Comic-Con 2018: What's on the Program?

San Diego's mammoth Comic-Con International is happening this coming week, July 18-22, once again filling the city's Convention Center, harborfront, Gaslamp Quarter, and myriad hotels with thousands and tens of thousands of pop culture fans and purveyors. I, though a CCI veteran, will be sitting out Comic-Con this year, for financial and personal reasons, but, as usual, I have been skimming the Con program with interest. It's my way of staying in touch. Studying the CCI program reminds me of the delights and frustrations of the Comic-Con experience, the sheer scale of the thing, and the uneasy overlapping of fan communities that make CCI such a beast. 

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I've learned to look out for specific things in the program and focus on them ruthlessly, while filtering out literally hundreds of other things. The personalized online scheduling provided by SCHED.org, with its color-coding and organization by day, venue, and category, makes filtering that much easier. This year I have a particular eye for the following:

• The third annual Comic Conference for Educators and Librarians (CCEL), that is, the slate of librarian and educator-focused sessions that will once again be happening during the run of CCI but offsite, at San Diego's Central Library, specifically its Shiley Special Events Suite. The CCEL has become a great new tradition. It begins on Wednesday evening (Preview Night) and continues through Sunday. I gather that it can serve as a professional development event for librarians and teachers. CCEL is actually a free public event, i.e. you do not need a Comic-Con badge to attend, but space is limited, so attendees must either register in advance for each day or have valid Comic-Con badges (CCI badge-holders are not required to register).
• The academic sessions that comprise the Comic Arts Conference, one of the longest-lived annual academic gatherings in comics studies. These will be happening in the Convention Center's Room 26AB.
• The sessions put on by the nonprofit Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, featuring CBLDF executive director Charles Brownstein, editorial director Betsy Gomez, and others. These will mostly be in the Convention Center's Room 11.
• The 30th annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which will be given out, per tradition, in a lavish ceremony on Friday night at the Hilton Bayfront. (I wrote about this year's slate of nominees back in April.)
• Sessions featuring certain of Comic-Con's special guests: Thi Bui, Emil Ferris, Liniers, Jason Lutes, Carol Tyler, Noah Van Sciver, Tillie Walden, Jen Wang, and my CSU Northridge colleague, Randy Reynaldo. (Plus, wow, Raina Telgemeier and Molly Ostertag are each doing a bunch of panels.)

This year I note an especially strong emphasis on progressive political issues, including questions of diversity and inclusion, representation, social justice, geek activism, the challenges of bullying and incivility, and the pitfalls of cultural appropriation. I also see, as expected, a continuing emphasis on children's and YA publishing, which have become crucial parts of Comic-Con. 

What follows is a list of particular panels I'd be trying to get to if I were at Comic-Con, aside from the obvious spotlights on individual artists (Bui, Ferris, Liniers, Walden, Wang, Reynaldo) and graphic novel publishers that I admire (e.g. Abrams, Drawn & Quarterly). Clicking on the panels' titles will take you to online descriptions:

Teaching with Comics: An Interactive Workshop for Educators
Wednesday, July 18, 4:00-6:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Shiley Suite

This workshop opens the CCEL, and seems to be becoming an annual tradition. It's a great way for educators to kick off their San Diego experience. This involves dear colleagues of mine, speaking on important things and facilitating hands-on activities, and would be an unmissable Must for me were I able to attend CCI. Per the program:

Peter Carlson (Green Dot Public Schools), Susan Kirtley (Portland State University), and Antero Garcia (Stanford University) lead this hands-on workshop for integrating comic books in your classrooms. Using contexts from K-12 to higher education instruction and communities of comic scholars, this action-packed workshop guides participants through approaches to teaching comics and teaching with comics while including the voices of Nhora Lucia Serrano (MIT Press), Johnathan Flowers (Southern Illinois University), and Ben Bolling (University of North Carolina) to share key strategies, theories, and scholarship on comics pedagogy.

Writing and Drawing the Past
Thursday, July 19, 10:00-11:00am, Convention Center Room 32AB

Featuring Thi Bui, Jason Lutes, Noah Van Sciver, and Jen Wang, and moderated by Abraham Riesman.

Art During the Holocaust
Thursday, July 19, 1:30-2:30pm, Convention Center Room 4

An examination of WW2-era art and propaganda, including the perspectives of Holocaust survivor Ruth Goldschmiedova Sax and her daughter, author Sandra Scheller.

The Treasury of British Comics: Can a Forgotten Archive Teach Us about Comics in the 21st Century?
Thursday, July 19, 2:00-3:00pm, Convention Center Room 29AB

A panel on Britain's tradition of weekly comic papers, described here as a "missing link between American comics, European comics, and manga."

YA Comics FTW!
Thursday, July 19, 3:30-4:30pm, Convention Center Room 4

Featuring Jen Wang, Scott Westerfeld, and Tillie Walden.

Splashing Ink on Museum Walls
Thursday, July 19 , 4:00-5:00pm, Convention Center Room 29AB

A topic of particular interest to me, given my curatorial experience, plus a strong lineup, a sharp moderator, and a peek into the coming Comic-Con Center for Popular Culture. Per the program:

Do comics belong in museums? Lots of major art and cultural institutions seem to think so, with ambitious new shows and comic art museums springing up everywhere, including one spearheaded by Comic-Con itself. Artist/writer Emil Ferris (My Favorite Thing Is Monsters), Kim Munson (editor, From Comics to Frames: Comic Art in Museums), writer/editor and exhibition consultant Ann Nocenti, and SDCC museum director Adam Smith converse about the future of comics on display, moderated by Rob Salkowitz (Forbes, Full Bleed).

[Having recently met with Adam Smith to discuss the SDCC museum, I'm excited about where this conversation could go.]

