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Russ Braun, Bo Hampton, Sarah Myer, Alex Saviuk, Keith Williams, and Rich Woodall are coming to Baltimore Comic Con

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Get ready for the 24th annual Baltimore Comic-Con taking place at the Inner Harbor’s Baltimore Convention Center on September 8-10, 2023. The Baltimore Comic-Con has announced comic creators Russ Braun, Bo Hampton, Sarah Myer, Alex Saviuk, Keith Williams, and Rich Woodall. You can purchase tickets online now!

Russ Braun has been drawing comics for over 30 years, with time out for a 7-year stint with Walt Disney Feature Animation. Known for his expressive characters and storytelling on everything from Batman, Swamp Thing, Fables, and Jack of Fables, Russ is best known for his frequent collaborations with Garth Ennis, including The Boys, Night Witches, their creator-owned book, Jimmy’s Bastards, and its new sequel Jimmy’s Little Bastards.

A 30-year comics vet, Bo Hampton is known for Batman: Castle of the Bat, Moon Knight, Swamp Thing, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Riven, Batman: The Animated Adventures, 3 Devils, Demons of Sherwood, Verdilak, and much, much more. He was a former assistant to Will Eisner and Al Williamson, as well.

Sarah Myer is a freelance comic artist, writer, cover artist, colorist, and art educator from Maryland. Credits include their graphic memoir Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story* (First Second Books), TMNT/Usagi Yojimbo: WhereWhen series (Variant Cover Artist), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs. Street Fighter comic series (colorist), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures #1-4 (Colorist and Variant Cover Artist), MAKER COMICS: Create a Costume!, “Asian American Exclusion” in the Votes for Women Comic Anthology** (Writer, Artist), and Hello Kitty & Friends Coloring Book from VIZ Media (Illustrator).

They taught Drawing I & II and Color Theory & Application courses as an adjunct professor of Foundation Studies at Savannah College of Art and Design for 3 years.

*Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, Kirkus Starred Review Recipient, Booklist Starred Review Recipient
** Ringo Award Nominee, Best Anthology (2021)

Alex Saviuk started his professional career at DC Comics in 1977 after studying sequential art with Will Eisner at The School of Visual Arts in NYC. Within a few short months, he became the regular artist on Green Lantern and The Flash. He also drew Superman, Hawkman, Aquaman, The Atom, and Air Wave, among others. In 1986, Alex moved over to Marvel Comics, filling in on Iron Man 211 and various covers before eventually becoming the penciler on Defenders of the Earth, featuring The Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Mandrake. Then, after successfully filling in on Amazing Spider-Man for 3 issues, he started a 7+ year run on Web of Spider-Man followed by over 2 more years on Spider-Man Adventures. From 1997-1998, Alex penciled the last 12 issues of The X-Files for Topps Comics (#30-41). In 2003, he joined the ranks of a Swedish and an Australian publisher chronicling the adventures of Lee Falk’s The Phantom. In 2004, he also assisted his mentor Will Eisner (legendary creator of The Spirit) on The Spirit Meets The Escapist published by Dark Horse, which unfortunately was Will Eisner’s last completed work before his passing in January 2005. Alex also worked on the graphic novel Feast of the Seven Fishes, glowingly reviewed by Stan Lee; it was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2006, and that same year, the Spider-Man newspaper strip, on which Alex worked, also received a Harvey nomination. In 2012, Alex worked with Stan Lee on a mainstream superhero book called Stan Lee and The Mighty Seven published by Archie Comics. Besides comics, Alex also does storyboards and conceptual art for advertising agencies and the occasional feature film (Never Back Down, The Reaping, Hoot, and Lonely Hearts). Currently and recently, besides drawing The Phantom, Alex contributed pencils and inks for 11 variant covers for Marvel’s Symbiote Spider-Man mini-series. Alex’s co-creation with writer Gerry Conway, Tombstone, appeared in the academy-Award winning hit movie Into the Spider-Verse! Also, the Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel Feast of the Seven Fishes by Robert Tinnell and Alex Saviuk is now a major motion picture directed and produced by writer Robert Tinnell and opened in mid-November 2019 to glowing reviews as a top ten holiday movie to watch! The book itself is still available online on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble, among others!

