Thursday programming for the San Diego Comic-Con is back in the game, with hopefully Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the “on deck” circle. They’ve also announced a special preview night screening of the new Fox TV show Fringe:

6:00–7:30 and 7:30-9:00 Fringe Pilot Screenings—Comic-Con and Warner Bros. Television proudly present two exclusive premiere screenings of the pilot episode of Fringe, the highly anticipated new FOX series from J.J. Abrams (Lost), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind the upcoming Star Trek feature, Mission: Impossible 3 and Alias. When an international flight lands at Boston’s Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv, The Pacific) is called in to investigate. When the search nearly kills her partner, Special Agent John Scott (Mark Valley, Boston Legal), a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: He’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son, Peter (Josh Jackson, Shutter), in to help. Under Special Agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick, The Wire), our trio will discover that what happened on that fatal flight is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth. Fringe also stars Kirk Acevedo (Oz), Blair Brown (The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd) and Jasika Nicole (The Mastersons of Manhattan). From Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, Fringe premieres September 9 and airs Tuesdays at 9:00 PM on FOX. (Please note: we will clear the room between screenings. Seating is limited. Pick the screening time that works best for you!) Ballroom 20

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We’re only a few weeks away from the mammoth San Diego Comic-Con, and this is the first of several round-ups of what’s going on at the con. If you’re a creator, publisher, etc. I want to know about your San Diego plans. Got a new book debuting? Got a booth in Artist Alley? Appearing on a panel? Let me know and I’ll include it in a future edition.

Before jumping in, though, a quick public service announcement: if you’re driving to the con or plan to rent a car, California’s hands-free cell phone law went into effect earlier this week. This means you can get a ticket for talking and driving, unless you’re using a hands free device. The law doesn’t address texting or personal hygiene, as evidenced by the lady I saw brushing her teeth while driving yesterday. So brush your teeth, shave, put on make-up, send a text or read a comic — just don’t talk on the phone. End of PSA.

Artist Cliff Chiang sent me a note about the booth he’s sharing with Jill Thompson and Brian Wood, along with an image of the banners they’ll be displaying (which looks very cool!). Here’s what Cliff said:

For the first time, I’ll have my own table at SDCC, sharing a booth with Jill Thompson and Brian Wood. Located at Booth #1322, you can find us listed as the three-headed beast “Jill Thompson, Brian Wood, Cliff Chiang” in the program book. We’ll have books, prints, original art, and Jill and I will be doing commissioned sketches.

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I’ve seen this from a few different sources including Josh Fialkov and Warren Ellis, but Image has put together a helpful press release, so I’m just going to post that. Josh Medors is a pal of mine and the sweetest comics professional I’ve ever met. It breaks my heart that he’s having to go through this:

23 April 2008 (Berkeley, CA) - Unknown to the general public, FRANK FRAZETTA’S SWAMP DEMON, RUNES OF RAGNAN, WILLOW CREEK, GI JOE and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT artist Josh Medors has been fighting cancer for the past several months. In his time of need, Image Comics and Frazetta Comics have stepped in organize an auction with all proceeds going straight to Josh.

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Devil’s Due and SuicideGirls.com have teamed up to publish a new Hack/Slash webcomic on the not safe for work website. The story, called “Murder/Suicide,” will be collected this July.

The first few installments can be found on Cassie Hack’s profile page, where the story will appear each day. “People are always describing Cassie as the Suicide Girl type, and now I can definitely answer yes,” said Tim Seeley, the book’s creator, in a press release. “I have had an account for five years now, and Hack/Slash is a perfect fit for Suicide Girls, because people are also always asking me if they can see her naked.”

If you’re over 18, you can check out Cassie’s profile and the webcomic here (NSFW).

