Here’s what you might have missed last week:
• 30 Seconds to Mars Cover Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”
• Mediated Mortal Kombat
• Modern Warfail
• Trololo Cat
• San Francisco Bound: WonderCon 2010
• Henry Selick Returns to Disney!
• In San Francisco and a Little WonderCon Treat…
• True Blood: The Comic Series

Uhm, hello. Who’s excited? ME!!!!

For those who don’t know the name– you should. He (not Tim Burton; Tim was the producer) directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, as well as Coraline… and he just signed a contract to make stop-motion features for Pixar.

YESSSSSSSS YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YESSSSS!!!

To read details, click here for the Variety article.

Here is what you might have missed last week:
• New TRON LEGACY Trailer
• Electrolightz: The Making of ‘Outta Control’
• Wario Papercraft at GDC
• R.I.P. Corey Haim
• Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer
• Important Rule
• One of the coolest websites EVER.
• I want a casket full of bubbles…
• Creepiest Coraline Doll I’ve Seen Yet
• The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
• Electrolightz, Electro Wars
• Playstation Move Introduced at GDC 2010
• Now Smartphone Friendly!
• Eclipse Reaction
• Official Video: Lady Gaga (ft. Beyonce) “Telephone”
• Official Video: Kerli “Tea Party”
• Zombie Kittens!
• Wall of Deaaaath
• NOoOoOoOoOoOoooo…

So I’ve been a little behind on catching up on my blogrolls. I revisited Evil Buttons today to find what is THE creepiest Coraline doll I have ever seen so far:

That is one doll that I don’t want staring at me in my apartment.

So earlier this morning, I caught wind that there is an Alice in Wonderland promotional book package that is getting sent out for the upcoming film. However, the article I found earlier only had a picture of the cover of the box…

Here is video of someone who received one and he goes through the whole thing:

These are almost as cool as the limited Coraline boxes that got sent out last year… AND I WANT ONE! Now… how do I get my hands on such a treasure? (Bosses, I’m kinda lookin’ at you…)

So for those who have known me for years, or for those who have been following me since January, you might remember that I had a Hellish start to 2009. From all of the deaths that I have personally had to deal with, to all of the times I’ve gotten ridiculously sick, to that time that I almost ended up hospitalized, to a handful of other things that just aren’t really worth mentioning anymore… Let’s just say that the first half of this year has by far been the worst I’ve ever had yet.

Fortunately, it was times like these that I was reminded how lucky I really am. It was times like these that I am reminded how lucky I am to have the amazing friends that I do who did an amazing job being there for me and helping to push me back up on my feet when I fell. I had them to remind me that I’ve never been the type of person to just “give up” because things were getting rocky time and time again.

So I pushed forward, no matter what tried to get in my way… and it seemed to pay off in the end. Instead of dwelling on how negative this year might have been, I am here to focus on the positive, no matter how big or how small. So here’s a look into some of the positives of my year:

JANUARY:
- My office officially moves into the new space.
- My favorite author starts following me on Twitter.

FEBRUARY:
- Coraline finally releases in theaters. This is the first movie in a long time that I made it a point to go on opening night and wait in line.
- My friends Steph and Tracy visit L.A.

MARCH:
- Saw the Clark twins in Syracuse, NY.
- Gewirtzman makes sure that I can no longer hear an offer for shots of booze without thinking about how completely wasted he got me in the middle of nowhere, New York.

APRIL:
- Mat Devine makes an indent on my couch for a week.
- The “Don’t Be Upset, Sarah Dope” song is created by Rami Dearest.

MAY:
- Spent an AMAZING week in Hawaii.
- Weekend tour with my boys in Butcher Jones and RIKETS.

JUNE:
- Attend the EA Sports “Fight Night 4″ premiere party with performances by Young Dre and Snoop Dogg… and have the whole “cheah beah” thing completely go over my head, even to this day.

JULY:
- Karri and Ian Northrop have the best wedding ever.
- Comic-Con madness and dinner with one of my favorite comic artists and friends.
- My favorite Devine returns to L.A.

AUGUST:
- Two nights of My Chemical Romance at the Roxy.
- Rami Dearest, Lee Christophers, Pressler, and I try the Orochon Ramen Challenge.
- Vampire Con with G. Met Billy Wirth.
- Go from off/on status to fulltime with the Mouse.
- Disney acquires Marvel.

SEPTEMBER:
- I start getting put on more video game campaigns at work and that inner geek can start working on dying happy.
- Sea Horse Sea Hell Party with the Electrolightz.
- Gaming Breakfast with co-workers and deviantART.
- The Princess & The Frog screening.