Keith Williams, comic book inker, enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in New York City from 1976 to 1980. Keith received his Bachelor of Fine Art in Media Arts and studied under Will Eisner, the creator of The Spirit comic strip. With the help of Marvel comic book artist and mentor Don Perlin, Keith started working for Marvel Comics in 1982 as a background inker. He worked for inkers including Joe Sinnott and Mike Esposito. At Marvel, he became the first John Romita Raider, an art correction group. Keith later became an assistant editor under Jim Owlsley (Christopher Priest) on the Spider-Man group of books. The two became the first all-black editorial team in Marvel’s history. He later became John Byrne’s background artist on Alpha Flight, The Hulk, Superman, and Action Comics. Keith began inking regularly on Web of Spider-Man, which lasted for four years. In between that time and after, he worked on many other books at Marvel, including Silver Surfer, She-Hulk with John Byrne, Warlock, Quasar with Greg Capullo, Star Trek, and the X-Men. At Dark Horse Comics, he worked on The Mask and Walter with artist Doug Manke, and Star Wars Droids. At DC Comics, he was on Superman, and the Lobo/Mask graphic novel with Doug Manke. For Valiant, he worked on Quantum and Woody and the covers of X-O Manowar. At Moonstone Comics, he was on The Kolchak Night Stalker Chronicles, Buckaroo Banzai, and Domino Lady. For ten years, he had worked on The Phantom for King Features Syndicate. And at Avatar Press, he inked Lady Death and Crossed covers, a Crossed webisode comic, “Wish You Were Here”, and the cover and interiors of the comic book Uber. He has also inked Avatar Press’ published graphic novel Max Brooks’ Harlem Hellfighters. And recently, he has inked over Ron Frenz pencils for Marvel’s Thor the Worthy one-shot book.

Rich Woodall is the former Co-Publisher of Black Caravan. He is also the creator or co-creator of The Bloody Ring of Dracula, Gods of Brutality, The Electric Black, Kyrra: Alien Jungle Girl, Johnny Raygun, and Sgt. Werewolf! Woodall has also worked on covers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Last Ronin, The Powerpuff Girls, Masters of the Universe, Crossover, and Phantom Starkiller.

2023 GUESTS

This year’s confirmed guests for the show include: Dan Abdo (Blue, Barry & Pancakes), Arthur Adams (Longshot), Sarah Andersen (Sarah’s Scribbles), Art Baltazar (Yahgz), Jeremy Bastian (Dune: House Harkonnen), Marty Baumann (Pixar artist), Carolyn Belefsky (Curls), Brian Michael Bendis (Action Comics), Jon Bogdanove (The Death of Superman), Judy Bogdanove (Steel Annual), Russ Braun (The Boys), Dan Brereton (Nocturnals), Harold Buchholz (Sweetest Beasts), Mark Buckingham (Fables), Greg Burnham (Tuskegee Heirs), Jim Calafiore (NED, Lord of the Pit), Chris Campana (Death Dealer), Joe Carabeo (Black Magic Tales), Richard Case (Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror), Howard Chaykin (Time Squared), Jo Chen (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Jim Cheung (Young Avengers), Frank Cho (Harley Quinn), Amy Chu (KISS: The End), Brian Clevinger (Atomic Robo), Steve Conley (The Middle Age), Katie Cook (Nothing Special), Nick Davis (Night Guardians), Deans Family (Crass Fed), Abby Denson (Uniquely Japan), Todd Dezago (The Perhapanauts), Derec Donovan (Adventures of Superman), Jan Duursema (Star Wars: The High Republic), Garth Ennis (The Boys), David Finch (Moon Knight), Tony Fleecs (Stray Dogs), Chris Flick (Capes and Babes), Scott Fogg (Phileas Reid Knows We’re Not Alone), Tana Ford (LaGuardia), Trish Forstner (Stray Dogs), Franco (Fae and the Moon), John Gallagher (Max Meow), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (DC Nation), Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules!), Mike Grell (Jon Sable), Dawn Griffin (Zorphbert & Fred), Chris Gugilotti (Teen Titans Go!), Gene Ha (Mae), Laura Lee Gulledge (Page by Paige), Bob Hall (West Coast Avengers), Cully Hamner (Blue Beetle), Bo Hampton (Batman: Castle of the Bat), Brian Haberlin (Spawn), Tony Harris (The Whistling Skull), Dean Haspiel (Covid Cop), Mike Hawthorne (Deadpool), Marc Hempel (Sandman), Greg Hildebrandt (Star Wars), Morry Hollowell (Old Man Logan), Jamal Igle (Superman), Mark Irwin (Green Lantern), Klaus Janson (Daredevil), Dave Johnson (100 Bullets), J.G. Jones (Wanted), Kata Kane (Altar Girl), Chris Kemple (Artist Alley Comics), Barry Kitson (Amazing Spider-Man), Jeff Lemire (Black Hammer), Nate Lovett (Dungeons & Dragons), Matthew Loux (Prunella and the Cursed Skull Ring), Kevin Maguire (Justice League), Tom Mandrake (Spectre), Laura Martin (Nubia: Queen of the Amazons), Mariano Brothers (Claire Lost Her Bear at the World’s Fair), Ron Marz (Green Lantern), Jason May (LEGO Club Magazine), Bob McLeod (New Mutants), Adriana Melo (Action Comics), Pop Mhan (Gears of War 3), Al Milgrom (Spectacular Spider-Man), Karl Moline (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Mark Morales (Thor), Trevor Mueller (Re-Possessed), Sarah Myer (Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story), Jamar Nicholas (Leon: Protector of the Playground), Jason Patterson (Blue, Barry & Pancakes), David Pepose (Savage Avengers), David Petersen (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Usagi Yojimbo: WhereWhen), Brandon Peterson (Uncanny X-Men), Richard and Wendy Pini (Elfquest), Ed Piskor (Red Room: Trigger Warnings), Joe Prado (Superman), Tom Raney (Green Lantern), Afua Richardson (Omni), Christopher Ring (Seamus (the Famous)), Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge), Peter Rostovsky (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force), Craig Rousseau (The Perhapanauts), Arsia Rozegar (Shahnameh For Kids), Steve Rude (Nexus), Jim Rugg (Hulk Grand Design), Andy Runton (Owly), Alex Saviuk (Web of Spider-Man), Stuart Sayger (The Joker), Alex Simmons (Archie), Louise Simonson (The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special), Walter Simonson (Thor), Matt Slay (Equilibrium), John K. Snyder III (Suicide Squad), Sozomaika (DC Power: A Celebration), Mark Sparacio (Omega Paradox), Joe Staton (Dick Tracy), Philip Tan (Web of Carnage), John Timms (Superman: Son of Kal-El), Peter Tomasi (Batman and Robin), Emilio Velez Jr. (The Dodgeball Teens), Wade von Grawbadger (Justice League), Adam Wallenta (Punk Taco), Todd Webb (Mr. Toast Comics), Scott Wegener (Atomic Robo), Joey Weiser (Ghost Hog), Mark Wheatley (Skultar), Emily S. Whitten (The Underfoot), Keith Williams (Thor the Worthy), Marcus Williams (Tuskegee Heirs), Rich Woodall (Electric Black), John Workman (Wild Things), Caitlin Yarsky (Black Hammer Reborn), and Thom Zahler (Love and Capes).

