For anyone going to, planning to one day go to, or looking for an excuse to never go to, San Diego Comic-Con, Tom Spurgeon’s mammoth Comic-Con By The Numbers: 170+ Tips For Attending CCI 2013 is a genuine must-read:

Tip #98. Don’t Be Stinky
This is the graph where I’m supposed to make fun of the poorly socialized people that always show up at these events in ill-fitting clothes and exhibiting a lack of body awareness that has an olfactory dimension. Someone at a mainstream publication finds this graph every year and then makes a big point of it in their column about the show.

At this point I’m just putting it here to be funny. We are years past the era where Comic-Con might feature a significant percentage of people that take such poor care of themselves that it’s worth noting. People that don’t take care of themselves tend not to have the kind of money and time it takes to have a five-day vacation, even a Comic-Con vacation. It’s also not like Comic-Con ever had a monopoly on stinky folk. I attended my town’s local music festival the day before I wrote this year’s guide and there were a few happy, well-adjusted people in attendance that smelled like body parts that had been buried inside other body parts. “If Dirt Could Sweat” could be my town’s festival motto.

Do your best. There’s a lot of walking, and it’s summer. No one expects everyone to be cotillion fresh, but it’s also the wrong weekend to play rock-star-rolling-out-of-bed. Be the freshest version of you that you can be, no matter if you’re wearing the same Ferro Lad costume for five days in a row or if you’re wearing a series of dry-cleaned, French collar shirts with Checkered Demon cufflinks. If you make an effort, it will almost certainly be enough of an effort.

Smart, funny and necessary stuff. Go read.

Tom Spurgeon’s write-up of his Portland trip and the Stumptown Comics Fest is so very, very worth your time to sit down and read:

I think Portland gets a lot of its deserved praise by being an awesome place for comics people to live. Things like the effectiveness of its public transit or the way that older people have a functioning role in the city’s culture are as important as any single group, person or institution that has a direct, trackable relationship with a longbox. As a result, the community of comics-people kind of organically arises from the general artistic community, and the benefits of the specific grouping of comics-makers, fans and thinkers-about become a bonus to the benefits of just living in one of the great places to settle down. You read about comics people interacting in Portland and it’s always somehow less dramatic than the interactions you read about in other places. No one is holding onto each other for dear life in Portland. They have things to do. Stories from other North American cities involve intense encounters and astonishing leaps in artistic development; stories about paths crossing in Portland are frequently of the “Wow, you can’t go to dinner without seeing another comics person somewhere in the damn restaurant” variety. I think this flatters a lot of what’s individualistic and independent about many comics-makers, and also acts as a crucial hedge against the frequent desire to wrap yourself in a comics blanket so tightly you can’t breathe.

So much more in the link; Spurgeon is a wonderfully honest and evocative writer in this, managing to get across his experience of the show in a way that feels appropriate and balanced, and definitely not forced.

CBR’s Brett White ponders what this past weekend’s Stumptown Comicsfest taught him:

Comics really aren’t just about superheroes, and there is plenty of joy to be found outside of the narrow scope of the Big Two. Yes, I knew this already. And yes, I read plenty of non-superhero comics on a monthly basis. But being in the midst of a town and a convention that so thoroughly celebrates independent publishing with as much fanfare as C2E2 celebrated the fights and tights genre made me really take notice… It’s not a stretch to say that in the recent past I only viewed creator-owned work as a stepping stone to getting into the major leagues and being handed the X-Men’s reins (and yes, I’d make the team nothing but ’90s X-Force and Maggott, so what?). Thanks to Stumptown, I now have a better understanding of the joy that creating original work can bring. I now see that there is a community ready to try new things and read comics based on how good they are and not based on whether or not they’re part of a larger franchise.

It really should be said: One of the greatest things about Stumptown is that it’s really about comics as a medium, as opposed to specific genres, companies or the like. It’s all about the creators and the comics, no matter who or what they are. Far more shows could stand to learn a little of the Stumptown thing.

I know, I know; you wish you could be at Emerald City Comic Con today, but work/the distance between where you are and Seattle/that restraining order means that you aren’t able to make it. Luckily, FlipOn.tv is streaming a lot of the panels online starting at noon Pacific today, and running all the way through Sunday. It’s the next best thing to being there, even if you miss out on the amazing con floor that makes ECCC such a great show to attend.

Yet again, Bart Beaty makes you wish that you were in France for Angouleme International Comics Festival:

For most, the big attraction are the tents, filled to overflowing with fans seeking the opportunity to meet their favorite authors, queuing for hours sometimes to get a book signed. As always, action will be split between the big tent, home of the most commercial publishers, and the Bulle New York, which houses the independents and the smaller presses. One notable trend over the past few years have been national associations buying tables in the New York tent, pooling resources. The Flemish have turned this into a real strength, with their beautifully curated space, but over the past couple of years we have seen it from the Finns, and, this year, from the British. It’s a great idea, and it makes the Festival just that much more international.

