By day three folks had grown more comfortable, Artists Alley tables were getting sparse as people were running out of stock, and the volunteers were better informed and less overwhelmed. Things went pretty smoothly apart from the whole running-out-of-programs thing, but people got creative and took pictures of the programming schedules on their phones. No biggie.

Before going into specific panel responses, I’d like to thank all the people who helped put Denver Comic Con together, everyone from the most famous media personalities, to the local teachers and authors, from the huge comic names to the local illustrators in the artist alley, from the highest tier of administrators to the volunteers doing it for the love. Over twenty thousand people attended the first Denver Comic Con, and I can safely speak for every one of them when I say: Thank you, every one of you. We’re so glad to finally have our own comic and geek culture convention. Thank you.

Now for some panels!

How to Break In to Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Horror
Again, I was drawn to a panel about writing, but this one was more specifically tailored toward aspiring writers rather than a discussion of the state of a given genre. Guests included: panelist and moderator Mario Acevedo, President of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America; Carrie Vaughan, “Kitty Norville” series; Betsy Dornbusche, editor at ElectricSpec; Peter Wacks, “Howl,” “Second Paradigm”; and Jason Heller, “Taft 2012,” and non-fiction editor at Clarkesworld. (Keep an eye out for in-depth panel report coming soon.)

Each panelist started by talking about their own respective entrances into the world of professional writing, and as usual none of them were quite the same. One thing stood out in every story though, each writer could trace their desire to write back to early childhood. Some of them stuck with it throughout their lives, some had to come back around to it, but each spoke about writing stories or poems at ages younger than ten. If you’re a writer, it would seem, it’s in you all along.

The topics covered included networking, query letters, agents, publishing, and of course what it takes mentally and in terms of disciple to be a successful writer. The conversation was definitely tailored toward those writers who have already begun (or about to start) submitting pieces for publication, and people who have already established themselves as aspiring writers, in their own minds if nothing else. It was a great, entertaining panel bursting with great information for up and coming writers.

At one point, Vaughn said with a chuckle, “I’m sorry but I’m going to ruin books and movies for all of you. You can no longer be a passive consumer of media. If you hate a book or a movie, figure out why. If you love a book or movie try to figure out why. Analyze everything and try to figure out how to do it right.”

Near the end, Wacks reinforced the message that united the whole conversation and said, “The days of the Fortress of Solitude are gone, they days of the Lone Writer. You need to reach out and communicate in whatever way works for you.” This was a fantastic panel overall, and I learned a lot. I hope the DCC continues to emphasize education- and career-oriented panels alongside the classic entertaining, nerdy ones.

Eureka‘s Colin Ferguson (Sheriff Carter)

If you’ve ever seen an episode of Eureka you’d instantly recognize Colin Ferguson as Jack Carter. He was personable, charming, and very funny. Hell, after seeing this panel I might even have a little hetero-celebrity-crush on the guy. The schedule had the room booked as a Walking Dead panel, but shooting ran long and both Lauren Cohan (Maggie) and Steven Yuen (Glenn) had to cancel their DCC appearances, so Ferguson filled in.

He had a ton of stories to share about his life as an actor, what it’s like to be on the set of Eureka, and what it’s like to share a studio lot with a ton of other sci-fi shows. Someone in the audience asked how many Jeeps had been destroyed on set, Ferguson said fourteen destroyed, thirteen on purpose. He explained, “You spend 16 hours on set in one day, and eventually you need to blow off some steam. So let’s say, hypothetically, you’re driving a Jeep really really fast downhill. And hey, it’s not your Jeep. Then let’s say there’s this corner, and you want to see how fast you can take that corner. Well, funny thing about tires, when they get hot they lose traction. Who knew? Can’t put a price on knowledge, I guess. [Laughs.]”

Another audience member asked about the scariest stunt he’d ever had to do on set. Ferguson admitted that he has a fear of heights, and one time he had to climb a really tall ladder in a scene. Apparently regular ladders don’t look good on film, so he was climbing a ladder with enormous rungs that he could barely get his hands around. He laughed and said, “They have, like, one six by four foot mat, and they say, ‘You know, if you fall, just aim for the mat.’ Oh, yeah, okay. But the funny thing is, it has nothing to do with my safety, it’s purely an insurance thing. You know when you see actors in costume, and someone is standing there holding an umbrella over them? Yeah, that’s for wardrobe, it has nothing to do with the actor.”

