Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff going on at Comic-Con?  Well, your Blog@ team is here to help, providing you with lists of things to do based on areas of interest. 

The complete schedule is here (now searchable!), but may we suggest you …

1. Take in a screening. At the 2004 Comic-Con, I caught the first hour of “Lost,” months before it hit the airwaves. This year, Comic-Con offers the pilots of “Reaper” (Friday, 11 a.m.), “Chuck” (Friday, 2:45 p.m.), “Pushing Daisies” (Saturday, 9:15 a.m.), “Bionic Woman” (Saturday, 10 a.m.), and “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” (Saturday, 5:15 p.m.). DC and Marvel also roll out their newest direct-to-DVD movies, Superman: Doomsday (Thursday, 8:30 p.m., repeated at 10:30 p.m.) and Doctor Strange (Friday, 7:15 p.m.).

They won’t offer full features, but the guys from TheDigitalBits.com will preview upcoming DVD releases (Friday, 11:00 a.m.), including footage from Blade Runner and “Twin Peaks.” Also, “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ returns, kind of, as the direct-to-DVD “Film Crew,” with a panel on Saturday afternoon at 5:45.

2. Catch up on your favorites. Plenty of current TV shows have presentations at Comic-Con, including

“Torchwood,” Thursday at 2:15 p.m.

“Lost,” Thursday at 5:00 p.m.

“Stargate SG-1,” Friday at 12:15 p.m. (with “Stargate Atlantis” at 1:15)

“24,” Friday at 1:30 p.m.

“American Dad,” Friday at 3:30 p.m.

“The Boondocks,” Friday at 4:45 p.m.

“Eureka,” Friday at 4:45 p.m.

“Babylon 5,” Friday at 6:00 p.m.

“The Simpsons,” Saturday at 10:45 a.m.

“Heroes,” Saturday at 12:45 p.m.

“Kyle XY,” Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

“Family Guy,” Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

“Battlestar Galactica,” Saturday at 2:15 p.m.

“Futurama,” Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

“The 4400,” Sunday at noon

“Jericho,” Sunday at 1:15 p.m.

Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Kids WB will also be well-represented, with panels throughout the show and booths on the convention floor.

3. Get educated. Animation history is covered in retrospectives on Hanna-Barbera (Thursday, 2:45 p.m.), UPA (Thursday, 6:00 p.m.), and Pixar (Thursday, 7:15 p.m.), as well as through Treasures from the ASIFA Vault (Friday, 4:30 p.m.), and The Untold Story of the Animation Unions (Saturday, 6:00 p.m.). How-to panels include Animation on a Shoe String (Thursday, 3:30 p.m.), Writing with Mark Verheiden (Thursday, 11:30 a.m.), Pitching an Animated Show (Friday, 5:00 p.m.), and The Animation Production Process (Saturday, 6:30 p.m.).

Aspiring artists and designers might enjoy the storyboarding panel (Thursday, 11:30 a.m.), the spotlight on Syd Mead, designer of Blade Runner (Thursday, 1:30 p.m.), the Production Designers Guild (Friday, 3:30 p.m.), or the Costume Designers Guild (Saturday, 3:30 p.m.). Comics-to-film gets a good going-over, with panels on Thursday at 3:30 p.m., and Friday at 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. In fact, the last argues “Comics Aren’t Film,” so that should be good.

Finally, the Cartoon Voices panels are always fun, and this year there are two: Saturday and Sunday at noon.

4. Friday is Star Wars Day — just accept it.  Hey, didja know Star Wars was first previewed at Comic-Con?  Didja, didja, huh?  Well, if you can’t get enough from the Galaxy Far, Far Away on the convention floor, the big 30th Anniversary retrospective is Friday at 5:00 in Hall H.

5. Soak up the big-studio marketing. Paramount previews Star Trek, Indiana Jones 4, Stardust, Iron Man, and Beowulf at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Friday morning at 10:30, it’s Warner Bros.’ turn, spotlighting Whiteout, The Invasion, Get Smart, and Watchmen. 20^th Century-Fox follows at 12:15 p.m., with Jumper, Aliens vs. Predator, Hitman (based on the videogame, not the comic), Babylon A.D., and The Dark is Rising. At 2:15 p.m. Saturday, Disney previews Prince Caspian and the next Pixar movie, WALL*E; and at 4:15, Marvel Studios presents The Incredible Hulk and more Iron Man, with actors, directors, and producers from both. Finally, at 5:15, Sony previews the next Resident Evil movie, the next Judd Apatow movie Superbad, and the 30 Days Of Night adaptation.

If you haven’t been, the presentations are pretty impressive: big halls with big screens, often the cast will show up, and souvenirs may be given out.  [Note:  Cast not guaranteed to hand out souvenirs.]  I still have my Batman Begins pin and a bottle of Constantine holy water from the ‘04 Comic-Con.  They’re not in a safe-deposit box or anything, but they’re not peanuts.

My own five picks off this list would probably be the Paramount panel (1:30 Thursday), the Superman:  Doomsday screening (8:30 Thursday), the Digital Bits panel (11:00 Friday), the “Heroes” panel (12:45 Saturday), and the “Futurama” panel (3:30 Saturday).  But that’s just me – what looks good to you? 

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 10:00 am and is filed under Animation, Art and Design, Comic Books, Conventions, Events, Fandom, Industry, Movies, News & Views, Pop Culture, Television. 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.