Are you going to Comic-Con in San Diego? Don't miss these panels about chicks in sci-fi, horror, and fantasy.
Thursday, July 22
1:00-2:00 Spotlight on Charlaine Harris— Author and Comic-Con special guest Charlaine Harris gathered a huge fan base with her novels and stories featuring her characters mystery-solving librarian Aurora Teagarden; Shakespeare, Arkansas resident Lily Bard; and the telepathic barmaid who befriends vampires, werewolves, and various other odd creatures, Sookie Stackhouse. Once Sookie and company moved to the small screen with HBO's True Blood, Harris entered the superstar realm. Be a part of the very first Spotlight panel devoted to Charlaine and hear what she has to say about what comes next for Sookie and everyone else! Room 6BCF
3:00-4:00 Spotlight on Jenette Kahn— For 27 years Comic-Con special guest Jenette Kahn steered the course for DC Comics as its president and publisher, the youngest female executive in Warner Brothers history. Her time at DC resulted in a renaissance of publishing for fans and creators alike. Former DC president and publisher -- and fellow Comic-Con special guest -- Paul Levitz interviews Jenette about her years at the company and her new career in the movie industry as a producer of such hits as Gran Torino. Room 5AB
5:30-6:30 Geek Girls Exist— Really? Kristin Rielly (Geek Girls Network) leads a discussion about growing up geek, turning passions into careers, and who shot first. Representing the many awesome aspects of the geek culture, panelists Morgan Romine (The Frag Dolls), Bonnie Burton (The Star Wars Craft Book), Marian Call (singer/songwriter), Sarah Kuhn (One Con Glory), Jill Pantozzi (Has Boobs Reads Comics blog), Veronica Belmont (Qore), Kari Byron (MythBusters), and Kiala Kazebee (GeekWeek.com) school you on what it means to be a real geeky girl and even make you LOL IRL. Room 8
Friday, July 23
10:30-11:30 Spotlight on Moto Hagio— Comic-Con special guest Moto Hagio is considered to be the mother of shōjo (young girl) manga. Her large body of work is renowned the world over, and Fantagraphics Books is publishing a new collection of her short stories, Drunken Dreams. Celebrate her first-ever visit to the U.S. at this special Q&A session, moderated by Matt Thorn, associate professor in the department of manga production at Kyoto Seika University in Japan. (Thorn decided to translate shōjo manga into English after reading Thomas no Shinzō by Moto Hagio in the mid-1980s). Room 5AB
11:00-12:00 Costume Designers: Designing for TV Production— Costume Designers work in collaboration with Directors, Production Designers, Directors of Photography and Actors in creating fantastic and memorable stories told via moving images. Characters created by Comic Book Writers and Illustrators are made real for the screen via the artistry of Costume Designers. Meet the men and women who are the Costume Designers on this year's most popular television productions. Moderator Kristin Burke, Costume Designer, a Member of the Costume Designers Guild, Local 892, and creator of her own Costume Design website “Frocktalk.com”, hosts Costume Designers from CDG, local 892: Audrey Fisher (True Blood), Ane Crabtree (Justified), Shawna Trpcic (Firefly), Pamela Shaw (Assistant Designer, Vampire Diaries), Jennifer Eve (Assistant Designer, Glee). Room 32AB
11:00-12:00 Spotlight on Vanessa Davis— One of the brightest new cartoonists of her generation, who has been featured in Tablet, Vice, Bust, and Bitch Magazines, Comic-Con special guest Vanessa Davis will be debuting her new book Make Me a Woman and discussing the book and its process with a charming and funny slide show about being young, Jewish and single. Room 4
11:00-1:00 Comic-Con How-To Session: Costuming with Sabrina Belly Dancer— Sabrina will show how to create a costume bra top for hall costumes or a masquerade performance. She will create the costume bra and, time permitting, will also show the application of stayput makeup for hall costume or masquerade performances. Room 18
12:00-1:00 Spotlight on C. Tyler— Comic-Con special guest C. Tyler is known for her personal brand of storytelling. Her latest book, You'll Never Know, Book 1: A Good and Decent Man chronicles the story of her father's life during World War II and interweaves it with her own story. Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth interviews Tyler about her work. Room 4
