Sean Chen, Nikkol Jelenic, Terry Kavanagh, Rick Leonardi, Alitha Martinez, Bella Rachlin, Joe Rubinstein, and Kevin VanHook are coming to Baltimore Comic Con
You won’t want to miss the Baltimore Comic Con next weekend, October 28-30, 2022 at the Inner Harbor’s Baltimore Convention Center. The Baltimore Comic-Con has announced the addition of comic writers and artists Sean Chen, Nikkol Jelenic, Terry Kavanagh, Rick Leonardi, Alitha Martinez, Bella Rachlin, Joe Rubinstein, and Kevin VanHook. Tickets for admission and VIP experiences are online now.
Sean Chen has been a major part of the comic book industry for over two decades. Starting with Valiant Comics, his debut book, Rai And the Future Force, topped the charts with over 800,000 copies sold. He then moved on to Harbinger and Bloodshot before landing on their flagship title X-O Manowar. Sean then found a new home at Marvel, where he started what would become the longest and most remembered run of his career, working on Iron Man. For the next decade, he had his hands on a number of titles, including Wolverine, X-Men, Spider-Man, Nova, and The Avengers.
Nikkol Jelenic is an American horror illustrator, comic book creator, and cover artist. While creating fantastic and gory tales for her own comics and freelancing pin ups and painted canvas works, she continues collaborating with other independent authors and artists that share the same genre interests.
Recently working for AfterShock Comics on graphic novels titled Midnight Rose and horror anthology After Dark as a sequential artist, she is also currently working independently on a few creator-owned titles through various publishers. One is set in a post apocalyptic world and another features monster hunting in a cyberpunk backdrop, both equally loaded with fantasy and horrific art. Nikkol has wrapped up her creator-owned title A Taste For Killing horror comic collection, taking place in the ACID i COMICS universe, with her killer clown tale Chuckles Knuckles-Hook. Her past works include A Taste For Killing, Side-Kicked, Spiralmind, The Fall, Tales From The One Eyed Pussy, Gideon & Sebastian, The Women of Darby Pop, Vampire, Vampire 2, and Siren.
Terry Kavanagh was a Marvel Comics editor from 1985 to 1997. Titles he edited during that time included Marvel Comics Presents, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Black Widow. For the company, he wrote such titles as Moon Knight, Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Man.
Terry also wrote for Marvel until the mid-2000s. He was one of the writers on the “Maximum Carnage” storyline which ran through the various Spider-Man titles in 1993. He pitched a storyline involving the return of Spider-Man’s clone, which then formed the basis of the long-running Spider-Man maxi-series The Clone Saga.
In 2011, Terry co-founded the Internet startup company www.mybeanjar.com. He also wrote and edited comics for Zenescope Entertainment from 2017 to 2019, and consulted on the Marvel Entertainment streaming series, Marvel’s Hero Project. Terry is now Head of Development for inksmyth, a custom comic book company.
Leeanne M. Krecic, also known to her fans as “Mongie“, is the creator of the Eisner-nominated and Amazon bestselling comic phenomenon Let’s Play. As a webcomic, Let’s Play has over 5 million global subscribers and is available in English, French, Spanish, and German through the webcomics platform, Webtoon. The graphic novel collections of Let’s Play are 2 of the top 30 all-time Kickstarters in the Comics category and are published by Rocketship Entertainment. Announced in 2021, Let’s Play is being adapted as a live action series by Allnighter (Final Fantasy, Luther Strode). In 2021, Leeanne was nominated for the Ringo Award for Best Cartoonist. With a degree in computer science, Leeanne worked as head of IT for an Internet-based company for eleven years, helping it become a multi-million dollar company, before deciding to pursue her dream of becoming a comic creator. Entirely self-taught, Leeanne has worked as a commissioned freelance artist for over eight years, creating concept art for tabletop games, and book covers. Leeanne resides in Kansas City with her husband, two dogs, two cats, and over a hundred fish.
Rick Leonardi has drawn comics for more than forty years. His best-known works include various issues of The Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants, as well as runs on Cloak & Dagger, Spider-Man 2099, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Green Lantern vs. Aliens. He is credited, along with fellow illustrator Mike Zeck, with designing the black-and-white costume to which Spider-Man switched during the miniseries Secret Wars, and with creating the costume for Spider-Man 2099. He was penciler/inker for the original four issues of Watson and Holmes, which received an Eisner nomination for Best New Series in 2014.
