The largest literary festival in the US, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, takes place this weekend (April 29-30) at the UCLA campus. On Sunday, at 10am, I’ll be speaking at the festival’s only animation-related panel, called “Animation: New Frontiers in the Art & Medium.” Honestly, I have no idea what that topic means, but at 10am on a Sunday, I can hardly be expected to know what anything means so it shouldn’t be much of a problem. The panel is hosted by esteemed cartoon historian and NY TIMES animation writer Charles Solomon. Other panelists include authors Daniel Goldmark (TUNES FOR ‘TOONS: MUSIC AND THE HOLLYWOOD CARTOON), Mark Cotta Vaz (THE INVISIBLE ART and THE ART OF THE INCREDIBLES) and Norman Klein (SEVEN MINUTES: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN ANIMATED CARTOON).

Admission to the festival and the panel are both FREE. Other events that may interest BREW readers are the following: “Ray Harryhausen in Conversation with Richard Schickel” (Saturday, 10am), “Chip Kidd in Conversation with Charles Solomon” (Saturday, 11:30am), and “Mike Mignola in Conversation with Nick Owchar” (Sunday, 2:30 pm).