Thank you Jamie Colville and your amazing mutant powers of recording combined with HTML mastery and photography! Sixteen San Diego Comic Con panels, recorded with audio. I even appear to be on a couple of them, but don't let that put you off…

How to Get News Coverage (53:51, 49.3mb)

Moderated by Rik Offenberger, a bunch of comic news sites writers talk about how to get coverage on their sites. One the panel was Rich Johnston, Alan Kistler, Bryan Young, Dan Manser, Holly Golightly, Chris Thompson, J.C. Vaughn, Josh Waldrop, Heidi MacDonald and Glenn Hauman. They talked about what e-mails they did and did not read, what information should be in the e-mail, things that people shouldn't do which will ensure you get ignored, they also talked about smaller sites vs bigger sites when it comes to promoting a project.



Spotlight on Geof Darrow (100:30, 55.3mb)

Geof Darrow wins an Inkpot award and talks about how he got started in comics with Moebius, Frank Miller and the Wachowski Brothers. He showed a partly worked on Shaolin Cowboy Anime that had no audio, but gave funny commentary as it played. He talked in detail about trying to get the anime created and some road bumps he encountered along the way. Geof took the unusual step of asking the audience questions and giving them some signed prints for answering them. The audience did ask him some questions and the Geof talked about good movies the audience should see towards the end.



Bleeding Alliance of Beat Reporters (47:51, 43.8mb)

On this panel was Andy Khouri, Rich Johnston, Heidi MacDonald and Tom Spurgeon. The panel was moderated by Douglas Wolk.

The group talked about making a living with their blogs, how they deal with commentators, how much they write vs editing their contributors, what type of stories get under reported, why they got into comics journalism and they took questions from the audience.



ComicsPro: Retail Optimism (54:31, 49.9mb)

A cross section of retailers talked about reasons to be Optimistic in the current comic market. On the panel was Joe Field (Flying Colors Comics, Concord, CA), Carr D'Angelo (Earth-2 Comics, Sherman Oaks, CA), Thomas Gaul (Corner Store Comics, Anaheim, CA), and Calum Johnston (Strange Adventures Bookshop, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada). From the back Amanda Emmert (Muse Comics + Games, Colorado Springs, CO) asked questions. They revealed some very good news about how the market has rebounded in 2012 and also trades stories with the audience of primarily retailers on cheap, easy promotions that created big sales. They talked about the demographics of readers now and how digital comics market is affecting them, among other topics.



Spotlight on Larry Hama (51:52, 47.4mb)

Larry Hama got an inkpot award to start off the panel. He then began taking questions from the audience. He talked about how his service in Vietnam influenced GI Joe. How old Japanese influenced the ninja aspect of GI Joe. How much long term planning he puts into his stories. Larry spoke about The Baroness and how she was a breakthrough for girl action figures as Hasbro thought boys wouldn't buy those characters at first. He talked about the animated ads for the GI Joe comic books, said they were really a way around using the animation limit to advertise the toys. Larry also talked a bit about his Wolverine run. editing the Nam (a very realistic Marvel book about the war) and how it won an award.



Comic Book Entrepreneurs (50:24, 46.1mb)

Moderated by Rob Salkowitz, on the panel were 4 Comic book Entrepreneurs in different areas of the industry. They were David Steinberger (ComiXology), Mike Richardson (Dark Horse Comics), Peter Levin (Nerdist) and Joe Field (Flying Colors). They all talked about how they started their own businesses and gave tips for doing so to the audience. Other topics were the hardest part of starting their business and fighting back against those that doubt your ability.





A Tribute to Richard Alf (49:20, 45.1mb)

Richard Alf was one of the co-founders of the San Diego Comic Con and was it's chairman in the early years. Moderated by Mike Towry, friends of Richard Ed Cormier, Earl Bookhammer, David Clark, Bob Beerbohm, William Clausen, Paul Sammon, George Clayton Johnson, Greg Koudoulian, David McClone, Denis Smith, Clayton Moore, David Glanzer and Rob Ray from San Diego University gather to talk about meeting Richard, what he was like, how he helped the convention and more.



Full 2012 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (2:19:47, 127mb) – 105 Photos

The 2012 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards was held in the Indigo Room at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront on Friday, July 13th. The welcome was done by Jackie Estrada, Eisner Awards Administrator. Among the presenters are Kayre and Bill Morrison, Tricia Helfer and Michael Trucco, Lynn Johnston and Alison Bechdel, Michael and Laura Allred, George R.R. Martin, Jonathan Ross, RC Harvey, Erin Gray and Michael Uslan, Debbi Derriberri and Phil LaMarr. The Bill Finger Award was presented by Mark Evanier. The Spirit of Comics Retailer Award was presented by Joe Ferrara. The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award was presented by Ruth Clampett. Maggie Thompson did the Memoriam. The Winners can be found at the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards page.



comiXology Open Discussion: Everything Digital (48:16, 44.2mb)

comiXology co-founders David Steinberger and John D. Roberts give a short history of their 5 year old company and then answer questions from the floor.

