It's the 40th anniversary of Comic-Con. Apparently, one has to make arrangements to go months in advance, so it's pretty clear that I'm not going. Rest assured though, whether as a fan, someone who made a movie or just crashing for the hell of it, I will attend someday. For now, though, here are this year's highlights:

Thursday the 23rd:
- Comic-Con Film School Session I: Pre-production and Screenwriting (the first of four parts on how to make a low-budget movie; I'm reminded of the video camera I bought last year, but never opened)
- Summit Entertainment - Astro Boy (not as familiar with the source material as I probably should be, but the trailer looked amusing and the voice cast is intriguing)
- Disney: 3D Panel (a look at the studio's upcoming 3D films, moderated by Patton Oswalt; I think he'd be reason enough to check this out)
- Archie Comics: Archie Marries Veronica (Okay, first of all, did not see that coming. Second, I'm super-curious about 'the latest news about Archie on television and in feature films!'.)
- Bongo Comics Sneak Peek (as a regular purchaser of the "Futurama" comic, this is quite interesting)
- Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey (not really interested in the film, but holy shit, that voice cast...Luke Skywalker, Captain Kirk (past and present), Darth Vader (also past and present), Little Miss Sunshine, Abe Sapien, The Octopus, Duckman, Eddie Quist and the original man on the Moon)
- 3D Showcase: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Hole, The Final Destination (I'm interested in all three films to some extent, but getting to meet Joe Dante - director of The Hole, as well as Gremlins, Piranha, The 'burbs... - would've been the highlight of the day for me.)
- Summit Entertainment (Somewhat redundantly, this is also an Astro Boy panel. There is also a panel here for Sorority Row, which looks fun in a goofy kind of way.)
- Sony Pictures Animation: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Okay, screw what I said about redundancy just now. Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the film's writer/directors and creators of Clone High, are to be here. Apparently, the main character is Flint Lockwood. That sounds familiar...)
- "Robot Chicken" with "Titan Maximum" (The show's writing staff talks up what looks to be a spinoff. "Robot Chicken" is very hit or miss, but when it hits...)
- 20th Century Fox and James Cameron present Avatar (Cameron's return to filmmaking. Is it worth the wait? Who knows?)
- Cartoon Network: "Chowder"! "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack"! "Adventure Time with Finn and Jake"! (Two amusing, give-'em-time-to-grow-on-you shows and a heretofore unknown third one.)
- Spotlight on John Kricfalusi (Much has been written about him, though, in spite of it all, "Space Madness" has pretty much earned him a free pass in my book.)
- Kick-Ass (A new film from the director of Stardust, based on a comic from the co-creator of Wanted. At this point, who cares what the movie's about?)
- Comedy Central's "Drawn Together" Movie Roundtable (the show's a guilty pleasure)
- Halloween Comes Early: Trick 'r Treat Screening (What I don't understand is why Warner Bros. lacked the stones to place this much-shuffled around anthology film in theaters.)

Friday the 24th:
- Comic-Con Film School Session II: Production (second part; the actual shooting)
- Warner Bros. (A look at a number of genre films, like the Nightmare on Elm Street remake, Where the Wild Things Are and Sherlock Holmes.)
- Coraline (perhaps my favorite film of the year so far gets an in-depth look)
- Nickelodeon's "The Fairly Oddparents": More Magical Mayhem! ("More?!"; I meant that to sound like the guy from Oliver! There they go with the threats again. Butch Hartman can easily take his place alongside George Lucas and the guy who draws "Funky Winkerbean" in the category of people who used to know how to deliver satisfying product, but, these days, haven't a fucking clue what made their product work in the first place and is determined to make the fans pay for it. Enjoy your ill-gotten gains, you bunch of whores.)
- Disney: Animation Panel (Looking at past and future Disney features under the watchful eye of Patton Oswalt.)
- Robert Rodriguez (I can't help but envy this guy. A one-man film studio and he gets to crank down Rose McGowan. His newest film, Shorts, looks fairly entertaining.)
- Two Funny Frebergs (legendary voice actor/humorist/what have you Stan Freberg and wife Hunter)
- Spotlight on Stephan Pastis (the creator of the hilarious comic strip "Pearls Before Swine")
- Production Designers (among the guests are Tim Burton veterans Bo Welch and Rick Heinrichs)

Saturday the 25th:
- The Black Panel (if nothing else, this solves the mystery of what happened to Kel Mitchell)
- Marvel: Hero Up with "The Super Hero Squad Show"! ("Angry Beavers" creator Mitch Schauer has a new project, though Charlie Adler voicing Dr. Doom? I'm curious to see how that works.)
- Comic-Con Film School Session III: Working with Actors and a Crew (Seems pretty easy to me: tell them what to do, don't trash anyone's scene and make sure the camera's in focus...no wonder I'm still at my crappy job.)
- "Family Guy" (featuring a look at the follow-up to "Blue Harvest"...I think I prefered "Robot Chicken's" Star Wars parodies)
- "The Cleveland Show" (The show was approved for a second season before the first ever makes it to air. That means it's got to be good, right?)
- Cartoon Voices I (Ah, to meet the people who bring cartoon characters to life...)
- "Futurama": Life or Death?! (Whether or not the original voice actors are retained for the new season - and they goddamn well better be! - the Fox exec that shows up might need extra security.)
- Miramax: Extract (the newest film from Mike Judge looks pretty good)
- Nickelodeon's "The Penguins of Madagascar": Making a Splash (though suffering from the same unevenness of writing that plagued McCorkle/Schooley's last show, "Kim Possible", this is a very funny follow-up)
- Webcomics Bootcamp (Scott Kurtz, creator of "PVP". That's all I have to say.)
- Spotlight on June Foray ('The first lady of cartoon voices')
- Sony Pictures: Zombieland and 2012 (The latter looks to be another 'Roland Emmerich hates the world, so he's gonna make it his bitch' effects fest, but the former shows real wit and humor. So help me God, if it disappoints me like Year One...)
- Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment: Iron Man 2 (loved the first one)
- Adventures in Voice Acting Workshop (As someone who hopes to enter the business this way should the whole filmmaking thing fall through, this sounds like my kind of event.)
- Kevin Smith (Apparently, he's taking time away from his latest film to do this. What a guy.)
- Black Dynamite (an homage to '70s blaxplotation starring and co-written by Michael Jai White)
- Troma Roast (Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman gets roasted. Methinks it'd have been closer to the roasts of old than the stuff that Comedy Central airs.)

Sunday the 26th:
- Comic-Con Film School Session IV: Post-production and Visual FX (as some of my YouTube videos can attest, I've kind of a yen for editing)
- Cartoon Voices II (more fun with voice actors)
- "American Dad" (the genesis of an episode)
- Business of Cartoon Voices ('a no-nonsense look at the business')

So much to do and so little time.