Steven Grant, Trevor Mueller, Tom Raney, Afua Richardson, John K. Snyder III, and Keith Williams head to Baltimore Comic Con

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Come to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor for the Baltimore Comic-Con October 28-30, 2022 at the Baltimore Convention Center. The Baltimore Comic-Con welcomes comics creators Steven Grant, Trevor Mueller, Tom Raney, Afua Richardson, John K. Snyder III, and Keith Williams to the 2022 event. You can purchase tickets online now.

Writer Steven Grant is a longtime fixture of comics, debuting at Marvel in 1978 but gaining notoriety several years later with The Punisher Mini-Series. He has written numerous characters for numerous publishers, including Spider-Man, The Avengers, Batman, Superman, Grifter, Mickey Mouse, American Flagg!, Vampirella, Stone Cold Steve Austin, GI Joe, Masters Of The Universe, and many, many others. His own creations include Whisper at Capital, revamps of Manhunter and Challengers of The Unknown at DC, Enemy at Dark Horse, Edge (with Gil Kane) at Malibu/Bravura, and 2 Guns at BOOM! Studios, which became a Universal film starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. He created the pivotal crime comic Badlands for Vortex Comics, and partnered with Mike Zeck on the Epic graphic novel Punisher: Return To Big Nothing and their original crime mini-series Damned at Jim Lee’s Homage. He has also written film criticism, music reviews, novels, short stories, the long-running online column Permanent Damage, and is executive producing media projects based on his creations. He currently lives in the desert somewhere outside Las Vegas.

Trevor Mueller is a comic writer from Chicago. His latest project is the Webtoon Original series, Nexus Point, premiering in 2022. He has also written the multi-Harvey Award nominated Albert the Alien. He has contributed stories to several anthologies, including Reading With Pictures (Andrews McMeel), Killer Queen and What Fresh Hell Is This (Red Stylo Media), Best of Omega Comics Presents (Pop! Goes the Icon), and Aw Yeah Comics. He has also self-published several other works including Consumer, Beyond the Pillars, and The Witches of E Wick Blvd. Trevor also appears on occasional episodes of the popular web series Nostalgia Critic. Trevor currently lives in Chicago with his family; his cat, Waffles, might be planning for world domination.

