“We just showed the trailer out there – or the teaser – and they went nuts,” he said. “I didn’t think we was gonna go wrong with having a director like Scott Stewart make his debut, who happens to own a special effects company.”

With Paul Bettany’s shirtless body plastered all around the convention center to promote the film, Gibson had plenty to say directed towards the actor – who happened to be sitting right behind him.

“Paul Bettany, just tell them how sexy you are, Jesus,” Gibson joked. “Tell them about that shirt that came with muscles.”

Later, he joked again about Bettany in regards to Scott Stewart’s visual effects capabilities.

“I told him listen, whatever you do, I know you’ve got to focus on a lot of effects, just make sure I have more muscles in this movie. Draw me a few more lines and ripples, and I think he delivered, and I’m excited about that,” Gibson said with a laugh. “I mean, he gave Paul Bettany a stomach for the cover, you know what I mean? Great CG work. Great CG work. [Bettany] worked out a little bit, but the CG work really took those abs to another level. And the whole film was sponsored by baby oil, so it was just crazy. It was a baby oil drought in the whole city of Albuquerque.”

On a more serious note, Gibson talked about the similarities between his character, Kyle Williams, and his own life. He said Williams is on his way to court to try to gain custody of his child – something Gibson is going through right now – when he stops at a diner and “all hell breaks through – literally.” But even with such serious topics, Gibson showed he was always in for a joke.

“So they’re trying to stop these spirits and these forces are trying to stop the birth of Jesus that’s in this woman’s stomach and then it gets revealed that it’s actually my baby,” said Gibson, pausing, and then bursting out laughing. “Oh no, I’m just playing. (laughs) Yeah! Everybody got quiet like, okay. I’m quick on the draw. (Adrianne Palicki’s Charlie) was only a couple months pregnant; we were stuck there for a minute, but we’re having a light-skinned Jesus. It’s going to come out half mixed; he’s going to be a half breed. It’s a beautiful collaboration.”
Scott Stewart said later Gibson always acted as hit cheerleader, flaunting Stewart’s visual effects abilities, and it was proven as Gibson kept coming back to the effects in conversation.

“(‘Legion’s) got some great effects in it. It’s not over the top,” said Gibson. “Unfortunately, we don’t get no Optimus Prime in this one, but you know, Bumblebee makes an appearance in the film – no, I’m just playing. Bumblebee with vampire fangs shows up. But yeah, it’s definitely got some great effects in it. You can’t go wrong.”

He added, “Crazy thing is, y’all didn’t hear this from me, a lot of directors and producers hire this guy and pay him big bucks to do effects on their films, but he hasn’t gave up all of the goodies; he saved them for his own damn movie. He’s got us doing some things in this film with some effects in this film, I’ve never seen before. He pulled out the bag of goodies for ‘Legion.’ I mean, the way this movie looks, you’d this movie cost $75 to $100 million, easy.”

When Blast tried to find out how big the budget for the film was, Gibson responded immediately, “I don’t know,” but then added with a laugh, “You said that so calm, you almost sucked me right into that.”

Gibson said it was great to work with Dennis Quaid again (who he worked with in “Flight of the Phoenix”) and talked about how his reputation is making sure everyone is having fun on the set of whatever film he is on.

“But that’s what I do: make sure the cast is having fun, then we all become good friends and we get each other pregnant,” he laughed. “I’m a human party on feet, man. Come on, baby, I can turn this into a party. I’ll pull out a speaker box in a minute. Come on, man, I will have someone in the corner beat boxing, and we will have this piece dancing, please believe that. Come on man, people take life way to serious. I like having fun.”

After the blockbuster success of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” the upcoming release of “Mayhem” and the success of his music career, Gibson has much to be happy about.

“That’s right,” he said, “life is beautiful. Life is beautiful.”

“Everybody else is showing up, talking on panels about their movies, and they’re leaving,” said Gibson. “I was out there seven hours, selling comic books yesterday on the floor.”

This year, Gibson was not only at Comic-Con to promote “Legion,” his new film with Dennis Quaid and Paul Bettany, but also to promote his debut comic book, “Mayhem.”

Gibson said it wasn’t until he came to San Diego Comic-Con last year to promote “Death Race” that he truly became interested in the world of comics.

“I’ve never been exposed to so much selfless, selfless passion for anything that someone believed in, ever,” he said of the experience. “I mean, I come from the world of music, done my share of films, but people don’t show up looking like Tyrese at a Tyrese concert. And so for people to be here, showing up looking like their favorite comic book character, says a lot about the level of passion that’s here for Comic-Con. (I’ve) never been exposed to it before.”

Saying he represents “the new generation of comic book fans,” Gibson admitted he wasn’t a fan of comic books growing up, but after his Comic-Con experience in 2008, he felt the need to become involved in the world.

He said Todd McFarlane and Robert Kirkman of Image Comics gave him “the opportunity of a lifetime” to create his own debut comic book, “Mayhem.” Citing 20,000 copies sold on presales alone, Gibson was enthused enough about his new comic book that he passed out free autographed copies to everyone in the press room.

Comic-Con exclusive Mayhem tribute to Jack Kirby

Showing he has done his research about comic book culture in the past year, Gibson said the Comic-Con exclusive cover of “Mayhem” volume one is a tribute to Jack Kirby, with the page rip added into the art in the corner. The cover art for volume one was done by Ton Rodriguez, but Gibson had some exciting news to share about volume two.

“Jim Lee was just in my booth today. We got him to do the cover of issue number two,” Gibson shared with an excited grin on his face. “Jim Lee is the founding partner of Image Comics. He parted ways and went over and did Wild Storm at DC. And for him to be doing anything at Image is a very big deal, and not only is he doing issue number two, we just revealed today on the Image panel, he’s doing the full wrap around graphic novel for Mayhem, too, which is a very, very big deal. So I’m excited.”

Gibson shared that the writing for volume four was already written, the artwork is completed up to issue three.

“It’s just kind of a process,” he said. “We’ve got to stay ahead of the curb. And so we’re rolling.”

“Mayhem” hits comic book retailers August 5.

It’s hard to believe that Green Day has yet to grace a music game, but next week, when “21 Guns,” “East Jesus Nowhere,” and the radio-friendly “Know Your Enemy,” we’ll finally be able to rock out to tracks from the popular 90’s band.

On the death metal side of things, Harmonix is dropping 8 tunes from bands playing this summer’s Mayhem Festival (I’ll be at the August 8 show!) and fans of this particualr flavor of music can finally, finally, rejoice.

Behemoth “Conquer All”
Black Dahlia Murder “What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse”
Cannibal Corpse “Hammer Smashed Face”
God Forbid “Empire of the Gun”
Job for a Cowboy “Embedded”
Marilyn Manson “Disposable Teens”
Slayer “Black Magic”
Whitechapel “This Is Exile”

I’m very much excited about the metal inclusion, and am truly hoping for a all-out metal smackdown of a game from either Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Call it Guitar Hero Thrash? Sounds good to me.