Lucy Lawless, the butt-kicking feminist icon Xena, will be returning to Comic Con this year as part of Starz Entertainment’s panel on their upcoming series, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand.”

The series is produced by Sam Raimi, and is inspired by comic books and graphic novels such as 300. Starz issued a press release about this event, and you can read all about it here:

ON JULY 24th, STARZ PUTS THE SPOTLIGHT ON

HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED ORIGINAL DRAMA

‘SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND’ AT COMIC CON

Cast And Crew Including Lucy Lawless, Rob Tapert and Steven DeKnight Host Exclusive First Look of Action Series Premiering January 2010

PANELISTS INCLUDE LUCY LAWLESS (“XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS”), PETER MENSAH, ROB TAPERT (EVIL DEAD 1-2, DRAG ME TO HELL), STEVEN S. DEKNIGHT (“BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER,” “ANGEL”) AND INTRODUCING ANDY WHITFIELD AS SPARTACUS

DEVIL’S DUE PUBLISHING & STARZ ALSO TO UNVEIL EXCLUSIVE COMIC BOOK MINI-SERIES INSPIRED BY “SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND”

WHO: Lucy Lawless (Lucretia), Andy Whitfield (Spartacus), Peter Mensah (Doctore), Rob Tapert (Executive Producer), Steven S. DeKnight (Executive Producer and Show-runner)

WHAT: Exclusive ‘First Look’ at the anticipated original drama “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” PLUS interview opportunities with cast and production team AND Unveiling of the Exclusive First Edition of series-inspired comic w/ special Comic Con cover.

The world of gladiators comes to life as the Roman Republic’s most brutal fighters clash in the ultimate arena. “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” is an entirely new vision of the ancient legend and will utilize virtual environments giving it a unique graphic novel look and style, along with a fresh narrative approach. Debuting exclusively on Starz, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” in January 2010 is produced by Starz Media with Executive Producers Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi and Joshua Donen. Starz’s new “Spartacus” series was inspired by the actual slave of the Roman Republic who in 73 BC led a slave revolt that grew to more than 120,000 fighters. Defying the Roman Republic’s legions of soldiers, they campaigned for two years through much of what is now Italy before succumbing to a much larger army. The new series will tell a new set of stories rich in character, action, sex and combat.

This series, including 13 one-hour episodes, is executive produced by heavy-hitters Sam Raimi (Spider-Man and Evil Dead), Rob Tapert (The Grudge, “Xena: Warrior Princess” and “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”) and Steven DeKnight (“Smallville,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”). Production, based in New Zealand, runs through the end of October.

WHERE: San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA

WHEN: Friday, July 24th

Comic-Con 2008 is one of those events where you must pray to get into various panels. We had high hopes of making it into 3-4 panels including Street Fighter IV, Afro Samurai and some films by Lionsgate however we only made it to the all female Scream 2008 lead by Comic-Con favorite Kevin Smith.

The 2008 Scream panel was pure laughs. The panelist included Gale An Hurd (Terminator, Terminator 2), Lucy Lawless (Xena, Battlestar Galactica), Jaime King (Sin City, The Spirit) and Pia Guerra (Y: The Last Man) and of course Kevin Smith.

After the introductions and of course Kevin Smith asking the questions (from cards no less) he had to scratch his itch and ask the panel who gets the most lesbian sex. Lucy Lawless played into his hand and said she gets as much as she wants. Obviously Kevin not expecting any answer was able to deliver a nice laugh to the crowd with this opening and set the tone for the rest of the questions to follow.

Below are the highlights:

We found that Jaime King was named after the Bionic Woman when asked about childhood heroes.

Lucy Lawless got to tell her NBC Tonight Show’s horse and broken pelvis story in which the tonight show now calls their last take the Lawless. Kevin Smith promptly followed with questions of suing the crap out of NBC. She replied she was too stupid at the time and was afraid they would never call her back. Kevin replied you could have owned the show with something like that.

Gale Ann Hurd discussed about getting the Terminator into theatres and the process of selling her script as a masculine lead role whom which everyone thought was a man at first. Little did investors realize it was a woman lead until the movie was nearly complete. This is the method that had helped her make great movies time over time including with films like Aliens.

Pia Guerra didn’t really have much to say throughout this panel however we did learn her first dog was named Jamie Summers.

At the end several lucky individuals one tickets to Scream 2008 and one girl in pink (also the person with the best question for the panel) won an on stage appearance at Scream 2008. Winners were decided by a sticker on the back of buttons handed out at the beginning of the panel.

Check out some picks of the panel below.