OCTOBER:
- Mat can’t stay away from L.A. and I don’t understand why he doesn’t just move here already.
- Studio with the Electrolightz.
- Fly back to Missouri for a few days to visit the folks.
- Also visit old friends on tour.

NOVEMBER:
- G gives me a shoutout on a radio show interview and labels me the “Queen of finding the coolest stuff.”
- Figurative Theater gallery opening with the great Dan Santoni and Chad Michael Ward.
- Two epic Thanksgivings with friends and co-workers.
- Alicia and I pick up new camera equipment and I start giving her some pointers to photography.

DECEMBER:
- Doing three different jobs in the company gets way too overwhelming at times and my amazing team pulls together and helps lighten the load on my shoulders.
- Attend Machinima‘s Inside Gaming Awards.
- Attend Spike TV’s Video Game Awards and got hooked up with killer seats.
- Get my hands on a new deviantART camera bag for all of my new gear.

…This leads to today: Marvel Stockholders OK Disney Deal!

As I said before, Happy New Year to me!

And while I’m at it, Happy New Year to all of you, too! Be safe tonight!

Hahahahaha… Too funny! Coraline meets Clint Eastwood:

Spotted on Evil Buttons.

Probably the best one I’ve seen so far!

Cake by Erica Thordarson. Seen on Evil Buttons.

photo by Chad Michael Ward, snapped at the Bloodfire booth

I don’t think anyone can deny that SDCC is getting bigger and bigger every year. Last year, I went down with a plan and failed and being able to keep up with half of it. I thought that this year, I had outsmarted the system… however, things went a little more chaotic than I had anticipated.

First of all, before anyone puts words in my mouth and jumps down my throat, let me just state for the record that I have done my fair share of “research” on Twilight. I own and have read the first four books. I read the first one before I originally saw the movie. I saw the movie five times, and I even own it. I am far from a “Twihard,” but I’m not an absolute hater, either. I walked into all of it knowing exactly what I was getting into. These books were written to cater to young teens and the idea of romanticism. I get that part. I really do. However, I don’t get the absolute hype of it all. The movie, to me, was just okay, and that is my honest opinion. Did I expect crazed Twilight fans at this year’s convention? Sure I did. I expected about the same amount that were there last year. Did I expect it to be 10x as worse as last year? No. No I did not. Was I slightly annoyed? Yes. Yes I was.

The last time I checked, it was COMIC Con, not Twilight Con… and that was, as it has been in the past, the reason for my attendance. Although yes, I can respect and do appreciate the film portions that get bigger and bigger every year, but the diehard artist in me goes mostly for the comic and graphic art aspect of it all. Anyway… instead of giving a play-by-play of each day, I suppose I’ll just point out my highlights.

Ridiculously giant Alice ad outside of the convention

First of all, I get really excited when I see creative marketing. It’s one of the things I love about living in Los Angeles.. it’s not always just plain ol’ words on a billboard. So I was really stoked when I read all sorts of Comic Con tweets about helicopters air dropping crates of deodorant to promote the upcoming movie 2012… or how there were MNU trucks driving around as a promotion for District 9. Speaking of D9, I managed to catch one of these giant banners in the halls one day:

Some other cool advertising includes:

In the Omni. The elevator buttons are where the bitemarks are.

The panels seem to have gotten crazier this year. I had a list of a small handful.. and only successfully made it to ONE panel this year. Fortunately, it was the one that meant the most to me: the Coraline panel with Henry Selick and Neil Gaiman. They showed some behind-the-scenes footage, as well as concept art. Henry mentioned how he was interested in trying to turn Sandman into stop-motion. Hello, YES PLEASE. This needs to happen.

Neil Gaiman with Coraline puppet

Henry Selick and one of the Other Mothers

Teri Hatcher with Bobinsky and another Other Mother

I decided next year I am making sure I am all taken care of when it comes to panel passes.

On the bright side of not making it into most of the panels I had planned, this gave me some more time to shop and visit my friends who had booths! I picked up a couple of comics and toys for myself, then did a whole lot of shopping for my friends. I was also given more time to look around and all of the cool stuff on the floor, and notice some rather entertaining costumes.

Coraline puppets at the NECA booth

Lightsaber chopsticks at the Kotobukiya booth

Master... CHEF!

Rad Michaelangelo costume

Pocky bags

Alicia and I with our good ol' friend Amie Nicole

Disney's Stitch tour. These are some of the ones that stuck out the most.