One year, I’d love to experience this for myself…

Following C2E2 2011, Brian Michael Bendis declared that he was “con retired.” Though he’s still a very busy guy — and recently welcomed a new addition the Bendis family — he’s returning to the convention scene as of July 2013, as he explained earlier today on Twitter:

alright! coming out of con retirement! I will be a guest of san diego comicon this year! see you there X, spidey, guardians & powers fans!

— BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (@BRIANMBENDIS) December 17, 2012

As he noted, he’s got a lot to talk about now, especially with the recent additions of All-New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy to his schedule. But given the mass media saturation of San Diego, some Powers TV news would certainly be appropriate, right? Feel free to speculate wildly through the holidays and beyond.

This coming Sunday, Philadelphia’s most famous comic shop, Locust Moon Comics will be hosting the Locust Moon Comics Festival at the Rotunda in West Philadelphia. The focus of the festival will be independent writers, artists, and creators of the area and celebrating creator-owned books.

“[The festival is] important to us because we think there’s something really special happening in the Philadelphia comics scene, and we want to create a place where all these diffuse talents can come together with their compatriots from this city and all over the world,” said Locust Moon owner, Josh O’Neill.

He spoke to Newsarama along with partner Chris Stevens about the festival and what it means to them and the creators. “We want people to walk into the festival and see that there’s a small-scale revolution happening here, that comics is a medium that can be explored in infinite directions and the horizons are always expanding, and there’s something really special happening in this city that doesn’t get nearly enough attention,” O’Neil says. “We want our festival to be a lot more than a comic convention — we want it to be a true CELEBRATION of comic books and comic creators. We want the joy we all share to be palpable and present for anybody who wants to wander in.”

“It’s going to be a real celebration of comics and the medium, with a healthy mix of local creators and folks coming in to town like Jim Rugg, Brandon Graham, and Farel Dalrymple,” added Stevens. “We’ve got festival exclusive prints from Jim and Farel and Mark Robinson, and guys like J.G. Jones will be there doing their thing.”

This event is the most recent of O’Neil and Steven’s many efforts to unify, accelerate, and publicize the up and coming Philadelphia comic scene. “There’s a really rambunctious spirit to the Philly creative communities,” O’Neill says. “It’s not about getting noticed by some publisher or label or gallery, it’s not about becoming the Next Big Thing, it’s about making your work and pushing it out there into the world.”

It’s official – WonderCon will not be returning to San Francisco in 2013:

As many of you are aware, it has been our hope to return to San Francisco for WonderCon 2013.

We have been waiting for information on the availability of the Moscone Center and were just officially offered dates, though they were for the fall.

However, those dates coincide with another very large city wide event, and this has resulted in some unavoidable conflicts. Among them hotel room blocks we explored near, and not so near, the Moscone Center started at $300 per night.

This, along with the expected difficulty of exhibitors and attendees in securing airfare for those outside of driving distance of San Francisco for that weekend, has resulted in us not being able to secure San Francisco as a location for WonderCon in 2013.

However, because we knew there was a possibility of not being able to return to San Francisco, we have scheduled WonderCon: Anaheim to be held March 29-31, 2013. Hopefully we will be able to return WonderCon to San Francisco sometime soon.

Happen to be in or around Southern California? The fourth annual Long Beach Comic & Horror Con is happening this weekend, Nov. 3-4, at the Long Beach Convention Center. Those who will be in attendance include Joshua Hale Fialkov, Jim McCann, Sam Humphries, Mike McKone, Brian Buccellatto, Scott Lobdell, Barbara Kesel, Howard Chaykin, Neal Adams, Marv Wolfman and more.

Programming includes an “intensive” three-hour writing workshop from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday hosted by Fialkov, joined by McCann, Buccellatto, Humphries and Rob Levin. It’s limited to 30 people, with a separate $100 entrance fee.

And hey! This year’s con will also feature a generous Newsarama presence, with Albert Ching (er, me), moderating the “Graphic Horror” panel at 11 a.m Saturday with Jesse Blaze Snider, Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson; and Newsarama contributor Rick Marshall hosting live talk show “The Marshall Report” throughout the show.

Courtesy of Best Shots contributor Aaron Duran, here’s information on exhibitor registration on the 2013 Stumptown Comic Festival, taking place on April 27-28 at the Oregon Convention Center. It’s the 10th anniversary of the show, with guests including Bill Willingham. More after the jump.

