SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON 2018: SPECIAL GUEST INDEX (A-K)These are the CONFIRMED Special Guests – by alphabetical listing by surname, A-K – for San Diego Comic-Con, scheduled to be held at the San Diego Convention Center on the 19th to 22nd July 2018. (Preview Night takes place on Wednesday 18th July, but no programming sessions are scheduled for that day.)
These names were announced officially on the Toucan Blog by Comic-Con International and are correct as time of press – any changes or cancellations are listed when made available. While every effort will be made to keep this information as current as possible, some alterations may be made which are out of our control. If any errors are spotted, please do CONTACT US so we can make the relevant changes. CANCELLATIONS OF PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED GUESTS WILL EDITED INTO THE LISTINGS BELOW.
This is the index of names, in ALPHABETICAL ORDER, from A to K, as listed on the SDCC portal of the Comic-Con International website:
Please head HERE for the Special Guests L- Z listing of our SDCC 2018 Utility Pages – bookmark for your convenience!
(Artist: AMERICAN VAMPIRE / ALL-STAR BATMAN / HIT-GIRL)
Rafael Albuquerque was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He has been working in the American comic book industry since 2005. Best known from his work on ALL-STAR BATMAN, ANIMAL MAN, and BATGIRL, he has also published the creator-owned books MONDO URBANO (2010), EIGHT (2015), and HUCK (2015). Rafael is an Eisner and Harvey Award winner for the New York Times Bestseller AMERICAN VAMPIRE (DC Comics/Vertigo, 2010), written by Scott Snyder and Stephen King. His upcoming projects include the adaptation of the popular Neil Gaiman tale A STUDY IN EMERALD, and Mark Millar’s HIT-GIRL.
Marc Bernardin was a writer on the first season of CASTLE ROCK the new Stephen King and J. J. Abrams original series for Hulu, and was a staff writer on Syfy’s television series ALPHAS. He is a comic book writer, with GENIUS (Image), STATIC SHOCK, THE AUTHORITY, THE HIGHWAYMEN and MONSTER ATTACK NETWORK on his shelf.
Previously, he was the film editor for the Los Angeles Times, deputy editor of Playboy.com, a senior editor for The Hollywood Reporter, and a senior editor for Entertainment Weekly. He has contributed to GQ, Wired, and Empire, among others, including Comic-Con’s Toucan blog, where he is a monthly contributor.
(Writer/Artist: THE BEST WE COULD DO)
Thi Bui was born in Vietnam three months before the end of the Vietnam War, and came to the United States in 1978 as part of the “boat people” wave of refugees from Southeast Asia. Her debut graphic memoir, THE BEST WE COULD DO (Abrams ComicArts, 2017) has been selected as both an Indies Introduce and Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers title. She is the illustrator of A DIFFERENT POND, a children’s book by Bao Phi (Capstone, 2017).
Thi taught high school in New York City and was a founding teacher of Oakland International High School, the first public high school in California for recent immigrants and English learners. She currently teaches in the MFA in Comics program at the California College of the Arts. She lives in Berkeley with her son, her husband and her mother.
Aminder Dhaliwal is a native of Brampton, Ontario, and received a Bachelors of Animation from Sheridan College. She now lives in Los Angeles, where she is the director at Disney TV Animation. Previously, she worked as a storyboard director at Cartoon Network and storyboard director on the Nickelodeon show SANJAY AND CRAIG.
She has serialized WOMAN WORLD biweekly on Instagram since March 2017, garnering 150,000 followers and a nomination for an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Online Comic. The WOMAN WORLD book will debut from Drawn & Quarterly at Comic-Con this July.
Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist, journalist, and blogger. He is the co-editor of Boing Boing (boingboing.net) and the author of Walkaway, a novel for adults, a YA graphic novel called In REAL LIFE, the nonfiction business book INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE, such YA novels as HOMELAND, PIRATE CINEMA, and LITTLE BROTHER, and novels for adults including RAPTURE OF THE NERDS and MAKERS. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is an MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, is a visiting professor of computer science at Open University, and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.
