I thought y'all would enjoy these photos I took at San Diego Comicon this year.

There was an excellent panel on Friday, which was a "Spotlight on Ray Harryhausen (and all things King Kong)".

My favorite quote of the weekend came from this panel -- Ray Harryhausen said: "If I had seen the 1976 'King Kong' as a boy, I would have become a plumber!" But, luckily for us, he saw the 1933 one.

The King Kong panel included Mark Cotta Vaz, author of the new biography "Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper"
(Cooper being the creator of King Kong); Joe DeVito, creator and illustrator of "King Kong of Skull Island", co-authored with other panelist Brad Strickland; and writer-producer-director Arnold Kunert, producer of "Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years" and the driving force behind getting Harryhausen an Academy Award. (And incidentally, IMO, the best panel moderator I have ever seen.)

I enjoyed this panel so much that I promptly afterward went down to the sales floor and purchased all of their books. And got them signed, of course.

On Saturday, Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen, and Forry Ackerman were on a panel moderated by Sam Weller; later they were joined by Arnold Kunert.

It was lively and fun, and a joy to listen to their stories and remembrances.

Afterwards there was a signing in the autograph area. The line for the autographing was at least an hour's wait, one of the longest of the whole con, with another larger line of people gathered just in hope of being able to get a signature (even thought they had been told it was unlikely). I know the signers stayed longer than scheduled, to try to meet as many people as possible.

It was a wonderful event, and I wanted to share these photos with all of you here.
http://home.comcast.net/~ushertwo/bradbury.html

Pat,

Great stuff! I envy you! Thanks for posting the pix. I know everyone here will get a kick out of them like I did.

Best,

Pete

Great animated shots! Thanks! It took me a while to download them, but it was worth the wait.

Lake

Patrick! Thanks many Thanks for letting us see what you were able to see there in San Diego. Great!

Ditto Pete's comments. Thanks Patrick for having the forethought to record such a gathering. Wow! To have those three together and the history behind them! This has to be something really unique with Ray H. being Ray B.s best man at his wedding and Forry a member of the writing group that Ray was in many years ago.

Hi, Thank you for the kind words. I wish everybody here could have been at the con with us it was great fun and wonderful to see Ray as always!
I know there are a lot of Pats on this board - so as not to further confuse everybody, I am actually a Patricia.

PatR,

My sincere apologies. Somehow I was thinking of Patrick, Ray's driver, but his Board Name is entirely different. But again, thanks for the great photos.