The complete Special Guest list for Comic-Con International 2015!
Comic-Con 2015 Special Guests
Lora Innes
Writer/artist, The Dreamer
Lora Innes is the creator of The Dreamer, a webcomic about a teenager who begins having dreams about the Revolutionary War. Every night the dream picks up where it last left off, and it isn’t long before Bea questions if these are just dreams . . . or if they’re something more. IDW Publishing has released three graphic novel collections of The Dreamer, which have been nominated five times in the Harvey Awards. Lora appeared on The American Revolution, a three-part miniseries by Discovery Communications. She co-hosts the Paper Wings Show, a podcast about elevating the craft of making independent comics.
Chip Kidd
Photo by John Madere
Designer/author, Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz, Batman: Death by Design
Chip Kidd is a designer and writer in New York City. His books Batman Animated, Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz, and Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross all earned Eisner awards. As an editor and art director for Pantheon Books, he has worked with some of the most talented people in comics, including Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Alex Ross, Charles Burns, Dan Clowes, David Mazzucchelli, and Michael Cho. Kidd is the author of the New York Times bestselling graphic novel Batman: Death by Design, published by DC Comics, as well as the co-author (with Lisa Birnbach) of True Prep, published by Alfred A. Knopf. Kidd’s new book on the work of Charles Schulz, Only What’s Necessary, will be released in fall of 2015, from Abrams.
Denis Kitchen
Portrait by Pete Poplaski
Writer/artist/publisher, Kitchen Sink Press
Pioneer underground cartoonist and publisher Denis Kitchen wears many hats. His Kitchen Sink Press (1969–1999) published Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Robert Crumb, Al Capp, Scott McCloud, Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, Charles Burns, and numerous others. In 1986 Kitchen founded the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization defending the industry's First Amendment rights. A monograph, The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen, was published in 2010. He’s co-authored books on Kurtzman, Capp, and underground comix for Abrams and Bloomsbury, curates art exhibits, represents cartoonist estates, and with John Lind recently revived Kitchen Sink as an imprint of Dark Horse.
Boaz Lavie
Writer, The Divine
Boaz Lavie is a writer, filmmaker, and game designer residing in Tel Aviv. He has written screenplays for popular Israeli TV shows, including for the Israeli leading broadcast TV channel. He was the film section editor for a major Israeli website and has published stories in several literary magazines. The Lake, a short film he has written and directed, was featured in Academy Award qualifying events such as the San Francisco International Film Festival, Slamdance, Palm Springs Film Festival, and others. It has won critical acclaim and was selected by the film magazine SF360 as one of the best five undiscovered films for 2010. Lavie is the author of The Divine graphic novel, coming from First Second in July. Co-sponsored by First Second
Bob Layton
Artist/writer, Iron Man, X-Factor
Bob Layton is one of the industry's true visionaries and entrepreneurs. He reinvented Iron Man in the ’70s, making it a bestselling Marvel series and spawning the hit movies. His Iron Man story “Demon in a Bottle” was voted "one of the top 20 comic stories of all time." Bob launched the first miniseries in comic history with Marvel’s Hercules: Prince of Power and co-created the recordbreaking comic series X-Factor, as well as War Machine, the new Ant-Man, and DC’s Huntress. Layton was co-architect of the original Valiant Universe and served as editor-in-chief. Bob currently works in Hollywood developing properties for motion pictures and television.
Jim Lee
Photo by Mike Jara
Artist, Batman: Hush, Justice League; DC Entertainment co-publisher
Jim Lee is a renowned comic book artist and the co-publisher of DC Entertainment. Prior to his current post, Lee served as editorial director, where he oversaw WildStorm Studios and was also the artist for many of DC Comics’ bestselling comic books and graphic novels, including All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, Batman: Hush, Justice League, Superman: For Tomorrow and Superman Unchained. He also served as the executive creative director for the DC Universe Online (DCUO) massively multiplayer action game from Daybreak Game Company.
