Comic Con 2016 -- Christian Slater

Some pics from Comic Con this November in Providence, RI.

Me and Christian Slater:

This was Christian Slater's first-ever Con of any kind. He's eligible for Mr. Robot, his current show, which I haven't seen, and from his guest role in a Star Trek movie. (If you know which one, you're much more of a fan than I, though I've seen all of the original films, and all of the rebooted Kirk films.)

But the majority of the talk at the panel was about Heathers, of course. For example, in this pic, where it looks like I'm in the picture I'm taking, but it's not me:

Slater was an extremely friendly guy when I met him for his picture and autograph. Not just faking it, as many of them do, and not sounding like he's uncomfortable or disgusted. He's aged well, partly perhaps because he seems like a very nice, laid-back guy. My better half also says it's because he married someone outside the business, which is also a possible reason. He seemed to be having a good time. Only time will tell if he's the same way after his 100th Comic Con, but he was cool here.

He said he got the cameo in that Star Trek movie because his mother was casting for the film, and someone had just dropped out of the role, and they were ready to shoot. He'd been on the lot shooting a show and a movie, and his mother asked if he had a moment. He was a fan of the show, so he agreed to the spot start.

He also received a lot of questions about Pump Up the Volume, which I suppose was a little ahead of its time. Message-wise, not high school. But we could sure use Harry now! I got a chance to comment to him about Murder in the First, a very overlooked movie, and one which I wished I'd had more of a chance to speak to him about. I got in line at the panel, but they ran out of time, so me and three others had to sit back down. But I brought the movie up to him in person, said I liked it, and he said, "Yes! Of course!" which he said to a great many things. But it was his first Comic Con, so he'll have to work on his instant responses. But at least it wasn't fake. As usual, an honest guy, no BS.

Coming soon: Michael Cudlitz, recently departed of The Walking Dead, at Comic Con.

Before the Walking Dead Ends...and then After the Season Finale

Photo: Carol and Daryl, from this website, called Heavy.com


...a few comments about it, and about whatever else:

--Those who need to watch their step in tonight's Walking Dead season-ending episode:

* Glen: When a love song plays and you're making loving gestures with your pregnant wife while naked in a shower, you really need to be careful in the next episode. Plus, he almost died once, and the comics show Negan getting him early in Negan's tenure. And who do we see tonight? Negan. And I think Glen's had his character arc, which is always a problem. So, working against him are that, and the comics, and his almost-dying, and one other thing: I saw an interview, not during the Talking Dead, in which Lauren Cohan says this season ends very, very sadly. She said that over and over again. Her character in the comics kills herself after she loses her baby (which was maybe hinted at in the last episode) and after Glen dies. The show won't kill off Glen, Maggie and the baby all at once, but all that is against him, too.

* Maggie and/or her baby: But see above.

* Carol, who I think was badly stabbed at the end of the last episode. Rick and the Zen master (who my better half hopes gets his tonight) do follow a trail of blood, after all, and the producers did hire her stunt double to play a walker, to fool us for a moment, when we just saw the back of her, and she (of course) looks a lot like Melissa McBride. Plus, the whole fool-me-once dying thing. See: Glen.

* One of Abraham's GFs, and Abraham himself.

* Safe: Rick, Coral (I mean, Carl), Daryl (It's just a flesh wound), Father Gabriel (for now, and how has this guy survived for this long?), Enid, and, well, everyone else not mentioned above.

* My better half has heard ("...from a website I trust," she says, for whatever that's worth) that only one character gets it tonight, but she also said it was possible that one major and one minor character gets it. We shall see.

And, in other news:

* Mark my words: Trump doesn't want the Presidency, and he won't get the nod anyway. He's got to win the voters and the delegates over, and he hasn't done that. The delegates announce the party's choice, like the electoral college actually elects the Presidency. One often means the other, but not always, as Al Gore--and the rest of us--found out with Dubya.

* His campaign manager has been arrested. He's been banned from Great Britain. A mayor from West Hollywood has said he's "not welcome" in her city. And he should have every woman in the country pissed at him, plus most minorities, and certainly every Latino and Latina. So why are his numbers still so good? More than Trump himself, his numbers say a lot more about the mindset of a lot of Americans.

* Allen Craig ($9 million) is in Pawtucket right now, in the minors. Pablo Sandoval ($17.6 million) and Rusney Castillo ($11.2 million) are both on the bench and don't look to get much playing time this year. So the Red Sox are paying $37.8 million this year to three players to not play.  Why can't I get a contract like that?

* The snow's not accumulating, but it's really coming down in furious spurts, then drying up. All day today, and part of tomorrow. Power flickered on and off in the 50+ mph winds today. And, yeah, it's April 3rd.

* Game of Thrones cost about $1 million per episode when it first started. For this upcoming season, it's $10 million per episode. No wonder there's only 9 episodes a year.

* My guess is that the show's producers--who don't pay George R. R. Martin's book contract--have quietly asked him to let the series jump ahead of his books, so for the first time, many fans won't know what's coming.

***Just finished watching the season finale. All is as I suspected, except you don't see who gets it. My guess remains with Glen, but I have to say that the ending left me very frustrated, and not in a good way. A fan can't feel the outrage, or the loss, or the whatever, for a character until the fan knows which character gets it. And here, except for Carl and Rick (remember Negan's last comment before he swings), everyone else is at least a possibility. Because everyone on the Talking Dead says that the first episode of next season--when we know who got it--is a jumping board to everything that happens the whole season, and possibly for many seasons later, it has to be a very important character who gets it, possibly even Rick himself. I'm still going with Glen, but if they want to veer from the comics and really shock us, it could be Carl or Rick or Maggie. My second guess, if not Glen: Carl.