Wednesday Comments – Baltimore Comic Con: Panels Galore!

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The Baltimore Comic Con is days away. It starts Friday and I’ll be honest; I can’t wait.

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve attended so I’m anxious to see how it’s grown and how the layout has changed. I want to see what the popular characters for cosplay will be this year. And I want to see what kind of awesome deals I can score.

But of course there are the panels. The panels are where you get the hints from your favorite creators about what’s to come in your favorite books. Panels tend to be illuminating because often times there’s no oversight; creators are left to their own devices and occasionally talk out of turn. It’s great fun.

I’ve already got my planned panels plotted out.

On Friday I’ll be hitting the Con after work, which means that I’ll be missing some pretty interesting panels. I’m mildly salty that I’ll be missing the “Energy at the Movies: From Star Trek to Breaking Bad” panel. It sounds like it’d be very informative. I’ll also be missing the “Spinner Rack Revolution” panel, which is sure to have some interesting tales.

(For a full list of the Baltimore Comic Con panels check out the website)

That said, I am trying to make the “IDW Publishing: The Big Panel!” panel on Friday. It promises “shocked comic fans” and “shocking announcements” so it’s safe to say that I’ve got expectations of being shocked at least.

Saturday is going to be a bit busier for me. I’m making an effort to hit four panels that day. The first one is “The Marvel Panel” which should be fun. Tom Brevoort’ll be there, which guarantees a degree of candor. After that I’m headed to the “Batman Day” panel. Since DC’s now a West Coast entity, their presence has been diminished to the point where they’re basically represented by their East Coast talent. But I’m pretty pumped because Tom King will be in attendance, which hopefully means some inside dirt on Grayson.

Also on Saturday is the “Spotlight on Miracleman”. Now that Miracleman is back in print, it’ll be interesting to see how the make up of the audience is. Mark Buckingham and John Totleben will be on the panel, so hopefully we’ll get a couple good behind the scenes stories.

My final panel on Saturday looks to be the “BOOM! Studios Celebrates 10 Years and Push Comics Forward” panel. It’s a mouthful but there are some pretty big names lined up including Mark Waid, J.G. Jones and Brian Stelfreeze. I’ll be interested to see if Waid and Jones address the Strange Fruit controversy or sidestep it.

On Sunday my panel agenda is pretty light. The first one is the “Scott Snyder Spotlight.” Snyder, much like the previous DC Golden Boy Geoff Johns, one of the nicest creators and friendliest creators out there. He’s a guy who is genuinely happy to be living the dream. I’ll definitely be taking a quiet tally of which of his projects gets the most questions from the audience.

My final panel of the Baltimore Comic Con will be the “Comic Books as Cultural Mirrors” panel. The notion of comics reflecting what’s going on in society is an interesting one, especially given Snyder’s recent issue of Batman, so getting historical context for things makes this panel sound particularly illuminating.

So that’s it. I’m trying to attend seven panels in three days, plus make time for cruising the con floor for deals. I imagine I’ll be exhausted come Sunday night

Well, that’s going to do it for this week. Since it’s Wednesday, make sure you hit up your local comic shop for some fresh new comics!