Cosmos sculpted by mech warfare. Cellular metal petri monsters. Vendettas that span light years. Welcome to a future of glorious atrocities designed to raise pulses and ask questions, all rooted in modern anxieties. Join the most provocative, merciless voices in speculative fiction as they vivisect the timelines we’re all desperately avoiding. Chuck Austen (Defiant) and Scott Hoffman (Warm Fusion) gaze into the stars and the chaos to come. Moderated by Sami DeMonster.
Friday March 28, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Room 300A
A staple of pop culture and fandom is the idea of how everyone is welcome in fandom spaces—but what can be done to make the space even more accessible? Chelsea Schwartz (actor and pop culture creator), Kiah Amara (founder, IndieVisible; accessibility creator), Crystal Rivers (cosplayer, entertainment journalist), Rebecca Faith Quinn (influencer), and other accessibility advocates in the entertainment space discuss the small and big actions that can be taken to ensure everyone has a seat at the table. Topics include accessibility faux pas that may be perpetuated, what to look for to consider your workspace and/or event accessible, and practical actions and resources that film sets, TV productions, and fandom spaces can take advantage of.
Friday March 28, 2025 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Graphic novels are hot, hot, hot! Whether you're an artist, a writer, or both, you've probably thought about making your own. But how to start? Or maybe you've started, but now you're stuck? Award-winning creators Amy Chu (Carmilla: The First Vampire, Sea Sirens), Thien Pham (Family Style, Sumo), and Jordan Morris (Youth Group, Bubble) share their experiences and advice for getting published.
Friday March 28, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Room 300A
If you make comics—at any level—you are a part of the community of comics. What does that entail? What can you bring to the community, and what does the community give back to you? How can you be a better, more responsible member of this disparate group of professionals, amateurs, and fans? Co-hosts of the award-winning podcast The Writers Block, David Avallone (Elvira) and Rylend Grant (The Jump) will address these vital questions with a panel from across the spectrum of the comics community, including comics librarian Moni Barette (Creators Alliance), retailer Julio Galvez (We Can Be Heroes), editor Kris Longo (Panick), and artist Cat Staggs (Star Wars).
Friday March 28, 2025 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Jim Krueger (Justice, Earth X), Tim Sheridan (Alan Scott Green Lantern), Zen (Pink Power, HiCon Media), Mathias Lewis (Knowhere Games and Comics, Eisner Awards judge 2024), Jeromy DeChant (senior director communications and strategy. Modern Fantastic), and Mark Habbegar (North County Cartoonist Society, Little Fish Comics) are joined by Brock Smith (The Ferryman) and Christian Pedersen (The Ferryman) of ZRock Comics to field your questions about creating your comic book and breaking into the industry.
Friday March 28, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Hip-hop and comics share numerous connections and exist in constant communication with one another. Rappers and graffiti artists utilize superheroic imagery; DJs and producers create universes of sound; comic creators and animators incorporate Hip-Hop's musical and visual vocabularies; collectors dig through crates for key back issues and rare breakbeats. Both forms reconfigure and remix elements, blending styles and genres and inspiring passionate fanbases. Moderator Patrick A. Reed brings together an all-star group of artistic innovators to discuss the bonds between these two vital creative cultures.
Friday March 28, 2025 6:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Creators Charley Parlapanides and Vlas Parlapanides will take center stage alongside key members of the production team and an all-star voice cast to discuss the making of Netflix’s hit mythological anime Blood of Zeus. Panelists will include (subject to availability) Michael Hughes (producer), Meredith Layne (casting director, Castlevania, X-Men ’97, Arcane), Derek Phillips (Heron; Friday Night Lights, 42, Shooter), Claudia Christian (Hera; Babylon 5, 9-1-1, Atlantis: The Lost Empire), Cissy Jones (Demeter; Firewatch, Starfield, Elder Scrolls), Courtenay Taylor (Hecate; X-Men ’97, American Dad!), and Vanessa Marshall (Hestia; Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Harley Quinn, Star Trek: Lower Decks). They will delve into the origins of the series, the casting of legendary voices, and bringing Greek mythology to life with breathtaking animation. Expect behind-the-scenes stories, fan Q&A, and maybe even hints about what’s next in the Blood of Zeus universe.