12:00-1:00 Neighbors from Hell— Executive producers Pam Brady (South Park) and Mireille Soria (Madagascar) screen a never-before-seen episode of their newly launched TBS animated series and take questions from the audience, along with their all-star voice cast including Molly Shannon (SNL), Patton Oswalt (My Weakness Is Strong, Ratatouille), Will Sasso (MADtv), Kurtwood Smith (That '70s Show), David Soren (DreamWorks animation veteran), Kyle McCulloch (Mr. Wong), and Tracey Fairaway (Chicago 8). Room 25ABC
12:30-1:30 Spotlight on Tanya Huff— Special guest, author Tanya Huff (the Blood series, The Truth of Valor) will read a short story and then throw the room open to a Q&A; if you've got questions, now's the time to ask. Room 5AB
2:00-3:30 Comics Arts Conference Session #8: Where Are the Action Chicks?— Katrina Hill (ActionFlickChick.com), Jill Pantozzi (MTV Splash Page), Adrianne Curry (America’s Next Top Model), Cindy Morgan (Tron), Luci Romberg (Zombieland), Jen Stuller (Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors), Gina Misiroglu (Encyclopedia of Women in Popular Culture), Marjorie Liu (Black Widow), Cindy Morgan (TRON), and J. Michael Straczynski (Wonder Woman) discuss why comics, television, and movies do not depict more action heroines and look specifically at why movies starring traditional comic book superheroines are nearly nonexistent. Room 26AB
4:00-5:00 Entertainment Weekly presents…Women Who Kick Ass: A New Generation of Heroines— EW moderates this discussion with Jena Malone (Sucker Punch), Anna Torv (Fringe), Elizabeth Mitchell (V), and Ellen Wong and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) about the next generation of female action heroes and the power and privilege of playing young women who are nobody’s arm candy. Moderated by Nicole Sperling. Ballroom 20
5:00-6:00 Girls Gone Genre: Movies, TV, Comics, Web— Meet and talk with women who write, read, game, and perform in arenas that are historically and statistically dominated by men. What’s it like to try and get a job in a field where most of your competitors and colleagues are guys? Can women write men, and vice versa? And what happens when traditionally “male” genres are reinvented by female writers and embraced by female fans? Sex and the City it ain’t! Meet the women who like to play with trucks and Barbies…and Wolverine action figures. And flux capacitors. Featuring Felicia Day (writer/producer, The Guild; actress, The Guild, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog), Kathryn Immonen (writer, Patsy Walker: Hellcat, Runaways, Heralds), Laeta Kalogridis (screenwriter/producer, Shutter Island, Ghost in the Shell, Avatar), Marti Noxon (screenwriter/producer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Mad Men, I Am Number Four, Fright Night), Melissa Rosenberg (screenwriter/producer, Dexter, The Twilight Saga), and Gail Simone (writer, Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey). Moderated by Io9′s Annalee Newitz. Room 24ABC
5:30-6:30 What's up with Penguin— Anne Sowards (executive editor, Ace/Roc), Jessica Wade (editor, Ace/Roc), and Mardie Cohen (marketing coordinator, Penguin Young Readers Group) give you the dish on forthcoming books from such exciting authors and licensed properties as Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, S. M. Stirling, Rachel Caine, Heather Brewer, Richelle Mead, Kathy Reichs, John Flanagan, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and many more. You can expect lots of giveaways you won't see anywhere else at Comic-Con, including free advance reading copies! Room 32AB
Saturday, July 24
10:00-11:00 Spotlight on Carla Speed McNeil— Comic-Con special guest Carla Speed McNeil is best known for her creator-owned title Finder. A few years back, Carla took new stories of Finder to the Internet, and the result was an Eisner Award for best Webcomic of 2008 and a new series of reprints from Dark Horse. Carla talks about her work and what's next in this Spotlight panel. Room 3
11:00-12:00 Spotlight on Jillian Tamaki— Comic-Con special guest Jillian Tamaki has taken both the illustration and comics worlds by storm. Her graphic novel Skim was a New York Times Best Book of the Year, and also was nominated for a Governor General Award and for three Eisner Awards. Her drawings can be found in the New York Times, Oprah, New Yorker, and Esquire. Tamaki will discuss the process of Skim, collaborating with a writer, and the difference between comics and illustration. Room 3