Tom Raney has spent much of his career working for the mid- to large-size publishers in the comics industry. He has contributed to Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, Valiant’s relaunched titles, and Dark Horse Comics’ Star Wars among many other titles and publishers. In recent history, his artwork can be seen within the pages of DC Comics’ Threshold, Marvel’s Incredible Hulk, and Titan Comics’ Monster Massacre hardcover collection.

Afua Richardson (pronounced “ah-FOO-wah”) is an award-winning American comic book illustrator best known for her work on Marvel’s Black Panther: World of Wakanda. Some of her other works include The Wild Storm, Attack on Titan, X-Men ’92, Captain Marvel, and All-Star Batman to name a few. Afua is also a musician, voice actor, activist, and mentor. As a recipient of the Nina Simone award, she is aptly called a Jane of All trades.

John K. Snyder III is the creator of the groundbreaking 1980’s series, Fashion In Action. John’s latest work is a graphic novel adaptation of world-renowned writer Lawrence Block’s detective noir classic novel, Eight Million Ways to Die, published by IDW. He has worked for nearly every major publisher, including DC, Dark Horse, Marvel, IDW, and many others. Snyder worked on Suicide Squad during its classic 1980’s run with writers John Ostrander and Kim Yale, and provided covers for the 2007 Suicide Squad mini-series. Along with Matt Wagner, Snyder co-created the Pieter Cross version of Doctor Mid-Nite for DC and Lady Zorro for Dynamite. Snyder also worked with Wagner on the epic Grendel: God and the Devil storyline. He has also provided numerous covers for a wide range of titles, including Harlan Ellison’s Phoenix Without Ashes (IDW). Fashion In Action has been recently collected by Hope Nicholson’s Bedside Press. His other 1980’s creator-owned series (along with co-creators Timothy Truman and Michael H. Price), Leo Kragg: The Prowler, is also available in a two-volume set from Cremo Press. John encourages all artists, young and old, to actively pursue their own creator-owned aspirations.

Keith Williams, comic book inker, enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in New York City from 1976 to 1980. Keith received his Bachelor of Fine Art in Media Arts and studied under Will Eisner, the creator of The Spirit comic strip. With the help of Marvel comic book artist and mentor Don Perlin, Keith started working for Marvel Comics in 1982 as a background inker. He worked for inkers including Joe Sinnott and Mike Esposito. At Marvel, he became the first John Romita Raider, an art correction group. Keith later became an assistant editor under Jim Owlsley (Christopher Priest) on the Spider-Man group of books. The two became the first all-black editorial team in Marvel’s history. He later became John Byrne’s background artist on Alpha Flight, The Hulk, Superman, and Action Comics. Keith began inking regularly on Web of Spider-Man, which lasted for four years. In between that time and after, he worked on many other books at Marvel, including Silver Surfer, She-Hulk with John Byrne, Warlock, Quasar with Greg Capullo, Star Trek, and the X-Men. At Dark Horse Comics, he worked on The Mask and Walter with artist Doug Manke, and Star Wars Droids. At DC Comics, he was on Superman, and the Lobo/Mask graphic novel with Doug Manke. For Valiant, he worked on Quantum and Woody and the covers of X-O Manowar. At Moonstone Comics, he was on The Kolchak Night Stalker Chronicles, Buckaroo Banzai, and Domino Lady. For ten years, he had worked on The Phantom for King Features Syndicate. And at Avatar Press, he inked Lady Death and Crossed covers, a Crossed webisode comic, “Wish You Were Here”, and the cover and interiors of the comic book Uber. He has also inked Avatar Press’ published graphic novel Max Brooks’ Harlem Hellfighters. And recently, he has inked over Ron Frenz pencils for Marvel’s Thor the Worthy one-shot book.

