Conan O’Brien Crashes Comic-Con With ‘The Flaming C’ Animated Trailer [Comic-Con]
Conan O'Brien's superhero alter ego The Flaming C has officially crashed Comic-Con. Just half an hour into the Green Lantern: The Animated Series panel, fans were treated to a surprise screening of a CG animated trailer of a potential Flaming C story packed with fiery hair and even more fiery explosions. O'Brien erupted onstage as the animation concluded, joining his Flaming C co-creator, animation icon Bruce Timm, to take questions from his fans, hug a Flaming C cosplayer and share his secret origin as a comic reader. Hit the jump to see the trailer and images from O'Brien's surprise visit to Comic-Con.
"Here's the problem. We had a budget of about $26 million budget, and we spent it all on this trailer," joked Conan as he joined the panel.
In the animated trailer, The Flaming C combats a robot, holds his beloved, soars through the air and wields his powerful oven mit, exuding a deep persona and steely-eyed confidence. Despite this new footage, The Flaming C is still a blank canvas in many ways. O'Brien was happy to reveal at least one very specific new detail about the hero, however.
"We were just improvising, we don't know his origin, we don't know anything about him except he's awesome and his penis is bigger than mine. I'm very mad about that. I don't know how I feel about it actually. I'm happy for him and sad for me," said Conan.
As fans lined up to ask questions, a young man dressed as The Flaming C was invited to briefly join O'Brien and Timm on stage. Though O'Brien seemed flattered as he gave the cosplayer a hearty side hug, he was quick to lovingly berate him for not having big enough hair.
The next fan asked whether The Flaming C would have a nemesis, suggesting a Jay Leno-style villain called "The Chin." According to O'Brien, anyone anticipating a storyline reflecting O'Brien's talk show move from NBC to TBS will have to save it for their own fan fiction, though.
"I believe in the power of positivity and not negativity," said O'Brien, deflecting the possibility of animated drama with his former NBC competitor.
When asked whether his friend and show announcer Andy Richter would be a part of a future Flaming C animations, Conan seemed excited about him possibly filling a sidekick role, going on to emphasize the importance of his fans in bringing further Flaming C projects to life.
"This could be the first comic that was really created by the fans. It could be an amazing opportunity, or it could go nowhere," joked O'Brien.
Inquiring about Conan's own comic book fandom, one panel attendee asked how the talk show host was introduced to comic books. O'Brien credited his older brother Luke, citing a penchant for weird war comics about Nazis being killed by aliens.
"It was the classic thing. [Luke] had this massive collection and one week he came back from college and my mother had thrown them away," said Conan, "Thanks a lot Ruth O'Brien, right everybody? What'd she ever do for me? Create me, I guess. Love me. But yeah, [the comics] were gone."
Closing out the show Conan thanked Bruce Timm and his fans for their support in transforming a talk show bit into a potentially ongoing project.
"I'm incredibly indebted to everyone at Warner Bros. Animation and [Bruce Timm] for making this happen," said Conan, "And a huge thanks to my fans for being crazy creative and welcoming me today."