The best on-set story by far was about the episode where Carter had to walk through the streets of Eureka nude. “We’re not the kind of show that can shut down a whole city block. So I just had to walk across town naked, and basically wearing a sock. That’s a nice day, when you open up your costume closet and it’s basically a single sock on a hanger. Oh boy. … The worst part of the nude scene though, was like: Imagine if one day you go to work, with all the people you have to see every day, and your boss says, ‘Okay, so you need to walk around naked and you get to cover basically one part of yourself.’”

He gave some advice to young actors that’s worth repeating, “The journey for a younger actor is hard. You want to please the director, and all these other people you work with, but somewhere between pleasing them and pleasing yourself is integrity. Also, just be gentle on yourself, and be kind to yourself, because it’s tough out there, and everyone else is going to be hard enough on you.”

Cartoon Voices with Billy West, Tom Kane, and Mark Ryan

This panel was an absolute treat, and I’d been looking forward to it all weekend. Unfortunately the programming guide promised an event that didn’t actually happen. The guide said that the guys would be reading various things, like Shakespeare, in their character voices, but instead they just talked about how they got started in voice over and what their careers have been like. Even though I was let down a little, being a huge voice over nerd, I could listen to voice actors talk about their careers all day.

If you don’t know who Billy West is—first of all, shame on you—he’s best known for his unmistakable work on Ren and Stimpy, Doug, and more recently, Futurama where he plays Fry, Farnsworth, and Zoidberg. Tom Kane started doing voice work at 15, and now his voice is everywhere. Kane is best known for his work as Yoda on The Clone Wars, and Professor Utonium on The Powerpuff Girls. Mark Ryan is best known as Ironhide, Jetfire, and Bumblebee in various Transformers properties. Ryan is also famous for being the only man to get the word “bollocks” into Transformers.

This panel was absolutely hilarious, and how could it not be with Billy West on the mic. If you’ve ever heard him in an interview, you know what I’m talking about. It was such a treat to watch all the actors physically slip in and out of character every time they assumed one of their character voices.

West started talking about the creation of a cartoon. “They pay us to come and do some sort of alchemy, which is the essence of any cartoon. You’ve got all these artists and guys who wrote it that created it, then you’ve got a guy who’s gotta direct it, and they are all of one mind. Usually. So in you come and you wanna be of that one mind too, so you listen to everything they have to say.”

That led to an interesting discussion of the changes the panelists have noticed in the industry, most notably the loss of a holistic creation process, and the edging out of voice talent from the creative process. They talked about how, on older projects, they would often work closely with writers to create their characters, they would do some ad-libbing in studio, and generally bring their own creative input to the projects. Kane said, “I hope we’ve not seen the end of that.” But apparently, that’s becoming rarer. More and more, the acting talent isn’t allowed to bring anything to the table. Kane continued, “I think that things have changed a bit, and I don’t know how we’re going to get back to that, … Accountants have gotten control of the business.”

West responded by saying, “It’s become the renaissance years for people with no talent. ‘What’s that, he can fart the national anthem? Sign him up!’ … On one side of the table you’ve got people that don’t know what it feels like to have an idea. They have thoughts. … Then on our side of the table you’ve got people who don’t know what it feels like to not have an idea. How does that ever come together? That’s the problem. That’s where committees come in and gangbang you while you’re just trying to bring some art to the picture.”

It was an entertaining and very informative panel. I hope they continue to bring in such talented voice talent in upcoming years.

Writing for Comics with the Pros

Pretty self-explanatory title, here. The panel was moderated by William Kuskin, Chair of the English Department at CU Boulder and instructor for the “Comics and Graphic Novels” studies class—and for any students out there, it’s a really great class. Panelists included: Jason Aaron, “Scalped,” “Wolverine,” “The Incredible Hulk”; Steven Seagle, “Like a Bird,” “X-Men,” “Sandman Mystery Theatre”; Ron Fourtier, “Green Hornet,” “Terminator,”; Matt Kindt, “Super Spy,” “3 Story,” “MIND MGMT”; and Elliot Serrano, “Army of Darkness.” (Keep an eye out for in-depth panel coverage soon.)

