"New York Comic Con celebrates a full decade of new Star Wars adventures with Lucasfilm's Steve Sansweet and special guests. It's the kickoff show of the 2009 convention season with an all-new Lucasfilm presentation on Saturday, Feb. 7th , from 1 PM to 2 PM in the large IGN Theater (Level 1) at New York City's Jacob Javits Center. The convention runs from Friday through Sunday."
Click here for your Star Wars related details at the main site.
Click here to visit the New York Comic Con official website.
UPDATE: From Mary, Rebel Legion Council and Echo Base (NY, NJ, PA, DE) Commanding Officer:
"The Rebel Legion's Echo Base invites Star Wars fans in the New York City area to come visit our booth at New York Comic Con, February 6 –8, at the Jacob K. Javits Center in NYC, NY. Rebel Legion Honorary Member Steve Sansweet will be spending some time at the Rebel Legion and 501st Legion booths answering questions and signing his books.
The Rebel Legion will be in booth G110, and the 501st in booth G118, both in the Galleria (top) level of the Javits Center. Friday Steve Sansweet is scheduled to be at the booths Friday from 1:15 PM to 3:15 PM, and on Saturday from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. And don't miss the Lucasfilm presentation: "Star Wars Decade. Were You in Line in '99?" Saturday from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM in the main IGN Theater. Steve Sansweet will be joined by special guests. For more details visit http://www.starwars.com/fans/events/news20090126.html
And look for Rebel Legions members in the NY Comic Con promotion at the CBS's Early Show Friday morning, the live segment will start at 8:00AM ET.
For a complete list of the weekends artists, events, and panels, check the NY Comic Con’s web site: http://www.nycomiccon.com and for more information about the Rebel Legion visit http://www.rebellegion.com "
Thanks Mary!
UPDATE #2: What follows is Justin's re-cap of what was presented at Steve Sansweet's "Where Were You In '99?" panel at NYCC on Saturday:
This year at NYCC Steve Sansweet held a Star Wars panel entitled "Where Were You In '99?", a look back at how the Star Wars universe has grown since the release of The Phantom Menace. Fans have been overwhelmed with new additions to the Saga since 1999 - from the Prequels, six Celebrations, and The Clone Wars, to scores of non-fiction reference books, novels, comics, and toy merchandise. 1999 also marked the official end to the "Dark Times" of Star Wars, as all of the rumors and anxious anticipation for Episode 1 that began in late 1995 finally came to fruition when we all packed the movie theaters and saw that famous 20th Century Fox logo appear on the big screen for the first time in 16 years.
To start off the presentation, the official EP1 trailer was shown on two huge video screens. Seeing that trailer again really set the feeling & mood of the room, as fans felt like they were drawn back in time watching it. After that, a video montage showing scenes from 1977 when fans were lined up outside Grauman's Chinese Theater for the premiere. The montage also included footage from all of the Celebrations, with John Williams' famous score playing in the background. When the video ended, the crowd in attendance clapped joyously.
The lights then came on and Steve Sansweet took center stage behind the podium. He began talking about 1999 and what that time period was like for all Star Wars fans. He then showed a video clip of Seth Green and Matt Seinreich talking about what they remember from 1999 and how Star Wars inspired them to create the Robot Chicken specials.
On Friday, the day before the panel, members of the 501st were asking fans to fill out a "Where Were You In '99?" form. The form asked you to write a brief summary of what 1999 was like for you, and how that year has affected you as a Star Wars fan. The 501st collected the forms and gave them to Steve Sansweet prior to his scheduled panel session. Steve read over the forms and selected four of them to read out loud during the panel. Two of the fans who had their surveys read out loud were in attendance during the panel, Kevin and Laurie. Steve called them up on stage and after reading their submissions, he presented them with gifts from the Lucasfilm Archives. They each received a Darth Maul wrist watch, and a 1:64 scale die-cast EP1 painted race car.
