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Nightow, Batman's Natsume to Sign at Comic-Con Int'l (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
The North American publisher Dark Horse Comics has announced that it will host signings by manga creator Yasuhiro Nightow on July 24 at 3:00–4:00 p.m. at Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. The signing session will be a ticketed event, for which Dark Horse employees will have more details at the convention. Nightow is best known for creating the genre-blending Trigun action manga and anime, but he also created the Gungrave anime series and a few other smaller manga projects. A new animated Trigun movie is in the works. Nightow has often attended Comic Con International in the past as both a guest and a self-professed fan of American comics, and he returned to Anime Expo in Los Angeles earlier this month.
CMX Manga, the manga arm of DC Comics, will host Yoshinori Natsume, the creator of the Togari manga and the artist on Batman: Death Mask, at Comic-Con International also. Natsume will appear at the CMX Manga table for signings on July 23 at 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., on July 24 at 2:00–3:00 p.m., on July 25 at 3:00-4:00 p.m., and on July 26 at 12:30–1:30 p.m.
Oscar-winning anime director Hayao Miyazaki will join Hitfix website writer Drew McWeeny in introducing an advance screening of the Ponyo film on July 24 at 8:00 p.m. The doors open at 7:00 p.m. at the Reading Pacific Gaslamp 15 theater in San Diego. Miyazaki is already slated to appear at the convention's Disney Animation panel earlier that same day at 12:45 p.m. as part of his whirlwind tour of California. The film itself will open in North America on August 14 after opening in Japan last July.
Stan Sakai, the Japanese-American creator of Usagi Yojimbo and a frequent attendee of Comic-Con International, will hold a Dark Horse signing session on July 24 at 10:00–1:00 p.m. Dark Horse will then present a Usagi Yojimbo 25th Anniversary Panel on July 26 at 1:30–2:30 p.m., while Becky Cloonan (East Coast Rising world manga) will appear at a ticketed "super secret announcement panel" with Gerard Way (The Umbrella Academy, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete's "Safe and Sound") and Shaun Simon on July 25 at 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Sources: Vertical, Ain't It Cool News
Update: The About.com:Manga website notes that Narae Lee (James Patterson's Maximum Ride) and several world manga creators are also attending Comic-Con international.
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