Spike TV needed a set for their “All Access Comic-Con” special, that needed to showcase the look and feel of post Comic Con, as well as offer a hint of San Diego’s famous Victorian era Gaslamp district.
Plus, it had to fit into a small meeting space at the Marriott hotel, which was next door to the Convention Center.
I used a lot of comic book colors, because I thought it would be a nice contrast with the background image of the broken Gaslamp Quarter sign (scroll down) - a smoldering ruin of Geeks Gone Wild. It’s a scaled down version of the real one, but made out of styrofoam, with twitching, half broken lights - a grim reminder of the last holdouts of hope for next years' Con. It intrudes into the room in a way that suggests something wild happened, like a winning team that tears down the goal post.
The coffee table is an old pinball machine - minus the vertical score section, and the side tables are made from bundles of comic books. The couch was originally white, so I painted it with vinyl paint.
Scattered among the ruins are shards of broken glass, comic books, dvd's, toys, and bags of collectible free stuff, just to make it interesting.
Everyone needs a Bat Phone. I made this with an old phone (of course) painted red. I covered the dial with a round furniture glide that hapenned to be the right size. The hardest part was getting the clear dome. I was about to give up when I ran across one at a restaurant supply store. The big gold handle is a bathrobe hook from the hardware store, which is very close to the original.
