Chewies and Spikes And Jaynes, Oh My

Hanging with the 501st at Wizard World Austin Comic Con 2011 (Photo by Brandon Bollom)

A year ago, after the first Wizard World Austin Comic Con, I asked their PR director Jerry Milani what his first thoughts about event were. His response was simple: "Next year, it'll be twice as big." He wasn't kidding.

This weekend, the touring sci fi, comic, memorabilia and fan event has occupied two exhibition halls and two large rooms for celebrity Q&As. Even at that scale, there is still a sense of condescension in some media quarters about such events. After all, the audience is just geeks, right? Frankly, they're missing the point (In short: Geek is our word. You don't get to use it.)

There are facts you only learn in this kind of wild, wired, fancentric environment. Like that Jake Lloyd, who played young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, is a big fan of SXSW-award winner Enter The Void. Also Lloyd, who has a quite understandably complex relationship with the films ("I had to find out from the gamer community and the group I have on facebook that the Blu-Rays were coming out"), can also do a pitch-perfect impression of Chewbacca: Brave, when Peter Mayhew, the Millenium Falcon's furry copilot himself, is at the other end of the panel.

Peter Mayhew, Daniel Logan and Jake Lloyd reminisce about their experiences as part of Star Wars (Photo by Brandon Bollom)

For the fans, there is something extraordinary about hearing Mayhew's low, rumbling, avuncular tones tell stories, like breaking into the movies as Minoton in Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger filming the Hoth scenes for The Empire Strikes Back on Norway's Hardangerjøkulen glacier. As the only cast member wearing a thick, furry body suit, the snow was not too bad … as long as he was standing in it. He said, "We had a changing hut up there and it was about two of three degrees. Doesn't sound a lot, but what happens when you put ice in a microwave and turn it on? It melts. So I walked into the hut, got unzipped and suddenly it goes thud, because the costume is literally soaking wet, frozen."

By comparison, he recalled that the most pleasant scene to film was the computer chess sequences in A New Hope. He had expected to have to play a real game, but instead found an empty board. He said, "I went to one of the technicians. 'What's going' on? Where's the pieces?' 'Oh, don't worry, mate, they'll put them in afterwards.' I was able to sit down and relax."

The third member of the panel, Daniel Logan, summed up the weekend aptly. "To come come out here and talk about what I did ten years ago, it's kind of crazy," said the young Boba Fett. "My friends always tease me when I go back to New Zealand. They say, 'It's easy for you. I go to work and I work underneath the body of a car as a mechanic, working a 9-to-5, whereas you just go and sign your autographs."

Hercules returns! Kevin Sorbo, who was in Austin for Fantastic Fest, returns for Wizard World Austin Comic Con (Photo by Brandon Bollom)

That is a big part of the convention: The chance to shake hands with Kevin Sorbo, whose deliciously twisted Julia X played at Fantastic Fest, or catch Adam Baldwin field questions on everything from working with Stanley Kubrick on Full Metal Jacket to who has Jayne's knife from Firefly ("I do," he grinned, but his favorite gun from the show, Vera, got sold at a prop auction.)

But it's not just about hearing James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, serenade a packed ballroom with a song of sadness and murder in the Indian Wars, or commissioning sketches from up-and-coming illustrators on artist alley. The fan groups are a key component of the experience, from the world-famous 501st Legion of Star Wars reenactors to new and smaller groups, like the new Dctor Who Fan Club of Austin.

Blowing bubbles and steam(punk) with the ingenious fan group Airship Isabella (Photo by Brandon Bollom)

Ultimately, alongside being a massive commercial enterprise, this is a two-way experience, and some times a deeply personal one. When one fan asked Marsters about a particular scene which he could barely remember, and she could recite it, note for note, she got as big a round of applause as the star received. As Marsters explained, dealing with fans is generally "just a lot of good conversation."

However, it can be a little more profound: Logan recalled that, at a convention in Japan a fan had given him a hand-made Boba Fett sculpture made out of masking tape, and Lloyd once received a hand-carved jade figurine. However Mayhew, who suffers like so many tall men from bad knees, may have had the kindest gift: A walking stick, carved to look like a light saber.

Wizard World Austin Comic Con continues Sunday, Nov. 13, 10am-5pm. Austin Convention Center, 500 E. Cesar Chavez. $25 www.wizardworldcomiccon.com.