(more…)

Looks like San Diego Comic-Con is going to stay in San Diego through 2016, at least:

A $500 million expansion of the San Diego Convention Center has been authorized by San Diego officials, with San Diego Comic-Con extending its deal for an additional year through 2016, according to Variety.  Construction will begin next year and will be completed in time for Comic-Con 2016.  The expansion may finally allow Comic-Con to expand its attendance beyond the current 130,000, where it has been capped since 2007 because the Convention Center is maxed out even with the addition of off-site space for things like programming and premium redemption.

Because that’s what Comic-Con needed: More people.

The panels at MorrisonCon will be recapped everywhere and anywhere, bones scraped dry of news bits and then licked up and down just to make sure there’s not even a taste left. What interested your correspondent more than the product news was the tone of the whole enterprise.

When Chris Burnham’s art for future issues of Batman Incorporated was put up on the screen, Burnham, Frank Quitely and Morrison spent their time picking over things like the way in which Burnham had drawn objects in motion, rather than hard-sell plot-tease hype-jobs. Without corporate minders, creators marveled at the craft and process of creation, and their enthusiasm was infectious. MorrisonCon panels were fun. The world of comics learned nothing of strategic import from Darick Robertson and Jim Lee having a laughing argument about the merits of Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, and yet those in attendance got something a little weird and special: a glimpse at how these guys behaved when removed from the creator/fan dynamic of the typical con. Many Tweeting con-goers came away raving about how they now felt empowered to make their own comics and tell their own stories, and that wave of excitement grew from being able to see the exalted ones step out from the marketing-oriented news-site interviews and Artist’s Alley tables and just be themselves. The correspondent’s life remained as yet unchanged, but he could sense many others around him ascending.

That’s from The Beat’s wonderful write-up of this past weekend’s MorrisonCon in Las Vegas. I’m finding myself coming around to the whole enterprise the more I see people talk about the experience, in large part because of what’s evident above – That the con may not have lived up to the “life-changing” hype, but that it was revolutionary in a quieter way, revealing the people behind the more familiar public faces/facades of many creators. The cynicism I felt towards the whole thing ahead of time is melting into something much kinder, and more unexpected. I’m not jealous that I wasn’t there – To be honest, Morrison, Frank Quitely, Chris Burnham and JH Williams aside, I’m not sure that there were enough creators there that I feel strongly about to make it worth the time and money investment necessary – but I am happy that those who did go seem to have gotten everything they wanted from the experience. I mean, I don’t think I’ve seen any serious grumbling about the event from attendees yet, and that’s got to be some kind of record. This is the grumblenet, after all. MorrisonCon, then: The most successful comic con of the year?

The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog has two new guests at MorrisonCon listed today, James Gunn and Max Landis. Gunn was recently chosen as Marvel Studio’s director for the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film set to hit theaters in 2014, and reportedly remains in active talks as the sole runner in that race. Landis, meanwhile, wrote the superpowered film Chronicle, a parody youtube video on The Death and Return of Superman, and has a story in the Action Comics Annual in October 2012.

The two Hollywood and Comics connections will be talking at the convention about… Hollywood and Comics’ connections. The duo join Gerard Way, Robert Kirkman,  Jonathan Hickman, Jason Aaron,, Jim Lee, Frank Quitely, J.H. Williams III and Chris Burnham as already announced guests, alongside Grant Morrison, of course.

MorrisonCon hits the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, NV September 28-30, 2012.

Sorry, Bay Area: WonderCon looks like it’s staying in Anaheim next year – probably.

For months a huge question mark has loomed over the location of 2013’s WonderCon, one of the largest comics conventions in the United States. In an exclusive interview with Comic-Con International’s v-p of marketing and public relations David Glanzer, he revealed that the answer is Anaheim—but that could change, as Comic-Con International, the non-profit organization that runs the show, may still get dates in the fall for a Bay Area show. In which case that show will be WonderCon and the Anaheim show will be rebranded an as-yet unnamed new SoCal show.

Confused? Go read Heidi Macdonald’s piece at Publisher’s Weekly, and things will start to make slightly more sense. Or, actually, maybe not considering how surreal the situation seems to be.

The full schedule for next month’s MorrisonCon is online, revealing just what those attending the “intimate gathering featuring a hand-picked selection of some of the industry’s most exciting comic creators” can expect. It’s a mix of familiar con panels – There’s even a spotlight on Robert Kirkman, although it goes by the more impressive name “We Love The Dead” – and more ambitious and unusual ideas:

MorrisonCon kicks off in style with a new collaborative project – a one-off, never-to-be-repeated performance created especially for this event. Grant Morrison teams up with Gerard Way and James Dewees of My Chemical Romance for The Con – a thirty minute spoken-word piece with music. Part short story, part history, part occult ritual, as Howard Hughes faces Liberace in a duel to the death for the soul of Las Vegas!