Currently, Rick is finishing up an original graphic novel, Blue Angel, for the US Naval Institute Press, contributing pages to the upcoming Nightwing #100, and looking forward to Spider-Man 2099’s appearance in Across the Spider-Verse, to be released 2 June, 2023.
New Yorker Alitha E. Martinez jumped right into the deep end of the comic book industry, working as an assistant to ex-Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada, initially doing art assists like background work on DC Comics’ Azrael, Event Comics’ Ash, and Marvel Comics’ Daredevil, and assistant inking DC Comics’ Aquaman, before taking over the reins of Marvel’s Iron Man. She then moved onto titles like Battlebooks, Marvel Age Fantastic Four, and Black Panther from Marvel, Batgirl from DC, New Crusaders from Archie Comics, Voltron from Devil’s Due, and the Aspen Comics adaptation of the NBC hit television series Heroes, and has self-publishing her own title, Yume and Ever. Lately, her work can be found in Papercutz’s WWE Superstars and Barbie, Archie Comics’ Riverdale, DC Comics’ Vertigo Quarterly CMYK, and Marvel’s Black Panther: World of Wakanda.
Bella Rachlin is a comic book artist who works mostly in traditional painting techniques. She’s been working as a freelancer since 2016. she has been doing mostly covers for various companies, card sets for Marvel Upper Deck, and private commissions.
Inker extraordinaire Joe Rubinstein has had a storied career, having had opportunity to participate in the creation of works that have had lasting impacts on comics. He holds a Guinness World Record for inking more pencilers than any other inker, and worked on inking The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe for over 20 years. His contributions include Marvel’s original Wolverine limited series, Micronauts, and Warlock, and DC Comics’ Batman, Green Arrow/Black Canary, Justice League titles, and Superman among many, many others.
Kevin VanHook is a film maker and comic cook creator born in Indianapolis, Indiana.
As a writer/director, he has made seven feature films, including the popular Slayer and Death Row horror.
He has created VFX for many films, including Olympus Has Fallen and I Am Number Four, and TV series ranging from Vampire Diaries to Law & Order and Rizzoli & Isles. He supervised visual effects for the Netflix Original, Project Power starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jamie Foxx.
As a comic book writer and artist, he is best known for co-creating Bloodshot for Valiant Comics with Don Perlin and Bob Layton. The premiere issue sold nearly one million copies and continued to be a top-selling title.
Bloodshot was released as a major motion picture from Sony in March 2020 starring Vin Diesel.
Kevin also wrote and drew The Rocky Horror Picture Show movie adaptation for Caliber Press as well as over a hundred other comic books for Valiant Comics from X-O Manowar to Solar, Man of the Atom. He wrote the Flash Gordon Sunday comic strip for King Features for two years and joined DC Comics to create Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves as well as Oracle: The Cure, Red Tornado: Family Reunion, and Lobo for Weird Worlds.
In 2022, Kevin wrote an original graphic novel for Heavy Metal and is writing multiple titles for Indonesian Publisher Visi8. It was recently announced that he is writing several new projects for Frank Miller Presents.
Kevin appears courtesy of Visi8.