(Writer, Producer, Comics Historian: KIRBY: KING OF COMICS)
Mark Evanier has been writing comic books since he was 17, having started reading them when he was about that many minutes old. He apprenticed with the great Jack Kirby and has written much about Jack and comic book history. He’s written countless comics including many with the superstars of Disney, Warner Brothers, and Hanna-Barbera, as well as BLACKHAWK and others for DC, his own co-creations including THE DNAGENTS, CROSSFIRE and MAGNOR plus he does something (God knows what) on GROO THE WANDERER with Sergio Aragonés. He’s also written hundreds of hours for TV including sitcoms, variety shows and cartoons, including writing/producing 20 years of GARFIELD THE CAT.
Emil Ferris grew up in Chicago during the turbulent 1960s and is consequently a devotee of all things monstrous and horrific. In a previous life, she worked as an illustrator and toy sculptor and received her MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. Ferris was a 2010 Toby Devan Lewis Fellow in the Visual Arts and in 2017 received two Ignatz awards for the first volume of her debut graphic novel, MY FAVORITE THIS IS MONSTERS.
Brian Fies’s comics include the Eisner Award-winning webcomic and graphic novel MOM’S CANCER, the graphic novel WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW?, and the webcomic THE LAST MECHANICAL MONSTER.
Within a day of his house burning down in last year’s northern California wildfires, Brian began documenting the experience in A FIRE STORY. That webcomic, and an animated version of it produced by PBS and shared on NPR, brought his story to more than 3 million readers worldwide. He is currently expanding A FIRE STORY into a full-length graphic novel while he and his wife Karen rebuild their home.
(Writer/Artist: CINQ MILLE KILMÉTRES PAR SECONDE / MADEMOISELLE ELSE)
Manuele Fior was born in Cesena in 1975. After getting a degree in architecture in Venice in 2000, he moved to Berlin, where he worked until 2005 as a cartoonist, illustrator and architect. He published the graphic novels LES VARIATIONS D’ORSAY (Futuropolis 2015), THE INTERVIEW (Futuropolis 2013), CINQ MILLE KILOMÉTRES PAR SECONDE (Atrabile 2010, winner Fauve d’Or, Meilleur Album, Festival International de Angoulême 2011, and Premio Gran Guinigi, Autore Unico, Lucca 2010), MADEMAISELLE ELSE (Delcourt 2009, winner, Prix de la ville de Genève 2009), ICARUS (Atrabile 2006, winner, Prix A. Micheluzzi Meilleur Dessin, Comicon 2006), and LES GENS LE DIMANCHE (Atrabile 2004). His illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, Le Monde, Vanity Fair, Feltrinelli, Einaudi, La Repubblica, Sole 24 Ore, Internazionale, and Rolling Stone Magazine.
He is working on a new comic book titled CELESTIA. His work appears in English translations from Fantagraphics Books. Manuele lives in Paris.
(Writer / Artist: DRACULA’S ARMY / WEREWOLVES OF WISCONSIN)
Andy Fish is a noted comic book artist, illustrator and painter. His work has been published all over the world and exhibited in galleries as far away as Sydney Australia. One of his paintings is in the collection of the National Gallery in Washington DC. He has a long history of published works, including a series of “How To” art books from Chartwell Publishing and several acclaimed graphic novels, including THE TRAGIC TALE OF TURKEY BOY and FLY: A TRUE STORY, COMPLETELY MADE UP.
For McFarland Press, Andy has done the popular graphic novels, WEREWOLVES OF WISCONSIN, which explores American Urban Legends and DRACULA’S ARMY which is a retelling of sorts of the Bram Stoker classic. He is currently working on an online version of the Adam West version of BATMAN and a new graphic novel mystery set during the age of the Dust Bowl in America’s Midwest. He resides in New England with his wife and fellow artist Veronica.
