Now here’s Kevin (right, with Bill Corbett) sporting his dreary old look.  His dogged refusal to surrender his facial hair is problematic, but we’ve come up with an elegant, sophisticated solution - the face mitten.

The beard is no longer a problem.  The loosely vested top accentuates Kevin’s broad shoulders and draws attention from his kidney fat and pit ham.  Sure it’s a bold statement, but is it bold enough?

We asked our readers to contribute their vision, and boy, was that ever the right idea! Daisyj worked the face mitten with something more leggy:

Wook, among other more adventurous combinations,  urges Kevin to adopt a more youthful line in his couture:

But it took BEMaven to put the whole thing together, and it hits you like a bolt out of the blue: OF COURSE!  THE BRIAN BLESSED LOOK!!!

Here the beard is in balance with the wings, there’s a helmet (Kevin loves helmets) and he gets to show a little leg.  Okay a lot of leg.  All right, way too much leg.  But on an ursine fellow like Kevin, I believe we have assembled a comfortable, versatile look that’s absolutely perfect for Comic-Con.

Thank you all!  Hope none of this haunts your dreams!  It’ll certainly haunt mine!  On to the Con!

(*Looks may not be entirely new.)

Despite my mom’s Hot Dog picture getting destroyed in the voting by that happy-feeted sailor I still wore my Jar Jar Shirt downtown to our live show on Saturday. Throughout the whole experience, which was described by various friends of mine in attendance as a “laugh-o-rama”, “laughfest” and “this is what you do all day?”, I kept forgetting that I was wearing the hideous shirt.  Stepping out on the street, or into a nearby bar, or into the lobby to converse with our CEO who introduced me to his wife for the first time, quickly snapped me back to reality.  People stared.  You could see them mouth the unmistakable syllables “Jar Jar.”  A few clever people shouted “Hey, Jar Jar!”  They were, of course, mocking me, and I did not have a response readied.  It occurred to me early on that these people had no reason to believe that I wasn’t serious in my shirt wearing.  It was comic-con after all, and this guy was walking around town:

(picture stolen from here)

The best way to describe the experience would be with this classic Eddie Murphy SNL sketch, where he decides to go undercover as a white person.  All of a sudden he’s treated completely differently, and only he knows that nothing about him has actually changed.  Nothing this drastic occurred to me, of course, but even feeling the slightest bit scorned by the average comic con attendee was enough to open my eyes.  Have a watch below:

I have now kissed Darth Vader. In public, before God and everybody.

Before you ask, I’ll just say it: He’s a gentle, beautiful man. He smelled of summer lavender blossoming in the fields of Givenchy. His helmet flaps, so delicate, his control panel, so powerful. Moments after this was taken, I swooned. Didn’t think I even knew how to swoon, but swoon I did.

He’s an angel, my friends, and nothing like the churl portrayed by that oily bitch Hayden Christensen.

COMIC-CON 2007: Kevin Murphy in Rifftrax-issued L.B.P.’s.

Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and myself will be at various places at various times signing stuff, drawing little doodles, and generally slacking off. Please bring us snacks.

On Friday night (a.k.a. “tomorrow night”) we’ll be goin’ all nostalgic on your collective posteriors, with the 20th anniversary MST3K panel. Our Rifftrax contingent will be there with the crew of Cinematic Titanic … plus MST3K writer / performers Bridget Nelson, Paul Chaplin, and producer Jim Mallon. We have a mere hour to sit in our rockers, smoke pipes, and recount the good old days, so don’t be late!

THEN on Saturday night we Rifftraxians perform two–count ‘em–two shows, live-riffing Ed Wood’s classic PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE. Bela Lugosi, aliens, zombies, Tor Johnson, Vampira, PLUS a sexually repressed 1950s couple who live next to a graveyard? It doesn’t get any better.

…Unless there are snacks. Snacks make everything better. (I really can’t emphasize that enough.)

