March 7 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Panels running in the museum theater 12–4 pm. Included with museum admission. Free for museum members.
Comic-Con Museum is proud to announce their affiliation with the Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation to hold a series of Will Eisner Week panels that focus on the lasting legacy of graphic novel pioneer and comics industry legend Will Eisner. The panels will be conducted from 12:00 to 4:00 on Saturday, March 7. Panel topics will include “Dogs and Cats in Graphic Novels,” “Graphic Novel Adaptations from Literature,” The Eisner Awards Hall of Fame,” and “Graphic Memoirs by Women.” The panels will be followed by a signing with award-winning graphic novelist Mimi Pond. This year’s Eisner Week theme is “Dream Big: Read a Graphic Novel!”
Will Eisner Day 2026 Panels
12:00 Cats vs. Dogs: Panelists’ Pet Comics!
Over the years there have been numerous great comics and graphic novels devoted to cat and dog characters. Panelists Moni Barrette, Jackie Estrada, Mark Habegger, and Jim Thompson will share their favorites, from those featuring cute manga kitties (What’s Michael, Chi’s Sweet Home) to heroic dogs (Laika, Dogs of War), and many more. Moderated by Alonso Nuñez.
1:00 Will Eisner Hall of Fame 2026
Eisner Awards Hall of Fame judges Jim Thompson and Alonso Nuñez, along with awards administrator Jackie Estrada, present a slide show highlighting 19 of this year’s inductees into the Hall of Fame: Bob Bolling, Gerry Conway, Denys Cowan, Edwina Dumm, Mike Friedrich, Oliver Harrington, Don Heck, Abe Kanegson, Lee Marrs, Go Nagai, Paul S. Newman, Hector German Osterheld, Tom Palmer, Bud Plant, Mike Royer, Dave Sim, James Swinnerton, Carol Tyler, and Rick Veitch.
2:00 Graphic Novel Adaptations from Literature
For nearly as long as comics have existed, they have looked to literature of the past for inspiration. Classics Illustrated comics were hugely popular from 1941 to 1969, and Will Eisner himself adapted such works as Moby Dick and Don Quixote. The Eisner Awards have had a Best Adaptation category since 2010, with winners tackling such classics as George Orwell’s 1984 and Richard Adams’ Watership Down. Panelists Keithan Jones, Chris Ryall, Mary Ellen Stout, and Rocco Versaci join moderator Jim Thompson to describe what makes a great adaptation and offer some of their favorites.
3:00 Graphic Memoirs by Women
Several of Will Eisner’s graphic novels were memoirs (The Dreamer, To the Heart of the Storm, The Name of the Game), and many graphic memoirs have won Eisner Awards over the years. Today’s panelists focus on award-winning graphic memoirs by women, including such classics as Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Raina Telgemeier’s Smile, and Kate Beaton’s Ducks. Hear directly from Mary Fleener (Life of the Party) and Mimi Pond (The Customer Is Always Right, Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me) about what’s involved in creating such works. Moderated by Jackie Estrada.
4:00 Signing by Mimi Pond
Program Participants
Moni Barrette is a public librarian who over the past two decades has expanded her expertise in libraries, comics, and relationship building through her role at LibraryPass as the Director of Content Management and Publisher Relations. As co-founder of the nonprofit Creators Assemble, president of the American Library Association’s Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table, and adjunct lecturer at SDSU, she is dedicated to promoting learning through the use of comics and popular culture.
Jackie Estrada recently stepped down as the administrator of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (the “Oscars” of the comics industry) after 35 years, but she is still in charge of the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame. She edited numerous publications for Comic-Con and co-authored Comic-Con: 40 Years of Artists, Writers, Fans & Friends (Chronicle, 2009). Her two Comic Book People books contain photos taken at Comic-Con and other events in the 1970s–1990s.
Mary Fleener is an alternative comics artist, writer, and musician who resides in North County. Her drawing style, which she calls cubismo, derives from the cubist aesthetic and other artistic traditions. Her first publication was a work about Zora Neale Hurston, called Hoodoo (1988), followed by the comics series Slutburger and the autobiographical Life of the Party (1996). Her most recent work is the graphic novel Billie the Bee.
Mark Habegger is an artist/writer who has worked in the entertainment industry for over 25 years. He co-founded the North County Cartoonists Collective and regularly contributes comics and illustration art to Jollies, twice a year by the NCCC. He has produced the Reuben Awards for the National Cartoonists Society and conducts interviews with NCS members for their official YouTube channel. He is also a freelance writer specializing in music, comics. and pop culture.
Keithan Jones is the founder of KID, an independent publisher based in San Diego. The mantra behind KID is “The Kid in You Never Dies”—a reminder that our childhood spirit is at the core of who we are no matter how old we get. In 2018 Keithan created Black Comix Day: Heroes Rise, an annual Black History Month celebration of Afro-centric comics. In addition to doing his own comic Power Knights, Jones is an artist for various publishers, including Image Comics (Dread the Halls). He served as an Eisner Awards judge in 2021.
Alonso Nuñez is the co-founder (in 2012), executive director, and lead instructor of San Diego’s Little Fish Comic Book Studio, a nonprofit comic art studio and advocacy group. Alonso has served as a member of the One Book One San Diego Selection Committee since 2016, A graduate of New York’s School of Visual Arts, Alonso’s artwork has appeared in books and publications by Kodansha, Moonstone, and the ACLU. He is a judge for the Will Eisner Awards Hall of Fame.
Mimi Pond is a cartoonist/graphic novelist originally from San Diego. Her books include Secrets of the Powder Room, Shoes Never Lie, and Splitting Hairs and the memoirs Over Easy, The Customer Is Always Wrong, and Do Admit: the Mitford Sisters and Me. Mimi’s cartoons have appeared in numerous publications, and she also wrote scripts for TV series such as Pee-wee’s Playhouse and Designing Women and the pilot episode of The Simpsons: “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.”
Chris Ryall has enjoyed a prolific career as a comic-industry writer, editor, publisher, CCO, and historian, as well as executive producer of Netflix’s Locke & Key. In 2025, he assumed the District 5 seat on San Diego’s Board of Library Commissioners.
Mary Ellen Stout is a lecturer in the College of Arts and Letters at San Diego State University. Her areas of expertise are the history of feminism in comics, the history of women comic creators, comics and social justice, and using comics to teach difficult topics at the high school and college level.
Jim Thompson is an independent comics scholar, a frequent contributor to the Comic Arts Conferences at Comic-Con and WonderCon and other popular culture media conferences and conventions. In 2022 he formed A People’s History of Comics Facebook group for historians, scholars, and professionals. He is a judge for the Will Eisner Awards Hall of Fame.
Rocco Versaci is an English professor at Palomar College in north San Diego County, where he regularly teaches a comics-themed literature course that he created in 2001. He is the author of This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature. He was an Eisner Awards judge in 2025.
(Schedule subject to change. Space limited. Please leave time for parking in Balboa Park. You can find updated parking information here.)