(Artist: ARCHIE / SILK / HOWARD THE DUCK)
Veronica Fish is an illustrator and comic book artist. Her work includes ARCHIE for Archie Comics, SPIDER-WOMAN, SILK and HOWARD THE DUCK for Marvel, SLAM! for BOOM! Studios, PIRATES OF MARS (self-published), and the graphic novel THE WENDY PROJECT for Papercutz. She is a frequent cover artist for IDW, Valiant, Dynamite and BOOM! Studios.
Her paintings have been exhibited in galleries across the US, and she’s done some fun stuff like storyboarding for commercials, illustrating for clothing companies and magazines, and character design.
She is currently working on a new project for Dark Horse Comics with Evan Dorkin. She lives in New England with her husband and fellow artist Andy Fish.
(Artist, Inker: IMMORTAL MEN, WILDC.A.T.S, FOREVER EVIL)
Richard Friend is an American comics illustrator born and raised in San Diego, California. Originally hired by Image Comics/WildStorm, he worked on such titles as GEN 13, WETWORKS, WILDC.A.T.s (garnering an Eisner Award nomination with penciller Travis Charest), DANGER GIRL, STEAMPUNK, and THE AUTHORITY. Richard moved over to Vertigo working on MADAME XANADU; the series was nominated for 4 Eisner Awards in its premiere year. He has gone on to work for DC Comics on titles such as BATMAN: DARK KNIGHT, DETECTIVE COMICS, FOREVER EVIL, WONDER WOMAN and is currently working on IMMORTAL MEN.
Richard also does fine art and illustration, premiering his original series the “Black Drawings” in Culver City Art Gallery Century Guild with an Alphonse Mucha exhibit. He is also a “YouTuber” posting daily videos on the creation of comics and working and surviving in the comics field. He is currently writing and illustrating his first original comic book story while documenting the entire process on YouTube.
Alex Grecian is the New York Times bestselling author of THE SAINT OF WOLVES AND BUTCHERS and the Murder Squad novels (THE YARD, THE BLACK COUNTRY, THE DEVIL’S WORKSHOP, THE HARVEST MAN, and LOST AND GONE FOREVER), as well as the ebook THE BLUE GIRL. He is also the co-creator of two critically acclaimed comic book series: PROOF and RASPUTIN, both published by Image Comics.
He has written short stories, both comics and prose, for publishers including Vertigo and ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. His books have been translated into many languages worldwide.
Elizabeth Hand is the bestselling author of 13 genre-spanning novels and 4 collections of short fiction. Her work has received the World Fantasy Award (4 times), Nebula Award (twice), Shirley Jackson Award (3 times), International Horror Guild Award (3 times), the Mythopoeic Award, and the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, among others, and several of her books have been New York Times and Washington Post Notable Books. Her recent, critically acclaimed novels featuring Cass Neary, “one of literature’s great noir anti-heroes” [Katherine Dunn] — GENERATION LOSS, AVAILABLE DARKand HARD LIGHT — have been compared to those of Patricia Highsmith.
With Paul Witcover, in the early 1990s she created and wrote DC Comics’ groundbreaking ANIMA, the first comics series to feature gay and bisexual characters, including the eponymous super-heroine. She is a longtime reviewer and critic for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Salon, among many others, and writes a regular book review column for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She also teaches at the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing.
She divides her time between the Maine coast and North London.
Deborah Harkness is a global phenomenon with readers of historical fiction and fantasy. Her first book, A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES, debuted at #2, and then went to #1, on the New York Times Bestseller List. SHADOW OF NIGHT (2012) and THE BOOK OF LIFE (2014) debuted at #1 on this prestigious list and became best-sellers throughout the world. Known as the “All Souls Trilogy,” more than 3.5 million copies have been sold through 37 different publishers.
