I have put up some of my photos, here. In case anyone wants to see them. More will be going up over the next few days.

RavenU | April 15, 19:00 CET

Over-accessorized, but absolutely adorable!

bloodflowers | April 15, 19:16 CET

Nice photos all round. He's still got it.

Tonya J | April 15, 19:34 CET

I'm glad he doesn't have that buzz cut.

Nebula1400 | April 15, 19:40 CET

Loving the brown curls.

Reddygirl | April 15, 21:23 CET

WOW...James looks awesome!!! So relaxed and tan and the hair is really nice. So much better than the buzz cut.

kathylovesspike | April 15, 22:31 CET

I liked the buzz cut. I liked the straightened dark brown style. I like the soft brown curls. I liked the platinum blonde Spike look. I think he’ll look great with salt and pepper hair. Hum-m-m, a pattern is developing. Perhaps I’d like James in any hair. Or no hair. (Sigh...)

showgirl | April 16, 00:27 CET

Thanks - those are great photos. James is looking good !

Shade of Pale | April 16, 01:20 CET

Some surprise Whedonverse people showed up to hang out for a bit. Jonathan Woodward was running about yesterday and today lo and behold I walk out the main Q&A area looking for a bathroom and find Mark Sheppard holding court in a little area off to the side.

Mark mentioned getting a fan letter from Joss about his BSG appearance.

Hopefully if the photos come out I will have a slide show of Doug Jones pantomining getting into a colorful character, which he cannot name or talk about except in a prepared statement by the studio. It is very funny and I hope I have enough good shots to show you. Oh and then there's the whole leg behind the head thing, which was ouch, the man is very limber. If I come across anymore interesting news I will let you know. I figure I would leave the Marsters report to others cause they do it better than me.

RavenU | April 16, 02:48 CET

While certain fashion choices of his I might find questionable, he always has great jeans! :)

fortunateizzi | April 16, 04:27 CET

Okay, some notes from the con ...

John Billingsley (werewolf expert Dr. Royce) was on a panel with the director, Richard Shenkman, and producer/writer, Emerson Bixby (son of famous sf writer Jerome Bixby, who wrote the original short story) of the film "The Man From Earth," about a college professor trying to convince his colleagues that he's really very, very, very old. As RavenU noted, Tony Todd (Vyasa) is in it as well. The trailer looked interesting.

Doug Jones showed a music video chronicling his more famous roles so far, including of course the tallest Gentleman from "Hush," the characters from "Pan's Labyrinth" (including some shots demonstrating where he was wearing green-screen material to conceal his real legs), etc. He's very excited about getting to play Abe Sapien again in "Hellboy 2," very happy he got to do the voice for the animated "Hellboy" movies and will be doing the voice as well as the on-camera acting this time around in "Hellboy 2." He also reveals about "Hellboy 2" that, well, never mind, because I have discovered I don't know how to do spoiler fond. He then did a panel with fellow actor William Gregory Lee, and the producer and director/writer of a remake of the old German silent film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," which looks and sounds pretty trippy and is coming out on DVD in June.

James Marsters did two panels, one Saturday and one Sunday, plus a 25-song concert, all but two of which were his own compositions. Performing with him was a musician whose name I believe is Steven Patt, who's very good.

Some topics that came up in the two Q&As with James Marsters were the two films he's just finished, "P.S. I Love You" and "Shadow Puppets." Of "P.S.," he gave some character spoilers (see above remark about me not knowing how to do spoiler font) and loved working on the film, and apparently was especially pleased with the work ethic of Kathy Bates, who was performing with great dedication even though she had the flu or a cold (apparently, so did most of the other actors, but Bates had it worst). Tony Todd is also in "Shadow Puppets." Marsters had high praise for him and the film's director, who he said was very patient and calm throughout. On "Buffy" and "Angel" matters, Marsters said he now thought that it might have eventually worked out between Buffy and Spike, though perhaps he'd gone too far pre-soul for it to ever work. He says he had no qualms about going onto "Angel," even though Spike's character had "climaxed" (in the words of the questioner) at the end of "Buffy." He really enjoyed getting to work with David Boreanaz and also frankly wanted the continuing paycheck due to his real-life parental responsibilities. Marsters is about to go into a play, "The Little Dog Laughed," in San Francisco (see other threads on this board). Asked if he was afraid to go back to the theatre after so long, he said he was actually more afraid of going back to camera work later on after doing the play, because he enjoys theatre so much and grew up doing it. He expressed some trepidation about the format of the Saturday night concert, as he was supposed to talk about the ideas behind the songs, because (I hope I am describing this accurately) he writes songs to discuss things he's not comfortable verbalizing in conversation, so he felt awkward talking about the subjects of the songs, though when called upon to do at the concert, he did well. One questioner (male) asked how Marsters felt about "psycho fans with Spike tattoos." Marsters replied that he loved them, so the fan showed Marsters, yes, his Spike tattoo. Marsters said he also had a wonderful time working with Holly Hunter on her new supernatural series "Saving Grace" and uses a slight Oklahoma accent. He obliged a questioner who wanted to hear the Spike accent. Asked how he felt when people sang along with his songs, he says he loves the idea that people are moved to sing along with words conveying something he felt, because if they feel it too, it makes him feel less alone. There was a lot more, but these are my main memories.

