Here is the homepage for their Comic-Con store, which showcases some pretty awesome stuff, including sweet bobbleheads, pewter BSG spaceships, watches, posters and more.

But what I really want is the t-shirt to the right –>

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

It’s from one of the greatest cold openings in the history of The Office. I’d post a clip of it, but most of the good ones have been taken down.

This shirt (and all those other products) aren’t available online until July 29th, but you can grab them at Comic-Con beforehand, and I will be making it a point to buy one of these the first chance I get.

For those that know my history (or have read our About page), I used to do sports writing back in the day and covered most of the professional teams here in Phoenix, Arizona. For a couple of years there, I attended every Suns and Cardinals game, not to mention practices and training camps.

So being able to switch from sports to the world of entertainment has been challenging, but also immensely fun. I absolutely LOVE what I do here on Pop Critics and can never get enough of it.

But Comic-Con is new to me. I think I know what I’m in store for, but having never been there, I’m going to be a fish out of water.

Hence I’m looking for your help.

I plan on being there for two days, Friday and Saturday, with Friday taken up mainly by exploring the place and seeing what I can see.

Saturday appears to be THE DAY for TV panels, including the cast of Fringe, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Pushing Daisies, Chuck, The Office writers (with Rainn Wilson) and potentially Dollhouse.

I’m seriously bummed that the Always Sunny in Philadelphia team will be there on Sunday, but my time that I can be there is short, so those two days will have to work.

What I’m looking for is stories and advice from any of you who have attended the San Diego Comic-Con before, or any other one for that matter. What should I look for? What are the top things to see besides the obvious TV panels, new comic book releases, movie screenings, etc?

I’m totally excited for the opportunity to do this. Not knowing yet how things work as far as writers go, I hope to blog as much as I possibly can about the cool stuff I see and hear about. I think this is a big deal for us to cover this huge event and I’m stoked that we can do this for you guys.

I have to thank John at The Movie Blog for pointing me in the right direction to help make this happen. Thank you John!

So those of you out there who have attended! Tell me your stories and the fun stuff I need to do! Also, what do you want me to check out while I’m there? And if any of you are around, we’ll have to meet up and check the place out together!

If you forgot what happened, this commercial aired during the season finale of Lost a few weeks back:

I hit the Octagon Global Recruiting website, entered my email and waited to see what happened. Meanwhile, “keen” observers (mainly, not me) realized the dates that OGR would be in San Diego corresponded with Comic-Con, and that it was obviously a viral marketing ploy.

Well, yesterday I got an email with a bit more information about OGR and the confirmation that they WILL be appearing at San Diego’s Comic-Con:

Octagon Global Recruiting, on behalf of the Dharma Initiative, would like to thank you for registering your expression of interest in our latest volunteer recruitment drive.

We will be launching in San Diego on July 24th at Comic-Con International offering select registrants the opportunity to take an exciting aptitude test that will give applicants the chance to demonstrate their unique talents.

The Dharma Initiative hopes you will be able to join us to find out more about their ground-breaking new research project. We will contact you closer to the date with more information.

For those not able to join us in San Diego, Dharma’s full recruitment program will be made available online to registered recruits after July 27th.

In the meantime, the Dharma Initiative urges you to spread the word. Invite your colleagues to join the team at www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com and take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity.

So there you have it. The lucky people to be at Comic-Con on July 24th will be the first to take some sort of aptitude test, and what it entails is anyone’s guess.

As I said before, I’m hoping to take a long road trip to San Diego that week, maybe Friday, so if that does happen, expect a report.

Whatever the reason for my oversight, I’m happy to be able to pass along the news that X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz is helming the release of a new X-Files comic book special under DC Comics’ Wildstorm label.

Comic Book Resource interviewed Spotnitz, who told them that this special comic will be set between seasons 2 and 5 and will be a standalone “monster of the week”story.

“It would just be too difficult to address how fluid the world of the X-Files is at this time. So it just made easier to set it in the past.”

“It’s in classic X-Files mode. Mulder the believer. Scully the sceptic. And scary,” said Spotnitz. “It’s simpler than an episode would be because it’s shorter than the length of an episode. It’s fun to be back in that world and have Mulder and Scully investigating a new case. It’s a different mode than the mode of the movie, which is set six years after the series ended. They are both in very different places in their lives in 2008 then they were when the TV series was going on.

“It’s like revisiting Holmes and Watson when they were at the peak of their adventures, as well.”

I’m totally pumped about this now. The comic arrives on the 23rd of July, only two days before the X-Files: I Want To Believe movie hits theaters.

The special will be illustrated by Brian Denham, who has done a lot of stuff with Iron Man: Hypervelocity and Nova, along with Avengers Giant-Sized Special and some others.

He posts stuff on his blog from time to time, and here are some samples of his Iron Man work.

That’s going to be a fun week. It’s also the same time as Comic Con in San Diego, which I am planning on going to for at least a day if possible.

What do you think, are you pumped for an X-Files comic?

According to Gus, this isn’t an “official” movie poster for Hellboy 2, it was actually a specially done design by Drew Struzan just for the convention. Very cool.

Struzan also did a similar thing for The Mist at Comic Con last year, which you can see here. He’s also the genius behind such posters like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Back to the Future III, Blade Runner and others. Check out his entire portfolio here. Very cool.

I agree with Gus though, this poster is likely going to be better than anything that comes directly from the production company. They might be wise to use it.

What do you guys think?

It’s hilarious at some parts, especially the intro:

“Well behaved women, rarely make history.”

Great line and it leads into a serious series of “fraks“…

I will freely admit, the women of Battlestar Galactica are one of the best reasons there is to watch the show. They are all dynamic and interesting. Some are pure evil, some play more than one character, one runs the fleet as president and one is the best Viper pilot in the universe.

Good stuff. Thanks to Galactica Sitrep for the heads up on this, and you can watch the entire panel of BSG women from the San Diego Comic Con over on SciFi.com.