Last year, someone was smart enough to invite Max Brooks (author of The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z) as the moderator for a panel paying tribute to the man who pretty much invented the zombie genre, George A. Romero. But do you know what filmmaker and which film had the greatest impact on Romero? You might be surprised by the answer he gave at last year's Comic-Con panel.

Max Brooks has a Spotlight panel on Friday at 10:30am in Room AB.  We'll also have an interview with Max Brooks for your viewing pleasure.

Thanks to Comic-Con for providing clips from the panel for our news coverage.

You might have tracked down a VHS copy of Jodorowsky's hard to find film at Comic-Con. (Producciones Panicas)

Back in the '90s one of my favorite things to do at the San Diego Comic-Con was to get my hands on plenty of fantastic genre movies. Right before the rise of DVD and after the death of Laser Discs, the Con was that unique place to get your rare, obscure movie fix. I remember getting El Topo and The Holy Mountain VHS tapes at $25 apiece, a bargain considering the hard-to-find collector's items these legendary Alejandro Jodorowsky finds were. That's when Comic-Con was about even more than comics or about huge studios presentations. Independent distributors were part of the act too with crazy and fun oddities such as The Star Wars Holiday Special or Roger Corman's lost classic The Fantastic 4: The Movie. You can't go wrong with titles like that!