Comic-Con Málaga 2025: A First Look at the San Diego Comic-Con Spin-Off in Spain [Part 2]

👉 If you haven’t read Part 1, you can do so here.

My first experiences at the original San Diego Comic-Con International were possible because I attended the full event — from the Wednesday preview night all the way through Sunday.

After multiple visits, I noticed that the convention usually hits peak energy late Friday, stays strong through Saturday, and starts winding down by Sunday. That’s what I expected here as well.

For Comic-Con Málaga 2025, the Our Comics team was only able to attend Saturday and Sunday. To my surprise, the energy and programming remained exciting all the way to the end. These were our personal highlights.

Spotlight on Jim Lee

As mentioned in Part 1, the convention delivered a strong line up of Hollywood A-listers and comic book legends. Among them was a spotlight panel on Jim Lee.

For those unfamiliar, Jim Lee is currently the President of DC Comics, but his career spans decades of iconic work. His credits include Batman: Hush, the transition from Flashpoint to the New 52 era, and collaborations with Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, and Frank Miller. Earlier in his career, he also worked on Marvel titles.

Having attended his panels before in San Diego, I can confirm his approach hasn’t changed. He still connects with fans personally, and his answers show consistency in the passion and discipline behind his work.

He began the panel by sharing that he was actually on holiday on a cruise — but took a detour to Málaga just to be at the convention. Furthermore, he then grabbed his tools and crafted a couple of original sketches, which he generously gave away to attendees.

Jim Lee discussed his creative process: why he prefers to sketch characters before backgrounds, his love for traditional paper over digital tools, and even personal insights such as his view that Clark Kent is the real person and Superman is the alter ego. Hearing him articulate this perspective gave new depth to the stories we love.

Production IG, the Present Past and Future of Anime

In Part 1, we covered Studio Orange and their CGI-first approach to anime. On Sunday, we had the chance to attend another standout panel, this time from Production IG, one of the most influential anime studios in the world.

The panel was led by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa-san, the founder and CEO of Production IG. Since its founding in 1987, the studio has delivered legendary titles such as Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor 2, and Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade.

We also got to see a virtual recorded Q&A with Mamoru Oshii, the visionary director behind many of those works. He credited Ishikawa-san with being a key part of the synergy that made these productions possible.

The panel included clips from these classics and insights into how Production IG approaches storytelling from a business and creative perspective. Ishikawa-san also explained their role in supporting Studio Wit during its early years, helping launch titles like Attack on Titan. Furthermore, they continued to show clips of the of the upcoming film: Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle and the newest season of Kaiju No. 8 series.

He further revealed that Production IG recently welcomed Hideaki Anno (the creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion) as a board member — an exciting development for anime fans.

Finally, Ishikawa-san introduced Momo Inaba, who is now producing live-action projects for the studio, as Production IG expands into theater and cinema.

Personally, I found this panel incredibly rewarding. Learning about what happens behind the scenes of anime classics gave me a deeper appreciation for the art form.

Final Thoughts

As established in part 1, my experience of the event is different from a regular attendee. However, content-wise, no other convention that I've attended on their first event, can come close to put together a list of speakers and content that was put out there. The convention was not perfect, but in my opinion, although there's so much to improve, if you ever wanted to get the San Diego Comic Con experience, you can find it in Málaga.

Thank you again to the press team of the San Diego Comic Con Málaga Organization team, it was truly an amazing experience for me and my staff to attend the first edition of this event, we hope to come back again next and the following years to come.

Please look forward to the coverage of new events and conventions by the Our Comics team!

TL;DR — Comic-Con Málaga 2025 Highlights

• Great discussions with Jim Lee
• Amazing insights into the creation of classic anime with production IG
• Closing Thoughts and thank you