How I Became the News

July 2, 2008 on 3:25 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

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Hey, gang. Check out this article I wrote for the Wiz U main page.

Notice anything weird in there? Yes, I had no choice but to insert myself into the story. How did this come to pass?

Well, I’m sitting in Tonner Doll’s panel at Wizard World Chicago on Friday. Tonner, for those of you who don’t know, come from the high-end fashion doll world and have a ton of extremely dedicated fans – they even hold their own conventions a couple times a year. So at this particular panel, a lot of the fans came armed with some very specific ideas of what they’d like to see Tonner do next in the pop culture realm – one fan even had a customized Tonner Spike from Buffy!

Mark Moriarty then announced that he was going to go around the room and ask every individual person what they’d like to see Tonner do. Since I was sitting in the audience, I figured I’d better come up with something quick. My wife recently got me hardcore into Doctor Who (the new series, at any rate), and when I pictured David Tennant as the 10th Doctor’s baggy trench coat as a Tonner figure, it worked for me.

Sure enough, when they came around to me Mark asked me what I’d like to see, so I said, “Doctor Who.” The crowd applauded (they were applauding a lot of stuff, to be fair). Mark said, “So you guys would like to see us do Doctor Who?” More applause. Mark then looked back to Robert Tonner, who announced that they’d just signed the license.

So that’s how Tonner came to announce their newest license acquisition in Wizard World Chicago, and that’s why I couldn’t figure out a way to leave myself out of the straight news story I wrote about it.

Here’s another news item out of Chicago you guys might not have heard: During the Moral Orel panel, creator Dino Stamatopoulos, writer Scott Adsit (of 30 Rock fame) and director Chris McKay showed off the new season 3 premiere episode that won’t be airing until August. …I’m not sure I can describe it in a way that really encapsulates it. It was both filthy and kind of shockingly artistic. It made great use of a depressing Mountain Goats song, and there was one incredibly simple joke that had me laughing my ass off (when you see it, it’s about the hardware store).

Want to talk about Moral Orel or new Doctor Who toys? Hop onto the blog conversation thread at the Wizard Universe Message Board.

-Posted by Justin