Comic-Con International's annual soft-opening is scheduled Wednesday night, with events scheduled at the Central Library and the San Diego Convention Center.
Around 130,000 people are expected to attend the largest annual trade show through Sunday. Many are visitors from out of town, and some are from out of the country.
The first event will be a workshop for teachers on how to use comic books in classrooms, beginning at 5 p.m. at the library. Panelists will explore how comics support student achievement, discuss ways teachers can align curriculum to use comic books meaningfully, and provide resources for participants to take into their own classrooms, according to Comic-Con.
Panelists will include Colorado State University assistant English professor Antero Garcia; Peter Carlson, an English teacher at Animo South Los Angeles Charter High School; Susan Kirtley, an associate English professor at Portland State University who is developing a comics studies program, and Jenn Anya Prosser, a Denver teacher trying to include graphic novels in Colorado's common core education standards.
The evening continues at the convention center at 6 p.m. with world premiere screenings of pilot episodes of four series for the 2015-16 television season, including:
— "Supergirl," about a preteen who escapes from the doomed planet Krypton but arrives on Earth long after Superman, starring Melissa Benoist, Chyler Leigh, Mehcad Brooks and Calista Flockhart — it will appear Mondays on CBS;
— "Blindspot," a one-hour action thriller about an FBI agent played by Sullivan Stapleton who has to unravel the mysterious discovery of a naked, amnesiac woman covered in cryptic tattoos, including his name on her back — set for Mondays on NBC;
— "Containment," a CW show about the fight against a mysterious and deadly epidemic that triggers a vast quarantine of Atlanta, starring David Gyasi, Christina Moses and Chris Wood; and
— "Lucifer," about the reawakening of the fallen angel in Los Angeles, with Tom Ellis and Lauren German in the cast, scheduled for a midseason run on Fox.
The Preview Night slate also includes a new episode of "Teen Titans Go!"
Transportation
Comic-Con's free shuttle service will begin today at 3 p.m., and run every 15-20 minutes until midnight to 60 stops in downtown San Diego, Mission Valley, and hotels at Harbor Island and Shelter Island.
Beginning Thursday at 4:30 a.m., the buses will run 24 hours a day until Sunday at 7 p.m. The buses will run every 15 minutes between 8 a.m. and midnight, and every half-hour during the overnight hours.
Details on the bus schedules are available online at www.comic-con.org/cci/shuttles.
The Metropolitan Transit System announced it will increase the frequency of Green Line trolley runs to every 7 1/2 minutes beginning Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. The increased service will continue from around 6 a.m. to about 10 p.m. through the rest of Comic-Con.
Passengers are also encouraged to purchase "mTickets" via their smartphones. Passes for up to five days are available, according to the MTS.
The agency said the stops with the most parking spots along the Green Line route are at the El Cajon Transit Center, Grantville, Qualcomm Stadium, Hazard Center and the Old Town Transit Center.
Passengers can also ride the Orange and Blue lines to the 12th and Imperial station and transfer to the Green Line for a short ride to the Convention Center stop.
Comic-Con transit information on the MTS is available online at www.sdmts.com/trolley/comiccon.asp.
