Discovery Blog

Last week, I made the cross-country trip to sunny California for Comic-Con International 2011. The pop culture spectacle was held in San Diego from July 21-24, and featured exhibitors, celebrities, movie premieres and panel discussions. Though not my first time at the geek rodeo (actually my second), Comic-Con is an awe-inspiring experience that can be overwhelming for those unprepared for its geek grandeur.

Discovery Channel‘s week began with Las Vegas’ Penn & Teller. In support of their upcoming fall series Penn & Teller Tell a Lie, the dynamic duo held a lively panel complete with previews and a magic trick grand finale.

For the second straight year, Discovery Channel hosted a panel for its upcoming animated dinosaur series. However, this time around, the project’s final title was announced: Dinosaur Revolution. Featuring renowned artists David Krentz (Disney’s Dinosaur) and Ricardo Delgado (Age of Reptiles), the panel wowed young and old (and wherever I fall in) with its groundbreaking animation.

While there wasn’t a panel featuring great whites, Shark Week was still creating a frenzy at Comic-Con. In fact, there was a Shark Week invasion, as street teams handed out thousands of oversized Shark Week bags to ‘Con goers. I saw first-hand that these bags were so popular that sometimes we couldn’t even hand them out fast enough (and they were in demand among @SharkWeek fans on Twitter).

Fans with Outfits Fashioned from Last Year's MythBusters Bags

MythBusters also returned to Comic-Con — to the delight of many. Excited fans were thrilled to get autographs, while host Adam Savage dressed in full costume and challenged fans to find him on the convention floor through his annual #adamincognito event.

Rod (right) with Wil Wheaton...both of whom I got to meet!

In what has now become a Saturday night Comic-Con tradition, MythBusters closed out the ‘Con in style. With a plethora of laughs and announcements (a re-mixed theme song by the Dandy Warhols, new bobbleheads and exciting side projects), all five hosts and moderator Scott Collins from The Los Angeles Times certainly gave the 3,000+ capacity crowd a memorable time. Fans also were treated to an epic sneak peek video of the upcoming fall season, along with a parody of YouTube’s “Honeybadger” video (at the end of this post).

Science also made a splash in San Diego. At the Roddenberry panel, Bernadette McDaid (VP of Production) shared that the network would air Rod Roddenberry’s documentary, Trek Nation. The special will follow Rod as he learns more about his father, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, and the history and cultural influence of the storied franchise.