Harkness is working on the television adaptation of A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES that will be produced by Bad Wolf. THE WORLD OF ALL SOULS will debut in the spring of 2018. TIMES CONVERT, Harkness’ next novel set in the same universe as “The All Souls Trilogy,” will debut in the fall 2018.
Visit DeborahHarkness.com for more information.
A one-time freelance magazine cartoonist who has also published in comic strip, editorial cartoon, and comic book genres, R.C. Harvey is an award-winning comics chronicler who explores the artistry as well as the history of the medium. Among his thirteen books are THE ART OF THE COMIC BOOK (an aesthetic history), biographies of Milton Caniff, Gus Arriola, and Murphy Anderson, and the forthcoming enhanced second edition of his autobiographical NOT JUST ANOTHER PRETTY FACE: THE CONFESSIONS AND CONFECTIONS OF A GIRLIE CARTOONIST.
Harvey publishes regularly in The Comics Journal and produces a biweekly online magazine Rants & Raves at www.RCHarvey.com, where he has been reviewing current comics and reporting news and lore about cartooning for 19 years.
Nalo Hopkinson is Jamaican Canadian. Her 1998 novel, BROWN GIRL IN THE RING, won the Warner Aspect First Novel contest. Her 2013 novel, SISTER MINE, won the Andre Norton Award. She’s also received the Campbell, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards, and the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic.
She is a professor of Creative Writing at the University of California Riverside. In 2017, she was a Guest of Honor at the 75th Worldcon, in Helsinki. She has a graphic novel and a story for a video game in progress, but she’s not allowed to say anything about them.
Larry F. Houston is the Emmy-nominated producer/director of THE X-MEN animated show, the phenomenally successful 1990s series that was part of the foundation that helped launch Marvel’s multi-billion-dollar franchises. Hired by Filmation Studios as the first African American Saturday Morning storyboard artist, he storyboarded and directed some of the favorite ’80s and ’90s classic shows such as THUNDARR, SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS, G.I. JOE, G.I. JOE THE MOVIE, Mr. T, BATMAN, JONNY QUEST, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, CAPTAIN PLANET, FANTASTIC FOUR, MIGHTY ORBOTS, and BIONIC SIX. Houston pencilled HE-MAN MINI-COMICS and promises new stories for THE VANGUARDS, his creator-owned super-heroines first published through CHARLTON BULLSEYE.
E.K. Johnston is the New York Times bestselling author of several young adult novels, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist THE STORY OF OWEN and STAR WARS: AHSOKA. Her novel A THOUSAND NIGHTS was shortlisted for The Governor General’s Award. The New York Times called THE STORY OF OWEN “a clever first step in the career of a novelist who, like her troubadour heroine, has many more songs to sing.”
Her most recent published works are THAT INEVITABLE VICTORIAN THING and FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW (STAR WARS). Johnston lives in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Follow her on Twitter at @ek_johnston and visit her website: http://ekjohnston.ca/
Lynn Johnston is the Canadian creator of FFOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE: this family-based comic strip has been syndicated since 1979 and was named Best Syndicated Comic Strip in 1992. At its peak, FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE appeared in more than 2,000 newspapers in twenty-three countries and was translated into eight languages for a devoted readership of more than 220 million.
Johnston was born in Collingwood, Ontario and grew up in British Columbia. After living in Manitoba and Ontario for many years, she now calls North Vancouver, BC home once again. Johnston is the first woman to receive a Rueben Award for Cartoonist of the Year by the National Cartoonist Society (1985). She has also received the Order of Canada and claims a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame. In 2008 Johnston retired from FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE at which time the comic strip was republished from the beginning and is now in its eighth year of reruns. In 2015 she was honoured by the Art Gallery of Sudbury in Sudbury, Ontario with a touring exhibit of her work.
Please head HERE for the Special Guests L- Z listing of our SDCC 2018 Utility Pages – bookmark for your convenience!