Friday March 28, 2025 7:00pm - 8:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Is the Joker actually “insane”? Does Two-Face have “multiple personality disorder” by today’s standards? From an ethical perspective, do Gotham’s rogues belong in prison or in rehab? In works like The Penguin, Joker: Folie a Deux, and Batman: White Knight, DC villains have brought "main character energy" to life, proving themselves as enduring figures in media storytelling—but just how well do these baddies depict the mental health landscape of today, and is there anything wrong with celebrating villain vibes? Media psychologist Drea Letamendi, Ph.D. (Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics), screenwriter Ernie Altbacker (Batman: Hush Animated), and comics writer Kyle Higgins (Nightwing, Batman Beyond 2.0, Batman: Gate of Gotham) deconstruct, decriminalize, and debunk Gotham City’s most notorious institution and the stories behind it. Moderated by Brian Ward (The Arkham Sessions Podcast).
Friday March 28, 2025 8:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Room 300A
The new series The Penguin takes viewers deep into the origin of one of Batman’s best-known villains. From being overlooked and disregarded to being the kingpin of Gotham’s underground, the origin story of the Penguin, as told by this series, is psychologically rich, with topics of trauma, relationships, overcoming insecurities, and forming one's identity present in almost every episode. Lorran Garrison, M.A. Ed. (Little Brainstorm), Dr. Sara Roldan (Our Oasis Community Podcast), Travis Adams, L.S.W. (Spider-Man Psychology), and Dr. Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology) dive deep and explore the Penguin’s story to understand why he's a fan favorite. Moderated by Dr. Benjamin Taitz (Psychology for Geeks).
Friday March 28, 2025 9:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Matt Ryan talks with Only Murders in the Building editors Shelly Westerman and Matthew Barbato about the art of editing Mabel, Charles, and Oliver’s story. Through clips and behind-the-scenes tales, Ms. Westerman and Mr. Barbato will solve the Only Murders in the Building editors’ mystery of how they crafted sequences of comedy, drama, and murder. Celebrate Only Murders in the Building, editing, and how podcasters and event moderators solve crime.
Saturday March 29, 2025 10:00am - 11:00am PDT
Room 300A
Industry experts, including producers, directors, editors, and more, share insights into their craft and break down memorable scenes from iconic productions. Discover how these talented professionals bring stories to life. With composer/music producer Aaron Gilhuis (Queen of the Ring), composer Ian Arber (Paris Has Fallen), casting director Jazzy Collins (Very Important People), creators/executive producers Michael Price and Matthew Claybrooks (Lil Kev), and documentary editor Wax Taber (Down To Earth). Moderated by writer/ producer Victoria Male. Part 1 of Impact24 PR’s Panel Superblock.
Saturday March 29, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Industry professionals reveal how they bring worlds and characters to life through the artistry of editing, music, sound, and more. With editor Brett W. Bachman, ACE (Companion, Heart Eyes), re-recording mixer Christina “Chuyue” Wen (What We Do in the Shadows Season 6), VFX supervisor/2nd unit director Johnny Han (HBO and DC’s The Penguin), editor/director Jon Dudkowski (Star Trek: Discovery), and composers Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson (Cobra Kai, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man). Moderated by director/actor/writer/co-founder of Not Your Daddy's Films Carlye Tamaren. Part 2 of Impact24 PR’s Panel Superblock.
Saturday March 29, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Step behind the curtain of popular film and television projects to discover what it takes to bring characters to life! Composers, costume designers, makeup artists, and hair designers share their creative process and reveal how they transform actors into unforgettable characters. Featuring director Carlos Baena (Star Trek: Unification), prosthetics designer Chris Bridges of Gaslight FX (Heretic), costume designer Cris Araujo (Uglies), makeup department head Desiree Falcon (Thelma), co-composer Michael Paraskevas (Agatha All Along), and composer Tim Kelly (Watchmen Chapter I and II). Moderated by actor Chris Villain. Part 3 of Impact24 PR’s Panel Superblock.
