I like the way Rick Baker -- make up artist extraordinaire -- keeps it real. Sure he uses computer effects to make his make up work even better, but  he doesn't rely solely on CGI. Baker was at Comic-Con to discuss his work on the new Wolf Man starring Benicio Del Toro movie for Universal. I caught up with to talk about Guillermo Del Toro and CGI.

Back at the 2004 Comic-Con, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola appeared on a panel with director Guillermo del Toro about bringing Hellboy to the screen.

Mignola appears at the 2008 Comic-Con to discuss the Hellboy graphic novels. Saturday, 11:00am, Room 8.

There are people who come to Comic-Con and then there are Comic-Con people. The quartet of filmmakers represented in this video are Comic-Con people. Sam Raimi, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Guillermo del Toro come to the Con because they like it and they get it. They are also willing to provide aspiring filmmakers with some solid advice. Here are a few clips with these filmmakers imparting their words of wisdom. Raimi provides, perhaps, the most practical and yet still inspirational words of wisdom. 

Robert Rodriguez has a panel on Red Sonja with Rose McCowan, Thursday, 2pm Room 6CDEF.

Thanks to Comic-Con for providing footage of the panels for our news coverage.

Batman beats Spider-man... at least at the box office (Warner Brothers / Sony)

It's official. The Dark Knight just broke the box office record for biggest opening weekend, formerly set by rival superhero Spider-Man (3) last year. The Dark Knight is also the fourth superhero film based on a comic to hit this summer (following Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Hellboy II, and five if you count Wanted's Wesley as a superhero). So is it any wonder that Hollywood has a big presence at Comic-Con? If you watched the Guillermo del Toro video, he comments on how the expansion of comics into movies and gaming has helped keep the publishing end of the business alive. I just interviewed a pair of San Diego comic book store owners who had strikingly similar reports from the retail trenches in regards to Hollywood and the comics industry.

Some filmmakers and celebrities come to Comic-Con because they need to promote their movies to a particular fan base. But others come because they ARE that fan base.  This includes Quentin Tarantino (whom I met at a friend’s poster booth before Reservoir Dogs came out), Robert Rodriguez, Sam Raimi, and of course, Guillermo del Toro. Con attendees embrace these people because they share the same obsessions. After del Toro's panel in 2004, he was mobbed by fans in the hallway but took time to talk with almost everyone (including Aaron Soto, one of our KPBS Comic-Con team members, who gets a photo op with del Toro at the end of this video).