As is customary for these things, the panel started by sharing their stories about breaking into the comics industry. And once again, no two were alike, but there was a unifying message that all the creators brought forward, and this theme carried the momentum of the whole panel: “Do it. Just make something,” and, “If you want to be a writer, then be writing.” It’s both easy, and very hard. The panel seemed to agree with Aaron who said it best toward the end of the panel: “The hardest part of getting into comics is what you all should be doing right now. You should be doing the hardest work you’ll ever do as a writer, and it’s gonna suck for a while. You’re not gonna make much money for a while, but if you can get there, if you can get to the point where you can do this for a living, it’s awesome. It’s totally worth all the shit you’ve gotta go through to get to that point.”

A few were quick to point out and emphasize that “breaking in” to the industry, and “making a living” were two very different things. The always entertaining Steven Seagle put out a challenge for anyone out there who wants to write professionally, anyone who thinks they can make a living doing it.

The first part goes like this: For thirty days, write five days a week, at the exact same time every day for the exact same amount of time every day, which for the first part of the challenge will be fifteen minutes. “Your fingers need to be moving on a keyboard, or pushing a feather quill or pencil or whatever you’re doing—carving in tablets, whatever works for you—for the entire fifteen minutes.” No thinking about what you’re going to write, and no rewriting or editing. That means you have to do all your pre-writing and research and outlining ahead of time. “You’re going to treat it like a job, five days a week, you’re not going to miss it for any reason, you’re going to turn your phone off, you’re not going to check the internet. … And if somebody calls and says, ‘Hey let’s go to Seven-Eleven,’ you’re going to say, ‘No, I’m working.’ But you’re not going to say that, because you won’t have answered your phone.” He suggests, “If you get stuck, if you have block, then you’re going to switch and start writing something you already know, like the Wizard of Oz, from memory. Because you can’t remember the Wizard of Oz so it’ll still be writing.” If you succeed at this for a month, do another month at thirty minutes. Then another at an hour. “If you make it through three months of that, you probably can write. But if you don’t make it through the first week, where you missed a day or whatever, then maybe don’t think about writing.” He says that in twenty-eight years of giving this assignment, he’s only had two people successfully make it through the six-month block he prescribes.

From there, the conversation turned to genre, and Matt Kindt gave one of the best, simplest analogies for genre I’ve ever heard. He talks about writing mini-comics in college about things like art, and how much he hated his job, but he realized they weren’t fun for him. Then he decided to add a detective and make it this other thing, and found that he was having fun and getting excited about his stories again. “To me, genre is like this candy coating that you can put around a real story.”

The panelists gave a lot more insight into the craft and the specific minutia of writing for the comics medium. Especially in terms of collaboration and understanding graphic storytelling. But that will have to wait for the panel-specific article, keep an eye out for that.

This wraps up my day-by-day coverage, but there’s plenty more to share. Thanks for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far, and there’s definitely more to come.

[Connor Cleary is an author, video game columnist and critic, and a freelance web-slash-graphic designer. He is a reviewer at GameShark and an occasional opinion and analysis columnist at Gamasutra. His freelance design business is Four Stair Multimedia and Design. You can follow Connor @The_Blue_Key, or at fb/TheBlueKey, or check out his writing archive on tumblr, The Blue Key.]

Day 2 of the Denver Comic Con saw more disgustingly long registration lines, more costumes, more awesome stuff for sale, more interesting educational panels, and more nerdy excitement. The convention had at least matched, probably outdid, the attendance numbers of the very first New York Comic Con. Hopefully this bodes well for the continued growth of the DCC. Day 2 brought more indications of serious logistical failings on the part of the DCC management, but luckily nothing approaching catastrophic. By the end of the weekend they had run out of printed programs, and had nearly run out of day-pass wristbands. Actual attendance at least tripled, and possibly quadrupled the expected numbers. Geeks from all over the midwest traveled in for the Con, I heard reports of people traveling from Wyoming and Texas to attend.

It’s probably safe to assume there will be a Denver Comic Con 2013 next year—assuming the world doesn’t end in December, of course—and that many of these logistical hiccups will be smoothed out by then. Read on for a brief take on a few panels I attended.

New Horror and Urban-Fantasy Literature

Being the artsy-fartsy creative-type nerd that I am, the genre writers panels grabbed my interest. The first was a panel on the future of Horror & Urban Fantasy Literature with a variety of authors for panelists including: Carrie Vaughan, “Kitty Norville” series; David Boop, “She Murdered Me With Science”; Betsy Dornbusch, editor at ElectricSpec; Stephen Graham Jones, horror author and creative writing professor; and Jeanne Stein, “Anna Strong” series. (Keep an eye out for a full panel report soon.)

