Fantagraphics at San Diego Comic Con 2014: The Panels

Here's a complete list of fun panels our cartoonists, editors and team players will be on Thursday through Sunday at San Diego Comic Con. We love questions so don't feel shy at the panels. And check out all these people during their lovely signings at the table, booth #1718.

 

6:30p.m. – 7:30p.m Indie Comics Marketing & PR 101
Have a comic but don't know how to get it in front of the most people possible? Learn essential marketing and PR tips and tricks from the industry's best in this roundtable discussion, revealing all the secrets of pulling off effective marketing & PR to get your comic noticed. Host Chip Mosher (comiXology's marketing & PR maven) is joined by BOOM! Studio's dynamic marketing & PR duo Mel Caylo and Christine Dinh, along with Fantagraphics Books's stellar PR and marketing team Jacq Cohen and Jen Vaughn, for an inspiring and wide-ranging discussion that will teach you how to market yourself and your comic to the widest audience possible.
Room: 8

8-9:00pm Monkeybrain Comics: Digital and Beyond
Since launching in 2012, Monkeybrain Comics has become recognized as a premier publisher for quality digital comics, and many of their titles have since been released in print editions by publishers such as IDW, Image/Shadowline, and Dark Horse. Co-publishers Allison Baker (Monkeybrain Comics) and Chris Roberson (Edison Rex) are joined by Anina Bennett (Heartbreakers), Christopher Sebela (High Crimes), Jen Vaughn (Avery Fatbottom), and Gabriel Hardman (Kinski) to discuss the advantages of publishing digitally and how digital and print can work together.
Room 28DE

3:30-4:30pm A Celebration of Walt Kelly's 101st Birthday
Last year, we had such a good time celebrating the 100th birthday of the creator of one of comics' great newspaper strips that we've decided to keep the party going. Kelly's magnum opus, Pogo, is now receiving its first ever complete reprinting in an Eisner-winning series from Fantagraphics Books. Let's remember him with David Silverman (The Simpsons), Jeff Smith (Bone), comic historian Maggie Thompson (Comics Buyer's Guide), film critic Leonard Maltin, Carolyn Kelly (co-editor of the Complete Pogo series and Walt's daughter), and moderator Mark Evanier (Groo the Wanderer).
Room 8

4:30pm-5:30pm Humor in Graphic Novels & Illustration
Moderated by the Comics Reporter himself, Tom Spurgeon, this panel will explore the use of humor by today's best cartoonists slash illustrators. Drew Friedman (Old Jewish Comedians)'s newest book Heroes of the Comics debuts right here at Comic-Con, and his comics and illustrations have appeared in National Lampoon and High Times. Lisa Hanawalt is the James Beard Award winner for humor for her comics in Lucky Peach and is the cartoonist behind My Dirty Dumb Eyes. Mimi Pond wrote the pilot of The Simpsons, the cult classic The Valley Girl's Guide to Life, and her new fictionalized memoir Over Easy. Spurgeon will get out of these cartoonists' way when they lay it on thick, explain when to go easy, and share how to always get a laugh.
Friday July 25, 2014 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Room 26AB 

 
Saturday 
11:00am-12:00pm Spotlight on Don Rosa
American cartoonist and Comic-Con special guest Don Rosa is best known for his Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck stories, especially his prize-winning Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Join Fantagraphics publisher and life-long friend Gary Groth as he interviews the man in the ink-stained gloves who wrote and drew a whopping two decades' worth of ripping Scrooge and Donald yarns.
Room 4

12:00pm – 1:00pm  Spotlight on Drew Friedman
Comic-Con special guest Drew Friedman (author/artist of Heroes of the Comics) and Gary Groth (publisher of Fantagraphics Books) discuss Friedman's new book Heroes of the Comics, debuting at Comic-Con. Friedman and Groth will discuss many of the comics legends portrayed in the book, including some they have known personally, among them Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Will Eisner, and Harvey Kurtzman.
Room 23ABC 