2022 GUESTS

Confirmed guests for this year’s show include: 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), Brian Michael Bendis (Action Comics), Brett Breeding (Superman), Dan Brereton (Nocturnals), Russ Braun (The Boys), Harold Buchholz (Sweetest Beasts), Mark Buckingham (Fables), Jeffrey Burandt (Killer Bad), Jim Calafiore (NED, Lord of the Pit), Joe Carabeo (Black Magic Tales), Richard Case (Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror), John Cassaday (Astonishing X-Men), Howard Chaykin (Time Squared), Frank Cho (Harley Quinn), Steve Conley (The Middle Age), Katie Cook (Nothing Special), Kevin Cuffe (Metalshark Bro), Nick Davis (The Night Guardians – Awakenings), Kristina Deak-Linsner (Roses for the Dead), J. Robert Deans (Crass Fed), Todd Dezago (The Perhapanauts), Garth Ennis (The Boys, Friday and Saturday only), 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), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (DC Nation), Steven Grant (X), Dawn Griffin (Zorphbert & Fred), Bob Hall (West Coast Avengers), Dean Haspiel (The Fox), Mike Hawthorne (Happiness Will Follow), Greg Hildebrandt (Star Wars), Jamal Igle (Molly Danger), Klaus Janson (Daredevil, Friday and Saturday only), Chris Kemple (Artist Alley Comics), Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Alien), Barry Kitson (Amazing Spider-Man), Jim Lee (Action Comics, Friday only), Joseph Michael Linsner (Red Sonja), Howard Mackie (Ghost Rider), Mariano Brothers (Claire Lost Her Bear at the World’s Fair), 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), Adriana Melo (Action Comics), Pop Mhan (Gears of War 3), Frank Miller (Sin City, Saturday only), Mark Morales (Thor), Bill Morrison (The Simpsons), Trevor Mueller (Albert the Alien), Jamar Nicholas (Leon: Protector of the Playground), Sedat Oezgen (Judge Dredd), Jerry Ordway (Superman), Rachel Ordway (Chainmail Bikini), 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), Andy Price (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), 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), Jim Rugg (Hulk Grand Design), Stuart Sayger (The Joker), Pat Shand (Destiny, NY), Liam Sharp (Green Lantern), Louise Simonson (X-Men Legends), Walter Simonson (Ragnarok), Don Simpson (Megaton Man), Matt Slay (Equilibrium), John K. Snyder III (Suicide Squad), Jim Starlin (Infinity Gauntlet), Joe Staton (Dick Tracy), Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother), Billy Tucci (Shi), Emilio Velez Jr. (The Dodgeball Teens), Dexter Vines (Civil War, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Sean Von Gorman (Return of Toe Tag Riot), Mark Waid (Superman: Red and Blue), Adam Wallenta (Punk Taco), Todd Webb (Mr. Toast Comics), Emily S. Whitten (The Underfoot), Matt Wieringo (Stargate Atlantis: Gateways), Keith Williams (Thor the Worthy), Charles P. Wilson III (Wraith), Rich Woodall (Electric Black), Gene Luen Yang (Superman Smashes the Klan), and Thom Zahler (Love and Capes).

Baltimore Comic-Con Welcomes Joe Giella, Michael Golden, Arthur Suydam, Keith Williams, and Renee Witterstaetter

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Joe Giella

Baltimore Comic-Con returns to the Inner Harbor this October 22-24, 2021 at the Baltimore Convention Center. The Baltimore Comic-Con has announced Joe Giella, Michael Golden, Arthur Suydam, Keith Williams, and Renee Witterstaetter‘s attendance at this year’s event. Tickets are on sale now!

Joe Giella is 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 Phantom, 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.

Michael Golden

Artist/writer/creator Michael Golden is a legend in the comic book industry, but one that has never stopped adding to his legacy as a storytelling professional. Co-creator of the X-Men‘s Rogue character, Spartan X, and Bucky O’Hare, Michael is known worldwide for his groundbreaking work on The ‘Nam, Micronauts, G.I. Joe Yearbook, and Dr. Strange, among much more, and is counted as one of the best cover designers and illustrators in the business. Golden’s work can be seen on covers from The Walking Dead, Civil War, Rom, Micronauts, Spawn, Nightwing, Iron Man, Heroes for Hire, Exiles, Demon’s Regret, Spider-Man, Vampirella, Captain American, The Punisher, and The Hulk, as well as numerous other titles for about every company out there. His zombie art is routinely used in conjunction with popular properties on TV and in print. Recent books covering the colorful life and amazing art of Michael Golden include a manga version of the Bucky O’Hare series as well as the top selling art retrospective Excess: The Art of Michael Golden, written by Renee Witterstaetter, which sold out and has gone into a second printing, as well as his recent sketchbooks Heroes and Villains, MORE Heroes and Villains, Michael Golden: Alchemy, and Michael Golden: Dangerous Curves. Michael has served as an Editor at DC Comics as well as Senior Art Director at Marvel Comics, and has worked on scores of movie production projects, some currently in development. His art has been the focus of gallery shows in places as diverse as Gijon, Barcelona, New York, Antwerp, and Brussels, while his class on storytelling has been conducted in Spain, Brussels, France, Canada, the United States, and, most recently, China. He has recently been awarded with Lifetime Achievement Awards from The University of Maryland Eastern Shore and the Lille Arts Festival, with gallery shows of his work in Spain, New York, Maryland and Moscow, and many points in between.

