Comic Con: Between the Panels
One of the most interesting features of the San Diego Comic-Con for enthusiasts of the medium of graphic storytelling is the opportunity to hear creators discuss their work in panel discussions. Publishers and media companies also use the panels to preview upcoming releases, and sometimes, the panels are simply goofy fun (e.g., the fans-vs.-pros comic trivia contest, or the annual QuickDraw exhibition). Held in meeting rooms upstairs from the convention floor, these 60-90 minute panels draw anywhere from 50 to 5000 attendees and often provide some of the most memorable moments of the weekend.
This year, with over 250 overlapping events on the program (plus various films and happenings on the exhibit floor itself), choosing which panels to attend became more difficult than ever. These are the ones I managed to catch this year.
Thursday: 
Spotlight on Dave McKean
Never mind comics – Dave McKean is one of the most accomplished visual artists in the world today, and any opportunity to hear him speak about his work is a treat not to be missed. In this panel, he presented a retrospective of his work in illustration and fine art, including painting, sculpture, digital, mixed-media and collage and photography, plus examples of his short films, writing and musical composition. Much of the work, including covers to the Sandman comics series (written by Neil Gaiman), commercial art and album covers, has filtered into popular culture, making his style widely recognized and often imitated – even by some weblogs!
Friday:
Vertigo Tenth Anniversary
Ten years ago, DC Comics spun off the Vertigo imprint to publish its more adult-oriented work, including Sandman, Swamp Thing, Preacher, The Invisibles and 100 Bullets. At its best, Vertigo is among the most adventurous mainstream publishers in the industry, extending the boundaries of traditional comic book subject matter into all kinds of unusual and interesting directions. At its worst, it epitomizes the hipper-than-thou pretensions of its post-literate 20-something fan base. In either case, it’s always worth a look, and here, over a dozen of the best Vertigo creators were assembled onstage to discuss current and future projects.
Quick Draw! Cartoon Improv
Sort of a game-show without rules for cartoonists, Quick Draw! has become an annual event, hosted by the omnipresent ComicCon personality, Mark Evanier. Three of the four guests – Mad artist Sergio Aragones, humor comics veteran Scott Shaw, and graphic novelist Kyle Baker – are known for their witty caricaturish styles. The fourth man on the stage was Jim Lee, an extremely popular superhero artist known mostly for his ornate linework and painstakingly-detailed pages, making him an unlikely choice for sprint-sketching. Well, what do I know? Lee upstaged practically everyone with some wonderfully clever cartoons, all delivered with a complete poker face. I came to be entertained, and mission was accomplished.
Spotlight on Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a paradox. Philosophical, profane, wildly creative and often hopelessly obscure in cult-favorites like The Invisibles, Doom Patrol and The Filth, he nevertheless has had great success with the most mainstream of superhero comics, JLA and X-Men. In person, he is charisma personified, though most Americans can probably understand only about one word in three that comes out of his mouth in his thick Scots brogue. The small room scheduled for his panel was packed to standing room, and for 90 minutes, he fielded questions ranging from the influence of William S. Burroughs on his work and the potential of complex systems to achieve self-awareness, to whether he planned to bring back a popular character he recently killed off in X-Men.
Saturday
Futurama
I must admit I was a late arrival to the bandwagon of this cult animation series by Simpsons mastermind Matt Groening. However, now that I’ve managed to catch up on reruns thanks to the Cartoon Network, I can fairly say that this is the most clever and best animated show that’s ever appeared on TV (Simpsons notwithstanding), and the chance to hear from the creators – including Groening, executive producer David X. Cohen, several writers, and a few members of the cast – was too good to resist. As a bonus, they showed an unaired episode called “Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV” that left people breathless with laughter. In case you’re looking for another reason to hate Fox, the cancellation of Futurama (or its consignment to limbo) ranks as one of the great crimes of network scheduling.
Will Eisner: Fagin the Jew
As one of the industry’s original pioneers in the 1930s, best artists, best writers, most savvy businessmen, creator of notable characters, theorist on sequential art, and inventor of the graphic novel, Will Eisner is the single most important figure in the American comic book pantheon. He’s also a delightful person, and, at age 85, still prolific as an author, artist and advocate for the artform. His latest work is a graphic biography of the character of Fagin from Dickens’ Oliver Twist, using historical research to correct the derogatory depiction of Jews in classic literary works. It’s also a meditation on the nature of stereotypes and the interrelationship between the need for simple forms of representation and social oppression. The continued presence and vitality of Will Eisner is always worth celebrating, and what he has to say is always worth hearing.
Cartoon Voices
Another guilty pleasure, this goofy Evanier-moderated panel featured about a dozen noted voice actors doing cold-reads of old scripts, with hilarious results. Any excuse to keep off the Convention exhibit floor on Saturday afternoon…
Sunday 
A Chat with Mr. Gaiman and Mr. McKean
That would be Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods, Neverwhere and the Sandman series (and also the translator of the animated Japanese film Princess Mononoke), and his sometime-collaborator, Dave McKean. The two witty Brits kicked it around with the audience for 90 minutes, talking about their work styles, their upcoming projects, funny old stories, and a few remarks about Gaiman’s notorious legal showdown with Todd McFarlane. Other than a few odd glimpses, I had not seen much of Gaiman – one of the more interesting figures in the industry – during the Con, so I thought I’d catch this last-day event.
Well, that’s about it for the formal programming. Tomorrow I’ll run down the various social events and encounters, which were, for me, quite memorable.
3:13:26 PM 
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