2:00-3:00pm Spotlight on Lucy Knisley
Comic-Con special guest Lucy Knisley, author of Relish: My Life in the Kitchen and the forthcoming An Age of License, discusses her creative process, her upcoming book, and her unique approach to nonfiction graphic novels.
Room 28DE

3:30-4:30p.m Fantagraphics Forward
Fantagraphics Books Inc, an alternative comics publisher since 1976, looks to 2014 and 2015 with an unwavering and tasteful eye. Founder and publisher Gary Groth and associate publisher Eric Reynolds reveal some new comics for late 2014 and 2015 that are sure to please. Comic-con special guests Eleanor Davis (How to Be Happy), Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck), and Drew Friedman (Heroes of the Comics), along with Tony Millionaire (Sock Monkey Treasury), will share some of their favorite art from their comics debuting at the show.
Room: 26AB

5:00-6:00pm Comics 101: Making Sense of the World of Comics
Just getting into comics but not sure where to start? Loving all the new comic movies and TV shows but don't know which series ties in best? Noted comics industry professionals discuss how they started reading comics, their favorite series, and what's popular and awesome in the world of comics today. Moderated by comiXology's marketing maven Chip Mosher, he'll be joined by comiXology co-founder and CEO David Steinberger, DC Entertainment's SVP Vertigo & Integrated Publishing Hank Kanalz, BOOM! Studios' Lumberjanes editor Dafna Pleban, Fantagraphics Books marketing and outreach manager Jen Vaughn, and writer of Five Ghosts , Black Market, and Solar: Man of the Atom Frank J. Barbiere.
Room 28DE

Sunday, July 27th
10-11:00am Comics for the Whole Family
Everyone loves comics, and the only thing better than reading comics is sharing them with your friends and family. An all-star panel of cartoonists discuss what makes a great all-ages comic book that the whole family can enjoy. Panelists include Comic-Con special guests Brian Crane (Pickles), Eleanor Davis (How to Be Happy, The Secret Science Alliance), Brian Haberlin (Anomaly Productions), Willie Ito (The Flintstones, Bugs Bunny), and Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck); moderated by Andrew Farago (curator, Cartoon Art Museum; author of TMNT: The Ultimate Visual History).
Room 23ABC

10:00-11:00am Nickelodeon: New Animated Comedies! 
Be the first to see an exclusive peek at Nickelodeon's new LOL-inducing animated comedies! You'll also get an insider's look at the creative processes behind these funny, warped, endearing, and booty-shaking shows. The panel features Breadwinners creators Steve Borst and Gary "Doodles" Di Raffaele, Pig Goat Banana Cricket creators Johnny Ryan and Dave Cooper, and executive producer David Sacks. Chowder creator C. H. Greenblatt will be showing off his brand new Nickelodeon series with the working title Bad Seeds. Moderated by Rich Magallanes (SVP of current series animation for Nickelodeon).
Room 7AB 

3:00-4:00pm Fictionalized Nonfiction: The art of combining Fact & Fiction
The Beat's Heidi MacDonald will get today's best literary cartoonists to spill their guts on just how they use moments and memories from their lives with actual facts from the time period and how they combine everything into the art of nonfiction or the fictitious memoir. Gilbert Hernandez is the cartoonist behind Marble Season, Bumperhead, and Love and Rockets that touches on his childhood but never tells the full story of his life as one of the famous Hernandez Brothers. Mimi Pond's Over Easy tells the story of Madge, an art school drop out in the '70s when hippy met punk, a story close to her own life. David Lasky's The Carter Family is a biography of the first superstar group of country. MacDonald will ask: Do they draw likenesses from memories or from photographs? Do they take liberties with the facts to tell a more engrossing story? "Fictionalized Nonfiction" will peek into the creative process of today's leading graphic novelists.
Room 32AB