The panelists discussed a range of topics. They started by mentioning some of their favorite authors and books in the genres. Next they discussed genre as a marketing tool, as an author’s toolbox, and spoke on the need for genre cross-pollination. Boop even claimed, “Genre is dead,” and we are “Living in the age of the Tag.” There was a hesitant consensus that a lot of innovation is first done in the world of short fiction. Jones phrased it well, saying, “If a short story fails, I’ve only wasted an afternoon and I can move on, but if a novel fails I’ve wasted months of my life.”

They had a lot of advice for aspiring writers, and spoke about what trends they see coming up in the worlds of horror and urban-fantasy. Most of them agreed that angels and demons seem to be the new up-and-coming theme, and Boop predicted that our current state of heightened political and economic awareness will probably find its way into upcoming fiction, and science-fiction in particular. Vaughn said she had seen a post online that most agents are no longer interested in urban-fantasy, or at least in what urban-fantasy has come to mean—read: modern romance with supernatural elements—and encouraged everyone in the room to spread their wings and try weird, new things.

Eisner Award Creators: Comics’ Best in One Room

Further compounding Denver Comic Con’s logistical issues, at the next panel I attended, called “Eisner Award Creators: Comics’ Best in One Room,” the four panelists were only told that they were taking part in the panel about an hour before it was supposed to happen. They had no time to prepare so it was a bit of a rudderless, meandering affair. Panelists included: Ben Templesmith, “30 Days of Night”; Matt Kindt, “Super Spy”; Peter Gross, “The Unwritten”; and Mike Baron, “Nexus.”

As it turned out, Mike Baron was the only panelist who had won an Eisner (in fact, he’s won two), but each of the others have been nominated for Eisners, and various other awards as well. They agreed that being nominated was a good feeling, it was like a stamp of quality. Or in the words of the ever-cheeky Templesmith, “I like being nominated, it means you’re not total crap, you know?” They discussed the actual Eisner awarding process for a while, including who gets to vote, and how the smaller publisher guys tend to be at a disadvantage because the bigger companies might be encouraging their employees to vote a certain way.

When an audience member asked if being nominated for an Eisner opened doors in the industry, Templesmith replied, “It means you can switch from the chicken-flavored Ramen to the beef-flavor.” Jokes aside, publishers love to plaster “Eisner Nominated/Winner” on the covers of everything. They all seemed to agree that everyone should be reading the graphic novel series “Prophet” which is a reinvention of an old 90’s character in name only. They also encouraged people to check out Scott Snyder’s “Batman” books.

They shared their origin stories in the comics industry, and just like every time someone asks the old, “How did you get into the industry?” question, everyone’s route was completely different. The overall message seemed to be: if you want to be making comics, start making comics. (This sentiment would echoed again in the “Writing for Comics with the Pros” panel on Day 3.)

An audience member asked about digital distribution and the panelists discussed the pros and cons. Baron was particularly insightful, “I’m torn about it. A comic book is a thing you hold in your hands. Comic people are often collectors as well as fans. It’s not just the story, they want to have that artifact in their collection. If they’re fine with having a file on their iPad, then power to them, but I imagine print comics will never go away. Both because of collectors, and because of the physicality of holding a comic book in your hands.”

In an interesting analysis, Kindt commented on a change in the writing of comics. Specifically the move away from writing for a satisfying, 24-page monthly. “Everyone seems to be writing for the trades now, and the old monthlies kind of feel like an outmoded form of storytelling. I’ve been trying to think about what a 24 page monthly can do that a graphic novel cant, and that’s hard. There’s a big difference between sitting down and reading 300 pages of a series compared to reading a little bit each month. I kind of wish comics were like that again, when I was a kid you’d pore over an issue for thirty days until the next one came out.” They all seemed wary of the motion comics thing, Gross said, “I think our art has evolved beyond cheap animation, that’s another thing altogether. But hopefully with the new, digital format we’ll bring in new readers.”

I Am Geek, Hear Me Roar

This was a panel on the role of gender in the increasingly gender-neutral nerd and geek cultures. Panelists included: Lisa Manglass, a Health Physicist and Environmental Consultant; Kylee Lane, found and CEO for Luxury Lane Soaps, a very successful company; Laura Keeney, a nerdy journalist; Melinda Catherine Gross, an actress, stunt woman, and fight choreographer; Kimie (no last name given), a teacher at a school for gifted students; and moderated by Tara Quick an owner of two businesses. Each panelists—with the exception of Kylee Lane—readily self identified as geeks, and spoke about their love of things from sci-fi to home car repair, science to comic books, and video games to horror movies. (Keep an eye out for a full panel report coming soon.)