Confirmed guests for this year’s show include:
Andrew Aydin (Run), Chris Barcomb (The Amazing Adventure of Superior Sam), Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl), Marty Baumann (Pixar artist), John Beatty (Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars), Carolyn Belefski (Curls), Dr. Christina Blanch (Good Boy), Brett Breeding (Superman), Dan Brereton (Nocturnals), Russ Braun (The Boys), Reilly Brown (Deadpool), Harold Buchholz (Sweetest Beasts), Jeffrey Burandt (Killer Bad), Greg Burnham (Tuskegee Heirs), Jim Calafiore (NED, Lord of the Pit), Chris Campana (The Adventures of Parker Reef), Joe Carabeo (Black Magic Tales), Richard Case (Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror), John Cassaday (Astonishing X-Men), Howard Chaykin (Time Squared), Jim Cheung (Miracleman), Sean Chen (Iron Man), Frank Cho (Harley Quinn), Matthew Clark (Adventures of Superman, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Steve Conley (The Middle Age), Katie Cook (Nothing Special), Kevin Cuffe (Metalshark Bro), Shawn Daley (Better Place), Alan Davis (Thanos), Nick Davis (The Night Guardians – Awakenings), Kristina Deak-Linsner (Roses for the Dead), J. Robert Deans (Crass Fed), Vito Delsante (Stray), Todd Dezago (The Perhapanauts), Terry Dodson (Harley Quinn), Mike Dringenberg (Sandman), Scott Dunbier (Jim Lee’s X-Men Artist’s Edition, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Ryan Dunlavey (The Comic Book History of Animation), Garth Ennis (The Boys), Tony Fleecs (Stray Dogs), Chris Flick (Capes and Babes), Scott Fogg (Phileas Reid Knows We’re Not Alone), Trish Forstner (Stray Dogs), LJ and Kayla Fowlkes (The Adventures of CHIBIWONGTONG), Franco (The Ghost, The Owl), Bob Frantz (Metalshark Bro), John Gallagher (Max Meow: Cat Crusader), Kami Garcia (Teen Titans: Raven), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (DC Nation), Ron Garney (BZRKR, Friday and Saturday only), Mitch Gerads (Mister Miracle), Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules!), Steven Grant (X), Mike Grell (Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters), Dawn Griffin (Zorphbert & Fred), Brian Haberlin (Spawn), Bob Hall (West Coast Avengers), Cully Hamner (Blue Beetle), Dean Haspiel (The Fox), Mike Hawthorne (Happiness Will Follow), Karama Horne (Protectors of Wakanda: A History and Training Manual for the Dora Milaje, courtesy of The Quarto Group), Jamal Igle (Molly Danger), Klaus Janson (Daredevil), Nikkol Jelenic (Midnight Rose), Frederick L. Jones (The Massively Multiplayer World of Ghosts, courtesy of The Quarto Group), Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Alien), Kata Kane (Altar Girl), Terry Kavanagh (Spider-Man), Chris Kemple (Artist Alley Comics), Tom King (Batman), Barry Kitson (Amazing Spider-Man), Leeanne M. Krecic (Let’s Play), Greg LaRocque (The Three Stooges), Jim Lee (Action Comics, Friday only), Rick Leonardi (Spider-Man 2099), Joseph Michael Linsner (Red Sonja), Howard Mackie (Ghost Rider), Kevin Maguire (Justice League), Francis Manapul (The Flash), Dirk Manning (Twiztid Haunted High-Ons, courtesy of Source Point Press), Mariano Brothers (Claire Lost Her Bear at the World’s Fair), Alitha Martinez (Nubia), Ron Marz (Silver Surfer), Whitney Matheson (Pandemix: Quarantine Comics in the Age of ‘Rona), Jason May (LEGO Club Magazine), Bob McLeod (New Mutants), Mike McKone (Genis-Vell: Captain Marvel), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), Jarrett Melendez (Chef’s Kiss), Adriana Melo (Action Comics), Al Milgrom (Spectacular Spider-Man), Frank Miller (Sin City, Saturday only), Chris Miskiewicz (Elvis: The Graphic Novel), Mark Morales (Thor), Bill Morrison (The Simpsons), Trevor Mueller (Albert the Alien), Jamar Nicholas (Leon: Protector of the Playground), Fabian Nicieza (Deadpool, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Ann Nocenti (The Seeds, Friday and Saturday only, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Sedat Oezgen (Judge Dredd), Jerry Ordway (Superman), Rachel Ordway (Chainmail Bikini), Steve Orlando (Rainbow Bridge, Saturday and Sunday only), Richard Pace (Second Coming, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Dan Parent (Archie vs. Sharknado), Andrew Pepoy (Simone & Ajax), David Petersen (Mouse Guard), Brandon Peterson (Uncanny X-Men), Khoi Pham (Teen Titans), Ed Piskor (Red Room: Trigger Warnings), Eric Powell (The Goon), Andy Price (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), Bella