Terry Morrow: Local nerds pumped over Comic Con 2012

Photo by Denis Poroy

Aaron Blossom, dressed as Batman, right, makes a call while standing next to a life-sized Chewbacca figure from Star Wars made of Lego bricks at the Comic-Con International.

SAN DIEGO — Knoxville-based Scripps Networks Interactive is joining the invasion of the nerds here starting today.

HGTV, which is headquartered in Knoxville, will be part of Comic-Con International, the annual pop culture event running to Sunday. It draws more than 100,000 comic book and pop culture fans.

The lifestyle channel is teaming with Disney Studios to promote the studio’s new family friendly, stop-motion black-and-white movie “Frankenweenie,” directed by Tim Burton by creating a lifesized display from the film.

HGTV wants to draw in new viewers, too. “Our presence at Comic-Con is part of our larger experiential marketing strategy aimed at targeting occasional and new HGTV fans in unexpected places, in organic ways,” says Denise Conroy-Galley, senior vice president, marketing and creative services, HGTV.

HGTV will take over the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter lawn and transform it into a 3,500 square-foot “HGTV Electrifying Garden.”

The exhibit will showcase “the beauty of black and white with more than 20 dark plants growing amid low-lying fog, pet tombstones and other striking oddities in the pet cemetery-themed garden,” the channel says.

Also at the con: Farragut High School graduate Ben Garant (“Reno 911”) will sign copies of his “Writing Movies For Fun and Profit” book Saturday. In the past, Johnny Knoxville has been popular at the geek fest and often promotes his films there.

Sevierville resident Josh Welles, 29, has attended twice, but ticket demand makes returning difficult. “I’ve been a comic (book) fan since I was a tiny boy,” says Welles, a Gatlinburg bartender. “Going there was everything I ever imagined, being a super geek.”

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