Come to Baltimore Comic-Con at the Inner Harbor’s Baltimore Convention Center this October 28-30, 2022. Baltimore Comic-Con has announced Howard Chaykin, Bob Hall, Greg Hildebrandt, Louise Simonson, and Walter Simonson as guests of our 2022 event. Get your tickets now!
Howard Victor Chaykin is a longtime veteran of the comic book business. As a cartoonist — both writing and drawing — he has been a major influence on the direction of comics, referred to frequently as one of the principal architects of the modern comic book. His signature creation, American Flagg!, introduced a new level of narrative complexity, depth of character, and point of view in its text, not to mention a previously unseen level of design and craft to the visual nature of an all-too-frequently staid and timid medium. Chaykin continues to produce work that pushes the envelope of concept, context, and content in comics…in The Divided States of Hysteria for example, a comic book which, thanks to social media, enraged an entire new generation of the willfully ignorant who might have had a better case if they’d actually read the damned book. Chaykin’s newest series, Hey Kids! Comics!, is a fictionalized history of the comic book business, a love letter written with just a frisson of acid in the ink, to the field he’s loved and called home for over four decades.
Bob Hall had a long association with Marvel Comics, where at one time or another he drew most of the major books and characters such as The Champions, Spider-Man, Dr. Doom, Conan, Thor, The Fantastic Four, The Submariner, Captain America, PSI Force, The Avengers, and The New Mutants. He was the artist for the West Coast Avengers mini-series and was the primary artist on the original Squadron Supreme. He drew movie adaptations of Willow, Dark Man, and the notorious first Captain America movie, as well as pencils and inks for the graphic novel, Emperor Doom. Bob was an editor at Marvel in 1979. For Valiant, he wrote and penciled the monthly series Shadowman, wrote Timewalker, and then created Armed and Dangerous, a black and white “comicbook-noir” series. For DC, he wrote and drew the Batman graphic novel projects Batman DOA, I Joker, and It’s Jokertime. Recently, he has been creating educational comics that have tackled measles, mosquitoes, COVID-19, and vaccine hesitancy. Bob is a member of the National Cartoonists Society, Actors Equity Association, and the Society for Directors and Choreographers. His work can be seen at www.bobhall.com. Commissions and original art are available through www.catskillcomics.com. He can be messaged on Facebook.
The sons of a Chevrolet division chief, Greg Hildebrandt and his identical twin brother, Tim, were born in Detroit, Michigan in 1939. Both boys were avid artists and creative thinkers from a young age and carried their artistic passion with them throughout their childhoods.
After attending the Meinzinger Art School at age 18, Greg and Tim worked for the Jam Handy Organization and Industrial Film Production Corporation. They worked on animated training films for the auto industry, the military and major US corporations. In 1963, they moved from Detroit to New York City to work for Arch Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. He hired them to create art for his weekly TV show, Life is Worth Living, and to produce films on world hunger.
Eventually their focus moved on to commercial illustration, and in 1975, Greg and Tim illustrated the first of a series of Lord of the Rings calendars for Ballantine Books. This series of paintings launched the two men into international fame, with over a million calendars sold, and the name The Brothers Hildebrandt(R) was born! In 1977, Lucas Films hired the Brothers Hildebrandt to create the movie poster for the first Star Wars film, Star Wars: A New Hope. They only had 36 hours to create and paint the art. The movie was about to break in the theaters. They completed it on time. Lucas was very happy and another worldwide fandom was created.
In 2015, Greg had the opportunity to return to Star Wars after 20 years for Marvel Comics. He painted three new pieces for them for Star Wars compendium covers. He also painted Deadpool, Old Man Logan, Secret Wars, Captain America vs. Hitler, Black Panther, Thor, Thanos, The Inhumans, Conan and Old Man Logan comic covers for them.
In 2015, Greg started a new series titled “The Dark Side”. In this series, he painted his favorite villains in extremely large paintings, focusing mostly on giant head shots. The first three in the series are The Joker, Harley Quinn, and Batman.
In 2018, Greg began a new series titled “What If”. What if he wasn’t a kid in the 40’s and 50’s? What if he was an artist hired to paint the movie posters for the films he has loved since his first movie at age 5? So, he started with Creature from the Black Lagoon. The second painting he completed in this series is a painting for King Kong, 86 inches tall! This one is a killer piece of art. Then, Greg decided to repaint the 1977 Star Wars poster. In 1977, he painted it in 36 hours with his brother Tim. This time, he painted it in 36 hours alone.
Recently, Greg was honored by the Air Force at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. They requested a license to put one of Greg’s pinup paintings titled, “Keep em Flying”, on the nose of a transport plane. Greg, of course, said yes. This is a dream come true for him.
Louise Simonson has, like her husband Walter, contributed significantly to the comic book industry. “Weezie”, as she is known, began her comics career as an editor at Warren Publishing before leaving for Marvel to edit titles including X-Men, New Mutants, and Star Wars. Departing the editorial role in favor of writing, Weezie has contributed to storylines in Marvel’s Marvel Team-Up, Web of Spider-Man, and Red Sonja, and was responsible for the introduction of Apocalypse in X-Factor as well as the launch of Power Pack. At DC Comics, she worked on Superman: The Man of Steel and The Adventures of Superman.
Walter Simonson has made vast contributions to comics publishing, as a writer, an artist, and even in founding publishing imprints. He was recognized in 2012 at the Harvey Awards in Special Award for Excellence in Production/Presentation and Best Domestic Reprint Project for Walt Simonson’s The Mighty Thor, Artist’s Edition from IDW, and in 2013 for Alien: The Illustrated Story from Titan Books for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work. He also received the Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 at the Harvey Awards. Walt’s career began in the 1970s at DC Comics, where he worked on titles such as Weird War Tales, Manhunter, Metal Men, Orion, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Vigilante, and Hercules Unbound. Over at Marvel Comics, Simonson has had numerous noteworthy runs, including The Rampaging Hulk magazine, X-Factor, Fantastic Four, and Thor, on which he was responsible for the introduction of Beta Ray Bill and Thor as a frog. His most recent epic is the Ragnarok series at IDW Publishing.
2022 GUESTS
Confirmed guests for this year’s show include: John Beatty (Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars), Brian Michael Bendis (Action Comics), Mark Buckingham (Fables), Jim Calafiore (NED, Lord of the Pit), Richard Case (Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror), Frank Cho (Harley Quinn), Katie Cook (Nothing Special), Kristina Deak-Linsner (Roses for the Dead), Gene Ha (Mae, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Bob Hall (West Coast Avengers), Mike Hawthorne (Happiness Will Follow), Greg Hildebrandt (Star Wars), Klaus Janson (Daredevil, Friday and Saturday only), Chris Kemple (Artist Alley Comics), Barry Kitson (Amazing Spider-Man), Joseph Michael Linsner (Red Sonja), Bob McLeod (New Mutants), Shawn McManus (Sandman, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), Frank Miller (Sin City, Friday and Saturday only), Bill Morrison (The Simpsons), Trevor Mueller (Albert the Alien), Richard Pace (Second Coming, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Andrew Pepoy (Simone & Ajax), Khoi Pham (Teen Titans), Afua Richardson (Omni), Jon Romita, Jr. (Amazing Spider-Man), Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge), Louise Simonson (X-Men Legends), Walter Simonson (Ragnarok), Mark Waid (Superman: Red and Blue), Emily S. Whitten (The Underfoot), Keith Williams (Thor the Worthy), and Thom Zahler (Love and Capes).