Arthur Suydam

Arthur Suydam, “The Zombie King”, rose to stardom for his work on the smash hit series Marvel Zombies. The POPs world have been taken over by his rendition of the Marvel Zombies as well! He is also renowned as the Deadpool cover artist on Merc with a Mouth as well as DCeased, Black Panther, and The Walking Dead. And he is credited as being one of the first artists to bring fine art painting techniques to the world of comics in such books as Cholly and Flytrap and Mudwogs. Recent awards for Arthur include The Spike TV Scream Award (Best Artist), Spectrum Gold Award for Institutional Art, The San Sebastian Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. His work can also be seen on works for DCeased, The Walking Dead, Deadpool, Batman, Wolverine, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Ghost Rider, Army of Darkness, Vampirella, and too many to name here. His Cholly and Flytrap series has recently been compiled into a collected volume, marking that story’s place in comic history.

Keith Williams

Keith Williams, comic book inker, enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in New York City from 1976 to 1980. Keith received his Bachelor of Fine Art in Media Arts and studied under Will Eisner, the creator of The Spirit comic strip. With the help of Marvel comic book artist and mentor Don Perlin, Keith started working for Marvel Comics in 1982 as a background inker. He worked for inkers including Joe Sinnott and Mike Esposito. At Marvel, he became the first John Romita Raider, an art correction group. Keith later became an assistant editor under Jim Owlsley (Christopher Priest) on the Spider-Man group of books. The two became the first all-black editorial team in Marvel’s history. He later became John Byrne’s background artist on Alpha Flight, The Hulk, Superman, and Action Comics. Keith began inking regularly on Web of Spider-Man, which lasted for four years. In between that time and after, he worked on many other books at Marvel, including Silver Surfer, She-Hulk with John Byrne, Warlock, Quasar with Greg Capullo, Star Trek, and the X-Men. At Dark Horse Comics, he worked on The Mask and Walter with artist Doug Manke, and Star Wars Droids. At DC Comics, he was on Superman, and the Lobo/Mask graphic novel with Doug Manke. For Valiant, he worked on Quantum and Woody and the covers of X-O Manowar. At Moonstone Comics, he was on The Kolchak Night Stalker Chronicles, Buckaroo Banzai, and Domino Lady. For ten years, he had worked on The Phantom for King Features Syndicate. And at Avatar Press, he inked Lady Death and Crossed covers, a Crossed webisode comic, “Wish You Were Here”, and the cover and interiors of the comic book Uber. He has also inked Avatar Press’ published graphic novel Max Brooks’ Harlem Hellfighters. And recently, he has inked over Ron Frenz pencils for Marvel’s Thor the Worthy one-shot book.

Renee Witterstaetter began the comic phase of her career working on such titles as Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos Quest, Superman, Silver Surfer, Conan The Barbarian, The Punisher special projects, and Conan Saga, then going on to spearhead the reintroduction of She-Hulk at Marvel as well, as part of that legendary run. She then moved to Topps Comics where she was the editor on X-Files, Jurassic Park, Xena, and Hercules, and is the co-creator with Jackie Chan and artist Michael Golden of the successful series Spartan X, which will be made into a trade paperback featuring new material. She is also the colorist on hundreds of comics from The Avengers to Spider-Man to Captain America to Jurassic Park, among many, many others. She is the writer of Nick Cardy: The Artist at War, Excess: The Art of Michael Golden, Kerry and the Scary Things, Dying for Action: The Life and Film of Jackie Chan, and more. She is the President of Little Eva Ink Publishing and Eva Ink Artist Group, which represents artists and writers in comics, storyboards, fine art painting, and more. Renee is also one of the producers of the Creator Chronicles DVD series with Woodcrest Productions, featuring interviews with major industry creators such as George Perez, Bill Sienkiewicz, Michael Golden, Joe Jusko, Matt Wagner, Joe Sinnott, and many more. Other projects also include the books Michael Golden: Dangerous Curves, Santa Confidential with Hagar the Horrible artist Chris Browne, and Mark Texeira: Tempest. In her not-so-abundant free time, she lectures on storytelling, most recently in China and Russia, fishes, dances, travels, and is also curating several major art exhibits featuring U.S. and European talent.

