Robert Englund, who has been doing significant voice work, promoted his role as The Vulture in The Spectacular Spider-Man. Courtesy of Janet Hetherington.

In Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, Englund portrays an absent-minded professor who becomes possessed by the 'Black Heart' as the result of an ancient curse. The actor says of the required vfx make-up that after things like Stephen King's The Mangler and playing Freddy, "this was pretty light." However, Englund enjoyed working on the horror comedy, which he compares in spirit to Sam Raimi's early Evil Dead movies. Anchor Bay Entertainment is planning an October 7, 2008 DVD release, just in time for Halloween.

Futurama Secrets Revealed
Con-goers packed the panel room for "Futurama Secrets Revealed," which boasted top talent (creator Matt Groening, executive producer David X. Cohen, writer and co-executive producer Eric Kaplan, producer Claudia Katz, director Peter Avanzino and voice actors Billy West, Katey Segal, John DiMaggio and Maurice LaMarche, along with Bongo Comics' Bill Morrison) to promote the Bender's Game DVD release on November 4, 2008 -- which happens to fall on the U.S. Election Day.

While the focus of the panel was on the third of four direct-to-DVD features, Futurama trivia was discussed, including the evolution of Bender, who was described in the pilot script as "a shiny man." "That made us think that he could be a robot," producer Eric Kaplan says.

The fourth DVD will be released in spring 2009, and director Peter Avanzino says that, in that production, large crowds of people appear, in multiple scenes. The script called for every character in Futurama to appear in the fourth movie. "Crowds are not the most fun thing to do," Avanzino noted.

However, the team is still eager to do more Futurama, including more DVDs, television shows and a theatrical release. Kaplan says, "If these videos do well enough, we could go back on the air. This is the first Comic-Con that Fox executives have come to, and I'm hoping that there are some of those execs lurking around to hear and see [the response to this panel]. There are a lot more stories to tell. We have not told them all, and we still have a few secrets left."

Hulk Bellows; Next-Gen Avengers on the Way
Hall H, the mega-huge auditorium that hosts most of the major C-C screenings, was filled to the back rows for a Thursday afternoon premiere of the new DVD effort Hulk vs. Wolverine. There were no problems hearing the presentation. In fact, the Hulk's voice and the Wolverine's plaintive cry were cranked up several notches in this impressive audio and visual display.

Never before had these two legendary antiheroes met fist-to-claw, so the crowd was pumped up. The title arrives on Blu-Ray and DVD in January from Lionsgate and Marvel, and follows Wolverine's efforts to stop the Hulk from creating havoc as he pulverizes towns in the Canadian wilderness.

Notable is the fact there is no preamble or dainty introduction. The two characters face off in pretty much the first couple of minutes.

"We decided to get right into the action," said co-writer Chris Yost. "For most fans, these characters are very familiar and don't need a lot of introduction. So let's just go for the all-out brawl."

So how to decide who wins the battle when both characters enjoy devoted legions? "We kept asking ourselves who was going to win," Yost said. "It's not an easy question."

There was no calming of the action or violence. "It's definitely an edgier project than some of the previous incarnations," Yost said. "I mean, Wolverine has claws, and he uses them. When you got a guy with those kinds of claws on his hands, there's going to be blood."

Meanwhile, The Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow takes a lighter approach. In this DVD release, scheduled for Sept. 2, the children of the world's most unstoppable heroes debut in the first PG-rated title in the Marvel Animated Features franchise. Turns out it is Tony Stark, Iron Man himself, who kept the children of the original Avengers safe and raised them to be heroes in their own right.

"It's a different kind of story than we've had before," said producer-director Gary Hartle. "We wrote it as an honest depiction of children, knowing children would watch."

Voice talent for the Hulk, Wolverine and Iron Man performed mini-impressions of the voice-familiar characters for happy listeners. The title will be supported with the biggest kid-targeted Marvel Animated Feature ad campaign ever.

The Chosen One was previewed Indican Pictures. Writer/director Chris Lackey animated every frame in his Santa Monica apartment. © X-42 Productions, LLC.

The Chosen One
Other animation concerns vied for fan interest and enthusiasm, including Indican Pictures, which previewed its production of The Chosen One. Animated from first to last frame by writer/director Chris Lackey in his Santa Monica apartment, the movie was created as a truly independent alternative to the big studio animated features. Writers Lackey and Chad Fifer approached producer Andreas Olavarria with their comedic road movie, and obtained the go-ahead to complete the animation project entirely in Flash animation.

In the film, a down-on-his-luck lab technician (Fifer) is informed by the eccentric Church of Frank that he is "The Chosen One" -- the savior from prophecy who must travel to Kansas, speak to God and deliver the world into a new age. The animation team committed to completing the film "by any means necessary" and were fortunate to bring on board such notable voice talents as Tim Curry (as Lucifer), Traci Lords (as the femme fatale), Chris Sarandon (as Zeb), Laura Prepon (as the ex-girlfriend) and Lance Henriksen (as the religious zealot), among others. Despite the rocky road familiar to all makers of independent films, the team forged ahead to complete the indie effort, which will be released on DVD on August 26, 2008.

The Greatest American Hero
Animation news also came from unexpected sources -- including the Greatest American Hero (GAH) panel, which featured the stars of the original 1980s TV series (William Katt, Robert Culp, Connie Selleca, stuntman Dennis Danger Madalone and a video greeting from creator Stephen J. Cannell), along with the publishing partners of the new GAH comic book series (from Catastrophic Comics).

William Katt (who plays the teacher who bonds with the GAH super-suit but loses the instructions) says that in addition to six issues of brand-new comic books, there will be Internet animation and shorts in "cool Flash." According to Katt, the 2- to 4-minute episodes will show the GAH suit "utilized in a way we haven't seen before." Selleca, Culp and Katt will be voicing the new animation, reprising their classic roles.