CONvergence (July 3-6), an enormous annual Twin Cities science-fiction, comics and gaming convention is looking for folks who want to be panelists on some of their panels. They’ve got some great comics guests this year… one of their guests of honor is the wonderful Mark Evanier, who, in addition to being co-creator of the hilarious series Groo the Wanderer, has one of the best comics and entertainment blogs around. Information on how to contact them to potentially participate in a panel can be seen below. Here is an email I received requesting our assistance:
Hi Steven:CONvergence–an annual science fiction, fantasy, comic book and gaming convention in Bloomington, MN–is looking for volunteer panelists (see below). Among the panels are Censorship in Comics, Comics as Movies and the History of Manga. If anyone’s interested, they can email Christopher Jones at cajones at winternet dot com.This year, CONvergence will be hosting some interesting comic book folks:
- Len Wein – Writer for comics and animation, creator of Swamp Thing, Nightcrawler & Wolverine.
- Greg Weisman – Creator of Disney’s Gargoyles and supervising producer of The Spectacular Spider-Man for 2008.
- Wally Wingert – Voice Actor
- Marv Wolfman – Writer for comics and animation, creator of Blade, Bullseye & The New Teen Titans.
- Bernie Wrightson – Comic Book Artist/Illustrator
- Mark Evanier
– Television and Comic Book Writer.- John Kovalic – Cartoonist and Game designer: Dork Tower, Dr. Blink, Out of the Box Games.
- Trace Beaulieu – Puppeteer, Writer and Actor from Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Cinematic Titanic
- Robert Meyer Burnett – Filmmaker, director of Free Enterprise, and producer of DVD extras
- Christian Colquhoun – Prop-builder and physical effects artist whose projects include Galaxy Quest, Van Helsing, and Firefly.
- Larry Dixon – Co-author of Mage Wars and Dariens Tale series, author of many short stories and game material and fantasy artist.
- Daren Dochterman – Designer and illustrator for over 35 feature films, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture Special Edition.
- Kenneth Hite – Role-playing game designer for GURPS, the Star Trek role playing game, and beyond.
- Dr. James Kakalios – U of M physics professor, author of The Physics of Superheroes.
- Harry Knowles – Creator of Aint-It-Cool-News.com.
- Jay Knowles – Creator of Harry Knowles (and contributor to AICN).
- Mercedes Lackey – Author of many popular novels, including the Valdemar and Bardic Voices series and folk music lyricist.
- Bridget Landry – Engineer on the teams of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars Pathfinder project, the Cassini Mission to Saturn, and other space missions.
- Peter Mayhew – The actor who played the beloved Chewbacca in the original Star Wars Trilogy and in Episode III.
- Andrew Probert – Production Designer for Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Airwolf.
- Vincent Truitner – Animation and CGI artist.
- David Weber – Author of the Honor Harrington series and other military science-fiction.
CONvergence Programming Needs Panelists!All the panels are tentatively scheduled into our 2008 Programming Grid, but some still face the danger of cancellation due to lack of panelists, including many panels in the gaming and science tracks. The #1 Reason panels are scratched from the line up is a lack of panelists to sit them.Go to http://www.michaell.org/schedule.phtml to sign up for panels that you’d like to be a part of, or just browse to start making plans of what to attend.PANELS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCKThese are panels that currently have NO panelists signed up for them, and they WILL BE CANCELLED unless we have panelists in the next week.
- Censorship in Comics – The Past and Future (Comics)
- Ultimate Home Theatre – How to Build It (Science)
- Blurring of the Lines – CGI Backgrounds in Movies (Movies)
- Exploring FTL Drives (faster than light travel) Science
- The Pixar Panel – Wall-E and Pixar Movies (Movies)
PANELS ON THE BUBBLEThese are panels that have at least one panelist assigned, but we’d like to see more panelists on them to secure their place in the schedule.
- Scrapbooking (Project Room)
- Thrown a Controller or Manual Across the Room Lately? (Gaming)
- Comics as Movies (Movies)
- Young Adult Literature (Literature)
- Hogwarts’ Graduation (Harry Potter) (Literature)
- Closet Geeks… Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are! (Hot Dish)
- Dream Casting (Movies)
- Not all Munchkins Live in Oz – Collectable Card Games (Gaming)
- Backyard Astronomy (Science)
- History of Manga (Arts)
- Thunderbirds are Go! (Television)
- Homophobia and Racism in Online Gaming (Gaming)
- Gadget Gossip (New Electronics) (Science)
- Gosh, Golly Gee Whiz (Teen Noir Mysteries) (Literature)
- Imperfect Heroes (Hot Dish)
- Film Remakes – Exhuming the Past (Movies)
- Dangerous Days – How to Survive Zombie Attacks (Movies)
- Sci-Fi Saturday – Cult B Movies (Movies)
- Comics for Mature Audiences (Comics)
- Club Fan Faire – Come Promote Your Local Club (Hot Dish)
- Trilogy Limitations: What happened to the franchise? (Movies)
PANELS IN NEED OF PANELISTSThese panels have more than one panelists attached, but they are still open and we’d like to see more panelists added.
- Return of the Satellite of Love – MST3K spin-offs (Television)
- Wii: The Changing Face of Gaming (Gaming)
- Heroes: Volume Two (Television)
- Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition (Gaming)
- Fanzines Invented the Internet (Literature)
- Videogame Blogs and Podcasts (Gaming)
- 6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast (Literature)
- Star Trek: New Voyages – Fan Made Productions (Television)
- Songwriting and Filking (Arts)
- Emergent Genres and Movements (Literature)
- Paranormal Investigation as TV Journalism (Television)
- Geek as an Ensemble Character (Hot Dish)
- Which Non-Genre Films Should You See? (Movies)
- Etiquette at the Gaming Table (Gaming)
- Whither Open Gaming License (Gaming)
- Time Management 101 (Hot Dish)
- Where’s My Flying Car (Science)
- Cell vs. Chip – 2D vs. 3D animation (Hot Dish)
- Digital Distribution Debate (Science)
- Where to Shop? (Hot Dish)
- Weaponry of Star Trek (Science)
Again, you can sign up for panels at http://www.michaell.org/schedule.phtml. CONvergence programming is what our members make of it, so we encourage you to participate and get involved. Email us at programming at convergence-con dot org if you have questions or would like to be involved.___________________Contact InformationThe Minnesota Society for Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy1437 Marshall Avenue, Suite 203 St. Paul, MN 5510424-hour voicemail: 651-MISFITS (651-647-3487)CONvergence web site: http://www.convergence-con.orgMISFITS web site: http://www.misfit.orgIf you would like to be removed from this mailing list, simply emailand let us know.Thank you.
Please let them know we sent you!
