With the San Diego Comic-Con less than two weeks away, I asked the rest of the Blog@ gang: “If you could go to just one panel each day, what would you pick?” And here’s what they said …
Kevin Melrose
Thursday (3:30-4:30 p.m.) Entertainment Weekly’s The Visionaries: Comic Creators — You’ll rarely find such a diverse, and talented, panel of creators: John Cassaday, Colleen Doran, Matt Fraction, Robert Kirkman, Mike Mignola and Grant Morrison.
Friday (noon-1 p.m.) 50 Years of Gay Legion of Super-Heroes Fandom — I’ve frequently read references to the Legion’s large gay following, so it’s nice to see that part of its fandom acknowledged.
Saturday (2:15-3:15 p.m.) Grant Morrison and Gerard Way: Born Under a Black Sun — It’s clear from interviews, and from Morrison’s introduction to The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite, that the two are mutual admirers. The description promises that “this panel will change your life,” but while it may not do that, it certainly will entertain.
Sunday (2:30-4 p.m.) Cover Story: The Art of the Cover — As an admirer of great cover art and design, I couldn’t possibly pass up a conversation among Bryan Hitch, J.G. Jones, Jim Starlin and Ethan Van Sciver, moderated by Mark Evanier.
Chris Mautner
Thursday (2-3 p.m.) Spotlight on Signe Wilkinson — Wilkinson is an astounding talent. Easily one of the best editorial cartoonists working today. I know I’m curious to hear what she has to say.
Friday (5:30-6:30 p.m.) Spotlight on Kim Deitch — I’m very curious to hear more about Deitch’s upcoming work, Pictorama.
Saturday (1:15-2 p.m.) Spotlight on Tite Kubo — I’m not the biggest Bleach fan in the world, I confess. Still, how often is it that a manga-ka of Kubo’s stature comes stateside?
Sunday (3-4:30 p.m.) Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon TV Series 50th Anniversary — There was a Steve Canyon TV show?
Carla Hoffman
Thursday (5-6 p.m.) Comics Experience: How to Write a Pitch! – Long ago, the Hunter-Killer Scriptbook was an inspirational read to learn about how an idea turns into a comic, so I expect great things from this panel.
Friday (10-11 a.m.) Marvel: Your Universe – “Marvel has been your universe and now more than ever they’d like to hear what you have to say about everything” They want to hear what I have to say? REALLY?? The panel could either end up in genius or tears.
Saturday (10 a.m.-Noon) World Premiere! Mutant Chronicles – The Punisher and Hellboy in a steampunk future? Even as a ‘work-in-progress’ this sounds like something to see (especially for old school gamers)
Sunday (10:30-11:30 a.m.) Marvel: Women in Marvel – It’s in my contract.
Tom Bondurant
Thursday (4-5 p.m.) Star Trek Without A Blueprint – It should be worthwhile just for Wil Wheaton, but I’d love to see if anyone asks about long-dead projects like the Voyager Technical Manual or the Hidden Frontier coffee-table book.
Friday (7:15-8:15 p.m.) MST3000 reunion – I can’t pass up the chance to see pretty much everyone who ever appeared on the show.
Saturday (Noon-1 p.m.) Howard Chaykin spotlight – American Flagg! really opened my eyes to the medium’s storytelling possibilities, and I’ve been a Chaykin fan ever since. Also, I’d hope there would be some news on those Flagg! collections we’ve been hearing about for the past few years.
Sunday (2:30-4 p.m.) Pro/Fan Trivia Deathmatch – Those things are always fun, and everyone’s a good sport. Plus, this year the subject is Teen Heroes of the ’70s and ’80s, so it’s right up my alley.
JK Parkin
Thursday (noon-1 p.m. p.m.) How Not to Break into Comics — Jennifer de Guzman and Randy Jarrell share horror stories from bad pitches they’ve heard. Jennifer’s pretty outspoken on her blog about some of the ones she’s received, so I’m betting this will be no holds barred.
Friday (2-3 p.m.) The World of Graphic Novels – The line-up for this one includes some of the best graphic novel creators working today: Nick Abadzis, Eddie Campbell, Rutu Modan, Alex Robinson and Adrian Tomine.
Saturday (11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) Image Comics/Tori Amos – Well, Kevin already picked the Gerard Way panel, and I wanted to pick at least one panel with a rock star.
Sunday – I’m going to cheat and go with three of them: the Jack Kirby tribute, the Dave Stevens tribute and the Michael Turner tribute, because it just felt wrong trying to pick one over the others. I also think it’s wonderful that the SDCC is paying their respects to all three of these guys; Sunday should be an emotional day.
So if you’re going, what are you looking forward to — and if you aren’t what would you be checking out if you were?
July 15th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Friday (7:15-8:15 p.m.) MST3000 reunion
That’s the one for me.
July 15th, 2008 at 10:20 am
That Women of Marvel Panel sounds pretty good. I think folks should go to that, then ditch it 1/2 way through to come to the Zuda panel at the same time – featuring ME!
July 15th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Hands down, the LOST panel with Damon Lindelof & Carton Cuse. It sounds like they’ve been a blast at previous Comic Cons and always had surprises too (loved last year’s Dharma training film, which made it online). This year’s “Octagon Global Recruiting” drive should be a hoot too. Namaste!
BTW, anyone notice that the “Mutant Chronicles” picture above looks a lot like the promo shots used for LOST?
July 15th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Tom, I agree that the panel on Star Trek publishing looks interesting (and Wil Wheaton ROCKS!)… But I gotta think you’re pretty much alone in wanting a Voyager tech manual.
I would, however, be curious to learn how their Magic Rest Button worked: The one that allowed the ship to look good as new each week, no matter how bad a beating it took the week before and how limited their supplies should’ve been so far from home.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Does anyone know why the gays like Legoin?
Also, would love to go to the Tori panel. This thing is on the wrong coast though.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Thursday (5-6 p.m.) Comics Experience: How to Write a Pitch! – Long ago, the Hunter-Killer Scriptbook was an inspirational read to learn about how an idea turns into a comic, so I expect great things from this panel.
Thursday (noon-1 p.m.) How Not to Break into Comics — Jennifer de Guzman and Randy Jarrell share horror stories from bad pitches they’ve heard. Jennifer’s pretty outspoken on her blog about some of the ones she’s received, so I’m betting this will be no holds barred.
These need to be podcast after the convention. I’d kill to hear every word of both.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
#1 Gays like the Legion because 10% of any given population is likely to be gay, and there are so many members of the Legion that the likelihood some aren’t gay is practically nill.
#2 Cosmic Boy as drawn by Mike Grell.
#3 Element Lad as drawn by Colleen Doran.
#4 Half the women Keith Giffen ever wrote.
July 17th, 2008 at 7:41 am
::cough:: Zuda Panel Sunday 10:30 ::cough::
July 17th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Shaun: See, the Voyager Tech Manual would have to include the Magic Reset Button….