Hat tip: E&P.

Lee Nordling is moderating a panel entitled “Comic Strips for the 21st Century.” It is described as:

Throughout the 20th Century, the comic strip rode the crest of newspaper readership that reached over 86,000,000 readers every Sunday in the late ’80s, but its wave of popularity is waning with the drastic and continuing decline in newspaper markets and circulation. But all is not lost! The Internet Age is upon us, and newspaper comic strips have a new avenue for distribution…but how will the medium need to aesthetically and commercially adjust to achieve this transformation to the 21st Century?

Panelists include: Mark Tatulli, creator of Lio, Dave Astor of Editor & Publisher, Brendan Burford, Editor, King Features Syndicate, Brad Guigar, co-autheor of “How To Make Webcomics,” and Lucas Wetzel, Asst. Acquisitions Editor, Universal Press Syndicate. This panel is scheduled for Saturday at 12:00 p.m. in room: 1E16.

Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker will be at the Checker Book Publishing Group booth where his work will be exhibited. He’ll also sign autographs on the 19th.

Dan Piraro will be at the Andrews McMeel booth on Friday at 2 p.m. to sign various Bizaro stuff.

For the Webcomic crowd, there’s a webcomics round table (that’s also the title of their session) featuring Dean Haspiel, Molly Crabapple, Ryan Roman, Leland Purvis, Ulises Farinas, Pedro Camargo, Kevin Colden, Paul Maybury, Simon Fraser, Nikki Cook, Jeff Newelt, Michael Cavallaro, Michel Fiffe, Tim Hamilton, Jennifer Tong, and moderated by Dan Goldman on the topic of “creating free online comics as a way to grow each others’ audiences and what they’ve learned in the group’s two year existence.”

If you didn’t get enough of the debate here on The Daily Cartoonist, there’s a panel entitled “Web Comics: Threat of Menace?” that is described as:

There’s a dizzying array of different models for delivering comics over the Web, from Webcomics, to PDFs for a fee, to ad-supported PDFs, to PDFs as promotional tool, and behind it all is the backdrop of illegal file sharing of comics. Are comics on the Web going to be a tool to increase the popularity of paper products, an alternate distribution channel that takes sales from retailers and circulation from libraries, or a threat to legitimate channels as illegal downloads grow? Hear from legacy publishers and cutting edge pioneers on this critical issue for the near future.

And lastly there’s a session entitled “Zuda: The Future of Online Comics.”

Read. Vote. Create. With those three little words, Zuda is changing the face of comics on the internet. Come meet the muscle behind the magic! Hosted by Richard Bruning—Senior VP, Creative Director and creators Jeremy Love (Bayou), Bobby and Peter Timony (The Night Owls), Nicholas Doan (Pray For Death), and more.

See the listings of all the events over on the nycomiccon web site.

UPDATE: The GoComics booth will feature Dan Piraro (Bizaro), Mark Tatuli (Lio), Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Prince Valiant). See their blog post for date and times.

Also scheduled for future seminars include Mike Valentine and George Wildman.

See Guy’s web site for more details.

The highly esteemed and acclaimed Cul de Sac creator Richard Thompson (see photo to right) was kind enough to round up cartoonists in the D.C. area for a get-together Tuesday night. Should be an enjoyable evening of shop talk.

And yes, Richard, I’ll be happy to tell you of my exploits whilst enlisted in Her Majesty’s Royal Navy if you’ll tell me one thing - while you were up there playing with Bob Dylan, did you really tell him to stop mumbling?

UPDATE: Had a wonderful meal with Richard (the REAL Richard), Matt Wuerker, the editorial cartoonist for Politico, Nick Galifianakis, an illustrator/cartoonist whose work regularly appears in the Washington Post and Mike Rhode who maintains the comicsdc blog. We met up at the Off the Record bar a stone’s throw from the White House (not that I suggest you go throwing stones - the security in this town is unbelievable!). The bar has original caricatures of politicians throughout the room. Most were drawn by “Vallot” (didn’t recognize the name) and there was a wall dedicated to work that Richard had drawn. I took pictures of the group and some of the caricatures. I’ll post them when I get back home.