Most of the conversation, including plenty of audience questions, revolved around the utility or obsolescence of the term “geek girl.” The argument regarded the needless addition of the word “girl” to a term that should, by all rights, be gender-neutral by now. “We don’t call you ‘geek guys’ but we do use the term ‘geek girls,’” said Quick. Lane obviously disapproved of its use, saying “As long as we keep saying this, we’re going to perpetuate it, and keep separating ourselves.” Some of the other panelists gave soft counters. Keeney replied, “I agree, but since it was odd for so many years for girls to be into these kinds of things, we had to learn that it was okay to be a geek and a girl. … I refer to myself as a geek girl at times because I’m proud of it. Both my femininity, and what I’m into.”

A female audience member commented on the strange duality of the geek girl issue. Especially how geek girls online are either treated horribly, or fetishized and fawned over. Because of these, she said that she calls herself a “geek” and refuses to add the “girl” on the end. A male audience member spoke up, giving a lighter take on the usefulness of the “geek girl” term, saying, “Growing up as a male nerd, we still get this sense that a lot of girls won’t be interested in us because girls aren’t into these kinds of things. So it’s nice to know that it’s not just me and my nerdy male friends and that there’s this larger world of geekdom complete with women.” Everyone laughed.

Some folks complained about the hyper-sexualization of women in comics, video games, and movies. It was refreshing to hear Lane reply, “Well, that goes both ways. Have you seen what Superman wears?” The conversation then turned to the fact that you don’t need to strip away people’s sexuality entirely in order to find gender equality.

Quick brought the question to the table: is there even a point in having a panel like this? Most seemed to agree that it was still a conversation worth having, but maybe we should be talking about the next step, rather than the current state of the culture.

What the panel was called:

You may have heard that Wil Wheaton cancelled his appearance at the DCC at the last minute. Aaron Douglas (Chief, Battlestar Galactica) was slated to fill in for the time slot originally assigned to Wheaton. There was some confusion and the panel started late, so it was a short one, but it started off hilarious and didn’t stop delivering until we were ushered back into the hall. Paul and Storm started with a Powerpoint slide show about Wil Wheaton’s life and most famous roles, but with Aaron Douglas’ adult face Photoshopped onto every picture of Weaton from “Stand by Me” to “Star Trek” to “The Big Bang Theory” to “Eureka.”

The banter between Douglas and the comedy duo was priceless, but unfortunately it wouldn’t do justice to repeat it in prose. You had to be there—and if you live in the area, you should have been there. Suffice it to say, Aaron Douglas is a hell of a funny guy, and charming to boot—albeit a little pandering. In one notable moment, Aaron Douglas asked everyone in the room to text an ASCII picture of a penis to Wil Wheaton.

Then Douglas told a series of hilarious stories from the set of Battlestar Galactica, including numerous impersonations of Edward James Olmos, which Douglas does quite well. The best story was about the boxing episode of Battlestar Galactica, which if you don’t remember, involved a variety of crew members boxing each other. Olmos’ Adama, and Douglas’ Chief duked it out in the episode as well, but it turns out things got surprisingly physical on set as well. After Douglas accidentally socked Olmos square in the face—which he claims was Olmos’ fault for leaning in when he should have juked, as per the choreographer’s instructions—Olmos stepped back and said, “So that’s what we’re gonna do, eh?” and proceeded to beat the hell out of Douglas, even when the camera was rolling. Douglas had no choice and started fighting back, and at one point in the scene, Chief has Adama up on the ropes and is going to town on his midsection. According to Douglas, he wasn’t holding back, “I’m not kidding. I wailed on that old man.”

Coming out of that panel, my cheeks hurt from laughing for thirty minutes straight. It was a great way to close out the day. Keep watching the feed, Day 3 coverage and in-depth panel reviews are just around the corner.

[Connor Cleary is an author, video game columnist and critic, and a freelance web-slash-graphic designer. He is a reviewer at GameShark and an occasional opinion and analysis columnist at Gamasutra. His freelance design business is Four Stair Multimedia and Design. You can follow Connor @The_Blue_Key, or at fb/TheBlueKey, or check out his writing archive on tumblr, The Blue Key.]

