Starting on Wednesday night, July 21, the pleasant seaside city of San Diego turns into geek central as comics, manga, anime, sci-fi, gaming and toy collecting masses descend on the San Diego Convention Center for Comic-Con International 2010.
There's always a lot to see and do at Comic-Con, but with so many choices, it sometimes it can be a little overwhelming trying to figure out what to do and where to be at any given time. If you're headed to San Diego Comic-Con and you're big into manga like I am, then here's a few suggestions for your schedule: My Top 20 List of Must-See Manga Events at SDCC.
Besides listing the most intriguing manga and anime panels on the schedule, I've also listed autograph sessions with some top comics creators from Japan, including Junko Mizuno (Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu), Moto Hagio (A Drunken Dream), Yoshitaka Amano (Shinjuku) and U.S. expat now living and working in Japan, Felipe Smith (Peepo Choo). You'll also see how you can meet the cast of the Vampire Knight anime and win some prizes too, as well booth locations for many favorite manga publishers.
This year, I'll be participating in two panels at Comic-Con.
The Best and Worst of Manga 2010 - Thursday, July 22 at 4:30 - 5:30 pm in Room 3
It's been a wild year for manga, with new publishers springing up while old ones fade away, and sometimes it seems like the one constant in life is that One Piece will go on forever. Join our five panelists -- Deb Aoki (manga.about.com), Jason Thompson (Manga: The Complete Guide), Christopher Butcher (The Beguiling, Comics212.net), Shaenon Garrity (ComiXology, The Comics Journal), Carlo Santos (Anime News Network) and moderator Tom Spurgeon (comicsreporter.com) -- as they talk about the best and worst manga of the last year, the manga they want to see translated, and the most anticipated upcoming releases.Techland Presents: Comics and Digital Piracy - Sunday, July 25 at 10:00 - 11:00 am in Room 25ABC
Just about every comic book is now available online within hours of its release in stores -- whether or not its publisher is selling it in digital form. Techland.com's Douglas Wolk moderates a discussion of what's happening in the online-comics Wild West with David Steinberger (comiXology), Erik Larsen (Savage Dragon), Deb Aoki (About.com) and manga editor Jake Forbes (Return to Labyrinth).
Needless to say, I'll be at San Diego Comic-Con from Wednesday through Sunday, and will be blogging, tweeting, photographing and just taking in the scene in and out of the Convention Center all along the way. For the latest updates, follow me on Twitter for news blurbs, photos, random observations and much more from the Comic-Con floor.
Image credits: © 2008 Matsuri Hino / HAKUSENSHA, Vampire Knight Project, © Comic-Con International
Comments