Austin is home to some great festivals and other events. From SXSX to Fantastic Fest the town certainly has more than its share of pop culture events. Another event coming up is the Austin Comic Con which starts this Friday and goes through Sunday at the Austin Convention Center.

The event features speakers such as writer/director Tim McCanlies, Harry Knowles, Bionic folk Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner, Billy Dee Williams, Walter Koenig, comic art superstar Joe Madura and Buffy’s Clare Kramer and Nicholas Brendon. For more info, check out all the details in this full press release for the event.

Celebrity Q&A panels, Film Screenings, “Drink & Draw” and Costume Parade highlight Austin Comic Con This Week
Austin Film Festival Screenwriters Panel, Artist Panels, Masquerade Ball and AMC’s Walking Dead Episode Preview Also Set

NEW YORK and AUSTIN, Texas—November 10, 2010 – A wide variety of entertaining and informative panels and comic industry sessions are among the programming offerings scheduled at Wizard World Austin Comic Con, this Friday through Sunday at the Austin Convention Center. Featured panels include Austin-based heroes such as screenwriter and director Tim McCanlies, film critic and pop culture guru Harry Knowles and filmmaker-wunderkind Emily Hagins. Austin Comic Con is sponsored by Austin Books & Comics, Alamo Drafthouse, Austin Chronicle, 101X FM and Dragon’s Lair.

Day programming begins on Friday with the popular “Wizard Art School,” as noted Marvel and DC artist Greg Horn leads a discussion on digital art, beginning at 2 p.m. in Room 9. Indy art sensations Rob Guillory (Chew) and Kody Chamberlain (Sweets) discuss their breakout Image hits in “The Art of Chew and Sweets” at 3 p.m. in the same room. Also at 3, in Room 8, “The Incredible Hulk,” Lou Ferrigno, sits down for an exclusive Q&A about the classic show and his status as a pop culture icon. At 4, the Women of Wrestling take the stage, as Torrie Wilson, Amy Dumas, Lisa Marie Varon, Christy Hemme and Jackie Haas discuss their special role in the sport of wrestling, in Room 8.

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In the rush to get things ready for our coverage of Comic-Con we occasionally miss information that we should have shared. One such instance is news from our fiends at Radical Publishing who will have a high profile panel and presence in San Diego this year.

A couple days ago they released their full schedule of events and we want to make sure and bring it to you before the Con starts in earnest tomorrow. Some of the guests for their panel include a veritable who’s who of comic book writers and artists including Jimmy Palmiotti, Rick Remender, Matt Cirulnick, David Hine and Keith Arem.

Plus, their panel will be moderated by non-other than Harry Knowles and they will have special appearances by Wesley Snipes, Antoine Fuqua and Sam Worthington. How’s that for entertainment?

So, if you’re in San Diego, be sure to catch all of these folks, and more, coming directly from Radical Publishing.

Click through for the complete press release giving you even more details. Also, check out the Radical Publishing website.

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With it’s common threads of obsession and neckwear, the Harry Knowles-hosted birthday bash was also host to a number of movie premieres and rare to find films this year. First was the coup of getting Avatar screened in 3-D, which garnered praise from most of the audience of guests and film critics. Knowles was also able to get a copy of Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese’s latest which has been pushed back until next year.

About this film, according to Anne Thompson’s blog, a viewer said: “It’s a version of Angel Heart without The Devil…I figured it out a third of the way through.” I still hold out that it’ll blow me away, much like it seemed to “Head Geek” Knowles, who called it a “brilliant movie.”

But apparently, the movie that overshadowed them all was Matthew Vaughn’s comic book adaptation Kick-Ass, which is about people (mostly kids) who put on superhero costumes, fight crime, get beat up, and a 10 year old that kills lots of people. Knowles compared it to John Woo’s Hard Boiled, only calling it “far more entertaining than that though, creating many iconic and thoroughly mind blowing sequences.”

Some of the other interesting movies to screen at the event were the Scorsese-suggested The Red Shoes, Powell and Pressburger’s classic about ballet; Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s newest, Micmacs, which is labeled as “satire on the world arms trade” and, finally a sneak peak at the Iron Man 2 trailer. The full list, and Knowles’ description of how all the films fit together, can be found on Ain’t It Cool’s website.