Sunday at the New York Comic Con, expectedly, was a little bit slower on the news front than Friday or Saturday, which gave the comic sites a little bit of time to catch up and post a lot of stuff from yesterday’s panels. The big news today, it seems, is the show itself; Lance Fensterman reports on the NYCC blog that they surpassed last year’s attendance numbers:

So what do we know?

At least 64,000 people attended New York Comic Con this weekend. We have more details to pour through from retailers and on site tickets sales, but as of tonight we know that at least 64,000 attendees were in the building over the weekend. That’s an intense jump from 49,000 last year and it seems to say this crazy little party we call New York Comic Con continues to grow as fast as a speeding bullet.

Stay tuned for final numbers in the next few days.

Some other folks found time to blog today as things were winding down. Peter David gave an update on his wife, who was in a car crash while he was at the con on Friday:

Kathleen was in one piece: As anyone who’s read her blog knows, Kath was in an auto accident. Fortunately she’s fine, albeit a bit achy and bruised. Upon learning of the accident Friday, I immediately headed home, rendering me unavailable for the Marvel autograph session and also the Mondo Marvel panel. I left word at the Marvel booth, but somehow they didn’t get the message to panel moderator Jim McCann. On stage he noticed my absence and wondered aloud where I was. When one of the panels whispered in his ear what had happened, a startled Jim said “Oh my God!”…right into the open microphone, causing some degree of confusion and alarm for the audience which he quickly had to undo.

And Mark Evanier talked about the Steve Gerber tribute panel … which Gerber was able to attend:

Friday, I did two panels — one about the work of the late/great Will Eisner; the other, about the state of the animation business. Saturday morn, we had a nice public memorial panel about our pal, the late/also great Steve Gerber. Many of Steve’s fans and friends were there, along with members of his family. And Steve himself was present as you can see from this photo…

I guess you can’t read the label so I’ll tell you what the top line of it says: “This Package Contains the Cremated Remains of Stephen R. GERBER.” That’s right. We had his ashes there. Morbid, I know…but Steve wouldn’t have wanted to miss a whole panel about himself. It was announced that immediately following the panel, we’d be taking the ashes down and flinging them in the faces of certain editors.

More coverage of New York Comic Con:

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Devil’s Due sent out a press release earlier this week about Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia being on hand this weekend at the New York Comic Con to announce a new project. Tonight, Variety reports that the project is called Rest, a comic book miniseries featuring a character that looks like Ventimiglia:

The four issues in the series will revolve around the dangers of staying awake as a man is drawn into a conspiracy between a malevolent pharmaceutical company and the U.S. government.

The design of the main character will be inspired by Ventimiglia’s likeness.

Mark Powers, who penned the comicbook “Drafted” and edited “X-Men,” will write the issues based on a story by Mike O’Sullivan.

Ventimiglia is scheduled to not only be at the Devil’s Due panel on Saturday, but will also be signing autographs at their booth at various times throughout the show.

Screenwriter Justin Marks (Street Fighter, Supermax) has been hired to pen Hack/Slash, Rogue Pictures’ adaptation of the Devil’s Due horror-action series. Todd Lincoln will direct.

Rogue picked up the rights to the series, created by Tim Seeley, back in 2006.

The comic, which began as a series of one-shots, focuses on Cassie Hack, a horror victim who strikes back against the monsters with the help of her mysterious partner Vlad.

Rogue Pictures is also developing the adaptation of the Devil’s Due supernatural war story The Lost Squad.

Following up on The Incredible Change-Bots toy concept art I posted yesterday, Devil’s Due sent out the official press release for the launch of Pop, their new merchandising arm that’ll be producing toys based not only on Jeffrey Brown’s awesome Transformers parody, but also journals, stickers and plush toys.

The complete press release and more art can be found after the jump …

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Devil’s Due dropped us some concept art from their upcoming toy line, which they’ll be announcing via press release very soon. One of the first toys they’re doing is a transformable Balls toy from Incredible Change-Bots. Jeffrey Brown designed it himself.

Click it for a larger image.