The Ringo Nominees Head to Baltimore Comic-Con 2026
The crowds will be buzzing at the 2026 Baltimore Comic-Con, taking place September 25-27 at the Inner Harbor’s Baltimore Convention Center. The Baltimore Comic-Con is pleased to announce the appearance of 2026 Ringo Awards nominees Patrick Buermeyer, Lisa Burdige, Jose Cambronero, Otis Frampton, Matt Garvey, Travis Gibb, Brad Guigar, John Hazard, Rob Leigh, Elias Gambit Melendez, Next_Jen, Tiffany Petitt, Taylor Robin, Dominike “Domo” Stanton, Stefan Tosheff, and Henry Widdicombe to our 2026 event. You can now get your tickets online, including limited ticket availability to the 2026 Ringo Awards Banquet and Ceremony!
Patrick Buermeyer is a traditional and digital artist, and sometimes writer who lives and works in Portland, Oregon with his french bulldog, Leon. He has been making comics since he graduated from Oregon State University in 2015. When he isn’t drawing or writing, he can be found at a park with friends and a frisbee, playing video games, or at a patio with a beverage.
Patrick will be signing Saturday 10:00am-11:00am and 5pm-6pm, and Sunday 11:00am-2:00pm in Booth #2013.
Lisa Burdige and John Hazard are an award-winning writer/artist couple and the co-creators of the Ringo Award-nominated Background Noise Comic. Their first book, Love Letters, Every Day (Oct. 2025), won a Zelda Award for Graphic Novel Non-Fiction. Lisa writes fiction plays, poetry, and essays. She’s a member of SFWA, Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers, and WinC International. John is also a children’s book illustrator and animator. His other independent comic projects include Schmooze or Lose and Frankenstein Superstar. They are both also arts educators. While their life is not a fairy tale, they are living happily ever after in Brooklyn.
Lisa and John will be signing Friday 1:00pm-3:00pm and Saturday 1:00pm-3:00pm in Booth #2013.
Otis Frampton is a comic book writer, artist, and animator. He is the creator of the Image Comics series Oddly Normal and the ongoing adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s The Patchwork Girl of Oz (Image Comics, 2025–present; Volume 1 recently nominated for a Ringo Award). He was also a character and background artist on the animated series How It Should Have Ended from 2011 to 2019.
Otis will be giving away 50 signed copies of The Patchwork Girl of Oz Volume 1 at his signing Saturday 10:00am-11:00am in Booth #2013.
Matt Garvey is a UK-based comic writer, letterer, publisher, and educator with more than 15 years of experience creating independent comics. He has written and published more than 30 comic issues and graphic novels across a wide range of genres, and has successfully funded 18 Kickstarter campaigns.
He is the author of Making Your First Comic and Kickstarter for Comic Creators, practical guides designed to help aspiring creators navigate the realities of making and publishing their own comics.
Alongside his own work, Matt shares advice through his YouTube channel and mentorship program, helping new creators with writing, collaboration, lettering, crowdfunding, conventions and, most importantly, actually getting their comics finished.
Matt will be signing Saturday 11:00am-1:00pm in Booth #2013.
Travis Gibb is a Ringo-nominated creator and has been working in comics off and on for over a decade, producing: Coins of Judas, Granite State Punk, Voodoo Nations, and Cthulhu Invades Oz/Wonderland. He has published books with Scout Comics, Caliber Comics, Image Comics, Second Sight, and Band of Bards. Travis is blessed to work with his wife, Heather, in their co-owned publishing company Orange Cone Productions, where she also works with him as his editor. Last but not least, he is the proud father of two awesome daughters and one amazing son.
Travis will be signing Friday 4:00pm-6:00pm and Sunday 2:00pm-4:00pm in Booth #2013.
Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc, winner of the 2023 Ringo Award for Best Humor Webcomic, and co-host of the long-running ComicLab podcast. A professional cartoonist since 2000, he is also the author of The Webcomics Handbook and co-author of How to Make Webcomics. He lives and works in Philadelphia.
Brad will be signing Saturday 11:00am-12:00pm in Booth #2013.
Rob Leigh is a comics veteran with over 30 years of experience in the industry, having established himself as one of the most sought-after letterers, and becoming a member of Ghost Machine’s founding creators in 2023.
His work includes DCU flagships such as Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Justice League, as well as Doomsday Clock and Batman: Earth One, where he collaborated with fellow Ghost Machine co-founders Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, and Brad Anderson, and Batman: Three Jokers from Johns, fellow Ghost Machine co-founder Jason Fabok, and Anderson. Leigh has also lettered for MAD Magazine and SpongeBob Squarepants.
Winner of the Wizard Fan Award and a Harvey Award nominee, Leigh is a graduate of The Kubert School, and has also served as a member of the faculty. When not in his studio, Leigh is an avid outdoorsman, enjoying the woods and water. He resides in New Jersey.
Rob will be signing Sunday 11:00am-12:00pm in Booth #2013.
Elias “Gambit” Melendez (yes, that is really his nickname) is a multitalented artist from Puerto Rico. Currently operating out of Florida with help from his cat, Aleister, Elias has made a name for himself in the indie comics scene, working on projects like the Cthulhu Invades series by Orange Cone Productions and various other exclusive store covers for different publications. In addition, he has self-published other projects, and occasionally, he creates original sketch cards for Dynamite Entertainment, producing art for The Transformers 40th Anniversary, Vampirella, Red Sonja, Dawn, and Evil Ernie, amongst other card sets.
