Additional speakers and keynotes have been announced for VidCon 2014, taking place June 26-28. More than 18,000 fan, creators, YouTube personalities and entertainment industry executive are expected to attend the annual online video conference at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA.

The newly released list of keynote speakers includes New York Times bestselling author John Green, NBCUniversal executive Lauren Zelaznick, and Fullscreen founder George Strompolos. YouTube content creators Grace Helbig, Freddie Wong and more are also slated to speak. The Industry track, which is geared toward online video creators, including topics on launching a channel, knowing your audience and earning revenue.

VidCon will also feature programming for fans such as Q&As, signings, performances, concerts, and the expo hall.  Many of YouTube’s most popular personalities are confirmed to attend the 5^th Annual VidCon including Philip DeFranco, iJustine, The Gregory Brothers, Hannah Hart, Tyler Oakley, Charlie McDonnell, Toby Turner, Jack Harries, and many more. For a complete list of speakers, guests, and more, visit www.vidcon.com

Founded in 2010 by online video personalities Hank and John Green, VidCon is the world’s largest industry conference and fan event of its kind. Event sponsors for the 2014 conference include YouTube, Kia Motors, Maker Studios, Awesomeness TV, Fullscreen, HGTV, Dolby, Tubestart, and Penguin Publishing.

Friends, Shakespeareans, gamers, lend me your ears! IDW Games has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a Kill Shakespeare board game, based on the graphic novel series.

With a goal of $25,000, Kill Shakespeare is the first joint venture between IDW Games and Pandasaurus Games. The campaign includes perks such as lithographs, posters, custom dice and of course the game itself, at a deeply discounted rate. Stretch goals are also in place to expand game content to include additional characters and quests.

The game itself is a semi-cooperative board game where players are one of Shakespeare’s heroes battling against his villains while completing quests from the Bard himself.

More than 18,000 online video fans and creators are expected to flood the Anaheim Convention Center for the fifth annual VidCon June 26-28, 2014. YouTube will once again be the title sponsor of the event.

“VidCon is simply about and for people who love online video,” said Hank Green, creator and cofounder of VidCon. “The media landscape is rapidly changing, as is the way we communicate with one another, and we have created a single event that brings together everything and everybody connected to online video.”

Many of online video’s most recognizable personalities have already been confirmed for VidCon 2014 including: Charles & Alli Trippy, Charlie McDonnell, Freddie Wong, Grace Helbig, Hank & John Green, Hannah Hart, iJustine, Philip DeFranco, Toby Turner, Ze Frank, Jack & Finn Harries, Tyler Oakley, The Gregory Brothers, Wheezy Waiter, Dane Boedigheimer (The Annoying Orange), The Fine Brothers, Rhett & Link, Shay Carl, Zoella, Tanya Burr, Jim Chapman, Marcus Butler, Caspar Lee and Troye Sivan.

It is time to face the facts: My Little Pony is a worldwide phenomenon. The My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic from IDW has now sold over 1 million copies in less than one year. The first issue is also the best-selling comic in IDW’s history.

“We have a great relationship with Hasbro, one we’ve always been very proud of, so selling a million copies is a really big deal, but to be able to celebrate the achievement with Hasbro makes it even sweeter, ” said Ted Adams, IDW CEO & Publisher.

In celebration of the milestone, Hasbro and IDW are producing a rare variant cover for issue #12 of the comic, which is due out this month. Only 12 copies of the cover will be available to win through contests and charity auctions.

Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary will truly be celebrated worldwide. BBC America has announced that the special episode, “The Day of the Doctor,” will air simultaneously across the globe in at least 75 countries and spanning six continents.

“Few TV shows can still lay claim to being appointment viewing but Doctor Who takes this to another level,” Tim Davie, CEO of BBC Worldwide, said. “In its 50th Anniversary year we wanted to create a truly international event for Doctor Who fans in as many countries as possible and the simultaneous broadcast and cinema screening of the special across so many countries will make for a fitting birthday tribute to our Time Lord.”

The list of countries airing the special at the same time as the UK include the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Colombia and many more. Additional countries are expected to be added over the next month. BBC America is also set to announce soon select 3D screenings of the special episode in U.S. theaters.

During an agonizingly drawn out live announcement Sunday, it was finally revealed that the Twelfth Doctor is Scottish actor Peter Capaldi. He will step into the TARDIS this Christmas when current Doctor, Matt Smith, exits the show.

“Being asked to play The Doctor is an amazing privilege,” Calpaldi said. “Like The Doctor himself I find myself in a state of utter terror and delight. I can’t wait to get started.”

Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer says, “It’s an incendiary combination: one of the most talented actors of his generation is about to play the best part on television. Peter Capaldi is in the TARDIS!”

A lifelong Doctor Who fan, Capaldi appeared in the fourth season episode “The Fires of Pompeii” and had a recurring role in Torchwood: Children of Earth. He is perhaps best know for his role as Malcolm Tucker in the BBC comedy, The Thick Of It. He recently starred in World War Z and will be seen as Cardinal Richelieu in the BBC AMERICA and BBC One drama series The Musketeers, which will launch in early 2014.