Oh, the smell of nerdy excitement, it’s unmistakable once you’ve known it. And the excited nerds were on parade in force last night. The inception of our very own midwest comic con is a pretty exciting moment for those of us who never had the time or money to go to any of the big, coastal comic cons. The lines for badge pickup were enormous, many of the costumes bordered on PG-13, and the creatives came down in droves to hawk their wares in the Artist Alley. There’s a lot of talent on display here, much of it for sale at prices ranging from reasonable to obscene.

I’ve been to cons in the past, but I’m a little ashamed to say this is my first Comic Con. So go ahead and tally me among the excited geeky horde.

The first evening of the DCC was pretty low-key. There were a handful of panels going on, but nothing too incredibly exciting. So it was mostly people looking around, checking out the exhibitors and artists, and showing off their costumes—keep an eye out for some cosplay pictures in the near future. There’s no people-watching quite like people-watching at a con, and DCC doesn’t disappoint. The combination of nerdy social ineptitude and the comfort level that comes from being around a ton of people who share your interests always makes for entertaining scenes.

As you might expect from a brand new con, the DCC suffers from some logistical issues. For instance, the panelists at a panel I went to this morning (Saturday) had no idea they were doing it until about an hour before hand. They had nothing prepared, and it was a bit of a meandering affair. The program guide is less than intuitive, and there is a serious lack of panel descriptions and programming explanations. Going to any given event was a little hit or miss.

Again, these hiccups are to be expected, and it’s probably safe to say that the next Denver Comic Con will be a lot more organized. Despite the few shortcomings, it’s a blast to be here. Keep an eye out for more coverage soon.

[Connor Cleary is an author, video game columnist and critic, and a freelance web-slash-graphic designer. He is a reviewer at GameShark and an occasional opinion and analysis columnist at Gamasutra. His freelance design business is Four Stair Multimedia and Design. You can follow Connor @The_Blue_Key, or at fb/TheBlueKey, or check out his writing archive on tumblr, The Blue Key.]

The very first ever, most inaugural Denver Comic Con kicks off tomorrow at six o’clock! (DCC runs June 15th – 17th check the DCC website for show hours.) There is a ton of stuff going on and you can find events on anything your nerdy little heart could desire. The DCC features panels on all kinds of comics and manga—obviously—but also topics as varied as Eureka, The Walking Dead, Cartoon Voices, Star Wars, Horror Literature, Battlestar Galactica, Video Games, Independent Films, and on and on. You’ve got the obligatory cosplay contests, video game tournaments (including handful of FPS and fighting games), and a whole slew of kid-friendly events for those of you with younglings. Beside the classic nerdy topics and fandom, the DCC has an emphasis on education as well. There are a bunch of career-oriented panels on comics art and writing, animation art and writing, cross-media adaptations, and video game development.

Obviously this is more than a single intrepid reporter can hope to cover, especially since a rock decided to play Whack-a-Mole with my foot the other day and I sprained my ankle. I’m suffering from a decreased move-speed debuff at the moment, does anyone have some Boots of Speed I can borrow? Despite all that, I’ll report back to you on everything I get a chance to see this weekend. If you’re coming down yourself and you see me walking around, don’t hesitate to say hello! I’ll be the guy rocking a cane and a BigShinyRobot press badge.

If you haven’t checked the DCC guest list in a while, take a gander. It’s grown like crazy in the last couple weeks and you’ve got big names from every corner of geekdom. It’s just impractical to list every guest and every respective project, so check out the full list, it’s pretty impressive.

Quick shout-out: our very own editor Mr. Bryan “Swank-mo-tron” Young will be selling books in Artist Alley booth 104, so make sure you track him down, say “Hi,” and buy one of his awesome books! I also want to give a shout out for my friends at Needleforge in Artist Alley booth 43, they create great nerdy crafts that make great gifts or simply things to adore because they’re adorable.

It’s hard to know where to start with the comics guest list, but some notable examples include Neal Adams (Batman, X-Men) and James O’Barr (Creator, The Crow), as well as multiple Eisner Award winners and nominees including Georges Jeanty (Gambit, Deadpool, Weapon X), Mike Baron (Flash, Batman, Punisher, Nexus), Peter Gross (The Unwritten), and Amy Reeder (Fool’s Gold, Supergirl, Batwoman).

