February
29 The Season of Shows

With WonderCon having inaugurated the convention season with a by-all-accounts successful show, a number of big events will heat things up in the coming weeks.

First up is MegaCon in Orlando, Fla., set for March 7-9. This looks like a great show, with a deep pool of comics and Hollywood talent set to show. The programming looks equally good, including such diverse ideas as a belly dancing  seminar and the con's fourth annual indie film festival.

Wizard World Los Angeles returns to the South Hall at the L.A. Convention Center March 14-16. Wizard looks like it's bulking up its film programming for this year's shows, with a Lucasfilm presentation on "Star Wars: Clone Wars" and "Indiana Jones" sure to draw a packed house. Some big names will be on hand for a two-part "ultimate screenwriters panel," headed up current "Amazing Spider-Man" comics scripters Bob Gale (writer of “Back to the Future”) and Marc Guggenheim (“Law and Order,” “CSI: Miami,” “Eli Stone”) and featuring Zak Penn ("X-Men: The Last Stand," “The Incredible Hulk”), Mark Verheiden (“Teen Titans”) and John Cox (“Sgt. Rock”). There also will be a "Heroes" panel with Jeph Loeb and an "Incredible Hulk" TV retrospective with Lou Ferrigno, in addition to the usual comics panels from Marvel, DC and Top Cow.

Back on the East Coast, New York Comic-Con has chosen YouTube videomaker Michael Agrusso, creator of the Marvel vs. DC parodies of the Mac vs. PC TV ads, to create three promo videos for its third annual show on April 18-20. The first, featuring a plastic Doctor Doom trying to talk his way into a discount ticket, can be watched below or at this page here.

Lastly, there's the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, set for April 26-27 at UCLA, which will feature a new graphic novel area called "The Comix Strip." The Times is holding a design contest for a logo for the strip. Head over to this site and you can check out the 10 finalists and vote for your favorite. The winner will be announced at Wizard World L.A.