For the past 50 years(!), fans, writers, illustrators, creators, and sellers of anything and everything comic book-related have convened in sunny San Diego, CA for the foremost pop culture event of the year—Comic-Con! This July though will be different as Covid-19—much like a dastardly villain right out of Central Casting—has other plans...

Fear not, true believers! Comic-Con is still happening, just a little—well, a whole lot—different this year:

The Comic-Con 2020 Virtual Schedule kicks off on Wednesday, July 22 and will feature a series of panel discussions, livestreams, sneak peeks, and other surprises through Sunday, July 26. Some highlights include:

• Wednesday, July 22: panel discussions on inclusivity in storytelling and teaching comics in the classroom. You can also view the following video featuring a joint panel of librarians, educators, and indie comics creators discussing where exciting, new indie comics can be found and how new pathways can be forged to bring these diverse and educational comics to a larger audience.
  
   
• Thursday, July 23: panels for the HBO adaptation of His Dark Materials, a Star Trek Universe Virtual Panel featuring cast and crew from Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Star Trek: Picard, a discussion about the challenges of printing physical media in the modern age with TwoMorrows Publishing, and an LGBTQ Characters on Television roundtable.
   
• Friday, July 24: panels for all three of the current Walking Dead television series, Hulu’s new Marvel series Helstrom, a look at the new Adventure Time spinoff series, Adventure Time: Distant Lands – BMO, and the 32nd Annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. You can borrow and read the majority of this year's nominees through one of our most popular Digital Media services, Hoopla! You can stream comics in both single issues and graphic novel formats to your web browser or download comics for offline viewing using Kindle, Android, or iOS apps.
   
• Saturday, July 25: a filmmaking roundtable with director Guillermo del Toro, the executive producers and writers of The Simpsons talk about creating the legendary cartoon, recommendations on the Best and Worst Manga of 2020, the cast of the hilarious horror sendup series What We Do In The Shadows, and sneak peek movie footage with the stars of Bill & Ted Face The Music. Excellent!
   
• Sunday, July 26: an interview with cult actor Nathan Fillion, a 30th anniversary retrospective on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) movie, a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers cast reunion, and the cast of the set-in-the-Philly-burbs television comedy series The Goldbergs.

And the fun doesn't have to stop once Comic-Con is over because every day can be a comic-con's worth of reading, watching, and enjoying comics, graphic novels, manga, and more at the Free Library! You can browse through our catalog 24/7 to find more great reads from superheroes and comic strips to graphic novel memoirs and more diverse character voices as well. Check out our Explore topic dedicated to Comics and Graphic Novels for great booklists and web resources full of character(s)—both human and superhuman.

Here's some additional comic book-themed streaming video recommendations available through our Digital Media resource, Kanopy:

Comic Book Confidential (1988)

Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle (2013)

COMIX: Beyond the Comic Book Pages (2016)

Stripped (2014)

White Scripts and Black Supermen: Black Masculinities in Comic Books (2010)

Funny Ladies: A Portrait of Women Cartoonists (1991)
 

Kanopy is available to use on Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, and Android TV, as well as on your computer, and mobile devices (iOS, Android, and Kindle).
Limit: four checkouts per month with your library card.

All you need to access all this cool comics content—for free—is your library card!

What are some of your favorite comics, comic book characters, and series to read?

Do you prefer to read physical comic books or do you like downloading digital versions to your favorite device?

Let us know in the comments!