Superstars in Children's Graphic Novels
Thursday, July 19, 5:30-6:30pm, Convention Center Room 26AB

Featuring Raina Telgemeier, Jarrett Krosoczka, Aron Steinke, Molly Ostertag, Ian Boothby, and Gale Galligan.

Transformation Magic: Transgender Life in Comics from Street Level to the Stratosphere
Thursday, July 19, 6:00-7:00pm, Convention Center Room 28DE

This strikes me as a great breakthrough: "What do comics both indie and mainstream have in store for the transgender community in a politically fraught climate? How can trans comics artists best serve their creative and financial interests in an industry that has yet to fully embrace them?" Tied into Prism Comics and the trans comic anthology We're Still Here.

How to Read Nancy (with Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden)
Thursday, July 19, 7:00-8:00pm, Convention Center Room 28DE

A work of obsessive genius and a very useful textbook!

Meet the Makers: Kids' Comics Extravaganza
Friday, July 20, 11:00am-12:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Shiley Suite

Aron Steinke, Jennifer Holm, Jordan Crane, and Heidi Arnhold talk process!

Revolutionary Ink: The 50th Anniversary of Underground Comix
Friday, July 20, 1:30-2:30pm, Convention Center Room 8

Featuring Mary Fleener, Denis Kitchen, Trina Robbins, Ron Turner, Carol Tyler, Robert Williams, and moderator Charles Brownstein.

Trends in Graphic Novel Publishing
Friday, July 20, 2:00-3:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Shiley Suite

Peggy Burns (Drawn & Quarterly), Margot Wood (Oni Press), Emily Meehan (Disney Publishing Worldwide), and, I think, Gina Gagliano (Random House Graphic) in conversation. Sponsored by the Children's Book Council Graphic Novel Committee.

LGBTQ Graphic Novels
Friday, July 20, 4:00-5:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Shiley Suite

Aminder Dhaliwal, Molly Ostertag, and Ivy Noelle Weir.

Using Graphic Novels to Cope with Bullying
Saturday, July 21, 10:00-11:00am, San Diego Central Library, Shiley Suite

With Dr. Katie Monnin (Pop Culture Classroom), Raina Telgemeier, Molly Ostertag, Christina "Steenz" Stewart (Archival Quality), teacher Derek Heid , and moderator Tom Racine. 

My First Comic
Saturday, July 21, 12:00-1:00pm, Convention Center Room 29AB

Jen Wang, Matt Loux, Jim Pascoe, and Mairghread Scott “discuss the first comics they read and the journey from reading their first comic to making their first comic.” 

The Comics Revolution (with First Second's Mark Siegel)
Saturday, July 21, 1:00-2:00pm, Convention Center Room 29AB

Adapting Folklore, History, and Myth in Comics
Saturday, July 21, 2:00-3:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Shiley Suite

Johnnie Christmas, Marco Finnegan, John Jennings, Kit Seaton, and moderator Katie Monnin. 

Wimmen's Comix
Saturday, July 21, 3:30-4:30pm, Convention Center Room 26AB

Per the program: In the early 1970s, a group of women proved to the world that underground comix—and mainstream comics—wasn't just a boy's club by publishing the first and longest-running all-women comics anthology, Wimmen's Comix. Trina Robbins, Mary Fleener, Lee Marrs, and Carol Tyler discuss of how they made herstory addressing menstruation, reproductive rights, and countless other topics that their male counterparts were unwilling or unable to tackle. Moderated by Betsy Gomez (CBLDF Presents She Changed Comics).

Alternative Comics Anthologies, Then and Now
Saturday, July 21, 4:30-5:30pm, Convention Center Room 26AB

Great topic, great lineup: Eric Reynolds, Justin Hall, Carol Tyler, Robert Goodin, Manuele Fior, and moderator Rob Salkowitz.

Audrey Niffenegger and Eddie Campbell on Their Bizarre Romance
Sunday, July 22, 10:00-11:00am, Convention Center Room 29AB

The Annual Kirby Tribute, moderated by Mark Evanier
Sunday, July 22, 10:00-11:15am, Convention Center Room 5AB

Of course a tradition for me!

Comics Studies at Michigan State University
​Sunday, July 22, 1:00-2:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Shiley Suite

Ryan Claytor (a friend and colleague of mine) shares information about MSU's expanding comics studies curriculum, including its Comics Studies minor.

Cultivating a Comic Book Culture in Academic Librarianship
Sunday, July 22, 2:00-3:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Shiley Suite

Glad to see my colleague Allison Mandaville on this panel! Per the program: Raymond Pun (librarian), Allison Mandaville (professor of English), Michelle Pratt (library specialist), and Jenny Banh (professor of anthropology) discuss strategies and practices for academic libraries to collaborate with teaching faculty to create a comic book culture in the classroom and in universities today.

Comics Arts Conference #16:
The Culture of Comic-Con: Field Studies of Fans and Marketing
Sunday, July 22, 2:30-3:30pm, Convention Center Room 26AB

Nine student researchers "present initial findings from a week-long ethnographic field study of the intersection of fan practice at the nexus of cultural marketing and fan culture that is Comic-Con 2018." Field experience organized and panel moderated by my colleague, Matthew J. Smith, Director of the School of Communications at Radford University.

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Friends, colleagues, readers, whatever your interests, if you're going to Comic-Con I hope you have a rich, productive, exciting experience! Years ago, Tom Spurgeon, at The Comics Reporter, offered a guide to surviving and enjoying CCI, and I think it's still worth a look. If you do go, treat yourself well, and gently, stay watered, take breaks, and set aside some time for friends. It's a huge stampede of an event, but a bit of down time can work wonders.