2021 GUESTS

This year’s confirmed guests for the show include: Chris Bachalo (Non-Stop Spider-Man), Art Baltazar (Big Alien Moon Crush), Marty Baumann (Disney/Pixar), John Beatty (Secret Wars), Brian Michael Bendis (Action Comics), Ziggy Blumenthal (Operation Pajama Pants), Brett Breeding (Superman), Reilly Brown (Deadpool), Jim Calafiore (Welcome to Megalopolis), Chris Campana (The Adventures of Parker Reef), Castillo Studios, Howard Chaykin (Hey Kids! Comics!), Cliff Chiang (Paper Girls), Frank Cho (Harley Quinn), Becky Cloonan (Dark Agnes), Steve Conley (The Middle Age), Steve Conte (Action Figure Kingdom), Katie Cook (Nothing Special), Kristina Deak-Linsner (Vampirella: Roses for the Dead), Vito Delsante (Stray), Todd Dezago (Perhapanauts), Ryan Dunlavey (M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay), Garth Ennis (The Boys, Friday and Saturday only), Trish Forstner (My Little Pony), Monica Gallagher (Assassin Roommate), Kami Garcia (Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity), Mitch Gerads (Mr. Miracle), Joe Giella (Green Lantern), Mike Gold (Green Arrow), Michael Golden (Micronauts), Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules!), Gene Ha (Mae), Scott Hanna (Icon and Rocket), Dean Haspiel (The Red Hook), Glenn Hauman (They Keep Killing Glenn), Mike Hawthorne (Happiness Will Follow), Marc Hempel (The Sandman), Jamal Igle (Wrong Earth), Klaus Janson (Daredevil, Saturday only), Dave Johnson (The Good Asian), Chris Kemple (Artist Alley Comics), Tom King (Batman), Joseph Michael Linsner (Red Sonja), Howard Mackie (Ghost Rider: Return of Vengeance), Bob McLeod (New Mutants), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), Frank Miller (Dark Knight III: The Master Race, Saturday only), Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise), Mark Morales (The Next Batman: Second Son), Jerry Ordway (The Power of Shazam), Richard Pace (Second Coming), Tom Palmer (Hawkman), James Pascoe (Azrael), Andrew Pepoy (Simone & Ajax), David Petersen (Mouse Guard), Brandon Peterson (Sinestro: Year of the Villain), Andy Price (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), Joe Quesada (Daredevil), Tom Raney (Guardians of the Galaxy), Amy Reeder (Wonder Woman: Black and Gold), Afua Richardson (Omni), Andrew Robinson (Halo), Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge), Jennifer Rouse (Frankenstein Mobster), Craig Rousseau (The Perhapanauts), Alex Saviuk (Web of Spider-Man), Stuart Sayger (Army of Darkness: 1979), Chris Schweizer (The Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton), Doc Shaner (Strange Adventures), Louise Simonson (Power Pack), Walter Simonson (Ragnarok: The Breaking of Helheim), Matt Slay (Equilibrium), John K. Snyder III (Killers), Joe Staton (Dick Tracy), Brian Stelfreeze (Black Panther), Paul D. Storrie (Storm Kids: Stanley’s Ghost), Arthur Suydam (Merc with a Mouth), Martha Thomases (Dakota North), Tim Townsend (Non-Stop Spider-Man), Timothy Truman (Grimjack), Fred Van Lente (Action Philosophers), Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Friday and Saturday only), Robert Venditti (Hawkman), Mark Waid (Dr. Strange), Mark Wheatley (Songs of Giants), Emily S. Whitten (The Underfoot), Matt Wieringo (Stargate Atlantis: Gateways), Keith Williams (Thor the Worthy), Renee Witterstaetter (Guardians of the Galaxy), Rich Woodall (Electric Black), Gene Luen Yang (Superman Smashes the Klan), and Thom Zahler (Love and Capes).

The Inkwell Awards Announces Artists For the Ivan Reis Spotlight Challenge

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The non-profit Inkwell Awards, devoted to promoting the art of comic book inking, has released the list of 24 artists participating in its fifth annual Sinnott Inking Challenge Spotlight. This year’s Challenge features artist Ivan Reis‘ take on DC’s iconic super-team The Justice League from the cover art to DC‘s Man of Steel (2018) as originally inked by Ivan‘s partner Joe Prado. The artwork will be auctioned afterward for fundraising.