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Because while Keanu Reeves’ presence is surely to be the most buzzed about thing at The Con, and the Dark Knight exclusives are sure to go fast, you won’t want to miss the Buy One, Get One Half Off sale on the novelization of Who’s Your Caddy at the downtown Borders

I’m very curious to see how the scene where the guy in a speedo gets hit in the crotch with a golf ball** translates to the printed page.

*Ha!
**Of course this happens

HUGE Post-Cyberpunk Fan.
Believes he wields tremendous power on Slashdot.
License plate says “THK1138″ (”X” was taken).
Knows his hands are small, but insists they are his.
Hates Jewel.

Spearheaded the Walworth County, Wisconsin Save Firefly movement (3 members).
Thinks Doctor Horrible is “longish.”
Works sealing cartons at a rubber novelty fulfillment house.
Has an incomplete collection of Space 1999 action figures.

It’s Comic-Con time, and the folks at Legend Films are busily prepping our own Mike Nelson for his appearance at the Rifftrax/Legend Films Booth, and of course for Rifftrax Live Saturday at the gorgeous Balboa Theater. It’s no easy task – Mike has been broken down into his component parts, shrink-wrapped and packed into seventeen boxes ready to be reassembled on the Convention Center floor.

It takes six skilled technicians to move Mike, who is as delicate as an antique spinet. So when you see Mike, remember his hard-working crew, without whom Mike would simply be a random collection of body parts in seventeen boxes.

*****

UPDATE by Bill: As the Michael J. Nelson 3709-Z is shipped to Comic-Con, I’m busy working on my many, MANY costumes for this weekend’s fun.

Now, the man below is a professional model, so obviously anything would look better on him than me. But expect me to show up in this little number for our 7:00 PM live show…

What about the 9:30 show, many of you are asking? That’s when I really go crazy. (And I’m tame compared to Kevin “Slave Leia” Murphy.)

So much information to digest! Is there anything notably comical that we can single out from this list of 40 items?

Ah, there we go. We’ll see you at Comic-Con.

“For those of you who weren’t able to meet the RiffTrax crew at ComicCon 2007 let me just say you missed a raging, wanton, knock-down, drag-out, 24-hour bacchanalia! To those who were able to make it – can I have my socks back?

It was great meeting you all, and I look forward to seeing you next year.”

Below are some photos we took, as well as a couple from some of the many fans we got to meet ‘n’ greet over the few days that made up the Con (and also intersected which days we were at said Con). There are more after the jump.

Enjoy!

The RiffTrax banner!

The fans are lined up to see Mike!

Another shot of the line.

More signing…

Our friends from DivX followed Mike around for some Comic-Con antics…

… and then took some time out for an interview.

The guys sign some posters! (photo by Shutterbun)

Hopefully people enjoyed our flyer handouts.

See you next year!
You can discuss this event with others in our forum thread here!

Thursday, July 26th

1:30pm – 2:30pm – Mike will be at and around the DivX booth, greeting fans and being videotaped, as well as general milling about. Booth number 734.

3pm – 7pm – Mike will be signing autographs in the Autograph Area in the Sails Pavilion. He’ll be at Table AA23.
Friday, July 27th

1:30pm – 2:30pm – Mike will be once again hanging around the DivX booth, being followed by a camera as he greets fans and denies rumors that he is actually DisembAudio. Booth 734 again.

3pm – 7pm – Signing autographs and rubbing ointment on his wrist in the Autograph Area (Sails Pavilion), Mike will be at Table AA19.
Saturday, July 28th

11am – 3pm – Even more signing of childrens’ foreheads and movie posters, this time Mike will be at Table AA16 in the Autograph Area of the Sails Pavilion.

5:45pm – 7pm – Shout! Factory panel featuring Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. They will be previewing clips from the upcoming Film Crew DVDs, followed by a Q&A. This takes place in Room 6B.

Besides Mike and the guys, official personnel from RiffTrax and Legend Films will be on hand with Exclusive movie posters, DVDs, flyers, and more cool stuff. Whether you’ll have to play 20 questions to get the cool stuff, hasn’t been decided yet.

If you plan on going, feel free to say hello. Hope to see some of you there!
As always, get the most recent schedule information from the Comic Con site