The inking workshop, however, is a little different. While inking is mostly about cartooning and not about caricature, I thought it was something people might be interested in learning about as there is not a lot of opportunity to learn hands on about traditional pen and brush inking techniques. The workshop will consist of drawing and inking a caricature illustration of the same subject. We will talk about the approach to a pencil drawing that is going to be inked, techniques in both brush and dip pen, tips, tricks and other useful info on the way to producing an inked caricature illustration. There is an option to purchase all the materials so they will be waiting for you, or you can bring your own stuff.

Mike Rhode has written up a short review as well as posting photos over on Flickr.

UPDATE #1: Mark posts a final Q&A about his thoughts of the festival.

The Festival is scheduled for October 25-27 and comes around every three years. I’ve been told that it rivals (and in some ways surpasses) the annual National Cartoonist Society’s Reubens weekend. Register soon. Space is limited. See their web site for details.

On Thursday, July 26, there is a spotlight on Morrie Turner (Wee Pals). This event runs from 1-2 p.m. in Room 3.

From 3:00-4:00 is a spotlight on Daryl Cagle (MSNBC cartoonist and of cagle.com). Daryl will present a slideshow of his own work and an overview of the business of political cartooning on the web and in print.

From 4:00-5:00 is a session on Popeye. Panelists include Frank Caruso and Stephen DeStefano, both having worked on Popeye for years from King Features Syndicate

On Saturday, July 28 from 11:30-12:30 is a session on editorial cartooning. moderating the panel is Daryl Cagle and panelling the discussion include: Steve Breen (San Diego Union-Tribune), Mr. Fish (AKA Dwayne Booth, LA Weekly and Village Voice), Patrick O’Connor (Los Angeles Daily News), Monte Wolverton (syndicated editorial cartoonist), Brian Fairrington (syndicated editorial cartoonist), Lalo Alcaraz (syndicated editorial cartoonist and creator of La Cucaracha), and Steve Kelley (New Orleans Times-Picayune).

The National Cartoonists Society will hold a panel called “What Do We Do All Day?” which will include 5 nationally syndicated cartoonists: Lalo Alcaraz Steve Breen (Grand Avenue), Daryl Cagle, Andrew Feinstein (Girls And Sports), Michael Jantze (The Norm), and Steve Kelley.

Tom Spurgeon (comicsreporter.com) will be talking with Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics Books, Carolyn Kelly, daughter of Pogo creator Walt Kelly; Tom Devlin of Drawn and Quarterly, Bruce Canwell of IDW, Steve Tippie of Tribune Media Services; Charles Pelto of Classic Comics Press, and comics historian and author R. C. Harvey to discuss the many ongoing series of books devoted to this great American art form.

Harry Guyton from the Milton Caniff Estate, R. C. Harvey, Denis Kitchen (Steve Canyon Magazine), Russ Maheras (Steve Canyon 50th Anniversary comic strip), Diana Doalson (Milton Caniff’s grandniece), and John Ellis (Steve Canyon DVD producer) will offer a rollicking remembrance of all things Caniff!

On Sunday, July 29
Archie comics creators Craig Boldman (Archie newspaper strip, Jughead), Tania del Rio (Sabrina), Bill Galvan (Jughead & Friends), George Gladir (Archie, Betty, Betty & Veronica), Rich Koslowski (Archie & Friends, Jughead, Sonic), Dan Parent (Betty &Veronica, Veronica), Andrew Pepoy (Archie &Friends: Katy Keene, Betty &Veronica, Sonic) and others will discuss upcoming plans at Archie Comics, talk about comics for kids, and take questions from the audience.

For more information on these events and others visit the Comic-con web site.