You don’t see that kind of thing at SDCC, admit it.

After yesterday’s big reveal of the new show, the Star Wars Detours crew came back to the Celebration Stage at Star Wars Celebration VI for a second panel, showing off their new show to a completely packed house. The trailer was greeted by lots of laughs and cheers as Matt Senreich, Seth Green, and Todd Grimes showed off their new comedic Star Wars property.

They reviewed yesterday’s news of the three environments, the general idea and tone of the show, but then changed things up by showing some new clips.

The first was of the goofy stormtrooper pair played by Donald Faison and Breckin Meyer

The trio wanted to make sure its known that “these aren’t vignettes. These are actually stories with beginning, middle, and ends,” divulged Senreich.

Another clip showed Greedo meeting up with Lando Calrissian – while dressed as him. Lando of course will be voiced by Billy Dee Williams once more.

“Omigod I love Billy Dee so much,” said Green. Grimes said there’s a scene where Lando is teaching some other guys how to flirt with women, and Grimes is trying to direct him. “Look, man, I’ve been hitting on women a lot longer than you have,” Williams retorted.

Of Obi-Wan’s character in the show, they say he’s gone a little crazy living alone in the desert “waiting for Luke to be old enough to talk to without being creepy!” said Green. A clip showed Obi-Wan being a makeshift recruiter trying to restart the Jedi order. Hilarious stuff, and they gave promise of Obi-Wan and Luke interacting as well.

“We are desperately in love with Star Wars guys, so we’ll never let it go completely off the rails,” promised Green.

Head writer Brendan Hay came out on stage once more, just as he did yesterday, and did a cartwheel that was… interesting. “For a writer, that was incredibly athletic,” proclaimed Hay.

Hay ran through the writers once more, like Jane Espenson from Buffy and Dave Mccullough from Venture Bros, who has invented Biff Tarkin, Gran Moff Tarkin’s son. David Goodman from Family Guy who did their Star Wars specials has joined the crew too. Hay promises each character has their own unique favorites.

“Radda the Hutt, who is Jabba’s son, in our universe, is a really surly teenager who hates his dad, and everyone who works for his dad,” said Green for an example.

Producer Jennifer Hill came out on stage to tell a story of arm-wrestling George Lucas before talking about the big, talented voice cast for the show. There will be guest voices like Weird Al Yankovic and Felicia Day, as revealed in yesterday’s sizzle reel, as well.

Now one actor from the show, the aforementioned Donald Faison, came on stage and asked everyone to ignite their lightsabers while singing the imperial march. The Behind-the-Scenes clip was shown once more. Dee Bradley Baker, Grey DeLisle, Hugh Davidson, Cat Taber, Dan Milano, Cree Summer, Zeb Wells, Nat Faxon, Jennifer Hale, Abraham Benrubi, Ahmed Best, and of course Seth Green does some of the voices on his own! Billy Dee Williams got a huge pop when he appeared on screen.

The Jane Espenson-written parody of Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream was shown, with Donald Faison’s stormtrooper singing about his dream of being a mattress salesman.

Grimes then told a story about screening an animatic for George Lucas, and how there weren’t really any notes – then he said, “No wait, let’s go back to the beginning where Darth Vader is doing this recruitment video, we should pull it back a little bit and see someone directing him. Show a guy with white hair and a white beard and a flannel shirt…” And Grimes asked if he was asking to be put in the show, because the artists had all already drawn him.

They showed a clip of him on the show, and then George Lucas took the stage himself! The entire crowd was on their feet cheering for the creator of their beloved Star Wars.

Lucas: “I want to make it clear, the writers were only around for two weeks, but all the shorter people, the director, Seth, and Jen were at the Ranch for the whole thing.” Thanking them for no longer making him the shortest guy in the room.

Senreich asked, “What’s it like working with us?”

Lucas said, “The question I get at noon when I’m writing with these guys is ‘why do you leave at noon?’ Um, don’t you think it’s obvious?” he joked.

Seth Green asked him if all their nerdy questions are annoying, and he said, “yeah.”

The other panelists thanked him greatly for his support, with Grimes saying he specifically felt pushed by Lucas in a great way.

“George called me into his office one time. He was like, ‘all these drawings you did? Let’s not do any of those, let’s start over. If I liked your stuff I’d just call you on the phone, I wouldn’t have called you in here.’ Luckily, I haven’t been called in since.”