Well, that and the mob around the ever-popular Mark Sheppard, who just wrapped up three episodes of "Battlestar Galactica," and Jonathan Woodward helping at the fangirls.com table.

[ edited by Shapenew on 2007-04-16 16:19 ]

[ edited by Shapenew on 2007-04-16 16:26 ]

Shapenew | April 16, 09:48 CET

Very nice pictures. That's sad to hear Shapenew, i agree and disagree with James on this. Disagree because what we have seen so far of Spike is the transformation, we saw how his hero's journey got started. But like all other great heroes(Hellboy,Batman,Dante,ect), it is just the beginning.

I agree that Spike has climaxed in the form that he was shown as, which is basicly a sidekick. But sadly it doesn't seem that there will ever be a project with Spike as the lead. Joss has said that Spike isn't going to be a big player in the Buffy comics, and the Angel season6 comics will still have Angel as the main vamp.
It is quite weird, because if you look at any other extremly popular character(Wolverine,JackSparrow,Batman...), they are much more used and their stories evolve. Yet Spike has always been second fiddle, no matter how popular.

Glad to hear about Doug Jones, he seems like such a nice man and also very artistic. His voice on Hellboy animated was quite good, i look forward to his work on Hellboy 2.

Vergil | April 16, 15:10 CET

Thanks for posting about the Q&A. I enjoyed reading that - and was pleased to learn that James isn't quite so anti-Spuffy as he used to be. Time lends perspective etc.

I also agree it's sad that Spike will probably never get to be the main character outside of the odd (non-canon) comic and fanfic. The character is perfectly capable of being the lead, as Brian Lynch showed so well in Spike: Asylum.

deborahmm | April 16, 16:07 CET

IESB has some pics of James from yesterday, so I've added that link to the subject line.

Simon | April 16, 16:58 CET

Vergil, James Marsters didn't say Spike had "climaxed" as a character on "Buffy" -- that was how the person asking the question phrased it. Marsters said he was extremely happy to be doing "Angel" and enjoyed the dynamic so much he'd have been happy to do it another 15 years -- a sentiment he said he cheerfully shared with David Boreanaz about 16 hours into a night shoot, and the understandably tired Boreanaz, visualizing 15 more years of 16-hour night shoots, responded, "Shut up."

I've fixed it, but for those who read my original post, Kathy Bates was very ill with either the flu or a cold. I realize belatedly that what I said initially could be misinterpreted -- so far as I know, Kathy Bates is generally perfectly healthy!

Shapenew | April 16, 19:25 CET

Thankyou, for your con report, Shapenew.

Shade of Pale | April 17, 00:02 CET

Thanks for the news, Shapenew.

I love, love, love John Billingsley (Marsters goes without saying). He was one of the more unique and well-drawn characters on Star Trek: Enterprise, a problematic show for Trek fans, for me anyway. Started out with great promise and then kind of petered out. Which is a shame because of the talent involved and the fact that Scott Bakula is probably one of the best actors who ever stepped onto a television screen.

Tonya J | April 17, 01:45 CET

RavenU, as usual your pics of James are peerless. And more to come, you say? .... *does happy dance*.
Thank you Simon for the link to this site, it's worth checking out in it's entirety, especially as there are so many BSG fans here. And apparently they're working on putting up video of some of the Q&A's if I understood correctly.

Shey | April 17, 12:37 CET