WonderCon 2016

Meet the women whose work changed what's possible for free expression in comics! In the Golden and Silver Ages, pioneering cartoonists challenged gender and color barriers to establish a place for women in comics. In the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, underground cartoonists used the comics page to advance feminism and teach public health, while the alternative cartoonists of the 1980s and 1990s produced groundbreaking personal and political narratives. This panel will also explore the editors and publishers who blazed new trails for mainstream and alternative comics and examine the creators who made the graphic novels that inspired today's landscape of increasingly diverse and empowering comics storytelling. Moderated by CBLDF editorial director Betsy Gomez.

They call him the King of the Comics and his influence is inescapable around the industry and around this convention. Today, 22 years after he left us, there's still so much to say about him, and some of it will be said by Steve Sherman (former Kirby assistant), Charles Hatfield (author, Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby), Paul S. Levine (Kirby family attorney), and your moderator, Mark Evanier (former Kirby assistant; author, Kirby: King of Comics). Including another special guest or two.

The must-see panel of Comic-Con and WonderCon, as profiled on NPR's "All Things Considered," returns for another action-packed year of scholarly debate in a very special WonderCon edition: Wars vs. Trek, as only ships from Star Wars and Star Trek will compete. The winners will go on to duke it out at San Diego. Who will battle for the highly coveted Smackdown title this year? Can the Starship Enterprise defeat an Imperial Star Destroyer? Will the Millennium Falcon be assimilated by the Borg Cube? Will the Reliant be taken over by Rathars? Join this panel of sage spaceshipologists who've seen a lot through these eyes as they outwit, outplay, and out-phaser. Starring Steve Melching (Star Wars Rebels, The Clone Wars), Bobak Ferdowski ("Mohawk Guy" and actual spaceship builder), Ashley E. Miller (Thor, Power Rangers), Daren Dochterman (VFX supervisor,Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Director's Edition), Robert Meyer Burnett (ST: TNG blu-rays, The Hills Run Red), Jose Molina (Firefly, Agent Carter), and the Howard Cosell of the stars, moderator Mark A. Altman (50 Year Mission, The Librarians), along with what will inevitably be some very special surprise guests. End your weekend with the geekiest and most beloved panel of all-time in this or any other dimension, known or unknown.