The Scotsman had in fact emerged as a favorite in all of the pre-announcement hype. Other actors fans speculated about included Idris Elba, Ben Daniels, Daniel Rigby, and a few female stars as well. Smith squashed any hopes of a Lady Time Lord when he said during the live show, “If I had to pick somebody, I’d pick him. I know what’s coming and he’s going to have a blast.”

In an amazing show of fan strength, Avatar: The Last Airbender— The Search Part 2 is currently atop the New York Times bestseller list for the second consecutive week. The Dark Horse graphic novel is written by Airbender series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko along with Gene Luen Yang and is part of the official follow up to the beloved TV show.

Beating out previous number one, Saga Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughn, as well as Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, Vol 18, The Search Part 2 first nabbed the top spot the week of July 25th.

The story continues Fire Lord Zuko’s journey to find his long-lost mother, who disappeared when he was still a boy. After the shocking cliffhanger in The Search Part 1, Zuko, accompanied by Aang, Team Avatar, and his diabolical sister, Azula, has entered a mysterious forest. The woods may hold the answers he seeks but they could also keep the group trapped inside forever.

The end of Eleven is coming this year. In an official release, the BBC has announced that Matt Smith will be leaving Doctor Who in this year’s Christmas special.

In a statement released by the BBC, Smith says:

“Doctor Who has been the most brilliant experience for me as an actor and a bloke, and that largely is down to the cast, crew and fans of the show.  I’m incredibly grateful to all the cast and crew who work tirelessly every day, to realize all the elements of the show and deliver Doctor Who to the audience.  Many of them have become good friends and I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the last four years.

Having Steven Moffat as showrunner write such varied, funny, mind-bending and brilliant scripts has been one of the greatest and most rewarding challenges of my career.  It’s been a privilege and a treat to work with Steven, he’s a good friend and will continue to shape a brilliant world for the Doctor.

In celebration of Star Wars Day on May 4th, geek chic merchandise line Her Universe will be debuting six new Star Wars fashion pieces exclusively on Hottopic.com. Included in the release are several new tops and, for the first time, dresses featuring a galaxy far, far way. Featured characters include Boba Fett and Darth Vader as well as the Rebel trio, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia.

This is the second year that Hot Topic has teamed up with the fangirl line created by actress and entrepreneur Ashley Eckstein. Star Wars is in fact very dear to Eckstein’s heart; she was the voice of Ahsoka Tano on Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

“I am thrilled to be working with Hot Topic again to celebrate May the 4th Be With You,” said Ashley Eckstein. “I am also excited to debut a new design with one of our favorite guest designers, Denise Vasquez. Denise brought her unique ‘Day of the Dead’ inspired style to a new design featuring Boba Fett.”

In a show of the strength of the online video community, it has been announced that YouTube will be a title sponsor of the online video conference, VidCon, for the next two years. The 2013 VidCon is expected to have more than 10,000 online video professionals, content creators and fans in attendance.

Since the event’s inception in 2010, YouTube has been a supporter and sponsor. While the specifics of their title sponsorship will be released closer to the event, it’s clear that the decision will give YouTube a strong presence both this year and in 2014.

“YouTube has been a long-term supporter of VidCon, and is, of course, the biggest company in online video,” said Hank Green, creator and cofounder of VidCon. “We’re thrilled to have them as our title sponsor for the next two years and are grateful for their continued support of our efforts to create a compelling and productive experience for VidCon attendees.”

Noted as “the largest industry conference and fan extravaganza in the world for online video” VidCon is set for August 1-3, 2013, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA. Industry Day, which is geared toward professionals and the online video business, will be on August 1.

Brad Bell and Jane Espenson are a dynamite duo. The team has created the winning Web series, Husbands, which was recently picked up by the CW’s online content branch, CW Digital Studio.

In case you’re not familiar, Husbands follows a gay actor (Bell) and a gay baseball player (Sean Hemeon) who wake up in Vegas married. Despite having only known each other for six weeks the two decide to go for it and that means dealing with moving in together, petty fights, cute make ups, and public scrutiny (and then some).

Not only will fans get to see existing episodes via CW but the network is also funding new episodes. Bell and Espenson, who also created Husbands: The Comic with Dark Horse, are excited to continue exploring the still very much newlywed relationship of baseball superstar Brady and outgoing actor Cheeks.

When most gamers here the phrase “Free-to-play,” heads are usually shaken and faces are definitely palmed. Once in a great while, however, there comes a free-to-play game that is that actually is free to play. Blacklight: Retribution is one of the few games that not only costs you nothing to enjoy, but is also damn fun to play in the process – and now, it’s as easy as downloading it from the Steam store (for FREE).

From Andy Kipling, Executive Producer at Zombie Studios:

“We couldn’t be more excited with the upcoming release of Blacklight: Retribution on Steam. With millions of active users daily, Steam has become the premiere digital distribution service around the world. As the Free-to-Play market grows, we continue to explore new methods for our fans to play our games, and bringing Blacklight: Retribution to Steam was a no brainer. Working with Valve to bring Blacklight: Retribution to Steam was extremely easy. We added support for Steam Achievement and Stats to Blacklight: Retribution, and a number of in-game items especially for Steam users.”