Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff going on in New York City this weekend? 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, but may we suggest you …

1. Get the latest scoop: Although Stan Lee says that New York Comic Con will one day rival its summertime peer in San Diego, it isn’t quite there yet. But that doesn’t mean the big movie studios won’t be on hand to show off some material. Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz will talk about the second X-Files film Friday night, while Disney will present exclusive footage from Prince Caspian and WALL-E on Saturday. Our buddy Marc Bernardin (who is probably enough of a draw himself) is hosting a Battlestar Galactica panel that same day, featuring Grace Park and Tahmoh Penikett. Will Boomer give him the kiss Starbuck denied him in San Diego last year? We’ll have to wait and see.

Also on hand: LucasFilm to talk Jones and Clones; Universal with Wanted, Hellboy and Hulk; Lionsgate with The Spirit; and New Line has Harold & Kumar and — wait for it — Neil Patrick Harris! Check out the full Hollywood schedule here.

2. Get animated: NYCC will have everything from classics like He-Man and ReBoot, but for our money (well, mine and Kevin’s), the panel is going to be at 4 p.m. Saturday — The Venture Bros.! Heck, just reading Jackson Publick’s bio on the NYCC site made my day:

Jackson Publick III was born in 1971. The only son of Jackson Publick Jr., author of the popular Rusty Venture series of boys’ adventure novels, he forsake his literary birthright to pursue comic books and a degree in the liberal arts. He was successful at neither, and after a period of sky country hoboing and soul-searching, he decided to put his limited skill-set to use in the Creative Warfare department of the Marine Corps; Psi-Ops division. His most notable achievements during his short tenure were designs for something called “The Mindcopter,” and a squadron of giant, flying metal lions which, when reconfigured and joined together via electrical current, formed a giant, flying metal man. Neither project was ever put into production and, upon learning that he had plagiarized the latter, the Marine Corps discharged Publick summarily, but honorably. It was to be the most important day ever. Drawing on the powers and influence of his amazing Bilderberg Group superpals, he then made up The Venture Bros.

They’ll be previewing the upcoming third season, which should be great!

3. Learn some history: Friday’s a great day to catch up on your comic book and film history. First, at noon, you can catch Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist, which is followed by a panel with the producer and several comics creators. Then at 6 p.m., Eddy Friedfeld presents “The History of Superhero Movies,” which will cover everything from the Batman and Superman serials of the 1940s to the upcoming Iron Man and Incredible Hulk films.

4. Play some games: Or, at least, learn about upcoming games you can play, many of which are based on upcoming movies. Sunday is video game day, with a whole bunch of panels covering everything from game previews like Warhammer Online and Age of Conan to getting a job in the gaming industry. Activision is even holding auditions for voice actors for the next Spider-Man game. See the full video game schedule here.

5. Get your picture taken with monkeys: This one was just too wacky not to mention … check out the Starz Media Booth (841) all convention long to pose for a picture with some real, live space chimps.

Space chimps!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 8:30 am and is filed under Animation, Conventions, Movies, NYCC 2008, Television, Video Games. 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.