Nicole Campos

14 Essential Items to Bring to Every Fan Convention

It's that time of year where it seems like there's at least one big fan convention going on every weekend somewhere in the country. Whether you're planning on heading to New Jersey for The Steampunk World's Fair later this month or counting down for San Diego Comic-Con in July, there are a few esse ... More >>

San Diego Comic-Con 2011: The Walking Dead is Back, With A Vengeance

Nicole CamposJon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies and Andrew Lincoln​ At last year's San Diego Comic-Con, The Walking Dead hadn't yet debuted on AMC. Of huge interest to comics fans and zombie aficionados, filmmaker (and now showrunner) Frank Darabont's epic based on Robert Kirkman's acclaimed Im ... More >>

Wolverine Brings the Swag to Petco Park at San Diego Comic-Con

Nicole CamposHe's Wol-ver-iiiiiine!​Part of the attraction of Comic-Con is never knowing when a celeb is going to turn up. Sure, you know they'll be in the big panels in Hall H or Ballroom 20, and occasionally you'll get lucky and bump into one on the exhibit hall floor. Sometimes, though, you ... More >>

Comics From the Other Side: Fringe Team Signs at Meltdown

Comic book fans and science fiction lovers - the two are not mutually exclusive by any means, but in spite of the broad cross-over appeal between the two, it's pretty nifty when a sci-fi title throws up props to comic book history. Meltdown Comics hosted a signing and silent auction for Fox's Fring ... More >>

MISTER MISANTHROPE

Quentin Tarantino at LAX: Rolling Roadshow Hits Town for 'Jackie Brown'

Read Karina Longworth's article "Tarantino's Angst" from L.A. Weekly's print edition. Nicole Campos​ When Texas's Alamo Drafthouse comes to town to unleash their special brand of bad-ass cinema experience, they mean business. No one's going to stand in their way, not even the entire city of T ... More >>

W00tstock 2.4 PWNS Thursday Evening Events at Comic-Con 2010

Nicole CamposLen Peralta's W00tstock 2.4 poster - drawn during the show, right on stage!​For what is typically considered one of the lighter, less big events-heavy days of Comic-Con, this year's must-see-and-do Thursday events in and around the convention center were outrageously plentiful. Yo ... More >>

AMC's 'The Walking Dead' Signs, Seals, Delivers On Hype At Comic-Con 2010

​ With Emmy-winning powerhouses Mad Men and Breaking Bad, AMC is at the forefront of cable TV drama. What fans and geeks have hoped for, this year's Comic-Con audience can attest to, and the rest of the world is about to find out is that the network is poised to break all-new ground in October ... More >>

A Day In the Life of Hall H: Mostly Awesome, Briefly Chaotic

Nicole CamposThe Avengers, together at last! A genius ending to an insane day...​ The largest exhibition room at the San Diego Convention Center is Hall H, a huge 6,000-plus seater situated at the complex's south end that every year during Comic-Con International hosts the biggest, baddest, an ... More >>

Of Both Shadow And Substance: Gallery 1988 Fetes 'The Twilight Zone'

Nicole CamposCasey Weldon, "Twilight Zone Vs. Twilight" (triptych)​It's timely that, four days shy of national Geek Pride day and two short of the finale of one of the most anticipated genre TV series of the decade, Gallery 1988 would dedicate its latest art-as-pop-homage exhibition to The Twi ... More >>

Meltdown's Throwdown: Show Us How YOU Kick-Ass, Hollywood!

Nicole CamposDustin David aims his propeller limbs at Jonah Ray's recycling.​ Just one week from today, geek brethren: Matthew Vaughn's much anticipated, controversial, madder-than-a-hatter and -- judging by the early reactions -- all-but-assured cult classic adaptation of Mark Millar's Kick-A ... More >>

STAND BY YOUR DAN

Up in the Hair: Reitman Blows Off the BAFTAs to Guest Program the New Beverly

Nicole CamposReitman​Writer-director -- and recent LA Weekly guest blogger -- Jason Reitman is in the midst of a banner awards season, his much-lauded George Clooney-starrer Up in the Air having raked in a truckload of nominations and snared more than one win, in particular for his screenplay ... More >>

Rushmore meets Fight Club: Lots of Youths, Just a Little Revolt at Montalban Screening

Nicole CamposYouth in Revolt​Be gone, miserable graveyard of cinema that is January, when the studios are notorious for dumping sub-par product while everyone plays with their Christmas toys and spends any movie-going time catching up with the Oscar bait that came out last month. Dimension Fi ... More >>

Trekkies Storm Hollywood & Highland "Star Trek: The Exhibition" for Abrams' DVD Release

Nicole CamposRod Roddenberry, posing with a key piece of Trek legacy, Captain Kirk's original uniform.​It's one thing to wait for a big DVD release, run out, grab the disc, run home and watch it on your killer entertainment system; it's quite another to watch it on the bridge of the Enterprise ... More >>

DEVO's Twofer at the Fonda - Night #1: "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!"