The artists (in alphabetical order) are:

  • Gerry Acerno
  • Greg Adams
  • Brian Atkins
  • Keith Champagne
  • Kevin Conrad
  • John Dell
  • Michelle Delecki
  • Anthony Fowler Jr.
  • Scott Hanna
  • Christopher Ivy
  • Jay Leisten
  • Criss Madd
  • Jose Marzen Jr.
  • Mark McKenna
  • Jason Moore
  • Andrew Pepoy
  • Jack Purcell
  • Rodney Ramos
  • Ryusei Sawada (Kubert School 2020 Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship recipient)
  • Mike Sellers
  • Mark Stegbauer
  • LeBeau Underwood
  • Keith Williams
  • Walden Won

According to founder/director Bob Almond, the Spotlight Challenge, which grew out of its more inclusive, original Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge, showcases other contemporary, fan-favorite talents on a more limited scale with veteran published inkers who may or may not have participated in other challenges. The previous four pencilers were Jim Lee, Neal Adams, Erik Larsen, and David Finch.

The Challenge Spotlight furthers the inking advocacy’s dual mission of promoting the artform and educating the public. Blue-lined art files featuring a tightly penciled Ivan Reis Justice League pinup are sent to the artists to finish in ink. Each inked page will be signed by Reis and the inker, and include a certificate of authenticity signed and numbered by Almond. All pages will then be auctioned off at a later date as a fundraiser. Fans will be able to see the difference in the penciled and inked versions to better understand how much inkers contribute to the artform.

Preview: Further Adventures of Red Sonja Vol.1

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Further Adventures of Red Sonja Vol.1

writer: Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Doug Moench, Clair Noto, Frank Thorne, Christie Marx, Charles Dixon, James Owsley, Bruce Jones, Peter B. Gillis, Jim Valentino, Sue Flaxman, Marie Javins, Steve Buccellato
artists: Frank Thorne, E.R. Cruz, Estaban Maroto, Howard Chaykin, Dick Giordano, Terry Austin, John Buscema, Pablo Marcos, Tony DeZuniga, Barry Smith, Ernie Chan, Neal Adams, Geof Isherwood, Luke McDonnell, Armando Gil, Bruce Jones, Steven Carr, Gary Kwapisz, Josef Rubinstein, Gavin Curtis, Keith Williams, Alfredo Alcala, Del Barras, Reggie Jones, Kirk Etienne, Howard Simpson, Rober Quijano
cover: Frank Thorne
FC | 200+ pages | $19.99 | Teen+

Featuring a collection of issues from the original Marvel Comics series “The Savage Sword of Conan,” with each page painstakingly re-mastered for this volume! Plus, Sonja Tales from Kull and the Barbarians, as well as pin-ups!

The Inkwell Awards Showcases its 2015 Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge Art And Fundraiser

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The Inkwell Awards, a non-profit organization devoted to the art of inking, will be revealing the unique results of its fifth annual Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge in a series of fund-raising online auctions beginning Saturday, April 11. This is the ‘main event’ to the recently announced Sinnott Spring Celebration of auctions running from March through May containing Joe Sinnott donations.

To best exhibit what inkers do, industry legend Joe Sinnott pencilled a drawing of Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man, as well as a “breakdown”, or rough sketch, of its most popular X-Man, Wolverine. His art was scanned and sent in blue-line form to various inkers around the globe. The ink artists were invited to embellish the Silver Age great, whether staying faithful to his original lines or reinterpreting them. All resulted in unique pieces of comic art.. Most also sport a classic, hand-lettered logo to resemble a cover.

The list of ink artists contributing their skills is the longest ever and includes: Andy Smith, Dan Parsons, Mark Pennington, Jack Purcell, John Dell, Keith Williams, Mark McKenna, Neil Vokes, Bob Wiacek and many other professionals as well as eager and skilled amateurs. (The list changes each year.)

All submitted art, from last year’s to the current pieces, can be viewed at The Inkwell’s ComicArtFans gallery. All pieces for this challenge are personally signed by the generous Mr. Sinnott and include a certificate of authenticity. The first wave of inked blue-line original art from this Challenge will be on the auction block beginning Saturday, April 11 at the Inkwells’ eBay store. Subsequent waves will begin each week thereafter. The art will later be collected into book form.

The Inkwell Awards also offers Sinnott Inking Challenge book collections of previous art with various editions available for donations to the organization. Prices and availability of these and other merchandise can be found at the Inkwells’ Web Store.

The Inkwell Awards is an official 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and promote the art form of comic-book inking, as well as annually recognize and award the best ink artists and their work. Now in its seventh year, the organization is overseen by a committee of industry professionals and assisted by various professional ambassadors and numerous contributors. They sponsor the Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship Fund for the Kubert School and host the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award.