CBLDFMedia Release -- This week the CBLDF is proud to meet our members at events in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York! Come out to meet your fellow members and support the cause!

July 9: Los Angeles - Digital LA Comics Panel at Meltdown!

From our friends at Digital LA: The big San Diego Comic-Con celebration of comic books, pop culture, movies, and more is just around the corner! We're going to get into the comics spirit in LA with a mini-panel on Digital Comics and online comics communities.

Join us for our casual discussion where we'll discuss
- Digital distribution of comic books
- How to use online communities and social networks to market comics
- How to reach core fans to promote comic-related properties in movies (Wolverine, Iron Man, Dark Knight), television (HEROES), and video games
- Writing a graphic novel so you can own rights and get to-movie exec prod credits instead of writing a screenplay, to movie which gets you less

Scheduled Speakers include:
- Sam Humphries, creator of MySpace Comic Books
- Jermaine Turner, Disney XD, Director- Original Series
- Rich George, IGN, Comics Editor
- Jason Badower, artist/writer on online comic HEROES, True Blood, Zero G
- Jonah Weiland, Comic Book Resources, executive producer
- Chip Mosher, BOOM! Studios, Marketing and Sales Director

Agenda
7-8 Networking, check out the store
8-9:30 Panel Discussion
9:30-10 Networking

$15 ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED http://digitalla.net/comicspanel.htm
Meeting for a good cause: $5 of each registration will be donated to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, founded in 1986 as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community.

We'll be hosted by Meltdown Comics, LA's must-see pop culture destination. Meltdown's large 9000 sq ft st
ore on Sunset will be hosting comic events thruout July leading up to Comic-Con. Check out the schedule at http://meltcomics.com and follow at http://twitter.com/meltdowncomics

July 11: New York City - Conversational Comics Continues!

Conversational Comics, the three-panel speaker series sponsored by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, continues at host venue Union Pool in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Saturday, July 11 at 2:00 pm.

Jessica Abel (Artbabe, La Perdida), Jason Little (Shutterbug Follies) and Matthew Thurber (1-800-Mice, Kramers Ergot) will talk with comics critic Bill Kartalopoulos (Parsons, Print Magazine) about the nature of narrative and fiction in comics. We'll consider forms of storytelling that comics can adapt, and others that comics can generate.

Then stick around to get a book signed, hit the taco truck, and sip a summer drink with our featured cartoonists.

All events take place at 2:00 pm in the back room at Union Pool. Union Pool is located at 484 Union Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11211, one block from the Lorimer-Metropolitan G and L stop.

Suggested donation for each event is $5. All proceeds go to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Listen to the audio recording of our first Conversational Comics panel discussion, on June 27, 2009, featuring David Heatley, Lauren Weinstein, and Julia Wertz discussing the subject of autobiography in comics at http://www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000402.shtml

July 13: Chicago - American Library Association Graphic Novel Panel & Library Appreciation Party

The CBLDF is proud to honor our friends in the library profession with a panel and party at the American Library Association Conference.

1:30 PM My, those novels are certainly . . . Graphic. From their origins, cartoons, comic books, and graphic novels have been touchstones for controversy. In recent years, the status of graphic novels has been growing in the library world, bringing along high profile cases of censorship in libraries and schools across the country. A panel of creators will discuss the origins of comics censorship, how their works have been affected, and what it's like to be in the center of a censorship controversy. Panelists to include: Neil Gaiman, Terry Moore, and Craig Thompson. Moderated by CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein . This Panel is Co-sponsored by the Association of American Publishers and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Travel expenses sponsored in part by the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo.

6:00 PM CBLDF Library Appreciation Party Come to the Piece Brewery at 1927 W. North Ave, Chicago, IL 60622 with your ALA badge as the CBLDF raises a toast to the librarians on the front lines of intellectual freedom! Complimentary Piece Pizza will be served and a cash bar is available featuring location-brewed beer, including a dollar off brewer's choice beer especially for the event! This event is sponsored by the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo.