Welcome home, Paul Levitz

Jim Lee and the Wildstorm office collaborated on this wonderful Legion of Super-Heroes piece for Paul Levitz, the former president and publisher of DC Comics, as well as once and future writer of the Legion. The framed version, which looks like it has messages written on it from the Wildstorm folks, can be found at the link above.

July 17

Multiple cities | Watchmen returns to theaters with additional footage for a limited run in Los Angeles, New York City, Dallas and Minneapolis. Details can be found here.

July 18

Baltimore | Geppi's Entertainment Museum hosts Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology editor Keith Chow, art director Jerry Ma, artist Alex Tarampi and writer Larry Hama from noon to 4p.m. for a presentation, discussion and signing.

Portland | Cosmic Monkey Comics hosts a 24-hour zine challenge beginning at 10 a.m. and ending, naturally, at 10 a.m. the next day.

Jeffrey Brown's Hulk

Puyallup, Wash. | Comic Evolution will host a March of Dimes benefit that includes a silent auction and several artists doing sketches for donations, including Paul Gulacy, Clayton Crain and many more.

San Francisco | Isotope Comics hosts a signing and party for Geoff Johns, writer of Blackest Night, Green Lantern and various other titles. They'll have free buttons and a selection of Lantern Corps. cocktails. The signing begins at 4 p.m. and the 21+ party begins at 7 p.m.

July 19

San Francisco | Comix Experience hosts Neil Gaiman for a signing, Q&A and reading. This is a ticketed event.

July 21

New York | The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art hosts a Scarlett Takes Manhattan book release event with Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt, starting at 7 p.m.

July 22

New York | Celebrating the 600th issue of Amazing Spider-Man, Dan Slott signs at Jim Hanley's Universe, 4 West 33rd St. starting at 6 p.m.

San Francisco | The Comic Outpost hosts a Spider-Man #600 exhibit where they will display all 600 issues of the title. They'll also host a raffle that benefits the Hero Initiative.

July 23

Brooklyn, N.Y. | Paul Karasik and Dan Nadel will be at Desert Island from 7 to 9 p.m.for the book launch of You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation!

San Diego | The Chuck Jones Gallery at 232 Fifth Avenue will kick off a Jim Lee art exhibit with a visit from Lee from 7 to 9 p.m. RSVP required.

July 22-26

San Diego | The sold out 2009 Comic-Con International returns to the San Diego Convention Center. Keep an eye out on Robot 6 and CBR for coverage of the con.

More in July

July 28 | Stuart Moore at the Comic Book Club in New York

More in August

Aug. 1 | WASFEn Con 3 in Wausau, Wisconsin

Aug. 8 | Jeff Smith in Toronto

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If you’d like to submit an event for inclusion, please email them directly to JK Parkin. Please include the venue, city and state, start time, event details and any related websites where we can send folks for more information. Virtual events, like online creator chats, are also welcome. The next ComicsLive will likely be delayed a few days due to the San Diego Comic Con, but it will run ... so please send in your submission!

Dunno about you guys, but it looked like he was moving a lot faster than that to me.

Let's see what will be going on ...

• Marvel's been absent from WonderCon for the past couple of years, and while they don't appear to have a booth, they do have a presence this year. Both Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction are guests of honor, and it looks like Jeph Loeb, Mark Paniccia and Axel Alonso, among others, will also be there. Of note is a discussion between Fraction and author Michael Chabon on Saturday that will likely be worth the price of admission alone.

• Speaking of special guests, Brian Azzarello and Dave Johnson are also attending and will host a panel on 100 Bullets on Saturday ... followed by a night at Isotope Comics. And although Dan DiDio won't be at the con this year, DC's got Jim Lee, Will Dennis, Ian Sattler, James Robinson and Aaron Lopresti, among others.

• Oni Press, IDW, Dark Horse, BOOM!, SLG, Aspen and Top Cow will also be on hand, both on the floor and at various panels to talk about their latest projects.

• And rounding out the special guest list are Sergio Aragonés, Mark Evanier, Gary Friedrich, Wendy Pini, Trina Robbins, Alex Robinson, Stan Sakai, Jill Thompson and Roy Thomas, all of whom will have a spotlight panel. San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum will kick off a Stan Sakai art exhibit that weekend as well, so if you're in town, be sure to check it out.

• In the "other media" area, or to answer the question "So what's happening in the big room?" ... it looks there will be panels on Watchmen, Star Trek, Chuck, Terminators Sarah Connor Chronicles and Salvation, Pixar's UP, a showing of the Wonder Woman animated DVD and the Black Panther animated show.

• Our own Matt Maxwell, creator of Strangeways, has a booth this year, so be sure to drop by and say hi if you're going.

And Jim Lee shares a video from Image Comics' early days, as he visited Golden Apple Comics to sign WildCATS #1 when it came out:

I remember being at a convention in the early 1990s where Image had a table ... literally, just a table. No artwork was displayed and I don't think they even had a sign beyond the one that the convention used to mark the table as being theirs, but it was jammed packed the entire con with people waiting in line to get autographs from artists who weren't the original seven.