SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., is scheduled to appear at Comic-Con International in San Diego today to discuss a graphic novel trilogy based on his life.
Lewis, who grew up on a sharecropper's farm in the segregated South, organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville and participated in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South.
He also helped organize and gave a speech at the 1963 March on Washington, D.C., where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream'' speech.
The novel, "March,'' was co-written with Andrew Aydin, an aide in Lewis' office, and artist Nate Powell.
The session featuring Lewis is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Room 23ABC of the San Diego Convention Center.
According to the publication Roll Call, Lewis plans to stick around the convention center the rest of the weekend. The first "March'' book is scheduled to hit retail shelves next month, with the others due in 2014 and 2015, Roll Call reported.
Other personalities scheduled to appear at Comic-Con today are astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Seth Green, Alyson Hannigan, Neil Patrick Harris, critic Leonard Maltin, Joe Mantegna, Malcolm McDowell, Alyssa Milano, Edward James Olmos, Anna Paquin, Jason Ritter and Michelle Rodriguez.
Besides the appearance by Lewis, the day's highlights include panels on "The Simpsons,'' "Family Guy,'' "True Blood,'' and "The Vampire Diaries,'' and previews from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, 20th Centrury Fox, and Lionsgate, which will include "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.''
The annual Comic-Con International Masquerade, where thousands of attendees show off their costumes, is scheduled for tonight.