1:00-2:00 Spotlight on Gabrielle Bell— Join Comic-Con special guest Gabrielle Bell (Cecil and Jordan in New York, Lucky). Gabrielle Bell has been featured in McSweeneys, Vice and the Believer. The title story of her most recent book, Cecil and Jordan in New York has been adapted for the screen by Michel Gondry in the triptych Tokyo! She is currently serializing her Ignatz award-winning autobiographcal comics Lucky online. Gabrielle Bell will present a slideshow and discuss her work with Tom Spurgeon (www.thecomicsreporter) Room 3
6:30-7:30 Her Universe: Shining The Spotlight on Female Fans— Ashley Eckstein (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) brings together some of today’s leading women who are movers and shakers in the various fields of sci-fi and fantasy. Looking at science fiction through female eyes, the panel will discuss what kinds of entertainment female sci-fi fans want to see more of, what strides have been made, what has been missing up to now, what kinds of merchandise female fans want to see, and what female fans can do to encourage more of all of this. Panelists include Jane Espenson (producer/writer, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Melinda Snodgrass (author, The Edge series; story editor Star Trek: The Next Generation), Erika Kennair (director of development and current programming, Syfy Channel), Cat Staggs (artist, Star Wars sketch cards, Marvel card sets), Bonnie Burton (content developer, Lucas Online, official SW Blog), Katie Cook (artist, Star Wars, comics, webcomic Gronk), and Mary Franklin (senior events lead, Lucasfilm Ltd.). Q&A with audience members, too! Room 24ABC
1:00-2:30 Comic-Con How-To Session: Allison Sohn— Trading card and sketchcard artist Allison Sohn will demonstrate sketching with color Copic Markers. Allison works primarily with Copic Markers for her printed works as well as her sketchcards. Room 18
2:00-3:30 Comics Arts Conference Session #12: Poster Session— Want to go in depth with a comics scholar? On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the PowerPoints of the poster presenters will be available to read in printed "poster books," and then the scholars will be available in this session to discuss their presentations in small-group and one-on-one discussions.
Jim Miller (Henderson State University) discusses how the interplay of images in Dan Clowes's Eightball creates literary comics that are very real and sexual in nature, and why this necessary element of his work leads to successful narrative.
- Samantaha Deorge (School of the Art Institute) compares the post-feminism of Wonder Woman and the radical feminism of Tank Girl as representative of the British and American portraits of superheroines.
6:30-7:30 Her Universe: Shining The Spotlight on Female Fans— Ashley Eckstein (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) brings together some of today's leading women who are movers and shakers in the various fields of sci-fi and fantasy. Looking at science fiction through female eyes, the panel will discuss what kinds of entertainment female sci-fi fans want to see more of, what strides have been made, what has been missing up to now, what kinds of merchandise female fans want to see, and what female fans can do to encourage more of all of this. Panelists include Jane Espenson (producer/writer, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Melinda Snodgrass (author, The Edge series; story editor Star Trek: The Next Generation), Erika Kennair (director of development and current programming, Syfy Channel), Cat Staggs (artist, Star Wars sketch cards, Marvel card sets), Bonnie Burton (content developer, Lucas Online, official SW Blog), Katie Cook (artist, Star Wars, comics, webcomic Gronk), and Mary Franklin (senior events lead, Lucasfilm Ltd.). Q&A with audience members, too! Room 24ABC
Sunday, July 25
1:30-2:30 The Winner Twins— The Winner Twins, Brianna and Brittany (authors of The Strand book series), America's youngest multiple-award-winning authors announce that their first book in the Strand Series, The Strand Prophecy, is now in development as a major motion picture. They will be discussing their method of writing novels and adapting content for television and film production in Hollywood. Joining the Winner Twins are panelists Mike Greenfield (Beverly Hills Talent Management), Mickey Stern (CEO, BASE Productions), Eric Gozlan (Shivita Films), Jack Hozel (Shivita Films), and Jeff Winner (author). Room 8