Limited edition hand-crafted doll by Toffee. I bought this for Karri as a late bridal gift and she loved it!

Last, but not least… the PARTIES, dinners, and events with a handful of good friends!

Let’s see… Wednesday, we hit up the Activision party at Stingaree. Free food and drinks plus videogame testing? Why, yes, thank you!! “Singularity” was fun. Reminded me of “Bioshock”… but I was definitely more into “Marvel Universe 2.”

GWAR onstage

Thursday was the GWAR show! My very first time seeing them live. I already knew what to expect from seeing other peoples footage from the past, but yeah. Really cool stuff for a gore-lover such as myself.. plus a handful of my L.A. friends came down for the show, as well. Blood and slime everywhere… and for the record, I just want to say that it’s really scary when one of your friends is introducing you to one of the guys (who is in full costume) as, “This is my really good friend, Sarah. She works for Disney.” I just kind of imagined the “monster” grabbing an ace and decapitating me in the dressing room.

Friday, before we headed off to the convention center, we checked out a Bandslam screening… and honestly, it was really good! It’s a funny, cute, feel-good movie.. which is something I need from time to time so my life isn’t 100% gore and horror. It’s movies like that that are probably preventing me from becoming a serial killer, haha. Oh, and speaking of, follow BugAndOmar on Twitter– the REAL stars of the flick!

Friday night was a little chatoic. It started off with dinner with Jim Lee, Dan Didio, and a rather large handful of our mutual friends. Somehow, this is what it looked like in front of me:

Straight up DANGEROUS.. especially for a small gal like me who hardly ever drinks anymore. Needless to say, I ended up wasted.. and somehow, we all ended up at the Daughtry party instead of Planet Illogica…?

Onto Saturday night: stopped by the True Blood party (w/ Joel Madden spinning) and Image/Mayhem party. Never made it to Radical Comics/Gene Simmons… or Suicide Girls… or Adult Swim…

During the daytime of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we spent some time at Wired Cafe in the Omni, enjoying the free lunches and drinks. The boys got some rad free stuff during gifting… and I enjoyed checking out the NVIDIA 3D TVs! I kind of need one for all of my gaming… no, really. To read up on them, visit www.nvidia.com.

Although I was made aware of the Tru:Blood drink bar parties, I never made it to any of them. Bummer. If only I could clone myself…

Let’s see… what else, what else. Sunday we spent a few hours shopping on the floor before finally heading back to L.A. Wanna see what our car ended up looking like?

First the trunk was stuffed as much as possible... literally.

...then the backseat, leaving little space for me and Angie to sit!

Insane, insane, insane. I’ll have some more SDCC related stuff coming soon when I have more time… but that’s about it as far as personal matters go!

FOCUS FEATURES IS COMING TO COMIC-CON – THURSDAY JULY 23rd and FRIDAY JULY 24th

This year at Comic-Con, Focus Features is screening Park Chan-Wook’s new vampire tale, THIRST, along with a panel with the noted Korean director Park Chan-Wook. We will also have a panel for ‘9’, the new action-adventure film coming out on 9-9-09, which will include filmmakers Shane Acker, Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov and stars Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly! Check out the full schedule below.

Also, take a ride on the 9 San Diego Pedicabs and be the first to see exclusive videos and content for 9 when you unlock the QR code. Make sure you find all of them, as there are different codes which will unveil unique content, not to be missed! To prep for a QR sighting, text READER to 4FOCUS for instructions on downloading our preferred reader so your phone is QR-ready.

Special Edition Collectible Cards from 9 will be distributed daily throughout the San Diego Gaslamp District. The first 100 people to find the 8 character cards plus 1 exclusive machine card and bring their completed set (9 cards total) to NECA (booth #4345) will win a guaranteed place in line to receive an autograph by Timur Bekmambetov, Shane Acker, and Elijah Wood.

Check out NECA (booth #4345) for the latest 9 & CORALINE news.

THURSDAY, JULY 23RD

6:30PM-7:00PM THIRST Panel in Hall H with director Park Chan-Wook, moderated by Dave McCoy from MSN.

FRIDAY, JULY 24TH

11:00AM
Stop by G4 (booth # 4249) to get your Free Screening Pass to see THIRST while supplies last.

2:30PM – 3:30PM
9 Panel in Hall H with filmmakers Shane Acker, Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov and stars Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly, moderated by Jordan Hoffman from UGO.
9:00PM THIRST Screening and Q&A to follow with director Park Chan-Wook moderated by Joe Lynch from G4.