Senreich asked Lucas “Why do this? Why do Star Wars comedy?”

Lucas said, “I’ve always wanted to do this. I think it’s fun, and we’ve created something that’s truly for all ages.

“We’ve always been a little outside the box, but this is so far outside the box, it’s in a space shopping mall!”

Green said that because the “universe is inherently intellectual” the show will be smart. Lucas said “You’ve successfully made it either so dumb that it’s smart or so smart that it’s dumb.”

That’s all she wrote! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more from Celebration VI.

Visual effects supervisor Joel Aron and Dave Filoni, the head honcho of The Clone Wars came back to Star Wars Celebration VI Saturday morning for one more panel to talk to fans about what they saw in the Season 5 premiere Friday night, and oh yeah, that crazy new trailer.

As the pair sat down with David Collins on the Valencia Theater stage, Filoni proclaimed right away how excited he was to hit 100 episodes this year.

“We sit with George at the ranch for a week or two and write about 3 outlines a day, and then just get those stories out there,” said Filoni.

Aron and Filoni said that despite the addition of technology, the time to make each episode continues to grow as they continue to add more detail and characters.

“The Lucasfilm philosophy is ‘dare to be great, challenge yourself.’ The fans demand it, they want to see something epic every week, and we have to deliver on that,” said Filoni. “That’s a LucasFilm tradition that we have to carry on.”

The series moves to Saturday mornings at 930am this fall, a change from its Friday night slot that they hope makes it even more of a family viewing experience.

A new clip showed a brand-new lush jungle planet with Ahsoka and some natives trying to take on a massive invading droid force. The visuals had the audience literally gasping.

“Wow, we’re giving a lot of stuff away here!” exclaimed Filoni after the clip. Collins started to geek out a bit over the new fauna and flora of the planet and the technology showing brand new ships and droid components. Filoni loved that even Collins, an accomplished voice actor and music designer for LucasFilm and LucasArts, could get so excited over the new clip.

“In Season 5, Anakin comes up with the idea to start training the insurgent groups who are trying to get out from under the thumb of the separatists. These new rebels will work with individual Jedi to try to come to arms and drive away the droid armies on their own. This is all borne of Ahsoka’s relationship with Lux, who it turns out is from Onderan,” revealed Filoni.

Aron next divulged that they are revealing Anakin’s personal quarters in the Jedi Temple for the first time. Filoni said the room will have many knick-knacks, a lot of droid parts and tools, the same things he might have been playing with as a kid.

“It does answer one big question: how much does Obi-Wan really know about Anakin and Padme, and what’s going on there,” teased Filoni.

Another new clip showed Anakin, in his room, tooling around with a droid. Obi-Wan walked in and started discussing Anakin’s feelings for Padme, with Obi-Wan talking about his own feelings for Satine. A poster of Anakin’s big podrace from Episode 1 was a nice easter egg for fans, with Ben Quadrinaros on the poster, which drew laughs and cheers from the fans.

“As an animated series, I think there’s a perception in this country that it’s for comedic purposes, to make you laugh, and I’m thrilled that we now have Detours to do that, they’re doing a fantastic job.

“But to keep these dramatic moments real and accurate, we had to update the way that we animate. I think we’ve gotten to the point on our show that we can tell these types of shows and give you this kind of information.”

Collins asked about Anakin’s gleams of the Dark Side in Season 5 versus the past.

“Matt Lanter and I were talking about that, we think that Anakin is mostly just much quicker to anger as the war has gone on,” said Filoni. “They continue to get more and more beat down, felling that pressure bear down on them. Anakin has a lot less patience. He has a few key things that keep him in place, like Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and Padme. Matt’s performances this year are just fantastic, and I hate to jump ahead, but his performance in the season finale is just incredible.”

Ahsoka is “getting older, wiser, understanding what Anakin says to her and making her own decisions,” said Aron. “They’re master and apprentice, but ultimately she’s his friend, she’s his little sister at this point,” Filoni continued. “She understands more than anyone when he gets angry now. She gives hi a little more leeway there.

“Of all the decisions I’ve had to make as Supervising Director, casting Ashley Eckstein has been the best. The way that she’s handled the performance and the way that she’s reached out to fans: 34% of the Clone Wars fanbase is girls! A lot of that is due to her efforts.”

New images were shown off with things like “Episode 505 Outer Rim Meteor Field” and new shuttles. The season will feature an early arc where R2D2 and a compliment of Republic Droids have to go on a mission – all by themselves.

“We re-drew R2 this year. We had to redesign him, update his model and update his textures a great deal to get him closer to what you know from the live-action,” said Aron. Filoni said the mission has R2 and 3 other astromechs and a pit-droid taking on an infiltration mission. “It’s R2 on a true military mission for once.”

