The lack of Black professionals in comics is staggering, though likely not surprising to those familiar with the complexities of the industry. More often than not, white people provide the primary decision-making concerning the representation of Black characters in comics. The risks of non-Black people crafting stories attempting to reflect Black experiences include inauthenticity, unintended reinforcement of stereotypes, and tokenism for any Black people who may be involved in the creative process. Professionals and scholars Vanessa Hintz (Carroll University), Victor Dandridge, Jr. (Vantage:Inhouse Productions), Ajani Brown (San Diego State University), and John Jennings (MEGASCOPE) discuss the value of authentic representations of Black lived experiences, created for Black people by Black people, and the dynamics and complexities of diversifying representation in both the comics industry and readership.
Saturday March 29, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm PDT
Room 210
Juan Carlos Fermin (University of California, Irvine) compares Art Spiegelman's Maus and Joe Sacco's Palestine, examining their formal, narrative, and rhetorical content as commentaries on imperialism, fascism, ethnic nationalism, and how these forces rise to power. Mike Bittner (Stanford University) looks at the ways Native superheroes continue to be portrayed in mainstream comics and beyond, and how those representations can lead to harmful assumptions being made during wartime. Anuradha Dosad (Adamas University) uses the psychoanalytical theories of Sigmund Freud and the Lacanian framework of symbolic, real, and imaginary stages of the personality structure to offer insight into the mechanics of sequential narratives featuring the Joker. Daniel Ambord presents a feminist reading of Peter Milligan's Sub-Mariner: The Depths with an eye to what it has to teach us about Western attitudes towards chaos.
Saturday March 29, 2025 12:00pm - 1:30pm PDT
Room 210
Ishita Sehgal (Indiana University, Bloomington) explores the construction and reproduction of memory through the graphic medium while focusing on female authorial agency in Malaka Gharib’s I Was Their American Dream, Mira Jacobs’s Good Talk, and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. Audrey Garcia (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) uses Maaheen Ahmed’s theory of openness in comics in a case study of 1940s Franco-Belgian cowboys to examine social values in children’s comics magazines. Callum McNutt (Cape Breton University) argues for the integrity of the Batman Noir series, notwithstanding its having appeared originally as individual comics written and drawn by different artists. Michael Mazzacane (University of California, Los Angeles) reads Spy x Family through the lens of asexuality in order to deconstruct compulsory sexuality and gender through the manga's reflexive construction of the “normal” heterosexual family.
Saturday March 29, 2025 1:30pm - 3:00pm PDT
Room 210
Emilio Soltero, Ph.D., M.A. (John Buscema: A Life in Sketches; Gorillas in da Mix) presents a primer on drawing the figure for popular media, including drawing for comics and character design. The focus will be on anatomy and figure drawing. Emilio will lecture and demonstrate on figure drawing.
Saturday March 29, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Room 210
Property Masters Guild members James “Skip” Torvinen, PMG, and John Harrington, PMG, reveal what it takes to translate fan-favorite iconic film props from script to screen in a discussion and Q&A session moderated by Michael Corrie (Props to History).
Saturday March 29, 2025 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Room 210
Daniel Fingeroth is the author of A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee. Mark Evanier is the author of Kirby, King of Comics. So the authors of the most-read books about Stan Lee and Jack Kirby will discuss both men and what they meant to the comic book industry, the Marvel Age of Comics, and the childhoods of an awful lot of people.
Mark Evanier attended his first San Diego Comic-Con in 1970 and has been to every one of these annual events ever since. He was then an assistant to the great Jack Kirby, whom he wrote about in his book Kirby, King of Comics. Mark has also written for live-action TV shows, animated... Read More →
Danny Fingeroth is a cultural historian and commentator. His books include Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society and Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero. His 2019 biography of Stan Lee, A Marvelous... Read More →
Saturday March 29, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Room 210
Illustrator and comic book artist Cutter Hays will demonstrate and teach his fast methods of achieving cool-looking inks in a flashy, sped-up sumi style. It's fun to watch; he takes questions while doing it, and you, too, can learn to be fast, good, and braver with a brush and ink. Often Cutter will even take on suggestions for subjects as a fun challenge. These drawings are 1–5 minutes, but the method can be taken as far as you want. If you're a beginner, this can be your launching pad. If you're advanced, you can put a new tool in your arsenal.
Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Room 210
Esteban Cifuentes (FIST; GI Joe design expert), Rob Wiggins (Get R Done Dudes; ex-designer for Hasbro), Elliot Garnett (Centerpoint Studios; Star Wars custom figure designer and painter), and Adam Rodriguez (designer for micro action figures) discuss the successes and failures of creating toys we will never see in the stores. From digital design to custom painting to new technology in 3D printing, they will show and talk about what it takes to make these figures come to life and how you can, too. Moderated by Mike Syfritt (HTB Toys; toy designer and 3D printing expert). Stay to the end for a chance to win a resin 3D printer of your own!
Saturday March 29, 2025 7:00pm - 8:00pm PDT
Room 210
Learn techniques from Fon Davis (25-year veteran of miniature VFX who has worked on over 25 movies), Brooke Wheeler (technical sales manager and materials specialist with Reynolds Advanced Materials and distributor of Smooth-On), Sam Girgis (owner of BiggerBoxModels), Shawn Thorsson (founder of Thorsson & Assoc. Workshop whose props and armor are produced for films and collectors), and Julia Jenkins (cosplayer, seamstress, and builder with experience in 3D printing).
Saturday March 29, 2025 8:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Room 210