Next up was a Q&A segment with members from Fanboys; Kyle Newman, Jamie King, and Dan Fogler. They appeared on stage and fielded questions from the fans and from Steve. They spoke about their memories from 1999 and how they got into Star Wars. Then a 5-7 minute clip from Fanboys was shown on the two video screens, prompting laughter and applause from the crowd. Steve ended the segment by urging fans to go see the film, and Kyle and company left the stage to a round of applause.
The next segment surrounded the #1 new TV series, The Clone Wars. Steve gave an overview of the movie and the series, and announced that the final episode in Season 1 will be aired on March 20th. What he said next made the audience snap to attention in their seats. He began talking about the upcoming Season 1 DVD boxed set, and how the set has yet to be completed. He then showed the fans two bonus content video clips that Lucasfilm was considering including in the DVD boxed set. Fans were asked to vote on which clip would be included as bonus material by the level of their applause after each video clip. The two choices were:
- A deleted scene from the episode "Downfall of a Droid", where Anakin and R2-D2 are sitting in Anakin's Jedi starfighter going over the pre-flight checklist. When Anakin asks R2 if the engines are all set, R2 gives him a few beeps and whirls to ask Anakin to wait a moment. R2 waits for one of the droids who is working on the starfighter to work his way towards the rear of the vehicle. Once the droid rolled around the back and was in front of the engines, R2 gives Anakin the "OK" to fire up the engines, which Anakin does and in turn toasts the unsuspecting droid. Hearing the whine of the droid, Anakin cuts off the ignition, peers behind his starfighter to see what happened, and then tosses a smirk towards R2.
- The second clip was a collaboration of concept drawings and animation tests from The Clone Wars movie, such as the AT-TE tanks scaling the vertical wall during the attack on the B'Omarr Monastery. This clip received the loudest applause from the crowd, and Steve responded by saying "Congratulations, you just voted on bonus content for the Season 1 DVD boxed set", which obviously drew another round of applause.
The final segment in the panel was a video clip of the main man behind The Clone Wars, Dave Filoni. What was immediately striking about this clip of Dave speaking was that it was the first time I've seen him talking about The Clone Wars without wearing his distinct brown fedora! Instead, Dave was wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers hat turned backwards, as well as a zippered Steelers fleece. I guess Dave wanted to give his team some love, given they had just won Super Bowl 43. Dave began to speak about his feelings during 1999 and how the prequels launched his Star Wars fandom to new heights. He then briefly discussed what it was like to be hired to oversee the creation of The Clone Wars and the pure joy he gets from designing each and every episode. Dave ended his video clip by showing fans a never-before-seen compilation of scenes from the final 3-part series that will end Season 1 of The Clone Wars entitled The Ryloth Trilogy. I'm not going to detail what was shown in the segment for the sake of spoilers (those who know me know how I feel about spoilers), but I will say this about what was shown: fans are in for one HELL of a season finale. The action is ramped up to all-new levels, and the animated premiere of certain characters is mind-blowing. Filoni and crew seemed to have saved the best for last, and it certainly shows in what they have in store for fans.
Steve concluded the panel session by saying that Star Wars is forever and thanked everyone in the crowd for their attendance.
After the panel, my wife and I caught up with Steve at the 501st booth on the Galleria Level. We had brought our copy of The Star Wars Vault, which Steve signed for us on the slipcase and on the book's cover. After speaking with him for a few minutes, my wife started talking about the next upcoming Celebration, and she tried to get Steve to divulge a little tidbit about C5. Alas, she was unsuccessful in getting any concrete details from him (and she was laying on the "charm factor" pretty heavily), but Steve did tell her to expect the official C5 announcement to come this summer. Steve said they want to keep the announcements released a year prior to the convention, so it appears that we will have to wait a few more months before anything official hits the Interweb.
Well, that just about wraps up this report from NYCC. The past 10 years have taken Star Wars fans on a wild ride thru the Saga. Here's to another amazing 10 years, and many, many more beyond that.
Like Steve said, Star Wars truly is FOREVER. May the Force be with you all!
UPDATE #3: See below for a couple links to NYCC 2009 coverage with lots of pics:
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