Continuing our series on stuff to do at the New York Comic Con this weekend, here are a few things that fans of the “big two” can check out …

1. News & rumors, straight from the source: The big two have many panels scheduled all weekend, and you can expect they’ll talk about Secret Invasion, Final Crisis and everything else they’ve got in the pipeline. Heck, we already know from Cliff Chiang they’ll be announcing something from him at the Vertigo panel on Friday, and the “Make Mine Marvel” panel on Saturday promises a “special surprise guest,” which could mean some new talent coming into their stable … that’s probably just the tip of the iceberg.

If you aren’t attending the New York Comic Con or can’t hit all the panels, no worries — Newsarama has an army of reporters, including our own Chris Mautner, at the show. So be sure to check out Newsarama and Blog@ all weekend … we’ll keep you posted on everything that’s announced.

2. Honor the past: Tonight the NYCC is presenting Stan Lee with an award, but if you can’t make it to that event, you can attend a panel with “The Man” himself on Saturday. At the same time as the Stan Lee panel, there’s a Steve Gerber memorial panel, featuring Mary Skrenes, Len Wein, Buzz Dixon and moderator Mark Evanier. It’s too bad these panels are bumped up against each other, as both would be worth your time.

Saturday also features a Legion of Superheroes 50th anniversary panel hosted by Peter Sanderson and a Joe Kubert tribute panel.

3. Collect some autographs and sketches: Marvel and DC will both have creators on hand at their respective booths signing autographs, drawing sketches and talking to fans. You can also find a ton of creators in the Artists Alley area — everyone from John Romita Jr. and Ethan Van Sciver to Jim Shooter and Walt Simonson.

4. Get some exclusives: No matter what your budget, the NYCC has plenty of comic and toy exclusives that should appeal to comic fans — from free Skrull masks at the Marvel booth to the $150 Harley Quinn figures at the Tonner Booth. Check out the full list of what you can find here.

5. Branch out: So if you’re strictly a DC and/or Marvel fan, there’s no better time to take a look at what some of the other companies are doing than a comic convention … man cannot survive on bread alone.

For those who only want to put a toe into the water to see what the temperature is like, I’d recommend hitting the “From the Back of the Catalogue to the Top of the Charts” panel on Friday. It will feature a buffet of friendly folks from companies like Oni, Dynamite, BOOM! and IDW. You could also hit the Image or Dark Horse panels on Saturday to see what they have in store for fans in the coming months.

If you’re willing to go in waste deep and splash around a little bit, the “Today’s Voices in Graphic Novels” panel on Saturday will feature several graphic novel creators, like Jeffrey Brown, Ariel Schrag and Carla Speed McNeil. Fantagraphics, Top Shelf, First Second and several other publishers have tables set up in the exhibitor hall, so swing by and see what they have for sale. Chris Mautner would probably kill me if I didn’t mention French publisher L’Associaton even has booth space.

If you’re willing to cannonball into the deep end, go visit the joint MoCCA/Friends of Lulu table for the 411 on the MoCCA Festival, coming up June 7-8, and start making plans to attend.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Conventions, DC Comics, Marvel, NYCC 2008, 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.