Christian companies were expected to come out in full force at the international Comic-Con expo, which starts today in San Diego. Last year's Comic-Con saw attendance of more than 104,000 individuals, pros and exhibitors.

The Christian Comic Arts Society (CCAS) will host its annual “Sunday Meeting” on Sunday, with a panel discussion on the topic of “Christian Biographical Subject Matter in Comics.”

Alias Comics will make its second appearance at Comic-Con, featuring the creators and art teams from Atomik Mike, Chrono Mechanics and Lullaby. Alias will be announcing plans to begin work on a new “Angel Wars” series of graphic novels based on the children's video series.

Also appearing at Comic-Con will be the “Serenity” manga series from Barbour Publishing, which recently signed Realbuzz Studios to the creation of 12 more inspirational manga titles for girls. The “Hits & Misses” series, “Goofyfoot Gurl” series and “Life! Camera! Action! Starring Serenity” series will release early 2007.

WestBow Press, the fiction imprint of Thomas Nelson Publishers, recently collaborated with Alias Comics to produce a graphic-novel version of the first few chapters of Ted Dekker's new novel, Saint, to release in the fall. Copies of the promotional comic will be handed out at the convention.

Infuze's online magazine will debut a new comics portal, comics.infuzemag.com at the show. The site-created by Infuze Magazineonline as a one-stop homepage about comic books-will feature news, press releases, previews of upcoming issues, monthly solicits and reviews.

Issues of BUBBLEMAG, a Christian lifestyle magazine for youth ages 13-20 that launched in the last year, will be given away at Comic-Con. The publication will regularly feature Christian comics from a biblical perspective.

“I don't say this very often, but God is clearly moving aggressively into this area of entertainment,” said Scott A. Shuford, founder/CEO of FrontGate Media. “I've been watching this area for three years. It feels like the beginning of a Passion-like student movement but within the comics world.”

CCAS was formed in 1984 to link Christians interested or active in the comic book/strip medium.