I’m So Excited for Denver Comic Con 2016, I could just SQUEEEEEEEEE.

Guess what, everyone??

That’s right: Denver Comic Con is THIS WEEKEND.

I am excited. Like, more than Christmas levels of excited.

And I have my footwear situation all sorted for this year. I am no longer a newb!

Following are the things I am most looking forward to at this year’s Con:

1) The look on my son’s face when we meet Stan Lee. Stan Lee was scheduled for Denver Comic Con a few years ago and had to cancel. So everyone was leery of getting too excited when he was scheduled again for this year. But it’s already Wednesday and my photo pass is for Friday evening, so I’m going to go ahead and be thrilled. Because STAN LEE.

There are still photo op and autograph slots left for Stan Lee, as well as some VIP packages if you are into that. His panel is on Saturday at 1:30pm on the Main Event stage in the Bellco Theatre. I’d line up early for this one.

2) Lena Headey. Come on. She is Cersei Lannister on Game of Thrones. Don’t tell me you won’t be hitting up her panel Sunday afternoon.  (2:45pm, Sunday June 19th, Main Event – Bellco Theatre)

3) All the Karate Kid stuff. I am a child of the 1980s. I can’t help but love The Karate Kid. It’s probably second only to The Goonies in terms of my favorite 80s movies. Young Daniel-san himself, Ralph Macchio, is doing panels, photo ops, and autographs all three days of DCC ’16, and there will also be appearances from William Zabka (the evil Johnny!) and Martin Kove (the evil Cobra Kai sensei!). There will be a screening of the original film during Friday evening’s opening festivities, and a couple of different panels (Spotlight on Ralph Macchio at 1pm on Friday the 17th, Xfinity Stage – Bellco Theatre;  and the Karate Kid Retrospective, 6pm, Saturday June 19th, Xfinity Stage – Bellco Theatre).

4) Agent Peggy Carter! OMG! Hayley Atwell is appearing at DCC ’16 on Saturday the 18th, in a Spotlight panel appearance and doing autographs and photo ops. I hope she brings her red hat. She will only be appearing on Saturday so if you adore her the way I do, plan accordingly! (2:45pm, Saturday June 18th, Main Event – Bellco Theatre) 

5) Speaking of badass women: WONDER WOMAN! Denver Comic Con has a number of events this year to celebrate the 75th anniversary (birthday? I don’t know! Whatever it is, it’s awesome!) of Wonder Woman’s first appearance in comics. I’m most excited about two particular panels, both happening on Friday: The Voices of Wonder Woman (11:45am, Friday June 17th, Xfinity Stage – Bellco Theatre), featuring voice actors from two of the most popular cartoons starring Wonder Woman; and Wonder Woman 75th Anniversary Creators – Issue #1 (2:45pm, Friday June 17th, Room 712), featuring DC artists working on one of the newest Wonder Woman comics.

6) Speaking of badass women, part two: DCC ’16 makes amends for The Fracas that happened last year. There was a panel last year called Women In Comics. There was an awkward moment (or two days) when everyone realized that there were no actual women on the panel convened to talk about women in comics. A number of prominent women working in comics quickly convened a new panel that was held the following day, but it was last minute and people didn’t know about it, and the whole thing left a bad taste in the mouth of a lot of women and girls, because DCC was paying a lot of lip service to the concepts of diversity and inclusion. Well, this year, it’s lip service no more. Pop Culture Classroom, the organizers of Denver Comic Con, have clearly busted their asses to make sure that women are featured prominently on panels, especially panels about women. One of the main event panels kicking off this year’s con is Women Working in the Comics & Animation Industry Today (10:30am, Friday June 17th, Xfinity Stage – Bellco Theatre), a panel featuring several professional women working in comics, animation, and literature. This panel will include my absolute favorite guest from last year, Trina Robbins. She’s been around this industry a long time and has cool stuff to say. Don’t miss her!

7) Speaking of diversity: DCC ’16 is offering an entire series of panels called Page 23 Litcon, which will present discussions surrounding racial, gender, and sexual diversity in pop culture. There is some super cool stuff being discussed, primarily focusing on using pop culture in educating young people. In addition, there are the panels in the Unity series which will present discussions about depictions of girls and women in pop culture; depictions of Native American and Indigenous characters in comics and film; the nature of LGBTQ depictions in today’s pop culture; feminism and Disney; feminism and Muppets… the list goes on. For a person (me) who likes to geek out over academic discussions about pop culture’s place in THE culture, your (my) cup runneth over.

And speaking specifically to LGBTQ diversity (and the DCC Unity logo at the top of this post), Denver Comic Con is hosting a number of additional events in conjunction with Denver PrideFest, which also takes place this weekend. Panels of particular interest include the Ambiguously Gay Panel, about adding diversity to comics (6pm, Friday June 17th, Room 605), and the LGBTQ From Margins to Mainstream panel (10:30am, Sunday June 19th, Room 605). There are also panels on cosplay, LGBTQ depictions in comics and artwork, and a sci-fi speed dating session. And! The big closing event for this year’s con is a group wedding for a number of gay couples. Everyone loves a wedding and this promises to be a big, fun, geeky one.

8) NASA! SETI! SCIENCE! OMG! There are actual NASA and SETI scientists at this year’s con, presenting panels on technology; Women In Science; exoplanets; sci-fi vs. physics; the real science of zombies; Pluto; SETI; and working for NASA. These panels are all offered as part of the DCC Presents series and are taking place throughout the weekend.

9) John Barrowman.  JOHN. BARROWMAN. My friends in Orlando just met John Barrowman a few weeks ago at MegaCon and tell me he is as delightful as he seems — not that I ever doubted this. He has a Main Event panel late Saturday called the John Barrowman Extravaganza (5:15pm, Saturday June 18th, Main Event – Bellco Theatre).

10) Literally everything else. It’s a ridiculous endeavor, attempting to narrow my excitement down to such a short list. So I’m going to cheat and say that I’m just excited about the whole thing. All of it.

My best advice? Make a plan. Download the Pop Classroom app (that’s a link to the computer app, and there is a more comprehensive version for your phone) and look over the offerings.

Look them over again.

Take a deep breath.

Make a schedule.

Then jump in.

With good shoes. I’m sticking with my Birkenstocks this year.