San Diego Comic-Con 2008

San Diego Comic-Con continues its dominance as America's most buzzed about comics and pop culture convention. See photo highlights from this annual comic convention held in San Diego, California at San Diego Convention Center, including cool cosplay, artists alley, publishers' panel discussions, exhibitors and special guest appearances, including Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach and Hiro Mashima, the creator of Fairy Tail.


Left picture: With special guest Tite Kubo scheduled to appear at Comic-Con 2008, characters from Bleach were a popular cosplay theme in the Exhibit Hall. Right picture: Hiro Mashima signed autographs for fans at the Del Rey Manga booth at San Diego Comic-Con. Tickets for the signing were handed out to fans who bought a copy of Fairy Tail, and in exchange, they got a special shikishi (autograph board) featuring Natsu, Happy and Lucy from Fairy T`il.

Castle GreyskullA humongous Castle Greyskull glowers at passerby at the Mattel Toys booth. Comic-Con is not just about comics -- it's about toys too, and lots of 'em. This humongous castle was accompanied by a bigger than life-sized statue of He-Man from the Masters of the Universe.

Friday morning's Shonen Jump panel attracted fans eager to find out the new shonen manga due to debut in the pages of this shonen manga monthly. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Weekly Shonen Jump and the 5th anniversary of the U.S. edition of Shonen Jump magazine, VIZ Media and Shonen Jump is promoting a contest that'll send one lucky winner ("and their BFF or parent") to Jump Festa in Tokyo.