Samuel L. Jackson was a major presence at two panels this year at Comic-Con. He appeared on the Afro Samurai: Resurrection panel and on the panel for Frank Miller's adaptation of Will Eisner's The Spirit. If you haven't checked out Afro Samurai --the American made, anime style SPIKE TV series -- make an effort. It is awesome. Jackson is a popular celebrity at the Con because he seems to enjoy the fan interaction, and the characters he's played have become such iconic figures in pop culture. Someone at The Spirit panel asked him about all the action figures that have been made of his characters -- Shaft, Mace Windu, Afro Samurai and maybe upcoming ones for Nick Fury and the Octopus (the villain he plays in The Spirit). Jackson voiced preference for Mace as an action figure (because of all the various figures available) but says he has all his figures displayed. Jackson went on to discuss the comic book characters he has played, even though some of them began as white characters in the original comics.

Thanks to Comic-Con for video clips of the panel for our news coverage.

Eisner judges must read hundreds of books before voting for nominees in April (Beth Accomando)

The San Diego Comic-Con played host to the 20th Annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards on Friday July 25. The Awards are named in honor of pioneering comic book artist and writer Will Eisner. The Eisner Awards are often referred to as the "Oscars" of the comic industry. You can check out this year's winners or go behind the scenes to find out how the noiminations are determined.

Frank Miller and Will Eisner had a long history together. Their friendship and artistic viewpoints (which were not always the same) were brilliantly laid out in the book Eisner Miller by Charles Brownstein. At this year's Comic-Con, Frank Miller discussed his upcoming adaptation of Eisner's classic comic The Spirit. He recalled his first meeting with Eisner and the 25-year long debate their first encounter led to. He also unveiled some amazing footage of The Spirit, which opens this Christmas.

Beth mourns the end of another Comic-Con.

Comic-Con 2008 is over. A moment of silence as I mourn all the things I didn't get to and all the purchases I didn't make.... Now for the high points: The Spirit panel with Frank Miller; the slo-mo shootout between Simon Pegg and fans at Spaced; the respect emanating from young fans for manga artist Tite Kubo; editorial cartoonist Mike Peters not being able to answer a single question succinctly; and Ralph Bakshi starting his panel a half hour early. I also want to thank the Twilight Moms for proving to me that no matter how well I think I know Comic-Con, there will always be surprises. It was also cool to see so many of my Anime Club kids running around the convention floor and saying hi. Those were all great moments and events. I know I heard a few people complain about lines or crowds, but the people I hung with all went into Comic-Con with a mix of high anticipation and a roll-with-the-punches attitude, and we all left the Con Sunday night with a happy buzz. I calculated that I walked two to four miles a day (the exhibit hall is a quarter mile long, so you can do the math on your travels), had only one real meal, and slept a total of 10 hours during the entire convention. I'm proud to say I had more stamina than my son and his teenage friend -- years of Con training triumphing over youth. Thank goodness I get a heady rush from the Con or else I would have collapsed!

The Phantom sounds like the name for a superhero or villain so I guess it's thoroughly appropriate that two panels at this year's Comic-Con would sing the praises of the Phantom HD camera. Both John Moore, director of the film version of the video game Max Payne, and Frank Miller, who's adapting Will Eisner's The Spirit to the screen, were singing the praises of this new digital technology. 

Sin City. There was a time when people collected comics as an investment.

I first went to Comic-Con in 1993, when comic book sales were riding a sky-high bubble of fans speculating that every new book would be a hot collector's item. Autographs were particularly hot and people stood in long lines for hours at a time to get a signature from Jim Lee or Todd McFarlane. Meanwhile, I scored a Frank Miller autograph on the first edition of Sin City with about 10 minutes of waiting.

As you know, swag is a key aspect of Comic-Con. On preview night I picked up what I think will turn out to be my favorite freebie: a beautiful set of 4 character posters from Lionsgate's The Spirit. These will go perfectly with the teaser poster Lionsgate gave out at last year's Con. Rheir booth is done up like the city in which the Spirit moves. There was even snow falling continually. Warner Brothers gets the award again for best big bag, this time an enormous one with Wonder Woman on it. Fox gave out a very practical poster tube but they neglected to fill it with any posters. Tons of free preview manga out there but, unless I'm mistaken, no Tokyopop booth. There are also cool Tintin bags celebrating the French comics' 80th anniversary.

Lionsgate will have a panel on Frank Miller's adaptation of Will Eisner's comic on Friday at 2:45pm in Hall H.

What's good in your swag bag from Preview night?

Tom McLean's Blog at Variety... and don't try to click on it we're just showing you what it looks like! (Variety)

In the sixteen years since I first attended Comic-Con, the convention has become a hot spot event for the media, with hordes of reporters, editors and bloggers descending on San Diego each July to fight the crowds and get in on the next big thing.

No, Scarlett Johansson will not be at the Con but I couldn't resist this gorgeous image from The Spirit. But Samuel L. Jackson is scheduled to appear. (Lionsgate)

Part of me wants to send everyone to the panel exactly opposite to the ones I want to go to in the hopes of reducing the crowds at mine. But that wouldn't be fair. So I'll throw caution to the wind and recommend the panels that I too will be fighting to get into.

There are probably more than 100,000 reasons for going to the San Diego Comic-Con International -- one for each person who attends because that's how different and precise everyone's motive is for going to this gathering of pop culture fanatics. And yes, we are fanatics because we care passionately about our obsessions and we appreciate that Comic-Con is put on by people who feel exactly like we do.