Wonderful WonderCon

Hard to believe it's less than two weeks 'til WonderCon happens in Anaheim, California. This has always been a good con when it's been held in San Francisco and I see no reason to think that proximity to Disneyland will make it any less fun. I'm hosting a batch o' panels (what a surprise) and this seems like as good a time as any to tell you of them…

Friday, March 16 at 2 PM in Room 204, we'll be playing Quick Draw! And an interesting twist this time is that we'll be playing it without my partner Sergio Aragonés, who is recuperating from back problems and who won't be at the con. But we'll have Scott Shaw!, Mike Kazaleh and Disney Legend Floyd Norman drawing away, along with several surprise cartoonists all moving their Sharpies at a rapid clip. This is always a highlight of any convention so get there early.

Saturday, March 17 at 11:30 AM in Room 211, I'll be interviewing Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. The team of Ruby and Spears has been the most successful writing, creating, and producing team in Saturday morning television. Among the shows they brought you were Scooby-Doo, Wacky Racers, Jabberjaw, Dynomutt, Thundarr the Barbarian, Plastic Man and more than I can list. They don't sit for this kind of chat often so I'm real pleased we've been able to persuade them to do this.

Saturday, March 17 at 3 PM in Room 213, you'll want to attend the Cartoon Voices panel. This time, we have Gregg Berger (The Garfield Show), Laraine Newman (The Fairly OddParents), Wally Wingert (The Avengers), Bill Farmer (Goofy), Alicyn Packard (The Mr. Men Show), Michael Bell (G.I. Joe), and maybe a few others. If you want to know more about this, I recorded a brief interview with Alicyn for one of her popular podcasts. Go listen.

Sunday, March 18 at 11:30 AM in Room 211, we have a panel called Tribute to the Legends: Kirby, Simon, Robinson, and Eisner. That is, of course, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Jerry Robinson and Will Eisner. This'll consist of Scott Shaw!, Len Wein, Batton Lash, Marv Wolfman and maybe a few other folks discussing the vital contributions that Jack, Joe, Jerry and Will made to the world of comics, along with some personal remembrances. Sadly, we no longer really have the personnel to do a Golden Age Panel at a convention…but we can still talk about those folks.

Sunday, March 18 at 12:30 in Room 207, I'll be presiding over Cover Story: The Art of the Cover. This is a popular panel with those interested in comic art theories and craft. We bring up a bunch of artists who do great covers, show slides of some of their covers and discuss what went right and wrong with those covers. This time, we have Arthur Adams (Monkeyman and O'Brien), Michael Golden (The 'Nam), Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Eric Powell (The Goon), and Fiona Staples (Saga). I always find this fascinating and audiences seem to, as well.

That's the list. As always, I suggest that if you're in attendance at the con that you jot down a list of panels you want to see…and you can even attend a few not hosted by me. I hear a few of them aren't bad. The complete Programming Schedule is online. And if you're not going to be in attendance at the con, I suggest you be in attendance at the con. I know it's gonna be great…though to tell you the truth, I kinda hope it won't be so great that they don't go back to San Francisco next year.