As I mentioned before, I was really happy with the panels I saw and regret not taking the time to see more (minor regret, I don't really know what I'd cut out to make more time). Also, almost all of the pictures I took at the panels were terrible, so rather than subject you to all of those, I'll put up the only one I like and just resort to a brief description of the panels.
I saw two psychology themed panels: the Psychology of Cult TV Shows and the Psychology of Star Trek vs. Star Wars. Both were amazing, and there's definitely a new geek trend (genre, clique, topic, hobby?) around psychological analysis of our geeky loves. I'll be talking about this in another post.
Part of seeing those panels was getting a chance to meet my two favorite geek psychologists, Dr. Ali Matu and Dr. Andrea Letamendi. They both have podcasts that I listen to: Dr. Matu's Super Fantastic Nerd Hour and Dr. Letamendi's The Arkham Sessions. And that's what I mean, it's some sort of trend when I can have "favorite geek psychologists". I''l be talking a bit more about this later in this post.
I attended two panels about women characters. The first was called The Most Dangerous Women at Comic-Con, and the second was called Wonder Women of the 21st Century. Both were terrific panels, but I have now become a big fan of Adrianne Curry who was on both panels. She's a model and reality TV personality, and has an amazing perspective on the industry and women and characters in addition to being a big ol' geek.
I also attended a panel about the new Thunderbirds reboot happening. Weta (the studio doing all the special effects in the Hobbit & Lord of the Rings movies) is producing for ITC a remake of the old Thunderbirds show. I loved that show as a kid and saw it when it first came to the US. Seeing what they are doing with miniature models and some of their test video has rekindled that same excitement I felt when I saw trailers for the J.J. Abrams Star Trek remake. I can't wait!
David Peterson is the artist/writer behind the Mouse Guard franchise. It's really a beautiful series, and it's become popular enough to support a panel where he and his publisher discuss all the collectibles, games, and story lines coming up. The panel also included dramatic readings of three stories from a anthology of collected works by other creators in the Mouse Guard universe. It was very fun!
My manga expertise is almost non-existent, so I decided to attend the Best & Worst Manga of 2014 panel to begin edumacating myself. Four writers who review manga each discussed their top choice in a variety of categories. Here's a link to their choices. It provided me with a pretty nice reading list. I also got a chance to meet the reviewers so I can pick out who to following in the future (I haven't decided yet - still reviewing their on-line stuff).