to it, Comic-Con is four straight days of Nerd Pride.

This year, the Con’s 39th in existence, was a historic one. For the first time ever, all the passes (multi and single day alike) sold out weeks in advance. And it showed. The exhibition hall was essentially one giant mass of moving flesh, all attempting to amble in different directions. Some towards the anime and manga area, some towards the larger and more ornate areas devoted to big studios, like Warner Brothers and Lion’s Gate. And some were heading toward the booth for the Furry Appreciation Society. There was definitely something for everybody. And naturally, many were in costume.

Many attendees were overheard saying how different the Con is now versus years past. No longer is it solely devoted to the more classically associated sci-fi, fantasy and comic, but it’s expanded to include booths and panels devoted to shows like The Office and upcoming films like The Pineapple Express.

Paris Hilton was there, too.

As the Con is a very large jumble of hundreds of different panels and events taking place all at once, here are some highlights:

Doctor Who

(featuring Steven Moffat and Julie Gardner)

Newly appointed executive producer and head writer Steven Moffat kept the crowd in fits of laughter at the panel for the beloved BBC sci-fi program. He is basically a one-man version of his brilliant and missed show Coupling. He and Producer Julie Gardner didn’t give too much away regarding future plotlines, but Moffat did promise to keep true to how he has always viewed Who.

“I just remember being absolutely terrified, so that’s what I’m going to write.”

In regards to his feelings about his new position, Moffat said, “I suppose it should be daunting or nerve-wracking, but aw, what the hell, it’s not a real job like working in hospital.”

When it came to direct questions regarding the future of Who, Moffat and Gardner were both hilariously evasive. One audience member relayed that Neil Gaiman, upon being asked if he would write an episode for DW, said, “That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” Moffat, true to form, responded with full bravado, “I can absolutely confirm that that would be nice.”

For the first time ever, the full trailer for this year’s Christmas special was shown, and it’s got everything. Cybermen, the 1800s and the doctor running around like mad.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000
20th Anniversary Reunion

(featuring Trace Beaulieu, Paul Chaplin, Frank Conniff, Bill Corbett, Joel Hodgson, Jim Mallon, Kevin Murphy, Mike Nelson, Bridget Nelson, Mary Jo Pehl, J. Elvis Weinstein, and moderated by Patton Oswalt

“Hello, sweaty shut-ins.”

Crow T. Robot makes an appearance

Right from the moment he walked on stage, Patton Oswalt completely won over the packed room full of hardcore MSTies, many of whom had sat in the room since 3 or 4 p.m. to ensure entrance. These fans were the lucky ones, as hundreds in line for the event were turned away. The beloved Comedy Central, and later Sci-Fi Channel, program known for its trademark silhouettes of a man and two robots cracking wise at bad movies, still has one of the most rabid followings around, even though it was cancelled almost ten years ago. For the first time ever, the entire cast and team of writers from all ten seasons sat down and had a panel discussion. While quoting some of their own favorite lines (such as “I’m gonna sink this bitch” from the Titanic portion of their Oscar special) and discussing how the characters came about, the fans hung on every word, and it was one of the only panels that didn’t prominently feature fans yelling at the panelists the whole time (though there was one moment of that. Joel Hodgson quipped, “I don’t know how to react when someone yells things at me.”)

Those hoping for any drama or admitted bitterness were certainly let down. Everyone got along so well, with all the hilariousness that made them famous, and with all the Midwestern niceness they’ve become just as well-known for. Though much has been made on Internet forums about on-set squabbles and who’s-raking-in-the-royalty-money-and-who-isn’t, everyone seemed genuinely happy to be around each other and supportive of each others’ endeavors. They’ve essentially divided into three camps now, Rifftrax (featuring Nelson, Corbett, and Murphy), Cinematic Titanic (Hodgson, Beaulieu, Pehl, Weinstein and Conniff) and the new MST3K.com (Mallon and Chaplin), but crossovers have not been ruled out, and at least in Pehl’s case, has already happened (she worked with Mike Nelson on a Rifftrax of Glitter).

One new announcement was the coming 20th Anniversary DVD set from Shout Factory. This set will feature the episodes “First Spaceship on Venus,” “Laserblast,” “Werewolf” and “Future War.” The set will also contain lobby cards, a Crow T. Robot figurine, new interviews (shot at Comic-Con, so they’re VERY new) as well as the Anniversary Panel itself. It can be preordered now on Amazon.

Rifftrax Live at the Balboa Theater
Plan 9 From Outer Space

Though not part of the Con proper, this event was a perfect weekend capper and worthy enough for many to purchase additional tickets and walk through downtown San Diego (in costume, in some cases) to the beautiful Balboa Theater. Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy of MST3K and Rifftrax did two live shows (7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.), riffing on the Ed Wood anti-classic Plan 9 From Outer Space - a film they never used on MST3K due to problems with the narration obscuring their own riffs. They finally were able to make it happen. And it was worth the wait. Picking on Bela Lugosi’s incredibly obvious post-mortem double, Vampira’s inhumanly tiny waist and above all else, Tor Johnson (evidently named so because “that’s what he did to his mother at birth”) what was already hilarious on its own (albeit, unintentionally) became a true work of comedic art.

So if you have a love of the “popular arts” and a high tolerance for crowds, costumes and overpriced pop, they’re already taking reservations for next year. It’s certainly an experience one will never forget.

