Hero Initiative, the charity that helps comic book creators in medical or financial need, will host seven amazing creators at its booth at the 2026 Baltimore Comic-Con, September 25-27, 2026 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Tickets can be purchased online now!

Founder of the legacy indy comic book publisher and studio Devil’s Due, Josh Blaylock is not only a prolific comic book writer and artist, but an expert in licensing and pop culture trends. He began publishing comics while still a teenager, rising to fame six years later with the license acquisition and resurrection of G.I. Joe, Voltron, and other classic properties in the comic space, to huge success. The first of their kind, his comics launched a nostalgia wave that is still felt to this day, and pioneered a trend of independent publishers seizing the spotlight by revitalizing major licensed brands. He is most known for his supernatural action comic Mercy Sparx, and the world of characters surrounding it (currently in development as a major motion picture), with several other creations translated into toys, film, and television. Having published and written over 1,000 comic books with over $70 million in sales, Josh also regularly collaborates on projects in entertainment, fashion, and tech, including for North Coast Music Fest, Adidas, Pixel Vault, Hannibal Buress, Diplo, 0n1 Force, A System of a Down, Louis the Child, and more. His non-fiction book, How to Self-Publish Comics: Not Just Create Them, was made required reading at Savannah College of Art & Design.

Chicago cartoonist Jeffrey Brown is an Eisner Award winner best known for his bestselling Star Wars graphic novels, including Jedi Academy and the NY Times #1 bestseller Darth Vader and Son. Brown’s comics career began while he was pursuing his MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago when he abandoned painting to write and draw his first graphic memoir, Clumsy. He has written dozens of Star Wars, Batman, Marvel Super Hero, and other graphic novels. His newest book is Hulk Teach 2: A Tale of Two Teachers.

Peter Krause has worked as an artist in comics for nearly forty years. His credits include Power of SHAZAM!, Metropolis S.C.U., and Star Trek: The Next Generation — all for DC Comics. His work with writer Mark Waid on Irredemable (BOOM! Studios) and Daredevil: Road Warrior (Marvel Comics) garnered several Eisner nominations. Krause helped reimagine the Archie gang as teens during World War ll in Archie: 1941, and drew the adventures of two disparate superhero universes in Dragonfly and Dragonflyman for Ahoy Comics.

Along with writers Mark Russell and Bryce Ingman, Krause created the superhero spoof My Bad for Ahoy Comics. He also drew Blacking Out, a modern noir mystery written by Chip Mosher that was published through Kickstarter.

More recently, Krause has drawn a number of EC stories for Oni/Lion Forge. He is currently finishing the art chores on another Mosher-written crime story.

Laura Martin is one of the comics industry’s most lauded colorists. Recipient of Harvey, Eisner, Eagle, Squiddy, and Comics Buyer’s Guide Awards, Martin is regularly assigned high-profile and event-oriented comics on which to bring her palate to bear. Her work can be found in DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, Virgin, and CrossGen comics through the years, and she is lately working on Bad Idea’s Eniac, DC’s Nubia: Queen of the Amazons, and Marvel’s Hulk.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Tone Rodriguez got his start in comics drawing on Violent Messiahs and Snake Plissken for Image Comics. His work followed at Dark Horse, Top Cow, and Crossgen, on dozens of books from ShadowHawk, KISS, and Conan the Barbarian.

He’s shown how diverse his work is by joining the folks in Springfield drawing The Simpsons and Futurama Comics for Bongo.

He also contributed to many TV projects, creating the look of The Dark Defender and creating the artwork for the comic book character on Showtime’s Dexter TV show and The Adventures of Jimmy Halpert comic for NBC’s The Office.

His most recent work has him working on the critically acclaimed Stray Dogs for Image Comics and is one of the artists on Feral, a comic book about a rabies outbreak told from the point of view of the feline.

Currently living in Louisiana, he’s a contributor to multiple small press projects such as Tremors (a comic book based on the 90’s movie franchise).

Bob Wiacek has worked with many great talents such as Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, John and Sal Buscema, Walter Simonson, Frank Miller, Barry Windsor-Smith, George Perez, Jerry Ordway, Paul Smith, Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Don Heck, Ron Garney, June Brigman, Colleen Doran, plus many others. He has inked Mike Grell on The Legion of Super Heroes #220 and Al Milgrom on Marvel Presents #7-The Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel. From that time on, he has inked every major title for Marvel, including The X-Men, Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, She-Hulk, Man-Thing, Star Wars, Silver Surfer, and Fantastic Four just to name a few. At DC, he worked on Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Brave and the Bold, The Ray, Batman Family, Justice Society, Shazam, and Challengers of the Unknown, which is a small sampling as well. As far as independent publishers, he did work for Dark Horse, Image, Relium Media, Archie, and Valiant, where he worked on Archer and Armstrong, Bloodshot, and Solar. He has inked noteworthy issues in titles including Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, Star Wars, Iron Man, Batman, and Bloodshot. On the Iron Man 2020 project, he co-plotted with Walter Simonson, penciled and inked the book (with an able assist from Will Rosado). Of late, Wiacek has helped out inking All-New Wolverine and a JLA General Mills comic which was available in different cereal boxes. He has also inked Badger #1 for First Comics, Stars End #2 from Insane Comics, pencilled and inked the cover to ZaZa the Mystic, and will be working on an Indie project soon with Ron Wilson and Arvell Jones. Outside of comics, he starred in a commercial with rap group G-Unit in 2003, and has a small part in the independent film Manos: The Rise of Torgo, for which he did the poster.