Not only is he an accomplished illustrator, but he is also an accomplished painter, with some of his work shown in various art shows around the East Coast of the USA. When he is not busy illustrating comics, he spends his days as a full-time tattoo artist with more than 20 years of experience.
Elias will be signing Saturday 3:00pm-4:00pm in Booth #2013.
Next_Jen (a.k.a. Jennifer Castro) graduated at Digital Media Arts college with a bachelor’s degree in game art animation. While studying there, she was inspired to write stories on the side and found it was her passion.
Soon, she began writing Coexistence, a story she worked on for over 7 years. She spent countless hours designing worlds, characters, alien species, and backstories. She decided to start illustrating her story into a webcomic to bring it to life. Since posting her webcomic online, it gained traction along with a dedicated fan base.
Coexistence won 3 Zelda Awards in 2026 for Best Sci-Fi Webcomic, Best Letterer, and Trailblazer. It was featured as the 5th most popular sci-fi webcomics of 2024 on GlobalComix, top 10 sci-fi webcomic on WEBTOON Canvas, and now nominated for Best Series for the Ringo Awards in 2026. Her dream is for Coexistence to one day to be adapted into an animated series.
Next_Jen will be signing Friday 1:00pm-7:00pm, Saturday 1:00pm-2:00pm, and Sunday 10:00am-5:00pm in Booth #2013.
At an early age, Jose Cambronero was captivated by comic books. He went to college to pursue screenwriting. He wrote scripts and even worked on a short film for his classes. During this time, his love for storytelling rekindled.
Then, when he met Next_Jen, they started brainstorming comic ideas together. They came up with many stories, and one of them was Coexistence. It became their passion as they worked together writing the script, storyboarding, and bringing it to life.
Jose is currently the co-writer of Coexistence and the writer for B.I.O.: A Coexistence Story.
Jose will be signing Friday 1:00pm-7:00pm, Saturday 1:00pm-2:00pm, and Sunday 10:00am-5:00pm in Booth #2013.
Tiffany Petitt is a 35-year-old writer/illustrator from Winston-Salem, NC. She’s been working on her series, Scent: The Pursuit of the Golden Hill, for the past 5 years, resulting in 4 volumes and a prologue.
Scent is a manga-style Western with werewolves and a slow-burn, wholesome romance set in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming in 1849. Each volume is roughly 300 pages and sports full-color illustrations throughout.
With over a thousand copies sold, the series has garnered a small but enthusiastic audience she calls the “Brood”, who she keeps in touch with daily on Discord where she also regularly shares her process.
The plot of Scent revolves around a mysterious and powerful golden werewolf, Emmett, and his troubled efforts to face the demons of his past while unwillingly becoming responsible for protecting a small human woman, Ruth, in the unforgiving wilderness filled with monsters. The cat and mouse chase covers many miles, many days, and an abundance of grudges across the entire mountain range.
This project is heavily inspired by the master storytellers Makoto Yukimura, Natsuki Takaya, and Eiichiro Oda.
Tiffany will be signing Friday 6:00pm-7:00pm in Booth #2013.
Taylor Robin is the author of the YA graphic novel Hunger’s Bite and its upcoming sequel, Fate’s Run. He grew up in a coastal town with five yacht clubs and almost drowned while cleaning a boat, which had no impact on his decision to set his debut horror comic aboard an ocean liner full of terrible rich people. Previously, he created the webcomic Never Satisfied, has written a handful of Steven Universe comics for BOOM!, and worked as a storyboard revisionist at Titmouse on shows like Harriet the Spy and Kiff. But these days, he’s mostly interested in making graphic novels about terrible rich people.
Taylor will be signing Saturday 2:00pm-3:00pm and 4:00pm-5:00pm in Booth #2013.
Dominike “Domo” Stanton has worked as an artist, from caricatures at Six Flags to lead character designing in animation, to working over a decade-long career as an interior artist and storyteller on many different books for the biggest publishers in comics. His most notable works include Marvel Comics’ Starbrand and Nightmask, The Sandman: House of Whispers from DC Comics, and the award-nominated webcomic series, Taste of Justice, also from DC Comics.
Domo will be signing Saturday 4:00pm-6:00pm in Booth #2013.
Stefan Tosheff is a comic artist from Vancouver, British Columbia. Originally from a small Gulf Island, he now resides in East Van, dividing his time between drawing all day, playing in more bands than strictly necessary, and occasionally stepping outside to look at the sun.
His works include Romeo vs. Juliet, Miramar, Minerva’s Map, Nothing Butt Nightwing, and Daybreak!
Stefan will be signing Saturday 3:00pm-4:00pm and Sunday 4:00pm-5:00pm in Booth #2013.
Coming from a background in stand-up comedy, Henry Widdicombe wrote and published his first comic in 2025. How to Survive an Affair: A Practical Guide is an autobiographical comic which uses multiple artists to tell one coherent story. Using humour as a vehicle to process a particularly traumatic time in his life, his debut comic broke through on the small press scene in the UK with a follow up out later this year, and an eventual book charting the entire story of Henry finding himself in a situation he never thought he’d be in.
Henry will be signing Friday 3:00pm-4:00pm and Saturday 12:00pm-1:00pm in Booth #2013.
After graduating college, he made a career for himself as an independent artist working for such companies as Eternity Comics, Top Shelf Productions, and Alternative Comics. In addition, his artwork was featured in the Vertigo graphic novels, The Quitter, The Alcoholic, and Cuba: My Revolution. Haspiel is a founding-member of the webcomics collective, Act-i-vate and, in 2010, won an Emmy Award for his title design for HBO’s Bored to Death.