Written by Courtney Enlow, July 2008. For more information on Comic-Con or to make reservations for 2009, visit the official site. For a more personal account of the Comic-Con, read Enlow’s Outside of the In-Crowd.

From a talking meatball to a family of redneck squids, The Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim is known for its assortment of unusual cartoon characters. But perhaps no character on Adult Swim is more strange and twisted than Assy McGee, a rogue cop who is nothing more than an ass and a pair of legs.

Episodes of the unique crime parody, which is the brainchild of Carl Adams and Matt Harrigan, are produced by Clambake Animation, a boutique animation studio located in Watertown, Massachusetts. The studio is run by three partners - Adams, André G. Lyman and Carrie Snyder. Adams also serves as the studio’s Director of Development, while Lyman is Clambake’s Creative Director and Snyder serves as the Managing Director. Harrigan, who is an executive producer of Assy McGee, works on the show remotely from Atlanta, but is not an employee of Clambake Animation.

Clambake’s three partners met while working for Tom Snyder Productions, which produces high quality educational software. Adams and Lyman started out working in the warehouse of the company. When Tom Snyder Productions began working on the groundbreaking animated show Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, Tom Snyder asked Adams and Lyman to work on the show.

When Adams and Lyman created Clambake Animation, they asked Snyder for advice on who to hire to serve as managing director, Snyder recommended his sister, Carrie, who had been a start-up employee for his company.

In addition to Assy McGee, Clambake Animation is also working on producing shows for Comedy Central, G4 and Adult Swim. They also recently created a Cookie Crisp commercial for General Mills and a Toyota Scion commercial starring Assy McGee that runs in the middle of each 11 minute episode. Their goal is to create a mixture of children’s and adult programming, along with commercials.

When looking for projects, the company seeks to find something that is either creatively fulfilling or pays well. The goal is to constantly be juggling five different projects, since typically, two of those projects will go forward into production, two will fail to materialize and one will remain in limbo.

Lyman and Adams feel that they could comfortably handle producing two animated series. Currently, Clambake Animation has 22 employees and the company has no plans to expand the business at this time.

“We never had illusions of being a Pixar or a Disney,” Adams said.

To create an 11-minute episode of Assy McGee, first Adams and Harrigan come up with a logline for that episode, which is essentially a one or two sentence synopsis of the episode’s plot. This logline is sent to one of the show’s writers, many of whom are located in New York or Los Angeles. Once the writer creates a rough outline for the episode, Adams and Harrigan discuss it with that writer, giving notes on ways to improve it. The writer then produces a rough draft, first draft and finally a polished script, receiving notes from Adams and Harrigan along the way.

Adams and Harrigan communicate primarily through email, putting off calling each other on the phone until it is absolutely necessary. While being in two separate locations and communicating through email has the potential to make hashing out creative differences difficult, the co-creators of the show tend to be on the same page when giving notes throughout the various stages of production.

“We see things surprisingly eye-to-eye,” Harrigan said.

“We rarely have times where we are butting heads about notes,” Adams said, adding that Harrigan’s suggestions usually make the show better.

From there, the episode’s dialog is recorded in a small sound booth inside the Watertown studio. For an 11-minute episode, Clambake typically records two to three hours of dialog. The recording sessions include a lot of improvisation, capitalizing on the talents of the comedians Clambake hires to voice the characters on the show.

“If Jon Benjamin’s in the booth and he says something kind of funny that’s not in the script, we’ll go with it a bit,” Adams explained. “We try to encourage the improv because that stuff is usually the funniest stuff.”

Lyman echoed that sentiment: “We are very much about the natural record, the improv, trying to take advantage of that. The audio comes first.”

Lyman plays guitar with Adams over his shoulder

Once they finish recording, the audio is sent to audio editors, who condense the two to three hours of material down to an 11-minute show. Adams and Lyman trust them to make creative decisions about what to take out and leave in.

“Our audio editors are almost writers, in a sense,” Adams said.

Once the audio has been edited down, the studio begins to design the look of the episode, first drawing up storyboards and then creating animatics. Then, the show is animated. Clambake has hired artists and illustrators from Boston-area art schools to animate the episodes. They look for very talented illustrators who can give the characters compelling gestures and expressions, making that the focus of the animation, rather than the character’s movements. The animators first produce a rough cut of each episode, followed by a final cut. Adams, Lyman and Cartoon Network continue to give notes through each stage.

From there, the vocal track and music is added to the animation. Most of the music is recorded in-house, but some of it comes from the Turner Library. Occasionally, Adams and Lyman will inject their own voices into the show to add background noise to an episode. Once they finish with the audio, the show goes into post-production.

While Adams and Lyman oversee all of the work done at the Watertown studio, Assy McGee’s producer, Julie King, handles the less glamorous tasks needed to create each episode, including getting contracts signed, finding photos to run during the credits and dealing with standards and practices and the legal aspects of the show. Lyman said King helps to keep everyone on track and that her hard work allows everything to run smoothly.

“Julie kind of runs the show,” Adams added.

Two episodes of Assy McGee are produced simultaneously and production for the season is staggered, meaning the Clambake team is constantly juggling an assortment of episodes in various stages of production at the same time. In total, they will create 14 episodes of Assy McGee this season. Then, they will wait to see if the show will be renewed by Adult Swim.

Whether or not Assy McGee is renewed for another season, Clambake Animation will soldier on, continuing to seek out new projects. And, just like Assy, they will do it by their own rules.

Written by Joel Murphy, May 2008. Assy McGee airs Sundays at 12:30 a.m. on Adult Swim.