Klaus Janson, Barry Kitson, Bob McLeod, Sozomaika, Mark Sparacio, and Wade von Grawbadger will be guests of the 2023 Baltimore Comic-Con, taking place at the Inner Harbor’s Baltimore Convention Center on September 8-10. Tickets are available online now for purchase.

Klaus Janson was born in 1952 in Coburg, Germany, and came to America in 1957. As a child growing up in Connecticut, he learned how to read and write the English language almost exclusively from Lois Lane and Superman comics. Even at that early age, delusions of competence overtook him and he would cut apart the comics and paste them onto paper to construct new stories. This eventually led to the notion that drawing the stories outright and preserving the comics might be a more efficient way of approaching this medium. A valuable and life saving apprenticeship with his mentor Dick Giordano encouraged him to continue. After many summers of portfolio reviews and rejections, Marvel Comics offered a part time office job applying grey tones to the black and white horror comic reprints that were glutting the market. Two things happened that would change that: Daredevil and teaching at The School of Visual Arts. Daredevil with Frank Miller in the mid-1980s was a rare opportunity for two artists to work unconstrained by the typical expectations or oversight of corporate thinking. An anomaly for mainstream publishing, Daredevil was a struggle between artistic instinct and intellect that, at its best, resulted in that perfect balance. The other step forward was teaching at The School of Visual Arts. Klaus believes that communication is the most powerful tool human beings possess. That ability to communicate can come in many forms but at its root is called storytelling. Klaus lives in New York, where he writes, draws, inks, and colors, and teaches comics.

Barry Kitson began drawing comics professionally in 1983 and has been an extraordinarily prolific artist since then. His first published work was as the artist on Spider-Man for Marvel UK. He went on to draw The Transformers and various other titles for the company before moving on to 2000AD where he drew multiple Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson stories. At the end of the eighties, he was invited to work for DC Comics in America, becoming a staple artist on many of their flagship titles including Superman, Batman, The Justice League of America, The Legion of Superheroes, The Teen Titans, and Azrael. He also went on to work for Marvel Comics, illustrating Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, Doctor Strange, and Iron Man, amongst others.

Together with writer Mark Waid, Barry co-created the series Empire, currently optioned for production by Paramount + and published in French by Delcourt as Golgoth. Barry is currently working on new Empire material to see print in 2023.

Barry continues to illustrate the successful independent publication The Liberty Brigade, which features many of the Golden Age superhero characters and is set in the 1940s. He is beginning work on a second volume this year.

Bob McLeod is best known for co-creating and illustrating The New Mutants for Marvel Comics. He began his career with Marvel’s Crazy magazine, penciling, and inking movie and TV satires and the Teen Hulk strip. He has pencilled or inked all the major characters for Marvel and DC, including Spider-Man (most notably Kraven’s Last Hunt), The X-Men, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, GI Joe, Star Wars, The Hulk, Conan, and many more. Bob also wrote and illustrated a children’s alphabet book, Superhero ABC, published by HarperCollins, which received starred reviews. He edited and wrote articles for Twomorrows’ Rough Stuff magazine and taught art at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design for many years. He’s currently doing occasional variant covers for Marvel and commissions for his fans, along with occasional freelance jobs and personal projects. His website is www.bobmcleod.com.

Sozomaika is a self-taught digital illustrator, concept artist, and 3D generalist currently based in LA. Maika is best known for her approach towards fashion design in her character illustrations. There is also a notable influence from noir, sploitation’ cinema, and eastern design elements in her work. So far, she has produced artworks for various companies including Under Armour, DC Comics, Wired, Image Comics, and Riot Games.

Successful illustrator Mark Sparacio studied sequential art for three years under the legendary Will Eisner — recognized as the creator of the Graphic Novel — at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, where he earned a B.F.A. in Illustration and Sequential Art.

While still in school, Sparacio received his first professional assignment to create a painting for the movie poster for the United Artist International film, The Draughtsman’s Contract. This opportunity resulted in a long run as a freelance illustrator in the advertising industry.

After working for both Marvel and DC Comics and creating covers for Comics Buyer’s Guide and The Overstreet Price Guide, as well as creating paintings for card sets for UpperDeck/DC Comics and for Topps’ Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids, Sparacio developed his second creator-owned graphic novel series, Chelsea Dagger, this one totally conceived, written, drawn, and with painted covers by Sparacio. After Book One’s critical success, Sparacio is currently drawing and painting covers for Chelsea Dagger Books II and III while also writing, drawing, and painting covers for two American Mythology Productions on-going comic book series, Bombshell and TommTomm, and Witch Hammer, which have release dates of late summer 2023. Sparacio is the Artist in Residence at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, where he teaches many traditional art classes and helped to create the new Visual Art and Design B.F.A. When he’s not in his studio and needs a place to sleep, Sparacio lives in Port St. Lucie, Florida, with his wife ToniAnn.

Embarking on his 30th year of creating comics, Harvey, Eisner, and Inkwell Award-winning artist Wade von Grawbadger is excited to be making his first ever appearance at Baltimore Comic-Con! Wade is primarily known for contributing ink art on such titles as Starman, Amazing Spider-Man, All-New X-Men, and Star Wars, but there has been so much more! Titles coming out in 2023 include Edge of the Spider-Verse 1 (featuring Spider-Rex) and Comics for Ukraine: Sunflower Seeds and New Talent Showcase: The Milestone Initiative 1 (helping new talent find their groove) among others! He hopes to see you there!

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This year’s confirmed guests for the show include: Arthur Adams (Longshot), Sarah Andersen (Sarah’s Scribbles), Jeremy Bastian (Dune: House Harkonnen), Marty Baumann (Pixar artist), Brian Michael Bendis (Action Comics), Jon Bogdanove (The Death of Superman), Judy Bogdanove (Steel Annual), Mark Buckingham (Fables), Jim Calafiore (NED, Lord of the Pit), Chris Campana (Death Dealer), Richard Case (Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror), Howard Chaykin (Time Squared), Jim Cheung (Young Avengers), Frank Cho (Harley Quinn), Amy Chu (KISS: The End), Steve Conley (The Middle Age), Katie Cook (Nothing Special), 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), Tana Ford (LaGuardia), Trish Forstner (Stray Dogs), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (DC Nation), Mike Grell (Jon Sable), Gene Ha (Mae), Bob Hall (West Coast Avengers), Cully Hamner (Blue Beetle), Brian Haberlin (Spawn), Tony Harris (The Whistling Skull), Mike Hawthorne (Deadpool), Greg Hildebrandt (Star Wars), Morry Hollowell (Old Man Logan), Mark Irwin (Green Lantern), Klaus Janson (Daredevil), Dave Johnson (100 Bullets), J.G. Jones (Wanted), Barry Kitson (Amazing Spider-Man), Jeff Lemire (Black Hammer), Matthew Loux (Prunella and the Cursed Skull Ring), Kevin Maguire (Justice League), Tom Mandrake (Spectre), Laura Martin (Nubia: Queen of the Amazons), Ron Marz (Green Lantern), 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), 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), Afua Richardson (Omni), Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge), Craig Rousseau (The Perhapanauts), Steve Rude (Nexus), Jim Rugg (Hulk Grand Design), Andy Runton (Owly), 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), John Timms (Superman: Son of Kal-El), Wade von Grawbadger (Justice League), John Workman (Wild Things), and Thom Zahler (Love and Capes).