The droids, accompanied by a diminutive frog-like alien named Gascon, drop out of hyperspace and directly into a storm of comets. R2 and the other astromechs go into the perilous environment to try to fix the broken ship. Filoni said that even George Lucas just saw this clip “a few weeks ago.”

Filoni and Lucas both thought there were great opportunities for the droids and taking them “into that grand sense of wonder. It’s fun, those are the episodes that you sit down, the whole family will watch those and this is Star Wars.”

There’s also an episode based on the art of Moebius called “The Void” coming this season, an example Filoni gave of the way things vary greatly.

Some new characters like a rebel named Gregor and a diner chef, oh, and a REPUBLIC COMMANDO were shown off in images. The commando’s helmet has a bunch of hashmarks on it, marking his kills.

“Dee Baker does a phenomenal job of playing all of the Clones! You forget that it’s one guy doing all of those. It’s always a big challenge, he gets exhausted doing it, but yeah, Republic Commandos! We have so many types of clones coming your way. We hear the fans saying they’re loving the clones and the clone stories, so we’ll have many more,” announced Filoni.

Filoni revealed that to help Dee Bradley Baker keep all the personalities separate, there are three parts to a triangle, there’s Rex at the top, the very militant guys to the right and the very green ones to the left.

“We used to record him, where he’d do one voice all the way through, then the next character. Now he just has a conversation with himself!”

Going back to a new clip featuring the droids, they’re now backed up by the Republic Commando from the images. He moves and shoots more efficiently than your run of the mill clones and is actually the stylish rebel named Gregor from the same images! Huge applause for the clip as Gregor takes down tons of droids with ease.

Filoni said of the tickmarks on his helmet, “I play ice hockey, have for decades, and put the tickmarks on there for the goalie of the Boston Bruins,” though he’s actually from Pittsburgh and a fan of their teams.

“Fans love it when the Clones have those distinguishing figures, and find interesting things,” Filoni added.

Gregor’s history will all be revealed in his episode, as well.

Mustafar and the Black Suns fortress was shown off, as well as a Falleen Black Sun leade, from Shadows of the Empire.

“They’re a dangerous group of intergalactic gangsters,” teased Filoni. Their new Frigate was shown off as well. Lom Pyke, a new race of crime lords involved with Kessel Spice smuggling was also shown.

Aron, who came from ILM, still has access to the database of assets there, so he actually used the exact backdrop of Mustafar from Revenge of the Sith and used that in the Clone Wars. To show off how well it works, they showed another new clip.

It’s a baffling clip, with Savage, Maul, and Death Watch Mandalorians going to meet with the Falleen. Maul seems to have more regular legs now, something he’ll need after the season premiere.

Filoni talked about one of those butt kicking ladies of the show, Bo Katan, “for the girl that wants to get out there and kick butt with the boys! This was something that comes full circle, man, I’d love to see this character walking around a convention,” and he brought up an amazing cosplayer who has already made her full armor.

Another clip shows Obi-Wan in full Mandalorian armor being led away by jailers. Bo Katan and another in blue start to take them on, and she quickly dispatches 3 Mandalorian warriors with ease. HUGE applause.

And then, a huge surprise guest, Filoni introduces him as “their biggest fan,” George Lucas!

Filoni asked George why he wanted to come to animation.

“We were kind of taking a chance in making a dramatic animated series, which is kind of in a never never land of animation here,” started Lucas. “We’re also making a younger-skewing show that we’re developing, and of course Detours which is way out on its own.

“We can do things in animation that are very hard to do in live action.”

Filoni asked Lucas about the big Rancor that fans brought to the show, and he said “I loved that Rancor.”

Filoni said he would love to take it home but won’t fit in his office. A fan yelled, “get a bigger office” and George Lucas deadpanned “No, I don’t think so!”

Lucas talked about bringing Darth Maul back next.

“In a feature you’re very restricted by a story and storyarc. In animation we can go ‘why don’t we go way over here!’ And we did four episodes with nothing but droids. Then we did the same thing with Darth Maul and bringing him back. He’s one of my favorite characters and we killed him right away. But it’s been a lot of fun to have him and create his brother, and the witches of Dathomir.”

Filoni said, “I have something, a rare thing, something YOU haven’t seen,” to Lucas, introducing the new 3 minute trailer they showed to fans at the premiere last night.

Huge applause for Lucas and for the trailer alike. Standing Ovation, and thus ends the panel.

Friday morning saw the return of Jedi, Stormtroopers, and even a few Jawas to the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida for Star Wars Celebration VI. The first panel of the day saw the stars of Star Wars: The Clone Wars take the main Celebration Stage to talk about their craft, the show, and maybe even some hints about season five of the show.

