The complete Special Guest list for Comic-Con International 2015!
Comic-Con 2015 Special Guests
Jill Thompson
Writer/artist, The Scary Godmother
Jill Thompson is the Eisner Award–winning creator of The Scary Godmother, which has been seen not only in comics but also on stage and screen. In 2001, there were 26 performances of The Scary Godmother at The Athenaeum Theater in Chicago. That play became The Scary Godmother Holiday Spooktakular, which is shown each year on Cartoon Network and proved so popular that another adaptation of a Scary Godmother story—The Revenge of Jimmy—was also brought to animated life.
Jill is also the co-creator of Finals with Will Pfeifer for DC/Vertigo and the award-winning Beasts of Burden for Dark Horse with writer Evan Dorkin. Her other comics work includes Wonder Woman, Sandman, Death at Death’s Door, The Little Endless Storybook, Delirium’s Party, The Invisibles, The Dead Boy Detectives, and many others. Lately she’s been busy developing Scary Godmother toys, fulfilling Kickstarter rewards, designing wrestling gear for WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan, and painting multiple comics stories.
Maggie Thompson
Writer, editor, comics historian
Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award winner Maggie Thompson began collecting comic books before she was 5 years old and began co-editing the pioneering fanzine Comic Art with Don Thompson when she was 18. She continues collecting, writing, and editing in the course of a career that includes 30 years of editing Comics Buyer’s Guide and a variety of other comics-oriented projects, including a monthly contribution to Comic-Con’s Toucan blog, a weekly post for Diamond Comic Distributors’ Scoop newsletter, and maintenance of her own www.maggiethompson.com website.
Jhonen Vasquez
Writer/artist, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac; creator, Invader Zim
Jhonen Vasquez is the creator of the genre-defining comic book series Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, which is marking the 20th anniversary of the publication of its first issue. Despite a relatively small body of comic book work, Vasquez has had a tremendous influence on a number of artists. His angular and stylistic artwork resonated with fans, and the graphic novel collection Johnny (The Director’s Cut) consistently remains a bestseller. Vasquez followed up Johnny with a spinoff series called Squee (based on Johnny’s little neighbor), and then later did two more series for SLG Publishing, I Feel Sick and Filler Bunny.
Not limiting himself to working in comics, Vasquez is best known to the world as the creator of the Invader Zim television series, which appeared on Nickelodeon. He has also directed a number of music videos and he is currently working on a new pilot for a series on Disney Television called A Very Important House.
Bernie Wrightson
Photo by Tim Bradstreet
Artist, Swamp Thing, Frankenstein
Bernie Wrightson has been creating horror art for over 45 years. In 1966, he began working for The Baltimore Sun newspaper as an illustrator. His first professional comic work appeared in House of Mystery #179 in 1968. In 1971, with writer Len Wein, Wrightson co-created the muck creature Swamp Thing for DC. He also co-created Destiny, later to become famous in the work of Neil Gaiman. By 1974 he had left DC to work at Warren Publishing, for whose black-and-white horror comics magazines he produced a series of original work as well as adaptations of stories by H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. Wrightson spent 7 years drawing approximately 50 detailed pen-and-ink illustrations to accompany an edition of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, which the artist considers among his most personal work. Recent works include Frankenstein Alive Alive, Dead She Said, The Ghoul, and Doc Macabre (IDW), all co-created with esteemed horror author Steve Niles.
Craig Yoe
Author/editor/designer/comics historian
Craig Yoe got into comics by producing fanzines 50 years ago! He later became creative director/VPGM of The Muppets. The majority of the creator’s 60-plus books on comics history have been published through Yoe Books/IDW. The books—humor to horror—include the works of creators George Herriman, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko. Introductions for some of these books have been written by R. Crumb, Stan Lee, John Updike, and Bill Watterson.
Yoe has produced comics in 23 impoverished countries in 18 languages to educate children at-risk of deadly diseases to wash their hands—saving countless lives. The 20 million circulated School of 5 superhero comics are a world record! For more information, visit YoeBooks.com
Skottie Young
Writer/cartoonist, Oz Books, Rocket Raccoon, I Hate Fairyland
Skottie Young is an award-winning writer, illustrator and cartoonist whose work has topped the New York Times bestseller list and drawn acclaim worldwide for his unique art style and stories. For nearly 15 years he has illustrated and written fan-favorite characters, including Spider-Man, Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, the X-Men, and many more. Skottie illustrated six graphic novels adapting (with Eric Shanower) the Oz books by L. Frank Baum, winning multiple Eisner Awards, including one for Best Penciler/Inker. Most recently, Skottie wrote and illustrated the series Rocket Raccoon for Marvel. Having done over 100 covers in 2 years, he has put his stamp on nearly ever character Marvel has in their catalog. He is currently writing and illustrating his own series, I Hate Fairyland, for Image Comics, due out this fall.
Chip Zdarsky
Artist, Sex Criminals; writer, Howard the Duck, Kaptara
Chip Zdarsky has no regrets, except for how things went down with Cheryl. You deserved better, Cheryl. Chip should have found the time to work on your relationship, but he was too busy focusing on his career, being the artist of Sex Criminals (Image) and the writer of Kaptara (Image), not to mention the writer of a relaunched Howard The Duck (Marvel). Yeah, there were Eisner Awards and Harvey Awards, but what do those mean in the end? A lot, but still, it would be nice to have you in his arms again just one more time, Cheryl (Image, 2016).