San Diego Comic Con 2002 ABPoG Archive

I have been going to the San Diego Comic Con for the past twelve years or so. It has been a lot of fun and have enjoyed myself, however, as most of you know who do go it has become so much more crowded and mainstream and the show has changed so much in the past few years it has changed my experiences. I will post and talk about that in another blog but for the time being this is from the old ABPoG site and relays some of the stuff that was going on for Futurama that year. The following year Futurama had a much larger presence but then the show went off the air and activity dwindled a bit but has made a big comeback in recent years.

Bongo Comics Panel

BONGO COMICS PANEL

The Bongo Comics panel was held on Thursday, Auguse 1st in one of the rooms at the Convention Center. I had never attended one of these panels as I have always been content to roam the aisles of the show. Bill Morrison, Ian Boothby and Scott Shaw and others were on hand to talk about all the latest going ons at Bongo. What to expect for the future, new comics coming out and a sneak peek at for what is in store for all of our favorite characters in comic book form.

Bongo Comics Panel

Most of the panel was dedicated to Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror and Bart Simpsons Comics. Towards the end the topic of discussion centered around the Summer crossover event involving both Futurama and the Simpsons. Bill Morrison explained that Matt Groenind had always been against such a crossover in order to keep the distinct but also to solidify that Futurama is real, while the Simpsons is just a show. How is Futurama real you ask? Well, since Futurama is the future, and the future is not yet written, Futurama could be a probable occurrence. The Simpsons are occurring now on our television screens and we can all tell that they are not real. So spoke Bill Morrison while channeling Matt Groening.

Bongo Comics scribe extraordinaire,
Ian Boothby. Also the mastermind
behind the Futurama Simpsons
Crossover

So, it was up to Ian Boothby to pitch the idea and come up with a plausible explanation as to why they could be real. His idea was that since the Simpsons are a show involving merchandise, comics and the television show as well that all of these items would still exist in the future. Yes, the Simpsons are still going strong in the year 3002. The idea is that the real characters of Futurama are able to project themselves into the comic book of the Simpsons and interact with Bart, Homer, Marge and all the other misfits of Springfield. So the entire crossover will be based around the Simpsons Comics universe!

The artist on the series is James Lloyd and the Ian Boothby was gooshing with enthusiasm over the pages that he has seen. Unfortunately, Lloyd was not on the panel but there were some teaser pages hung up at the Bongo booth and they do look fantastic! This is going to be a very cool two part comic and the only disappointing thing about it is that it wasn't available at the show. End of August it will be coming out so make plans now. I took the best pictures I could of the art work so hopefully you will get a good idea on how good it is going to be. It was great to see characters like Leela and Lisa, Bender and Homer and Fry and Bart all interacting together. Also, there was some artwork which I think will be the cover of the forthcoming collection of Futurama Comics called Futurama-Orama.



Advance artwork for
Futurama-O-Rama
TPB

 The reason given for Futurama Comics bi-monthly status given by Bill Morrison is the lack of artist available to them. Bongo Comics is a pretty small operation despite the number of books they produce and they just don't have the qualified staff available to them that can handle all the characters on model. This is why Futurama Comics is on temporary hold while the Crossover occurs. Look for Futurama Comics to hit the shelves again afterwards with some really great stories.

On the new calendar, all the images are based off of 'bad' comic book covers. All the new art work are basically homages to comic books past with plenty of material provided by Scott Shaw! who heads up a panel at San Diego dealing with bad comics. Be sure to pick this up as it is another winner that will look great on your wall next year - oh what a great way to pass the year!
On the topic of Futurama's cancellation there is still a consensus that it is not cancelled and that new shows have not been ordered yet. I think everybody involved is really hanging their hats on this technicality. The backlog of shows means there are still some to fill out another season of Futurama at which time Fox will evaluate the situation and make a determination to continue the show or cancel it at that time. There is still a slight glimmer of hope so lets keep the pressure on the folks over at Fox by continuing to write letters and sign that petition if you have not already. (12/27/11 - while the petition did not work per se the fan support and enthusiasm shown for Futurama were enough to bring it back for 'test' movies which lead to the show going back in to production for Comedy Central of which Futurama has completed two new seasons of 13 episodes each and are currently in production on a third season)

FUTURAMA PANEL

Me (albeit a bit heavier), Maurice La Marche, and John
DiMaggio minutes before entering the hall for
the Futurama panel