Dee Bradley Baker (Captain Rex and the clones), Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano), Tom Kane (Yoda), and Matt Lanter (Anakin Skywalker) join host James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) for what’s sure to be a fun morning panel!

Stay tuned and keep your refresh button handy as we update LIVE throughout from 1030am until 1130am EDT.

The panel started with a “greatest hits” sizzle real of The Clone Wars, with the largest applause coming for Darth Maul when he appeared on screen.

James Arnold Taylor, the host of the main stage, literally ran out, jumping down into the audience giving out high fives.

“I don’t know if everyone knows, I’m Obi-Wan Kenobi on The Clone Wars. I’m also a voice actor, I know people are looking at me saying ‘who’s this guy that looks like David Spade and sounds like Michael J Fox?”

He went through a huge list of voices that he’s done… it’s scary how many voices he has. He also plugged his one man show “Talking To Myself” which premieres a special one hour version Saturday Night at the show.

“I would say this if I didn’t do a voice on this show, I think it’s the best on television. I love that you’re supporting the voice actors of this show.”

He brought the actors out, Matt, Dee, Tom Kane, and Ashley. Dee did the Perry the Platypus “trill” to applause.

“I’m Dee Bradley Baker, I do the voice of the CLONES on Star Wars The Clone Wars. And for those of you that love the clones… there’s a lot coming this season that will make you happy.”

“I’m Tom Kane, I’m the opening narrator” and some guy named Yoda. He went through some of his other voices across many shows.

Ashley Eckstein is “the mvoice of Ahsoka Tano” which got a lot of screams and cheers. “No one wants to know what will eventually happen to her. I don’t have a long list of voices that I do…”

Kane: “When you look like that you don’t have to!”

Ashley: “Oh, thanks! I miss my other girls up here though.”

JAT: “Before we go any further, I want to dedicate this panel to Ian Abercrombie, who passed away this year.”

Matt Lanter introduced himself as Anakin Skywalker, amongst several others. Taylor asked him how he got the part.

Lanter: “I got called in for ‘Deek Starkiller’ and it was very nerve wracking. I was really scared. An interesting tidbit, I was recast as Anakin, they had recorded a few episodes with someone else, and I had to go into the LucasRanch and re-record over his stuff for those first few.”

Ashley said she “had no idea” her role would be so pivotal. She was originally called in for Padme, and the auditions were running late, it was her last one after a long day. She walked in and they said “No, you sound way too young for Padme. But there’s this new character, a 14 year old girl with an icelandic accent that we think you’d be great for.”

Taylor: “Oh, she was supposed to have an accent? That would’ve been tough.”

Ashley: “It would’ve been tough, and it wouldn’t have been me. I couldn’t do it, I tried to study an Icelandic accent and couldn’t nail it. They wanted her to sound like Bjork and I couldn’t do it.”

Taylor: “Now Matt, you’ve been doing Yoda for years, right?”

Matt: “Yeah, as Frank Oz got more and more successful it was hard for him to go back and do other voicework for other directors. I started doing Yoda in little bits and pieces, and Frank finally said “yeah, I’m retired from that.” George just said “let’s just keep using Tom!”" Kane did, however, have to read for his other roles like the narrator and the admirals he has voiced.

As for Dee Bradley Baker?

Baker: “You know, at the time, I was known for sound effects! So to be brought in for something as straight ahead as a soldier, I would never think of myself for that role, but Dave Filoni and Andrea Romano who was helping Dave cast that show, they knew my work from Avatar, the Nickelodeon series. So they brought me in and I got the role.”

Taylor moved into a little trivia portion, where he decided to test his fellow actors’ knowledge.

“We have four people who have played Jedi on this stage, so let’s see who gets the most questions right and has the highest Midichlorian count!” announced Taylor.

Ashely got the first question, just a simple identification of Chewie. Matt Lanter knew his right hand was cut off as Anakin. Dee got one as well, but Ashley jumped on many questions and was the clear biggest fan. They all had some fun shouting over each other, and Ashley did wind up winning.

Matt Lanter did the Anakin voice and said “I’d like to check your Midichlorian Count” as a pick-up line, apparently a joke from Star Wars Weekends.

Dee Bradley Baker, after the raucous trivia event, did a quick demo of doing some creature sounds from Clone Wars. After his demonstration, Ashley asked the interpreter “Is there actually sign language for the signs that Dee just made?”

The interpreter did a little trill with his hand under his neck. Lots of applause for that.

Taylor then asked Matt how Star Wars has affected his acting career outside of the show.