Who needs the Fountain of Youth when you can grow old disgracefully with DEVO? Nicole Campos​DEVO are so old they probably heard Darwin himself explain his evolutionary theory. They have a combined age of 234. Guitarist Bob Casale looks like he has to take a deep breath just to pick up the gu ... More >>

Up Close with Richard Castle: Nathan Fillion and The Book He Didn't Write

Nicole CamposCastle... er, Fillion poses with his magnum opus​There have been plenty of book tie-ins for cult favorite television series' over the years, from Twin Peaks' Secret Diary of Laura Palmer to Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes, etc. Even Californication's Hank Moody recently had his ca ... More >>

Best of L.A.: Happy Hour

Best of L.A.: Shopping

Jamming on Hump Day with Michel Gondry @ Amoeba

It takes a certain je ne sais quoi to get the go-ahead to get your friends together to drink some beers and have a jam session right in the middle of Amoeba Music on a Wednesday summer night. Mind you, if you're Michel Gondry, you're just about clever and French enough to pull that off, and major b ... More >>

Extract Preview: Punching the Time Clock with Mike Judge at the Aero

Nicole CamposMike Judge has something to live up to with his new comedy Extract, if the testimonial of an audience member during Saturday night's Q&A following a preview screening at the American Cinematheque at the Aero was anything to go by. Without naming the expert in question, the fellow point ... More >>

One Item Only, Basterds: Quentin Tarantino Signs at Amoeba

Nicole CamposThe QT has landed.Any night is a bad night to do road work in front of Amoeba Records, but Thursday night in particular made for bad rush-hour congestion on a date where the Hollywood record mecca was about to play host to Quentin Tarantino, signing the soundtrack to Inglourious Basterd ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Burning Man Meets Hollywood, Mustache Circus, Shaun of the Dead Outdoor Screening, Swimming with Sharks Pool Party

Now in the final stretch of summer, each weekend we scramble to take in as many decadent hotel pool parties and outdoor film screenings as possible before the long days and warm nights end and we're forced back indoors to get our drink on at crummy dive bars. This weekend we went Swimming with Shark ... More >>

Got Brains? They'll Settle For Pie: Hollywood Outdoor Cinema's 'Shaun of the Dead' Night

Nicole CamposStick that in your corpse pipe and smoke it.There's something about zombies - something innately unifying, a sense of shambling, blood-dribbling community - that brings people together. Especially at a time when the horror genre has turned tide toward mopey emo vampires and the latest ... More >>

Over the Weekend: L.A.'s New Entrepreneurs at Twiistup 6, Epic Tales with Werner Herzog, Jennifer the Leopard at REDCAT

Is it just us or did July feel like the longest month ever? (Check our "July '09 Month in Photos" slideshow for a recap.) From Comic-Con to unforgettable concerts to Marilyn Manson's death threats to hospital stays, July was one for the books. Fatigue aside, we restocked our instant espresso stash a ... More >>

Last Night: Werner Herzog Signs His Fitzcarraldo Diaries at Book Soup

Saturday, a sunny afternoon in August on the Sunset Strip -- before the cruisers started to prowl, when you could still get lucky finding parking on a block that isn't permit only -- was a good time for the cineaste crowd to converge on Book Soup as filmmaker Werner Herzog made an appearance this we ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Comic-Con '09, Cosplay, Ninjas and Sexy '60s Spies

If city traffic felt a bit lighter over the weekend there was a reason why -- a majority of Angelenos hightailed it to San Diego for the annual Comic-Con to indulge their inner geek, strap on that Storm Trooper costume, spend their savings on first editions, preview new video games and attend panels ... More >>

Over the Weekend: National Doughnut Day, Ink-N-Iron, Suicide Girls, Little Joy at the Troubadour

Despite the June gloom, we kicked off our sticky sweet weekend on Friday with National Doughnut Day and followed it up with the Ink-N-Iron Festival in Long Beach, Club Suicide's one year anniversary party at the Echoplex with the Suicide Girls, and a sold out show with Little Joy at the Troubadour. ... More >>

Sweet Rides, Serious Ink and Sonic Sounds: Ink-N-Iron 2009 in Long Beach

View more photos in the "Ink-N-Iron: Tattoo & Kustom Culture Festival '09" slideshow. Nicole CamposThe bitchin' wheels and badass ink returned to the Long Beach waterfront with a vengeance last weekend as the Ink-N-Iron festival brought scores of tattoo enthusiasts and custom car aficionados togeth ... More >>

Last Night: Guillermo Del Toro Descends on Meltdown to Sign Novel The Strain

Even amongst the Hollyweird crowd, staying up past the witching hour on a Monday night for a book signing at Meltdown Comics takes dedication. Then again, one has to take into account context, or in this case subject: writer-director Guillermo Del Toro, who is promoting his first foray into noveliz ... More >>