Rachlin (Agents of PACT), Tom Raney (Green Lantern), Afua Richardson (Omni), Christopher Ring (Seamus (the Famous)), David A. Rodriguez (Skylanders), Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge), Craig Rousseau (The Perhapanauts), Arsia Rozegar (Shahnameh For Kids), Joe Rubinstein (Wolverine), Jim Rugg (Hulk Grand Design), Alex Saviuk (Web of Spider-Man), Stuart Sayger (The Joker), Mark Schultz (Xenozoic Tales, courtesy of Flesk Publications), Pat Shand (Destiny, NY), Liam Sharp (Green Lantern), Louise Simonson (X-Men Legends), Walter Simonson (Ragnarok), Don Simpson (Megaton Man), Matt Slay (Equilibrium), Matt Smith (Hellboy), John K. Snyder III (Suicide Squad), Jim Starlin (Infinity Gauntlet), Joe Staton (Dick Tracy), Brian Stelfreeze (Black Panther), Paul Storrie (Storm Kids: Stanley’s Ghost), Joe St. Pierre (New Zodiax), Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother), Billy Tucci (Shi), Christopher Uminga (Batman’s Mystery Casebook), Kevin VanHook (Bloodshot, courtesy of Visi 8 Entertainment), Fred Van Lente (The Comic Book History of Animation), Emilio Velez Jr. (The Dodgeball Teens), Dexter Vines (Civil War, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Sean Von Gorman (Return of Toe Tag Riot), Adam Wallenta (Punk Taco), Todd Webb (Mr. Toast
Baltimore Comic-Con has announced a show exclusive: Thrilling Nostalgia Comics is debuting the #0 issue of their new comic series, The Liberty Brigade.The Liberty Brigade features brand new World War II adventures of many of the heroes of the 1940s. As part of the launch, you’ll find a gorgeous Sean Chen illustration of The Liberty Brigade on the cover of the Program Guide and as the official Baltimore Comic-Con t-shirt. Tickets for the Baltimore Comic-Con and Ringo Awards are 
You’ll also find guest appearances by 1940 stalwarts TNT Todd (called TNT) and The Spark Man, as well as some major Golden Age villains including Professor Fenton, Mastermind, and the Rat.
The world is in love with the “reluctant” hero figure. Men and women who can and should save people. But those heroes always have some boiler plate excuse like “I don’t do that no more.” Of course the worse excuse being “I’m no hero.” This is exactly why Alan Ladd’s seminal classic Shane is a favorite among middle aged men, even those who don’t like Westerns. The story revolves around a high plains drifter who wanders into a small town and accepts a family’s hospitality. This peace of course doesn’t last. He eventually gets caught in the war for the Wyoming rang as a land baron looks to take over the family’s land. This leaves Shane in a precarious position as his honor leaves him no choice but to get involved.
There is nothing a like a great prequel, especially if it fills in all those holes that the reader wants to know about their favorite characters. One of the best ones I remember from growing up is the Muppet Babies, as I grew up watching The Muppet Show, and the cartoon offered us fans another side to our favorite characters. This is also true of the Truth: Red, White and Black book where we see that before Steve Rogers became the iconic hero, many Black soldiers volunteered, much like the Tuskegee Experiment. As I always wondered who was there before, as the new Black Panther comic book, showcases in many trips to the Hall of the Black Panther, where he seeks the council of all the Panthers who came before.
Within the medium of comics, no one gets death as deftly as sequential art does. Books, can portray a death quite convincingly, describing every detail, as if you were in the room. Movies and tv shows, do it well too, as they show the viewer visually and sometimes not, what occurs. As the death of a beloved character, can make the audience gasp or cheer.
The convention continues to add fantastic talent to their slate of guests attending the 2014 show! This week, they have announced the addition of Todd Dezago, Don Rosa, Craig Rousseau, and Joe Rubinstein to the guest list!
Craig Rousseau has spent his career as an artist working on numerous noteworthy titles and runs. He has spent time on DC Comics’ Batman Beyond, Harley Quinn, and Impulse, Marvel’s Captain America & the Korvac Saga, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Season 2, and Iron Man & the Iron Wars, and he can be seen lately working on DC Comics’ Batman ’66, Image Comics’ Perhapanauts: Danger Down Under, and Dynamite Entertainment’s Pathfinder: Goblins!
