Baltimore’s Inner Harbor comes to life this September 28-30 as the Baltimore Comic-Con returns to the Baltimore Convention Center. Tickets are now on sale. The Baltimore Comic-Con has announced the return of Jim Steranko to the Baltimore Comic-Con! Jim is joined by comic luminaries Joe Giella, Paul Levitz, and Hero Initiative guest Denny O’Neil.

Jim Steranko has cut a ferocious path through the entertainment arts, with a dozen successful careers to his credit: author, magician, illustrator, escape artist, historian. He is cited as one of the prime architects of Marvel Comics and the co-creator of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. He also wrote and drew Captain America, The Hulk, Superman, and The X-Men (for which he designed the classic title logo); generated more than 150 original storytelling devices and techniques that changed the direction of the comics medium; and evolved a devoted cult of followers who have nicknamed him The Innovator. Wizard magazine credits Steranko as the 5th Most Influential Artist in the history of the form. He has painted a multitude of movie posters, record albums, and book covers; and in 1975, created Red Tide, the First Modern Graphic Novel. As the editor-publisher of the international newsstand entertainment magazine Prevue, he conducted hundreds of superstar interviews and penned more than three million words. He numbers among his friends and associates writers Mickey Spillane, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ray Bradbury; the animation giants Ralph Bakshi and Shamus Culhane; and directors Federico Fellini, John Huston, and Orson Welles. As a musician, he gigged with Bill Haley in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll; as a pop-culture icon, he has appeared at more than 350 international events and exhibited his work worldwide, including at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC and the Louvre in Paris; his two volumes of The History of Comics have sold more than 100,000 copies each; as an escape artist, his death-defying performances inspired the character Mister Miracle and, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon, he was the man upon which the protagonist of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay was based; and more-photographer, ad agency art director, sideshow fire-eater, male model, typographer, designer…the list goes on. As a filmmaker, he collaborated with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas – for whom he created the look of Indiana Jones – and Francis Ford Coppola on some of their most popular films. He served as Creative Consultant for the History Channel’s two-hour documentary Comic-Book Superheroes-Unmasked; shook up Twitter with his innovative TNT technique (visit his live Sunday-night sessions by typing in iamsteranko); and is currently prepping An Evening with Steranko for theatrical venues across the country.

His recent Captain America covers topped Marvel sales charts; the IDW SHIELD Artist’s Edition sold out before publication (and won an Eisner Award); and the 2017 Overstreet Price Guide – with his Batman cover – had record-breaking sales. His covers on the record-setting Action 1000 and Captain America 700 have polled as fan favorites. Over the past several decades, he has amassed more than 100 highly-commercial Intellectual Properties, his Theatre of Concepts, which range from children’s interactive-learning entertainments to high-action adult digital gaming, from science fiction to superheroes. His vision is to shape, structure, and synthesize character-driven projects with state-of- the-art technology for the World of Tomorrow. And he’s still the best-dressed man in comics.

Joe Giella returns to the Baltimore Comic-Con for a rare appearance. The oldest living artist to have worked on Batman, this Golden and Silver Age creator worked at Timely, Marvel, and DC Comics as a penciller and inker. In addition to working on the comic, Giella provided pencils and inks on the Batman syndicated strip, as well as the syndicated Flash Gordon, The Phamtom, Mary Worth, and Sherlock Holmes comic strips. The United States Postal Service honored Giella by using two of his pieces of art for their 2006 “DC Super Heroes” collection of postage stamps. He has been honored with an Ink Pot Award, as well as being presented with the Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement award at the 2016 Harvey Awards ceremony.

Paul Levitz has been a mainstay at DC Comics since 1972, serving as a writer, editor, and President (2002 – 2009) over the tenure of his career. His name is synonymous with the Legion of Super-Heroes, which he wrote from 1977-1979 and 1981-1989, and he created such notable characters as the Stalker, the Earth-2 Huntress, and Lucien the Librarian. Levitz has since returned to writing the Legion of Super-Heroes for the New 52, as well as the Earth-2 centric book, World’s Finest. After ending his career as DC Comics employee, Levitz moved onto the next phase of his career, accepting a Board of Directors position with BOOM! Studios. He has recently contributed Brooklyn Blood to Dark Horse Presents from Dark Horse Comics and guest edited and contributed an essay to DC’s Action Comics #1000.

A board member of Hero Initiative, retired writer and editor Denny O’Neil spent much of his career making an indelible mark at Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Initially brought on as a writer at Marvel, he had a hand in writing or scripting diverse titles including Strange Tales, X-Men, Millie the Model, and Rawhide Kid. After a year at Charlton Comics, he followed editor Dick Giordano to DC Comics, where he assumed writing duties for Beware the Creeper, Wonder Woman, Justice League of America, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, and, perhaps most notably, Batman. On that title, he embraced the dark roots of the character, creating and defining the tone for numerous characters from the series. He returned to Marvel in the 1980s, assuming writing chores on Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Iron Man where he once again created numerous recurring characters in the respective titles’ mythos. He also served as an editor during his Marvel stint on numerous titles and runs before returning as Batman Group editor at DC, where he also wrote The Question, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, and Batman: Sword of Azrael.