“A couple years a go I did a movie called Sorority Row and it had Carrie Fisher in it. I went up to her and said ‘so hey, I’m your dad, and it’s really cool.’ She like signaled for someone to take me away. I have done some other voices too, I’m on Ultimate Spider-Man.”

Taylor, “Oh, I was on a Spider-Man series, I was Harry Osborn! Who are you playing now?”

Lanter, “Um… Harry Osborn.”

They looked awkwardly at each other, and Taylor switched seats with Baker to lots of laughs.

Lanter also does Venom on the show. He did a voice on Scooby Doo where the villainous version of his character was played by mark Hammil. “I’m your dad!” he joked again.

Taylor praised Tom Kane’s ubiquity in voice over work, including the announcement voice for TED which he said was basically Captain Picard, then joking in the voice, “Ensign Crusher, in my bedroom. Get ready!” to laughter.

Kane said when people find out he’s Yoda in other voice sessions, he often signs pictures of Yoda for their kids. “Most people don’t know I’m Yoda, they talk to me for an hour and I don’t sound anything like that.”

Taylor moved the conversation over to Ashley and the Her Universe geek apparel for women and girls brand she runs.

Eckstein “Early into the series, I went to StarWars.com and wanted to buy some new Star Wars shirts, and there wasn’t a single one for women on there. I did some research, found that almost half of Star Wars fans are women, and I went to LucasFilm to say I wanted more female shirts. They really supported me and let me start to do that.”

Eckstein also announced that the Ahsoka costume hoodie will be out for adults for the first time in October 2012.

“And now… questions from the Council” aka Fan Q&A!

Q: What input do you guys have in story/dialogue?

Baker: “Our input is pretty limited, it’s in a limited time. Our window is narrow. We get a script based off something that’s already staged, we do the voiceover, then they fully animate. Sometimes we’ll add a little in after.”

Q: Some voices are very natural, but some you have to work on, what’s the difference for you?

Lanter: “Well Anakin for me, is pretty much just my voice but a little deeper, so that one is very easy.”

Baker: “If any of you want to be a voice actor or the career of it, I laid out info on a website called IWannaBeAVoiceActor.com We’re also all on twitter, so please follow and we’ll try to interact on there!”

Q: How has the Clone Wars recording changed over the years from when you first got into the studio to now?

Kane: “Well, it’s gotten better! When the movie came out, it was unfortunate, to release it as a film wasn’t LucasFilm’s idea, that was Warner Bros. It was a little nervewracking. If you look at what we’ve done now, it’s evolved, it’s a much better show. And I’m not blowing smoke, but the next season is even better.”

Q: I’m wondering what happened to Ahsoka after the Clone Wars?

Baker: I’m wondering that too!

Taylor: Yeah, I think we’ll find out at some point…

Baker: I want to know what happens to Rex, and what happens to Ventress! But We don’t know!

Lanter: “There’s actually a little something Ashley and I have recorded that you guys don’t know about. You were all kicked out of the studio.”

Ashley: “Yeah, we do have that scene!”

With that, the actors read a scene that James Arnold Taylor wrote, to demonstrate their voices. That’s all for this panel, folks. Stay tuned for the special announcement of Seth Green and the team behind Robot Chicken’s new animated series at around noon today!

And here’s your second “Maybe you should spend September in the UK” post of the day, as the Northants International Comics Expo (Held September 22-23 at the Wicksteed Leisure Park, and no, I swear I’m not making this up) offers something every single other comic convention doesn’t: Two hours with Alan Moore. According to the press release,

On the Saturday evening of N.I.C.E 2012, Moore will give an unprecedented hour-long talk, sharing his comic-writing expertise. Visitors to the convention can then experience an hour-long Q&A session.

Other guests at the con include Charlie Adlard, Simon Bisley, Doug Braithwaite, Ian Churchill, Alan Davis, Steve Dillon, Marko Djurdjevic, Glenn Fabry, Melinda Gebbie, R.M. Guera, Adi Granov, David Hine, Shaky Kane, Dave Kendall, Clint Langley, Ben Oliver, Esad Ribic, Greg Staples and John Watson.

You can find out more about the show at its official website. Here’s the page about how to get into the Moore panel.

Let’s say that you couldn’t make it to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, but wish that you could’ve attended some of the more process-oriented panels. Thankfully, Jamie Colville has you covered, with audio from sixteen panels, as well as the complete Eisner Awards, available for download. The panels include spotlights on Geoff Darrow, Larry Hama, Gilbert Shelton and Steve Englehart, along with panels on more general topics like digital pricing, retailing and how to get news coverage. Think of it like being there, only without the visuals and sense of overwhelmedness from everything else going on around you…