Saturday March 29, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Room 300A
What happens when big nerds raise little nerds? Do powers multiply with each new generation? A group of professional geek and nerd parents discuss how nerdy jobs, hobbies, and fandoms inform parenting and help guide parents in raising the next generation of physically and emotionally healthy nerds.
Saturday March 29, 2025 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
Room 300A
From executive producers Dwayne Johnson, Brian Volk-Weiss, and Dany Garica comes RoboForce: The Animated Series. This six-episode series is the first installment in the Nacelleverse, an interconnected universe of animated shows and toys that includes Biker Mice from Mars, Sectaurs, Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, The Great Garloo, and Power Lords.Brian Volk-Weiss (The Toys That Made Us, Disney's Behind the Attraction) and the Nacelle team discuss RoboForce: The Animated Series, show exclusive never-before-seen clips, and tell behind-the-scenes stories from the making of the show.
Saturday March 29, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Room 300A
The Legend of Taylore is an actual-play D&D podcast based on the music, memes, and lore of Taylor Swift, as played by a bunch of nerdy television writers. Produced by D&D WGA Strike Day organizers, it’s a great adventure for Swifties and non-Swifties alike, where characters encounter dangers, intrigue, and easter eggs at every turn. Moderator Jose Molina (Marvel’s Agent Carter, The Vampire Diaries) chats with dungeon master Lindsey Allen (Marvel’s Agent Carter, MacGyver) and players Casey Fisher (Altered Carbon, Walker), Daphne Miles (Batwoman, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), Lauren Muir (The 100), Ray Utarnachitt (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), and Nick Bragg (Death and Other Details, The 100).
Saturday March 29, 2025 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Room 300A
It’s a panel! It’s a party! It’s a coming out party for comic book characters who are LGBTQ+! Over the past several years, dozens of preexisting characters have been revealed to be LGBTQ+ in the pages of comic books, from Iceman to Jughead to Allan Scott and more. Join this raucous group of panelists—Tim Sheridan (writer, Allan Scott: Green Lantern), David Booher (writer, Canto), Meghan Fitzmartin (writer, Tim Drake: Robin), Dylan Carter (cosplayer, co-host, House of X podcast)—and moderator Jack Phoenix (comics librarian) as they celebrate these characters and the importance of LGBTQ+ representation in comics.
Saturday March 29, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Avi Roque (Disney's The Owl House), Gabriel Shane Dunn (Netflix's Big Mouth), Theo Tiedemann (Amazon's Transparent and cosplayer), Maze Felix (Apple TV's Give Me an A), Mars Wright (fashion designer and content creator), and Yas Modares Ghasiri (Sylvester Stallone's MPV) discuss the unique struggles trans masculine artists face in entertainment and the importance of trans masculine representation in the arts.
Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Room 300A
The general audience and film fanatics alike have seen a large shift in how studios create movies now. With the combination of big budgets, star power, and hundreds of millions spent on “safe” content, studios are looking more at the bottom line and returns moreso than audience impact. What happened to the mid-budget films of yesteryear, and how did the constraints of those budgets breed even more creativity in a creative-driven media? Derick McDuff (the host of the Underrated Movie Podcast) alongside Alix Catherine (host, The Welcome Party), Andrew Linde (host, Nothing New: A Remake Podcast), Tricia Aurand (award-winning screenwriter; podcast host), Law Sharma (actor, entertainment journalist), and JPG (pop culture educator, consultant; InterMyth) address topics like the best mid-budgets films, speculate about which years the industry pivoted, and discuss the importance of low-budget and mid-budget filmmaking.
Saturday March 29, 2025 7:00pm - 8:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Dr. Isaac Taitz (All Mind Health), Dr. Sara Roldan (All Mind Health, Our Oasis), and Dr. Benjamin Taitz (Mental Health Quest, My Hero Therapy) discuss the psychology of your favorite characters in Eiichiro Oda's fantastical journey of One Piece!
