The road to San Diego continues, as the good folks at the SDCC release a “sneak peek” at some of the programming they’ll have this year. It’s nowhere near complete yet, but it does cover some of the big panels that will be going on Thursday through Sunday. So if you’re going to go, register now!

They’re starting strong with a really great panel titled The Many Faces Of The Graphic Novel, moderated by First Second’s big chief Mark Siegel and featuring Doug TenNapel, Becky Cloonan, Jeffrey Brown, Renee French, Andy Runton and Jim Ottaviani. From there you’ve got a Paramount movie panel with everyone from JJ Abrams to Neil Gaiman to Robert Downey Jr., a Groo 25th anniversary panel, a Lost panel, a Fletcher Hanks panel, a zombie panel featuring George Romero and Max Brooks, and the premiere of Superman:Doomsday, among others … and that’s just Thursday, and not even all of Thursday! Friggin’ A!

Heck, I could list all the people you could see there (Clive Owen! The actress playing Supergirl on Smallville!) but you can go find out yourself (the cast of Heroes! Joss Whedon!) over at the comic-con site (Matt Groening! Kevin Smith!).

And when you need to take a break from sitting in rooms watching all these people talk, there’s alwasy the gigantic dealer room to keep you occupied. So let’s take a look at some more SDCC debuts and activities …

Our buddy Jason Rodriguez dropped us a note about the Postcards anthology:

Postcards comes out on the 24th so it’ll sort of be premiering at the convention. I’ll be on the Villard panel and will have two signings at the Random House booth as well as one big signing at Comic Relief along with a whole crew of creators. We’re going to try to squeeze ten people at the table but the other seven creators attending the convention plan on just sort of hanging around and signing as well. Times are TBD – Hopefully I’ll get them locked down soon.

The Villiard panel is scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m. and will feature Rodriguez, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Kazu Kibuishi and several others. See Jason’s blog for more details.

Marc Bernardin, Entertainment Weekly editor and writer of Wildstorm’s Highwaymen, has a new graphic novel that will debut at the show:

My first graphic novel, Monster Attack Network, from AiT/PlanetLar. Cowritten with Adam Freeman and drawn by Nima Sorat. The lot of us will be signing at the AiT booth, I believe #2001.

A description of the awesomness can be found here:

www.ait-planetlar.com/monsterattack.shtml

I saw some preview pages of this a few weeks ago, and it does indeed look awesome.

IDW sent out a press release about their San Diego plans yesterday. Here’s what you can expect from them:

Exclusive “30 Days of Night: Red Snow” Debuts at Comic-Con
Artist Ben Templesmith, one of comics’ fastest-rising stars, makes his debut as both artist and writer in the nightmarish world of vampires at Comic-Con 2007—premiering “30 Days of Night: Red Snow #1.” Co-creator of “30 Days of Night” and “Fell,” Templesmith goes it alone on this gritty, three-part tale.

“30 Days of Night: Red Snow” is set half a century before “30 Days of Night,” the horrifying vampire tale from IDW Publishing that shocked the comic book world in 2002 and quickly became a bona-fide smash hit. Created by writer Steve Niles and artist Templesmith, “30 Days of Night” was the terrifying story of a small Alaskan town overrun by vampires during thirty sunless days of the harsh northern winter. This October, “30 Days of Night” will frighten movie-going audiences with the much-anticipated motion picture adaptation from Sony Pictures, directed by David Slade, best known for directing “Hard Candy,” and starring Josh Hartnett, who also acted in “ Sin City ,” based on the graphic novel of the same name.

“30 Days of Night: Red Snow,” the first prequel miniseries in the “30 Days of Night” comic book series, is set during World War II. The story follows a British military attaché who is assigned to get aid through Stalin’s frontline troops, all while the Russian winter grows more threatening. However, he finds survival even more difficult than anticipated when an unexpected element—which is much more adept at killing humans than humans are—adds itself to the mix.

In addition to the 28-page story, the exclusive Comic-Con edition of “30 Days of Night: Red Snow #1” includes an exclusive foil-stamped cover by Templesmith; behind-the-scenes artwork; and a 5-page preview of “30 Days of Night: Beyond Barrow,” written by Steve Niles and illustrated by industry legend Bill Sienkiewicz.

Templesmith, a Featured Guest at this year’s Comicon whose stylish art has set a new standard in comics horror, will be available for interviews throughout Comic-Con. A Spotlight on Ben Templesmith panel will take place Friday, July 27th at 6 PM.

“30 Days of Night” Co-Creator Steve Niles Debuts New Project at Comic-Con
Writer Steve Niles, one of the most acclaimed comic book writers responsible for the resurgence in the popularity of horror comics, will be appearing at Comic-Con and showing a preview of his latest title, “30 Days of Night: Beyond Barrow.” Niles will be working with award-winning artist Bill Sienkiewicz on this title. “Beyond Barrow” revisits the scene of the original “30 Days of Night,” and introduces an entirely new threat to that town’s denizens.

Niles will also be attending Sony’s “30 Days of Night” movie panel, and signing comics and movie posters in the IDW booth.

Gene and Nick Simmons Release New Work at Comic-Con
Earlier this year, IDW Publishing partnered with rock-legend Gene Simmons, of KISS fame, to create the Simmons Comics Group, an imprint within IDW’s stable of comics. Now, at Comic-Con 2007, “Nick Simmons’ Skullduggery” will be debuted. This comic, which will debut in its entirety later this year, is written and illustrated by Nick Simmons, Gene Simmons’17-year-old son and star in his own right—thanks to the smash-hit “Gene Simmons Family Jewels” on the A&E Network. The exclusive comic will also preview pages from the line of Simmons Comics Group titles, too. Gene and Nick Simmons are both available for interviews on Friday during Comic-Con.

“Beowulf” Preview Released at Comic-Con
“Beowulf,” the ancient epic poem, will receive its most spectacular adaptation of all this November, in the form of a major motion picture from Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Shangri-La Entertainment, with an all-star cast that includes Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Crispin Glover, and Angelina Jolie. In turn, the spectacular new motion picture has inspired a comic book adaptation from IDW Publishing.

In four weekly installments in October, writer Chris Ryall, who is also IDW Publishing’s publisher and editor-in-chief; artist Gabriel Rodriguez; and colorist Jay Fotos—the creative team also behind “Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show”—will release an adaptation of the movie, working directly from the screenplay written by Neil Gaiman & Roger Avary.

And, as a special bonus, Paramount Pictures will hand out more than 200,000 copies of an exclusive 8-page “Beowulf” promo-comic book at Comic-Con, which will preview the miniseries to come.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 7th, 2007 at 7:04 am and is filed under Comic Books, Conventions, Creators, Graphic Novels, Independent, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.