They announced that Bongo and Abrams are now going to be selling their books digitally through their website. Among the questions they answered were about release times for their new comic books and doing 3D Comics for 3D monitors.



Comics Arts Conference Session #10: Focus on Steve Englehart (49:09, 45mb)

Travis Langley moderated this Q&A with Steve Englehart. They talked about Engleharts formal education and getting into the comic business, working in the Marvel bullpen, the reason he stopped writing the Avengers, his writing for DC Comics, bouncing in and out of the comic industry, his work on the Nightman TV show (a character he created for Malibu), how he got Stan Lee's okay to do a God character in Dr. Strange (funny bit of deception), Marvel vs. DC competition, his views on academic reviews of his work among other topics.



CBLDF: The Fight To Defend Manga (49:20, 45.1mb)

Charles Brownstein gives a bit of history of comics and censorship and what the CBDLF does to fight it. He talks about specific issues with the problems of crossing the Canadian Boarder. With him was Ryan Matheson who talked about his horrendous ordeal when the border authorities deemed an manga chibi parody on his laptop to be child porn and tried to get him to confess to the "crime." Matheson talks about the various head games that were played on him while in custody and how eventually all charges were dropped when it was clear they didn't have a case.



Will Eisner and the Graphic Novel (46:14, 42.3mb)

Klaus Janson, Denis Kitchen, Charles Kochman and Diana Schutz talk about Will Einser and his influence on the Graphic Novel. They talked about what underground comics influenced Eisner, Klaus talked about he reacted to Eisner's Graphic Novels when they came out and how Einser influenced him and Frank Miller. The Denis and Diana talked about how it took some time for the format to catch on and even talked a bit about the term itself. The panel was moderated by Charles Brownstein.



Spotlight on Gilbert Shelton (1:78:01, 70.5mb)

Moderator Gary Groth does an interview with Gilbert Shelton and talks about his career. He had a number of pieces of artwork and got Gary to talk about them throughout the interview. Among the topics were origins of Wonder Worthog and Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, talked about working with Harvey Kurtzman and how he knew Janis Joplin, said he used to do graphitti and had a potty character he would spray on billboards, and the how and why he ended up living in France. Shelton also answered questions from the audience.



Ted Naifeh and the 10th Anniversary of Courtney Crumrin (53:26, 48.9mb)

Ted Naifeh talks about what comics he loved as a kid (and still does with one particular character), how he got private art lessons as a kid, talked a bit about his parents and where they worked, his artist influences. Ted spoke a lot about Courtney and designing her as well as the new colour editions of her books. The audience also asked questions about various aspects of Courtney and her world, from particular characters reappearing and potential stories about Courtney as an adult.



Digital Comics Price Fight (51:35, 47.2mb)

Moderated by Chip Mosher, Mark Waid, Jeff Webber, Scott Kurtz, Chris Ross talk about how to price digital comics. Mark Waid was late getting to the panel which lead to Chip calling his cell and leaving a voice message with the audience participation. The group talked about what price a digital comic should be and a bit about how much comics they should get for that price. Scott Kurtz was not shy about talking about his issues with the way ComiXology business works, those on the panel asked the audience some question about pricing structures for digital comics. DRM (digital rights management) was also an issue that was brought up too.



The Fine Line of Inking (50:47, 46.4mb)

On this panel we have a few inker/artists who talk about their work and inking. The panelists are Mark Schultz, Rudy Nebres, Gary Gianni and Andrew Farago was the moderator. Klaus Janson was supposed to be on the panel but was not able to make it for some reason. The group talked about how they got into the industry and their influences. Part way through Rudy was given an inkpot award. A large number of the audience were artists themselves who asked technical questions about inking which the panelists, particularly Rudy, answered for them.



Super Secrets: Lifting the Curtain on the Man of Steel (55:28, 50.7mb)

Larry Tye, author of Superman (a new book about the history of the character) and Mark Waid talk about Jerry Siegel in particular, his father, the origins of the Superman. Waid talks about finding the K-Metal story that Jerry wrote that introduces an early version of Kryptonite and has Superman revealing his secret identity to Lois Lane. Tye talks about George Reeves suicide and the conspiracy theory around it. Waid also talks about the 100 page memoir that Jerry wrote and the lawsuit between the Siegel heirs and Warner Brothers. Tye and Waid gave their opinions on what they think needs to happen for resolution to the case.