#SDCC: Twilight Saga: New Moon panel with Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner
As reported here earlier today, Twilight fans practically took over San Diego Comic-Con in a desperate attempt to get to be seated for the Twilight Saga: New Moon panel. Thousands of fans, many of them screaming with excitement, camped out in the hopes of being in the front row when the stars of the film, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner took the stage. Place-holding in line has become a huge controversy, and there were reports of minor scuffles over such disagreements as anxious fans worried about where their place in the panel might be. The convention allowed the campers to come in a freshen-up in the morning, and many had high hopes of being spotted in the crowd by their favorite heartthrob. There are even reports of moms offering cash to people seated toward the front in exchange for switching seats with their daughters. By all accounts, the hours leading up to the panel could only be described as Frenzy, and New Moon has been a top trending topic off and on all day on Twitter. Right before the panel, many heartbroken fans were tweeting their sadness at not being able to get into the panel.
Earlier in the day, there was a press conference where the actors were asked questions about the upcoming film. As press pictures were released, flamewars began as some fans became catty about the seating order and appearance of the stars (check out some of the comments at this site).All of the stars seemed to be slightly bewildered by the the full media onslaught of the press conference. Pattinson described the convention as “terrifying” but was reportedly more talkative than at last year’s con. When asked about their new-found fame, Lautner replied “None of us saw it coming, and this past year has been a ride for us.”
In the hour prior to the panel, a rumor began to circulate that Robert Pattinson would not be in attendance at the panel. The Twitterverse did a collective sigh of relief when he was apparently spotted with some guards about 15 minutes before start time. Once the panel began, sites seemed to be crashing from overload left and right. The second someone posted a link to an alleged live feed, that site was overloaded with fans hoping to get a peek at what was going on. All accounts were likening the screaming crowds to the cacophony of fans at early Beatles concerts.
Through the lens of IDW’s tenth anniversary, founder Ted Adams and IDW editors and creators addressed a packed room about a wide variety of new projects. 
The care and attention to detail given the direct-to-DVD animated films based on DC Comics’ properties is evident. As a result, watching 
is a visual treat. Following the others in this line, it is entirely on its own and disconnected from any other video so casual watchers will not be burdened with tremendous amounts of continuity.
Johnny Depp made an unannounced appearance at the 3D Disney panel at Comic-Con 2009, generating a roar of approval from the crowd. Depp will be playing the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s upcoming film, Alice in Wonderland, due out in March 2010. Burton himself made his Comic-Con debut as a panel guest. The panel also featured footage from the Alice film, as well as from A Christmas Carol (November 2009), and 
TheOneRing.net hosted a Hobbit movie panel at SDCC, and some interesting new details were revealed: first and foremost, they’re splitting it into two movies. The word is that they found a transition-point that seemed natural and would allow for them to add some extra details from the appendices from the book. They are looking at a holiday 2011 release (at least for the first film), and they’re 95% sure that Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellen, and Andy Serkis are returning to reprise their roles. In fact, Richard Taylor (from WETA) quoted McKellan as saying 
It’s going to be an exciting year for the Man of Steel: Superman group editor Matt Idelson, writers Geoff Johns (Adventure Comics, Superman: Secret Origins), Greg Rucka (Action Comics), James Robinson (Superman), Sterling Gates (Supergirl), and Renato Guedes (Superman) discussed what the future holds for the current New Krypton status quo and answered fan questions. 
A new CG-animated version of the classic manga and anime, “Astro Boy,” created by the “god of manga,” Osamu Tezuka in the 1950’s, debuted clips at Comic-Con 2009. This seminal work about a heroic boy robot was a generation’s first exposure to the Japanese art form when it aired in the U.S. in the 60’s, and is set to hopefully gain a whole new audience. 
As part of iGoogle sponsoring the wi-fi at San Diego this year, they’ve also introduced a wide variety of comics themes that you can use to customize your iGoogle page– everything from Superman to Daniel Clowes (although, suprisingly, no Silver Surfer or Iron Man, and the web-slinger is Spider-Woman). 