We arrived at the panel a little bit early and lo and behold what a gold mine that turned out to be. Pretty much everybody involved with the panel was there waiting outside before the start. Pretty much the whole gang was there including Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, John DiMaggio and Maurice LaMarche. Because I was feeling suicidal I decided to get my picture taken with DiMaggio and LaMarche (and for those who have met John DiMaggio you know what I mean). Maurice gave us a little taste of the Brain as the camera snapped its picture and I thanked them for their time. We spoke to Matt Groening briefly about why they don't make those cool red Futurama bowling shirts for sale and he really wasn't sure but thought it would be a good idea. I certainly hope so as they are really cool. While not as extensive as the Paley Festival Panel Futurama was certainly well represented here. Bill Morrison moderated the panel and he introduced John DiMaggio to give us all a very special rock and roll welcome. Strangely enough he in turn introduced Matt Groening who in turn introduced David X. Cohen who introduced the episode Less Than Hero. Appropriately Cohen made his feelings known when he introduced the episode that the general public could expect to see it on television whenever the hell Fox gets around to it. Plenty of cheering ensued.
I have done my best to transcribe the panel below but due to the technology of my hand held tape recorder some of the people talking or what they said were not easily recognizable and so I did the best I could. So without further ado I bring you the 2002 San Diego Comic Con Futurama panel!
Bill Morrison: I not only think that this is the biggest audience but the biggest panel we've ever done.
(People shuffle to get to their assigned seats and introductions are made)
Susie Wheeler: Hi, I'm Susie Wheeler and I'm the director
Phil LaMarr: Hi, I'm Phil LaMarr and I play the voices of Hermes and Bubblegum Tate.
Bill Odenkirk: I'm Bill Odenkirk I'm a writer.
Pat Verrone: Pat Verrone, I was out sick the week that they did this one.
Dan Glover: Dan Glover, writer.
Maurice LaMarche: Maurice LaMarche I play Kif, Morbo and in this episode I played the Swedish robot.
John DiMaggio: I'm John DiMaggio you already know that cause I came up here and made a big jerk out of myself.
Billy West: Hello, I'm Bill West I do the voice of Fry (does some well known quotes as Fry). Professor Hubert Farnsworth (stuff as Farnsworth). And I play Dr. Zoidberg (stuff as Zoidberg). And I play Zapp Brannigan (stuff from Brannigan)!
Rich Moore: I don't know what to say after that. I'm Rich Moore, supervising director of the series.
Claudia Katz: I'm Claudia Katz animation producer.
DXC: I remain David Cohen writer and executive producer of the show. And here is once again Matt Groening.
MG: I just want to say what a pleasure it is to show an episode of Futurama to a huge crowd like this. We've worked really hard as you can tell many of the writers felt very tired... and we worked really hard and we go home and watch by ourselves in our rumpus rooms. we... (laugh) because we work so hard and it  there is no laugh track on the show but its so much fun to hear the laughs from you guys so thank you so much for showing up.
DXC: One quick announcement. No cell phones for the members of the panel, please. We had three cell phone calls already.
MG: What if its really important?
DXC: A few of them were me calling Patrick because he is too far away.
RM: What if its one of our agents with a new job?
BM: Hanging around the Bongo Comics booth alot of Futurama fans come up and the question they've been asked over and over and over again is what is the future of Futurama? There are lots of rumours, so why don't we just settle them once and for all and let everyone know what's going on and what the future is.
MG: Well, we've heard alot of rumuours too. If you have any, please... and they're positive rumuours please bring them forth. The fact is, here's the applause line, Futurama lives! And so we've got another season almost virtually in the can and the fact about looking for work that means that the writing of this season is done and although it is true that this may possibly be the last season at least we have one more season of Futurama to go - and there is a slight chance that Fox will see the wisdom of ordering more episodes of the show. But even if they don't we are determined to make the show continue in some form or another whether its new episodes of the TV show, or a  movie or whatever. We want to do that. I assure you there will be Futurama pogs for sale at next years Comic Con.
JD: You can hire me out to come and do the Bender voice if you want for your Bender pogs.
BM: I want to see the new adjusted team action figures. But Matt, would those chances not increase exponentially with every email from say everyone here to the Fox netWORK!!? Can that help?
DXC: People in this room are probably aware of this but there is an online petition that is staggering in its size. I mean it has 140,00 signatures at a website called gotfuturama.com. So thank you to anybody out there who signed on.
BM: I've learned from past experience that the audience usually has better questions than I do so we're gonna just start these questions from the audience. There are microphones in the aisle I think all three aisles here. So if you have a question for anyone on the panel. Just come on up and we'll just alternate back and forth between your questions. There's someone here already.
Audience Question: So, if Fox is gonna order another season are they actually going to broadcast it? I know those people have been screwing you for a long time isn't it about time you got rid of them and went...
JD: Yeah, I like this guy right here.' They've been screwing you for a long time there.'
AQ: They have been. Why don't you go to a network that will respect you?
JD: Preach brother!
DXC:  We have 16 episodes that I have no idea... they claim they are going to show all of them this season which will be actually more than we've done either of the last few years. We remain in our same crummy time slot though 7 o'clock Sunday's. One slightly good thing we just heard is that because their new show Oliver Beene is not yet ready, for whatever reason, we are going to get a few of the fabulous 7:30 slots in the Fall. It will be a huge improvement - but that actually is a big deal because football is over by 7:30 so we think we'll actually get to show about 5 episodes before New Years which again a record breaker for us, so a little better than usual if it takes place in the Fall.
BM: Next question.
AQ2: I have a question for the voice talent, especially Billy who does most of the voices on the show. What's it like when fans come up and imitate you to you or does that even happen? And do you find it funny, do you think its flattering or do you get annoyed with it like the rest of us do when we hear it constantly?
BW: I had that experience because I was a very eager young buck whenever I got around any of my heroes, I couldn't wait to imitate them with their own creations. Then the guy would be nice 'Oh that's good that's good' and you could tell his skin would crawl. But you know I don't feel like that... we get a chance to create voices on this show so what difference if were doing Bugs Bunny and all that other stuff when you're replicating work and we get to create stuff. And that's the biggest thrill... we all do each other...
JD: Yea, I'm always... (Zoidberg) I'm always walking around doing Zoidberg. I love Zoidberg. (Farnsworth)Oh, yes and the professor as well! Oh, yes! Oh, no.(Bender) Hey Fry!! Uhjd3$&!! [the usual Bender babble talk]
BM: Hey, hey - why don't you guys just you know...
AQ3: I had a question about the Futurama DVD's and the fact they are now one season and two on the way in Europe and Britain too. Is it a syndication issue on why they aren't released in the States?
DXC: We think that is the answer but again we are not always the first to know. What we know for certain is that they didn't want to release them in the United States until we are syndicated but we don't know what the exact schedule for that is. On the product side we are going to DVD's with commentary for at least all four seasons that we've done all 72 episodes.

Unfortunately this is as far as I got as far as transcribing the panel before I lost the recording of it.  If you were at this show feel free to leave your recollections or anything else you would like to share in the comment section.