Comic-Con International is just around the corner, and CBLDF is going to be on hand with some amazing signings and panels in support of our mission to fight for the right to read comics!
SIGNINGS
We’re delighted to host some of our favorite creator supporters at booth 1920 during Comic-Con! We’re still locking in some signings, but here’s what we have so far. Watch the CBLDF website, Twitter, and Facebook for updates!
Saturday
12:00pm – 2:00 pm
Continuing a tradition of support for Free Expression in comics, Valiant Entertainment announces a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Variant for Harbinger #25. This variant features art by industry legend GILBERT HERNANDEZ, and to celebrate this release, the CBLDF will host a group signing at Comic Con International, on Saturday 7/20, featuring Harbinger #25 contributors JOSH DYSART, VIVEK TIWARY, LUCY KNISLEY, and the aforementioned Hernandez. This will take place in booth 1920 from 12-2 pm.
3:00pm – 5:00pm
FRED VAN LENTE (Action Philosophers, Magnus Robot Fighter, Archer & Armstrong, Amazing Spider-Man)
PANELS
Thursday
CBLDF: Using Graphic Novels in Education
12:00pm – 1:00pm • Room 30CDE
Comics and graphic novels are amazing resources for inspiring a love of reading and learning among students of all ages. CBLDF experts Betsy Gomez, Meryl Jaffe, Carol Tilley, and more examine how to use comics in classrooms, and provide strategies for combating the confusion that often leads graphic novels to be targeted by censors. They’ll also offer suggestions for how to use specific comics in the classroom. Bring your challenges, questions and success stories!
CBLDF: The History of the Comics Code
1:00pm – 2:00pm • Room 30CDE
60 years ago this month, comics were put on trial in a nationally televised Senate subcommittee hearing that had shattering repercussions for this great American artform. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund presents the shocking history of moral panic that led to this historic hearing and the birth of the Comics Code Authority, which regulated the medium’s content for more than 50 years. CBLDF executive director Charles Brownstein tells the tale at this CBLDF presentation.
Friday
CBLDF: Graphic Novels and Their Turbulent Past: Now Classroom Tools of Tolerance
12:00pm – 1:00pm • Room 30CDE
Graphic novels are often associated with violence and aggression. They can, however, be used to help kids gain a greater understanding of the often violent world around them, and they can often be used to defuse anger. Finally, they can be used to teach history, social studies, and social organization. This panel of educators, authors, and artists will show you how. They’ll discuss the intertwining history of comics, violence, and censorship and provide teachers with classroom tools to integrate incredible graphic novels within language arts, social studies and science, effectively meeting Common Core State Standards while addressing ever-present resistance to the graphic text artform. Panelists include Meryl Jaffe, Betsy Gomez, Matt Holm, Jennifer L. Holm, Matt Phelan, and Janet Lee.
CBLDF: Dr. Wertham’s War on Comics
1:00pm – 2:00pm • Room 30CDE
How did a pioneering neuroscientist become one of the 20th century’s most notorious censors? In 1954, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published the popular book Seduction of the Innocent, which inspired such moral panic that comics were placed on trial by the U.S. Senate. Wertham’s efforts, although presented as science, were actually carefully manipulated to discredit the medium. The results nearly destroyed the comics artform in the United States. Carol Tilley, the professor whose recent research helped debunk Wertham once and for all, will take you back in time, behind the scenes, as she shares some of the little-known stories of Dr. Wertham’s war on comics.
Saturday
CBLDF: Tales from the Code-True Stories of Censorship
12:00pm – 1:00pm • Room 30CDE
For more than 50 years, American comic books were subject to the censorship of the Comics Code, a system born from a time when comics were burned in the streets and blamed for all of society’s ills. Though the Code is gone, its influence remains. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund gathers Denny O’Neil, Paul Levitz, and other top storytellers who worked under the Code’s strictures to tell the tales of how its censorship touched their creative visions.
CBLDF: Banned Comics!
1:00pm – 2:00pm • Room 30CDE
Bone, Fun Home, Maus, Persepolis, Sandman, Watchmen… they’re not just some of the greatest comics ever made, they’re also among the most frequently targeted for bans! This year’s Banned Books Week celebrates comics and graphic novels and the CBLDF has everything you need to know to celebrate in your community. Jeff Smith, Gene Yang, Carol Tilley, Charles Brownstein, and others discuss how and why comics are banned and how you can fight back by participating in this year’s comics-focused Banned Books Week!
CBLDF Art Auction
7:30pm – 9:00pm • Sapphire Ballroom EF, Hilton San Diego Bayfront
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund hosts its biggest auction of the year at Comic-Con! Get your chance to support free speech and take home amazing original art from artists including Jeff Smith, John Cassaday, Emma Ríos, Frank Quitely, Brandon Graham, Francesco Fracavilla, Jeff Lemire, and many, many more!
Sunday
CBLDF: You Can’t Draw That! Live Art Jam
12:15pm – 1:45pm • Room 5AB
Join top artists to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Comics Code and celebrate its recent demise by creating live art before your eyes. The only rule is that it would have been forbidden by the Comics Code! Artists will talk about censorship and make once-in-a-lifetime art! Get a chance to watch live art made before your eyes, learn about censorship, and bid to win the pieces made here to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.