Saturday March 29, 2025 8:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Creating content for the pop culture space is an uplifting and worthwhile experience, but how a creator comes off as a personality and a representative of their content can vary wildly. How can a person’s content encourage good or bad content interactions? Alix Catherine (host, The Welcome Party), Samantha K. Tan (film writer, producer), Andrew Alandy (content creator, video game personality; Duralath), Briana DeCoster (cosplayer, TTRPG personality; Utahime Cosplay), Patrick Ballesteros (freelance artist, educator), and JPG (pop culture educator, consultant; InterMyth) discuss how you can build a personal brand, inject that brand into what you’re making, and create and foster a like-minded community.
Sunday March 30, 2025 10:00am - 11:00am PDT
Room 300A
Have you ever wondered what will happen to your prized comic collection when you are gone? Well, if you don’t plan on leaving it to a family member, have you ever considered donating it to help inspire others? University libraries have special collections that can archive your comic books for research purposes and even get you a tax break based on the value! Hear about how one nonprofit organization’s donors ended up on the cover of Forbes magazine and how you can help generations of comic fans to come. Panelists include Golden Apple Comic & Art Foundation board member Marc Andreyko (creator/writer), Heidi MacDonald (Comics Beat), Ryan and Kendra Liebowitz (co-founders), and Gary Prebula (donor).
Sunday March 30, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Many people aspire to work in the ever-growing and popular video game industry, but not all have the skills in art, design, writing, or programming that typically form the core creative teams that conceive and develop the games. But there is hope! The game industry is full of many types of jobs and needed skills that may not directly affect the creative vision but are just as important to the success of the team and the game. Come hear from game industry professionals with nontraditional backgrounds and ask them questions about what it takes to leverage your unique skills into a potential career in games.
Sunday March 30, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Room 300A
A team of award-winning veterans from the voice-over industry discuss their experiences and how they got started in voice acting. Daniel Ross (Emmy Award–winning actor, Donald Duck in Mickey and the Roadster Racers; Gizmo in MultiVersus), Stephanie Southerland (Jean Gunnhildr in Genshin Impact; Tess Bailey in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6), Alex Bankier (Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture; Crème Brûlée Cookie in Cookie Run: Kingdom), and Heather Gonzalez (Tsuru in Beyblade X; Minoto the Hub Maiden in Monster Hunter: Rise) and others share stories and give advice for those interested in voice acting. Moderated by artistic director Shawn Strider.
Sunday March 30, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Room 300A
From elegant to eerie, concept design is all about finding the beauty in every creation. Emmy Award–winning artist Neville Page (Avatar, Star Trek, Cloverfield) takes you behind the scenes of his upcoming book, revealing his creative process through exclusive footage and never-before-seen insights. Explore how form, function, and storytelling merge to create iconic designs in film, TV, and beyond. Whether you're an artist, a designer, or a fan of cinematic world-building, this is your chance to witness creativity in action and gain inspiration from one of the industry's leading visionaries.
Neville Page is an Emmy Award–winning designer, concept artist, and educator whose work has shaped some of Hollywood’s most iconic films, including Avatar, Star Trek, Tron: Legacy, and Cloverfield. Originally from England, he studied at the Art Center College of Design before... Read More →
Sunday March 30, 2025 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
Room 300A
Merry mutants unite! Voice actors from X-Men ’97, Marvel Rivals, X-Men: The Animated Series, and the Capcom Fighting Collection gather to talk about bringing their characters to life. Lenore Zann (Rogue), Catherine Disher (Jean Grey), Matthew Waterson (Magneto), Isaac Robinson-Smith (Bishop), J. P. Karliak (Morph), Alpha Takahashi (Psylocke), and Daniel Marin (Namor) appear with moderators Chandler Poling and Chris Riley of the X-Reads podcast.
Sunday March 30, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Room 300A
The 24 Hours Animated Contest annual contest is a free international event where students from around the world compete in teams to produce a 30-second animated film in just 24 Hours. A screening of the Top 50 animated films will follow up with a Q&A panel of select filmmakers from these films, as well as the contest's founder, Aubry Mintz. Moderated by DreamWorks producer Shabrayia Cleaver.
Sunday March 30, 2025 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Room 300A
