Two days ago, an adorable pot-bellied kid clad in Darth Vader armor told us (without hesitation, I might add) that there were but three Comic-Cons left. He had just watched the trailer to Roland Emmerich’s disaster flick 2012, and reached his own logical conclusion. For the sake of popular arts, let us hope he’s wrong!

We drove back to Los Angeles two days ago, ready for another round of interviews, and frankly exhausted. CC was a blast, but it remains very much a blur, as we shot so much footage that I didn’t even have time, in the end, to purchase the Sideshow Collectibles Iron Spiderman Comiquette I’d been coveting since last year. It was right there, well within arm’s reach; but I had to pick my poison, focus on the task at hand, and remind myself that my sole purpose for roaming the hallowed convention floor was to work on the film.

What I lost in terms of collecting opportunities, I sure gained in unforgettable on-camera moments. There were the Waffle Brothers, who drove to Comic-Con specifically to see us, and finally shared the story behind their now infamous song “GL raped our childhood”. There was Academy Award nominee and maverick animator Bill Plympton, who kindly shared three George Lucas-related stories with us, and drew the strangest one of all–involving Howard the Duck, and a younger version of himself having sex with his then girlfriend in one of the theater’s balconies. He sketched two versions of it–one for Chris, and one for myself. And I think it’s safe to say that we now own the strangest Plymptoons this side of Filmland.

And then, there was Peter Mayhew, who gave us our shortest interview to date–clocking in at a whopping 3 minutes and 17 seconds.

It's probably safe to say that Chewie would have also kicked my butt at Wookiee Scrabble.

When Chris brought up the topic of computer-generated Wookiees in Revenge of the Sith, Peter vigorously shook his head, and steadfastly asserted that there was no such thing as CG Wookiees, no Sir, and that we ought to have done our homework before the interview. We knew better, of course. But this was Chewie, mind you. And while we could have asserted the well-documented fact that a battalion of CG Wookiees indeed stood behind the six actors in hair suits that were replicated numerous times across the front lines on Kashyyyk, we knew we had to respectfully stand down. We let the Wookiee win.

We quickly recovered from that amusing incident, shook hands with Mark Hammil and John Landis, got kicked out of the Press Room mid-interview with Daryl Frazetti (we’re driving up to Tahoe on Thursday to finish what we started), gave away 2,000 postcards, and received so much love and encouragement from the fans that we drove away from the harbor with a profound sense of accomplishment and a heavy heart. But we’ll be back next year. With our entire team of producers, our own battalion of PvGirls, and, yes, a finished film to promote.

Until then, we’ll try to recapture the magic at Frank & Son in a few days–after Tahoe and important detours to Marin and Modesto. Meanwhile, in Denver… our first sequence is taking shape. Around the world, participants are putting the finishing touches to their rants before the submission deadline. We’re making new, amazing discoveries almost on a daily basis. And I sometimes find it hard to express just how passionate I am about making and releasing this film.

2010 is going to be a big year. I wonder what the Darth Vader kid would have to say about that.

AOP