Stan Lee
Writer/editor/co-creator, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men
Stan “the Man” Lee’s influence over comic books is incalculable. His co-creations Spider-Man, X-Men, and The Avengers have been monster movie hits, helping make Marvel Comics the leader of the comic book industry. Some of Stan’s other great co-creations, such as Fantastic Four and Daredevil, have a new film and TV show, respectively, this year, while Thor and The Avengers have movie sequels on the way, as does Captain America, co-created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, and written by Stan in the 1960s.
In 2008, President Bush presented Stan a Medal of the Arts, lauding his amazing career. Stan is currently developing movie and TV projects with his company POW! Entertainment, while still proudly cherishing the title of Chairman Emeritus of Marvel.
Paul Levitz
Writer/editor/publisher, Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel, Legion of Super-Heroes
Paul Levitz is a comics fan (The Comic Reader), editor (Batman), writer (Legion of Super-Heroes), executive (30 years at DC, ending as president & publisher), historian (75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Myth-Making (Taschen, 2010), and educator (including teaching the American Graphic Novel at Columbia). He won two consecutive annual Comic Art Fan Awards for Best Fanzine, received Comic-Con International’s Inkpot Award, the prestigious Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, the Comics Industry Appreciation Award from ComicsPro, and the Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award from the Hero Initiative. His Taschen book won the Eisner Award, the Eagle Award, and Munich’s Peng Pris, and it is being released in revised form as five volumes in 2013–15. His latest book is Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel (Abrams ComicArts, 2015). Levitz also serves on the board of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and BOOM! Studios.
Steve Lieber
Photo by Charlie Chu
Artist, Superior Foes of Spider-Man, Whiteout
Steve Lieber is a comic book artist whose publishers include DC Comics, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, Scholastic, Oni Press, and many others, Steve has worked on such characters and properties as Batman, Superman, and Road to Perdition, but he’s best known as the artist of the graphic novel Whiteout and its Eisner-winning sequel, Whiteout: Melt. Recent projects include Superior Foes of Spider-Man for Marvel, and Quantum and Woody for Valiant. He also writes the monthly Dilettante column for Comic-Con's Toucan blog. Steve lives in Portland, Oregon and online at stevelieber.com.
Laura Martin
Color artist, Planetary, Star Wars
Laura Martin is a 20-year veteran comics colorist. Shortly after graduating from college in 1995, Laura joined WildStorm, where she won the Eisner Award for Best Colorist for Planetary and The Authority. She went freelance in 2000 and worked on JLA and Universe-X. In 2001, Laura joined CrossGen, where she won more awards for Ruse and Negation. In 2004, she returned to freelancing and has colored such titles as Astonishing X-Men, The Ultimates, Thor, Uncanny Avengers, Stephen King's The Stand, and AvX (Marvel); Dr. Manhattan, Superman (DC Comics); Serenity (Dark Horse); Armor Hunters (Valiant); and The Rocketeer (IDW). Laura is currently coloring Star Wars (Marvel), Ragnarök (IDW), and Spawn (Image).
A. Lee Martinez
Author, Gil’s All Fright Diner, The Automatic Detective
A. Lee Martinez is the author of ten fantasy and science fiction novels, including Gil’s All Fright Diner, The Automatic Detective, and Helen and Troy’s Epic Road Quest. He has published books with Tor and Orbit and is currently working on his first trilogy with Simon & Schuster. His stories are known for their mixing of the absurd and the mundane and their heavy pulp influences. He lives in Texas with his wife, where he spends the bulk of his time writing, attending the DFW Writers Workshop, and playing tabletop games.
Dave McCaig
Color artist, American Vampire, Superman: Birthright
Dave McCaig is an artist in comics and animation, best known for his coloring work on comic titles such as Superman: Birthright, Northlanders, American Vampire, and Nextwave. He was the color supervisor on The Batman animated series (2004) and has recently started teaching comic book coloring at New York’s School of Visual Arts. Dave has colored pretty much every character you can think of over the past 20+ years for publishers such as Marvel, DC, Valiant, Top Cow, Dark Horse, and Oni. He currently lives in Brooklyn, where he’s trying to hone his beard length to blend in with the locals.