Thursday at Comic-Con!

Comic-Con International will be happening before you know it and way before you're ready for it. The Thursday Programming Guide, listing all those nifty panels and events, is now online here.

To save you digging around for what I'm doing that day, here are my Thursday panels…

1:00-2:00 – 100th Anniversary of Tarzan and John Carter
He wrestled lions, poachers and ran through fire barefoot without a stunt-double or CGI. Actor Ron Ely will discuss filming Tarzan in the jungles of Latin America with writer Mark Evanier and Burroughs illustrator Tom Yeates. Also featuring David Lemmo, co-author of the new book, Tarzan: His First 100 Years. How Ancient Literature Became Modern Mythology and Created an Ape-Man Mecca in Southern California, coming from Angel City Press in 2013. Plus a 100-years of Tarzan and John Carter slide show included. Room 8

2:00-3:00 – The Sergio and Mark Show
An annual Comic-Con tradition! The folks who give you Groo the Wanderer on occasion will tell what's up with Groo and their other projects and will entertain you with glorious anecdotes and silly stories. Those folks are celebrated cartoonist Sergio Aragonés, his co-conspirator Mark Evanier, Usagi Yojimbo creator Stan Sakai, and the hardest-working man in comics, Tom Luth. Room 8

3:00-4:00 – The Two Editors Panel
Sid Jacobsen was the editor at Harvey Comics starting in the early 1950s, overseeing their successful line including the many titles featuring Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich. Victor Gorelick has worked for Archie Comics for over 50 years in a variety of roles, including art director and editor-in-chief, supervising Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and the whole Riverdale mob. What does it take to get all those books to press every week for decades and decades? Find out when moderator Mark Evanier grills these two men who between them have probably edited more comic books than you'll ever read. Room 8

As always, I suggest that if you're attending the con, you take the time to study the programming schedule (the whole thing will be up by Sunday) and jot down what you want to see, along with some second choices if you can't get into your first. And of course, you should attend all of mine.