Chuck Wojtkiewicz (Voit-KEV-itch) has been active in the world of comics, concept art, and storyboards since the early 80’s. Yep, he’s old as dirt! His best stretch in comics was at DC on Justice League International and various fill-ins, etc. He also worked for Marvel (Imperial Guard), Dark Horse, Image, and more. Falling into a full-time job at storied Blur Studio as Lead Concept Artist, he spent 14 years working on an endless parade of projects including Star Wars: The Old Republic, Kids WB!, Crimson Skies, The Goon Movie Kickstarter Storyboard Animatic, and the Deadpool movie. Since then, he and his lovely wife Marc have moved from LA to scenic Whidbey Island in Washington, where he freelanced on a couple of Gears of War projects and full comics art for Story Attic’s Scrollon line of stories. After major heart surgery in 2020, our hero (largely) retired, but keeps his art skills sharp with select art commissions. Come by and say hi!

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This year’s confirmed guests for the show include: Jason Aaron (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Marty Baumann (Pixar artist), Josh Blaylock (Mercy Sparx, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Russ Braun (The Boys), Jeffrey Brown (Hulk Teach, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Mark Buckingham (Fables), Jim Calafiore (NED, Lord of the Pit), Richard Case (Doom Patrol), Keith Champagne (Stranger Things), Howard Chaykin (Time Squared), Jo Chen (Runaways), Cliff Chiang (Paper Girls), Frank Cho (Harley Quinn), Becky Cloonan (War), Michael W. Conrad (In Bloom), Steve Conley (The Middle Age), Amanda Conner (Harley Quinn), Olivia Cuartero-Briggs (The College Try), Paris Cullins (Blue Devil), Todd Dezago (The Perhapanauts), Colleen Doran (The Sandman), Scott Dunbier (DC Silver Age Covers and Stories Artist’s Edition), Garth Ennis (The Boys), Trish Forstner (Feral), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (DC Nation), Chris Giarrusso (Mini Marvels), Randy Green (Witchblade), Torunn Grønbekk (Catwoman), Gene Ha (Mae), Bob Hall (West Coast Avengers), Larry Hama (GI Joe: A Real American Hero), Tony Harris (The Whistling Skull), Dean Haspiel (Chest Face), Glenn Hauman (They Keep Killing Glenn), Mike Hawthorne (Deadpool), Marc Hempel (Sandman), Jamal Igle (Superman), Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Infernal Hulk), Dan Jurgens (Action Comics), Chris Kemple (Red Vengeance), Peter Krause (The Power of Shazam, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Mike Kunkel (Herobear and the Kid), Erik Larsen (Savage Dragon), Jae Lee (Inhumans), Nate Lovett (Commander Tomorrow), Kevin Maguire (Justice League), Laura Martin (Nubia: Queen of the Amazons, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Shawn Martinbrough (Red Hood: The Hill), Ron Marz (Green Lantern), Jose Marzen Jr. (Y: The Last Man), Mike McKone (Teen Titans), Bob McLeod (New Mutants), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), Adriana Melo (Fantastic Four), Pop Mhan (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe), Al Milgrom (Spectacular Spider-Man), Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise), Mark Morales (Thor), Bill Morrison (The Simpsons), Trevor Mueller (Bat Pat), Sarah Myer (TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures), Phil Noto (Fantastic Four: First Foes), Kevin Nowlan (Batman: Sword of Azrael), Patrick Olliffe (Untold Tales of Spider-Man), Ryan Ottley (Invincible), Jimmy Palmiotti (The Punisher), Dan Parent (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), Margeaux Pepoy (Simone & Ajax), David Petersen (Mouse Guard), Khoi Pham (Star Wars: Darth Vader), Tom Raney (Incredible Hulk), Afua Richardson (Kahhori: Reshaper of Worlds), Tone Rodriguez (Feral, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge), Craig Rousseau (The Perhapanauts), Joe Schmalke (We Don’t Kill Spiders), Erica Schultz (Rogue), Mark Schultz (Xenozoic Tales, courtesy of Flesk Publishing), Louise Simonson (The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special), Walter Simonson (Thor), Matthew Dow Smith (DC’s Misfits of Magic), Scott Snyder (Friday and Sunday only, DC K.O.), John K. Snyder III (Suicide Squad), Mark Sparacio (Liberty Girl Deluxe), Joe Staton (Dick Tracy), Brian Stelfreeze (Black Panther), Martha Thomases (Dakota North), Billy Tucci (Shi), Gus Vazquez (Sunfire and the Big Hero Six), Mark Waid (Action Comics), Mark Wheatley (Breathtaker), Bob Wiacek (All-New Wolverine, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Matt Wieringo (Stargate Atlantis: Gateways), Chuck Wojtkiewicz (Justice League, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Rich Woodall (Sgt. Werewolf), Kelly Yates (Doctor Who), and Thom Zahler (Long Distance).