Panels I Want To See At San Diego

I'll be signing Divalicious at the Tokyopop booth on Sunday 11-12.

Webcomics and Related Panels: (This section cross-posted to Broken Frontier. Updated thanks to Fleen.)

I won't get to all of these, but I'll print out this post and make the effort!

* means related but not technically webcomics. Room number follows in parentheses.

Thursday:

11:30-12:30 Episodic Games and Comics, featuring Penny Arcade and Sam and Max. (1AB)

12:30-1:30 GoComics Mobile Comics*. I interviewed a rep for this company recently; it'll be interesting to see where they take things post-iPhone. (2)

3-4 Spotlight on Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com's cartoonist, with an audience of three million monthly uniques on the Web alone. (2)

3:30-5 Spotlight on Scott Kurtz with emphasis on PVP Animated (Kristofer Straub and Ryan Sohmer also guest). (1AB)

5-6 Random House: Flight/Postcards. The Flight anthology was a major turning point for webcartoonists three years ago and is still important now. (10)

6-7 Dumbrella. Actually, I'm including this one as a courtesy to anyone who might use this list. Nothing against the Dumbrella guys, but I know enough about them that a Q&A would probably be superfluous. (10)

6-7 How To Become an Internet Geek Super-Star*. Not really webcomics but aimed at the same demo as many of the most successful webcomics. Dumbrella panel is billed as pure Q&A. Make your choice! (30CDE)

Friday:

2-3:30 Comics Arts Conference Session #8: Storytelling and Visual Language*. This is a really academic panel, intimidatingly so, but if you're looking for original ideas about comics after reading Eisner and McCloud, Neil Cohn is your guy. (30AB)

3:30-4:30 Business of Web Comics. Hmmm: Scott Kurtz (PvP) and Robert Khoo (Penny Arcade) will create a brand-new webcomic, live on stage, and show how the creative and business aspects of the property work (and don't work) in parallel. (8)

5:30-6:30 Scott McCloud and Family. Last time out, Scott was the most enthralling speaker I encountered all weekend, but he had a book's worth of information to throw at us. Don't know what he's got this time but I'm looking forward to finding out. (5AB)

Saturday:

3:30-4:30 Penny Arcade. I doubt I'll make this one either. Like the Dumbrella panel it's pure Q&A, and I already know these guys-- any questions I have about their new plans would be answered by the "Episodic Games and Comics" panel. But it'll be packed. (1AB)

5:30-6:30 Keenspot Unplugged 2007. Keen always hints at big announcements. It delivered in '05 and didn't in '06. How will this year break the tie? (3)

Sunday:

12-1 My Dad Makes Comics! featuring Sky and Winter McCloud (and others). Winter and Sky are adorable, and scary smart for their age. I don't know the others but this should be a fun one. (5AB)

1-2 What's Happening in Kids' Comics Today? Featuring Svetlana Chmakova, Kazu Kibuishi and Gene Yang (and others) with moderator Dave Roman. I'm happy to see things happening for these guys. This should go nicely with the previous panel. (8)

I still think DC may schedule some kind of expo for Zuda Comics before the show begins, since the site is supposed to go through changes that coincide with the convention. If not an official panel, maybe something at their booth. Keep your eyes peeled.

A couple of really tangential panels that I may pop into because I'd like to meet one of the participants afterwards:

Sat 5:30-8:00 Gays in Comics Panel and Mixer*, featuring Megan Gedris and others. (6A)

Sun 12:30-1:30 Kids' Day Drawing Workshop: You Can Draw Star Wars* featuring Tom Hodges of Hyperspace and others. (30CDE)

Mostly non-webcomics panels and shows that I'd also like to attend:

Thu 7:15-8:45PM The Pixar Story: To Infinity and Beyond. Nice way to decompress and beat the dinner rush. (6CDEF)

Fri 12:30-1:30 TOKYOPOP Industry Panel. Professional interest. (10)
Fri 4:30-5:30 Center for Cartoon Studies: How to Dramatically Improve Your Comics. I want to see the CCS in action and I want to do better comics, so this is win-win. (24A)

Sat 10:30-11:30 Meet The Press. Heidi, Spurge, EW, Variety, Douglas Wolk. Even though I'm getting out of the press game I really want to meet these guys (or see again in Heidi's case). If only we could coax out Dirk Deppey. (3)
Sat 1-2 Where Do They Get Those Marvelous Toys? Starring Cory Doctorow, Greg Bear, Vernor Vinge and others. Since I can't reach Cory's full spotlight panel, this is the next best thing. (8)
Sat 9PM-11PM Spotlight on Warren Ellis. No explanation necessary. (6CDEF)

Panel I regret that I'll probably miss:

Sun 11:30-1 Comics Are Not Literature. Conflicts with the T-Pop signing and the "my dad" panel. Too bad: it sounds like a rousing debate. You should go if you can. (8)

I hope you have as much fun as I do! Unless I get run over on the way in. In which case, have more.