Seven John Smiths, a Bob and a Bamford

What to do in L.A., May 29-June 4

Galactica Up For Grabs: BSG Auction Concludes in Pasadena

View a full gallery of photos in the "Battlestar Galactica Props: Going Once, Twice... Frakkin' SOLD!" slideshow. Nicole CamposFull scale Cylon centurion. And yes, it makes the noise...Tucked away in fairly quiet downtown Pasadena on Sunday morning, the final stretch of the coolest yard sale in t ... More >>

GO LA: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Young Frankenstein and Other Horrors

Plus, Doug Stanhope, Fake Radio, Oliver Sacks and more, April 17-23

GO LA: Dead Poets, Dead Writers and Denis Leary

Plus lots more to mourn and celebrate in town (not necessarily in that order), April 3-9

Over the Weekend: Suicide Girls Lingerie Party, Stylized Anarchy of Kawaiietly Please, Comic Book & Sci-Fi Convention, Dog Show Madness

For those who see Valentine's Day as much more than Hallmark's evil scheme to tap your piggy bank, the romantic holiday can bring on full-blown panic attacks for singles (and couples) who don't have a plan of action. Luckily, Angelenos had more than enough events and parties to pick from over the we ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Rockie Gardiner Memorial, Art Core, Viva Los Angeles Burlesque, Naked Scavenger Hunt and Clowns!

Is it just me or was it was incredibly hard to keep up with the insane amount of art and music events that happened in Los Angeles over the weekend? Friday night I remember hanging out backstage with Street Drum Corps when they opened for Motley Crue at the Palladium (pics coming soon) and Saturday ... More >>

Over the Weekend: "Thriller" Zombie Dance-off, Backstage with Flogging Molly, SuicideGirls Halloween Party Go-Go Dancers

There's a bit of advice I want to share with you readers this fine Monday morning: never drink red wine and whiskey in the same night. Never, ever. Not even if it's free. You see, over the weekend I hightailed it out of L.A. and up to San Louis Obispo for a friend's wedding where I made the aforemen ... More >>

Comic-Con 2008 In Photos - Saturday, July 26

PHOTOS BY NICOLE CAMPOS OMG the Owlship! Squeeee! Yeah, no idea, either... The luchaderos didn't see much of the Con, from what we could tell they were parked on the corner of K Street drinking all weekend. A Fett's love is very different from that of a square... Obey the rules of the ... More >>

Comic-Con 2008 In Photos - Sunday, July 27

PHOTOS BY NICOLE CAMPOS Gee, the Goodyear Blimp has really changed... Arresting, indeed. Staring down the barrel of the Stargate. Plastic Man wants to know why Chris Nolan and Jon Favreau won't return his phone calls. Gotta love those Sunday bargains! Giant Robot's booth = made of p ... More >>

Comic-Con 2008 In Photos - Thursday, July 24

PHOTOS BY NICOLE CAMPOS Uhura and Kirk, ready for action For all titles big and small... Look out! Iron Monger! Why not-so-serious, little man? Five seconds later, Chun Li was a Rancor snack. Cobra Commander rides the unicorn! Take that, NPH! And it was, indeed. So say we all. ... More >>

Comic-Con 2008 In Photos - Friday, July 25

PHOTOS BY NICOLE CAMPOS The force is strong with this one. Powerpuff Girls Reunion! - l-r: Cathy Cavadini (Blossom), Tara Strong (Bubbles) and EG Daily (Buttercup) The Visitors have returned! Quick, hide the guinea pigs! Keeping up with the Joneses. Sign up now for the 501st! Serve yo ... More >>

From BIM to "BOOM!"

The Apple and Stunt Rock @ The New Beverly Cinema, March 25th Little gives an LA cinephile greater joy than to see the New Beverly Cinema booming at the start of 2008. In light of longtime owner Sherman Torgan’s sudden and untimely death last year, it seemed as though our last remaining true r ... More >>

Uncle George's Diary

Few directors in any genre draw as loyal, faithful and loving a crowd as the maestro of the undead, George Romero. And they turned out in droves – the big names, the bloodied faces, and everyone in between – at the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian on Wednesday night for a sold-out preview ... More >>

Comics Amongst the Comics

Comedy Meltdown 2: Electric Boogaloo Meltdown Comics, January 25th Who needs too-tightly packed tables and a two drink minimum, especially if there’s an option to pick up a Buffy The Vampire Slayer omnibus and a maquette of Sub-Mariner before the show? Arguably LA’s best recurring comedy show ... More >>

Last Night: The Office Night, UCB Theatre, 12/18

The Office Night Upright Citizens Brigade, Theater, 12/18 Review and photos by Nicole Campos (Right, Brent Forrester) What nuggets of Dunder Mifflin-esque hilarity would ensue as cast members and writers of The Office stormed an extremely yuletidy stage (inherited from the evening’s previous sho ... More >>

Bill Bailey: Part Troll

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Resurfacing

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