Guests from other nerdy media include Billy West (Futurama, Ren & Stimpy, Doug), Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: TNG, the internet), James Marsters (Spike, Buffy), Colin Ferguson (Carter, Eureka), Aaron Douglas (Chief, Battlestar Galactica); father and son Michael Uslan and David Uslan (Dark Knight movies); from Tron, Bruce Boxleitner (Tron) and Cindy Morgan (Yori); from The Walking Dead TV series Steven Yuen (Glenn), Lauren Cohan (Maggie), and Chandler Riggs (Carl).

In addition, there’s an Artist Alley with tons of famous and local artists and craftspeople, the exhibitor list is pretty huge, and there are a handful of special events going on as well like the Rock Comic Con event at the Hard Rock Cafe with nerdy musical guests including Paul and Storm.

It’s shaping up to be a great weekend, and everyone nearby who can afford the time and money should make the trip and support the DCC. For those of you already planning on going: What are you most looking forward to this weekend?

This week we’ve got another very adorable Hatsune Miku video, new stuff from Viz Media Digital, an amazing cosplay music video montage and a car of the future. It’s Monday, but let’s make that Monday a bit brighter!

First up:

(Via Nico Nico Douga and A.N.N.):  It was only a matter of time before somebody made an adorable (and totally awesome) live action/cosplay Hatsune Miku music video! The performer of the song (which is called “Kotatsumuri” – I believe meaning “under the Kotatsu”?) created this video to bring it to life (even more so than Hatsune Miku would normally). I absolutely love the inspiration and creativity that comes from all things Volcaloid, and I can’t wait to see even more innovation in the future!

Second this Week: Viz Media creates the new “Viz Labs” to drive their already awesome digital content innovation:

Press Release date: April 23rd, 2012 – VIZ MEDIA CREATES VIZ LABS

TO DRIVE DIGITAL CONTENT INNOVATION

New Division To Be Led By Gagan Singh

San Francisco, CA, April 23, 2012 – VIZ Media, the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga, graphic novels and anime in North America, announced the formation of VIZ Labs, a new division of the company led by Gagan Singh, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. VIZ Labs will focus on innovation in digital content distribution, and will consolidate engineering and digital business efforts across the company into one group. VIZ Media has recently been selectively acquiring engineering talent, and that acquisition strategy will continue under VIZ Labs.

“Innovation in distribution is an integral part of VIZ Media’s future,” said Ken Sasaki, President and CEO of VIZ Media. “As a long-time partner of the company, Gagan helped us shape our digital content strategy, and we’re delighted to have him join our team full time.”

VIZ Labs and Singh are responsible for integrating technology across the entire company, including the digital platforms for VIZ Manga and VIZ Anime. Prior to joining VIZ Media, Singh was the Founder and CEO of West Side Labs, a long time technology partner for VIZ Media.  With advanced degrees from Harvard, MIT and UC Berkeley, Singh joins VIZ Media with a wealth of experience.

“I am honored and excited to join VIZ Media,” said Singh. “With all VIZ Media has already accomplished in building a digital content platform, there is still phenomenal opportunity and growth potential for the company. VIZ Labs will be the tip of the spear to drive the innovation that brings the manga & anime our fans love through their preferred digital platform.”

Over the past 18 months, VIZ Media has transformed the traditional manga and anime business through a variety of strategic partnerships and digital platforms, making manga and anime more accessible than ever before. VIZ Media’s anime titles rank among the most popular streaming entertainment series online, thanks to partnerships with Apple, Hulu and Netflix. The VIZ Manga digital platform was an industry breakthrough, making high-quality, legal translations of the world’s most loved manga available at VIZManga.com and the VIZ Manga apps for iPhone^®, iPod^® touch and iPad^®. VIZ Media took things even further when it introduced WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP ALPHA, a digital manga anthology making the most popular manga series in the world available in the United States within two weeks of their original Japanese release, faster than ever before in the history of the industry. VIZ Labs will announce its first major initiative and VIZ Media’s next digital platform this summer.

Last on deck: I’ve got a fun coslplay music video and an amazing ‘car of the future’-style picture to share with you.

XBox Daily News shared this fun image with us that makes me wonder – could we actually drive cars like this one day? It is both the greatest and most terrible idea ever.

and finally – another amazing Cosplay Music Video montage by Ackson Lee. He’s a genius, and every time I watch one of these I want to dance the night away! This one’s from last year, but totally worth sharing if you haven’t stumbled across it yet. I dare you to watch his channel and not want to dance!