If you’ve followed our yearly Comic Con Blog or the career of Zachary Levi, Star of Chuck, then you are probably aware of The Nerd Machine and Nerd HQ. If you are not however, Zachary Levi and co-founder David Coleman began the nerd machine website home of cool nerd Swag, articles and the start of a Nerd Revolution (Nerdolution). Subsequently it evolved to include Nerd HQ, the con(NERD HQ) inside the con (San Diego Comic Con) which began offering unprecedented access to favourite stars and other cool nerd stuff. And it was all in an effort to raise money for the charity Operation Smile, which offers safe, effective reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.

For every year Nerd HQ has been going, they have provided full videos of their panels and events(which can be found on their YouTube channel here), which were also streamed live worldwide. Nerd HQ was made up of Signings, photo booths, panels, gaming and auctions. But now the convention needs your help!

And to explain exactly how you can help here is the man himself Zachary Levi…

You can Click on this link right here, to donate and help support a great convention that in turn also supports an important charity. “All contributors will be part of the #NerdHQArmy, an exclusive email list that will receive updates, photos, videos and much more throughout our event planning process that can’t be found anywhere else. Your name will also be placed on our “Nerd HQ Wall of Honor” at the event and on our contributor page on http://www.thenerdmachine.com. But most importantly, for your contribution, you will receive our eternal gratitude, loyalty and our pledge to bring you the best Nerd HQ ever!”

If you’re still not convinced here are a few things that may help persuade you, If you’re not resident of the United States, Unfortunately there is no Nerd HQ for example in our native land of the UK or anywhere else,but success might encourage expansion. And finally to give you an idea of what your money would be going towards here’s a quick clip of footage from Nerd HQ 2013. I hope you agree to support this worthy cause and support Nerd HQ and The Nerdolution!

So it’s that time of year again when the nerds, the geeks, the cosplayers and the gamers are out in force, It’s Comic Con season! So like any self respecting British nerd we made our way down to London Film and Comic Con to join in the fun. We were welcomed by the oddities of Comic Con. Judge Dredd in his undies, Xena and Jack Sparrow getting a pint at the bar and Slave Leia teaching Padme the slave dance (While a crowd developed *silently* so as not to spook them). A host of stars were there in force, including Danny Fucking Glover! A true gent who was lets be honest far to famous for Comic Con. The forgotten planet booth also toted its very own Ewok among other recognisable characters which made us feel bad for the stalls around because lets be honest, it’s hard to beat an Ewok!

This year the festivities were held in Earls Court two. While much larger than the Olympia, where it was held last year, it came with both pros and cons. The major disadvantage was that of having no balcony (like in The Olympia) or any other sensible space for people to just flop down out of the way. But the space did allow for much better through-flow and a larger showing of exhibitors. One noticeable change this year brought was a significant shift in the male to female ratio as close to 50/50 as makes no difference it seemed. This is great however, I would still make it clear, although the nerdy/gamer girl may no longer be the Unicorn it once was it is still not a Horse. And as always Comic Con exists within a Photo bomb level of its own its impossible not to exist in a million peoples photos and to have the same be true for you. Also the big reveal of a secondary LFCC new in October at the Olympia came as somewhat of a surprise but with the convention growing year on year I guess it was inevitable.

To celebrate 20 years of vertigo Dave McKean came down for one of his rare appearances. However he was also there to do a joint signing with S F Said on their new collaboration, Phoenix, following on from their previous work together on the Varjak Paw series. If you are unaware of Mckean’s work he is a fantastic artist that among other thing did the cover artwork for The Sandman Graphic novels.
One of the highs of the weekend was the reunion panel celebrating ten years since the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Due to catastrophic tech failure unfortunately we were unable to bring the talk to you at home. What we took from the panel was this, People didn’t seem to get Avery Brooks’ humour, all the guests were delightful and Armin Shimerman seemed to take on as natural leader of the group. Not surprising when considering how prolific he has been within the science fiction and fantasy genre. One amazing part of the panel was when Max Grodénchik who played Rom in the series described that the origin of his characters voice. Due to an inability to speak normally with the teeth implants he wore he talked out of the back of his throat to overcome it.

The other Important panel to occur was that of The Mortal Instruments Movie adaptation. It was supposed to be the Author of the series Cassandra Clare and actors Jamie Campbell Blower and Lena Headey, but due to Scheduling issues Lena never made it. A full recording of this panel is up on our YouTube channel here. Based on the short sneak peek of the movie (that unfortunately we couldn’t film) the casting seems questionable and the CGI a little clumsy, It might be a lot of fun but I am still concerned. A couple of people worth mentioning that We met over the weekend include a very talented artist that stood out amongst the others present, Artist Olivia Rose. Her work which can be found here, is fantastical and surreal as well as being highly original and truly beautiful. We also met one of the guys from The battery chicken YouTube channel while queuing to enter, they’ve got some really funny content over there so check them out and tell them Nerd Eyes Only sent you!

Zachary Levi and friends at Nerd Hq 2013

Nerd Hq returned alongside SDCC again and raised a whole lot of money for operation smile. Guests included Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Jared Padelicki and Jensen Ackles, Joe Manganiello and Rob Kazinsky. And all the panels can be found on the nerd machine YouTube channel here. This year it grew again and took over a San Diego baseball field orders of magnitude larger than the venue where they started out. There was also a special camp out on the field to watch Serenity with Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk which looked amazing.

we had a alot of fun at LFCC and across on the YouTube channel there is some extra footage from the weekend, we chat with the guys from LOTNA (League of the no aligned, Science Fiction Group) and you can get a good idea of what being a LFCC is like. We look forward to attending next year and rest until convention season next year.

London FIlm and Comic Con Swag!

Exhibitors and Interesting Links from LFCC –

http://www.lotna.org.uk (League of the non aligned science fiction group)                 http://www.startrek-starships.com                                                   http://www.MothersBasement.com (Paraphernalia)                                           http://www.redcarpettours.com  (Holidays)                                                               http://www.nerdoh.com (T shirts)                                                   http://www.autographica.co.uk (Sells Autographs)                                           http://www.ministerofchance.com/ (Podcast)
Fantasy World – The Adventures of Ken(Independent Graphic Novel)
https://twitter.com/jessicameats (Author Jessica meats)                                      Child of the Hive, Codename Omega: Omega Rising (novels)