Friday programming is up

8 JULY 2011



Read it here.

Friday highlights include the DC Talent Search and Jaime Hernandez's Master Session. Chester Brown, Ed Benes, Jeff Smith, Dave Finch, Alan Davis, Kim Harrison and Dave Stewart have panels.


There are also quite a few writing/production/art workshops and a lot of Star Wars panels.

There's a big ONI Press panel, a Dark Horse panel, and a DC: The New 52 panel, which should be entertainingly contentious. One panel that sounds cool is Indie Creators on Marvel's Strange Tales, where Jhonen Vasquez and Jeffrey Brown and others talk about their Marvel love.

On the nostalgic side of things, there's a panel celebrating the 60's Batman TV show, with Julie Newmar and Adam West. Dark Shadows also returns to the Con, this time blending the stars of the original show with Tim Burton's upcoming movie.

Torchwood, Underworld, The Big Bang Theory, Bones, Eureka, Falling Skies, Alphas, Warehouse 13 and Green Lantern all have panels. Oddly, so does Lost. Is it 2007?

One of most anticipated events is the Locke and Key pilot screening at 10:30 am, following by a panel with Joe Hill at 11:30. Luckily it's being shown again Friday night at 9:15 in room 6DE, meaning you can still go out Thursday night without rising at 4 am to get in line.

Or you will get up early anyhow to see the other big Friday blow-out: The Walking Dead panel. It's at 11:15 in Ballroom 20..... And following is True Blood at 5:30 in Ballroom 20, with the cast. Given that True Blood had the identical timeslot last year, and Ballroom 20 was at seating capacity by dawn, I'm pretty sure that the Walking Dead/True Blood combination line will start sometime on Monday.

Another panel that's getting buzz: the screening of new show The River, shown at 2:15 in room 6A. It's by the same people who brought us Lost and involves a "limited edition Con exclusive giveaway." Also known as a t-shirt.

At 4:00, Sony is rolling out a line-up of films in Hall H that include Ghost Rider, Total Recall, 30 Minutes or Less and of course, Spiderman. That will be hugely popular and I'd like to say it will draw off some of the Ballroom 20 crowd, but realistically, there is a fine difference there demographically.

At night there are the Eisners, Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted festival, along with screenings of Eureka, Haven and Mercury Men, the encore Locke and Key screening, and an encore screening of Batman: Year One. In the start of a new tradition, Hall H is being turned into a "drive-in" from 6:00 - 7:00 pm with two indie horror films. And of course, the day's panels are being shown again in Ballroom 20 and Hall H from 8:00 - 11:00.


Busy day.