Special Guests

Comic-Con 2019 will be held July 18-21 (with Preview Night on July 17) at the San Diego Convention Center. The following special guests are confirmed for this year's event.

 

Wendy Pini

Wendy Pini at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center
Wendy
Pini

Writer, artist, publisher, Elfquest, Beauty and the Beast

Wendy Pini has been drawing literally since the age of two, and has worked for Marvel, DC, First Comics, Comico, Berkley, Tor Books, and many other publishers. She is the co-creator, writer, artist and colorist for the long-running fantasy graphic novel series Elfquest, widely acknowledged as “the first American manga.”  She has also written and painted two Beauty and the Beast graphic novels, as well as a critically acclaimed 400-page dark, futuristic reimagining of Poe's Masque of the Red Death, currently in development with an award-winning team as a thriller for the musical theatre.

Bud Plant

Bud Plant at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center
Bud
Plant

Pioneer comics retailer, publisher

Bud Plant began buying comics in 1961 and scored Fantastic Four #1 off the stands (but who knows where that went?). He started seriously collecting comics in 1964. Plant and his buddies opened their first comic shop in March 1968, and started Comics & Comix in 1972, which ran to 7 stores. He did catalogs of fanzines, underground comix and comics-related books, and set up at comic shows across the country. Plant got into distribution in 1984, but sold out to Diamond in 1988. He published a few fanzines with his friends, some underground comix, and zillions of catalogs. Today he collects Golden Age, does a few shows, still puts out catalogs, and writes weekly emails with all the new goodies at BudsArtBooks.com.

John Pound

John Pound at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center
John
Pound

Comic-Con founding committee member; artist, Garbage Pail Kids

John Pound helped start the San Diego Comic-Con. Avoiding a real job, he drew underground comix and painted fantasy art prints, book covers, and comic covers. He loved humor art.

John moved to Northern California when he met Karen, his future wife.

Art Spiegelman invited him to paint Topps' "Garbage Pail Kids" stickers, a big hit and he painted hundreds. He also had art in BLAB, MAD, and JUXTAPOZ magazines.

For fast, irreverent art-making, he began writing computer code to make instant randomly- generated comics. His newer code generates random cartoon-like art prints, books, animations, and music videos. A code art compilation awaits publication. More info: www.poundart.com

Paco Roca

Paco Roca at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center
Paco
Roca

Writer, artist, Wrinkles, Twists of Fate

Paco Roca was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1969 and got his start in comics drawing the action series Road Cartoons for legendary comics magazine El Víbora. His graphic novel Arrugas received the 2008 Premio Nacional del Cómic, was adapted into an award-winning animated feature film, and was released in English as Wrinkles by Fantagraphics Books in 2016. Other works available in English include Twists of Fate (Fantagraphics Books, 2018) and The House, due out November 2019.

Mike Royer

Mike Royer at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center
Mike
Royer

Artist, Kirby’s Fourth World series, Eternals, Captain America

Mike Royer began his career in 1966 assisting Russ Manning on Magnus, Tarzan and later the Star Wars comic strip. After 14 years working on various titles for Gold Key, James Warren, and laying out one-third of the first Spider-Man animation series, Mike was asked by Jack Kirby to work with him on his Fourth World books New Gods, Forever People, etc., plus Demon and Kamandi for DC, and then Eternals, Devil Dinosaur and Captain America, etc. at Marvel. After almost 10 years with Jack, Mike spent 21+ years as a product designer/character artist for Disney Licensing and the Disney Store. In 2001 Mike returned to his birth state of Oregon where he did product design and character art for several clients including Danbury Mint, Disney collector pins and Pin USA, and even found time for some inking again on such luminaries as Erik Larsen, Ron Frenz, and Steve Rude, etc. In an almost 50-year career, Mike’s jobs have included animation layout and cartoon storyboarding, comic book penciling, lettering and inking, product design, record album covers, etc. Mike was the first cartoonist guest for the 1970 Mini-Con that gave birth to Comic-Con.

Chuck Rozanski

Chuck Rozanski at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center
Chuck
Rozanski

Long-time Comic-Con exhibitor and retailer, Mile High Comics

Chuck Rozanski began selling collector comics in 1970, at the age of 14. He first sold at Multicon 1972 at 17, San Diego Comic-Con 1973 at 18, and opened his first Mile High Comics retail store at 19. He had 4 stores by age 21. 0ver the past 49 years, has provided fans with over $200,000,000.00 in comics.

He currently resides in Boulder, CO with his wife of 44 years, Nanette, and still owns and operates Mile High Comics, including an immense 65,000 square foot Mega-Store in Denver. He also raises money for numerous charities as the nationally-recognized drag queen, Bettie Pages.

Stan Sakai

Stan Sakai at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center

Photo: Emi Fujii Photography

Stan
Sakai

Writer, artist, Usagi Yojimbo

Stan Sakai was born in Kyoto, Japan, and grew up in Hawaii. He began his comic book career by lettering Sergio Aragonés' Groo the Wanderer. He also worked with Stan Lee, lettering the Spider-Man Sunday comics for 25 years. Sakai is most famous for his original creation, Usagi Yojimbo, an epic saga celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2019. It features Miyamoto Usagi, a samurai rabbit living in early-seventeenth-century Japan. His work on Usagi Yojimbo has led to a number of awards, including six Eisner Awards, a Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist, the Japanese American National Museum's Cultural Ambassador Award, Parent's Choice Award, and an American Library Association Award. Skillful weaving of history, folklore, and Japanese culture into his work has made Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo a favorite among educators as a curriculum tool. Usagi has also been a part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in their TV series, comic book crossovers, and toy lines. An Usagi Yojimbo TV show is in development, produced by Gaumont Studios, Sakai, James Wan’s Atomic Monster, and Dark Horse Entertainment. Stan is married to artist Julie Fujii-Sakai with whom he collaborates on Chibi Usagi and other projects. They live in Southern California.

Steve Sansweet

Steve Sansweet at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center
Steve
Sansweet

Author, Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection; head of Rancho Obi-Wan

Steve Sansweet is head of Rancho Obi-Wan, a nonprofit museum that houses the Guinness World Records-certified largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia (www.ranchoobiwan.org). Located in Northern California on the outskirts of Petaluma, it is open for pre-booked tours and events. Steve has written or co-authored 18 Star Wars books and many articles and has appeared on numerous television and online shows and podcasts. He was Director of Content Management and head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm Ltd. for 15 years and after retirement served as a consultant for the company. Prior to Lucasfilm, Steve had a 26-year career as a reporter and an editor at The Wall Street Journal.

Bob Schreck

Bob Schreck at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center
Bob
Schreck

Editor, Batman, Sin City

Bob Schreck is an award-winning editor who has worked in comics since 1975. His publishing career began at Comico in 1985. By 1991 he joined Dark Horse and was the editor of creator-owned titles and the Legend line where he shepherded Frank Miller’s Sin City and Dark Horse Presents. In 1997, along with Joe Nozemack, he launched Oni Press best known for Kevin Smith’s Clerks comics. In 1999 Schreck joined DC Comics becoming group editor of the Batman franchise. He shepherded numerous projects including DK2, Batman: Hush, Batman: Year 100, and Green Arrow. After working briefly at IDW, he landed at Legendary Films as senior VP/editor-in-chief. He has served as editor to such talents as Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, Guillermo del Toro, Paul Pope, Dave Gibbons, Scott Morse, Grant Morrison, and many others. Currently, Schreck is semi-retired doing freelance editing and consulting, living in Oregon with his husband, Randy, and their dog, Bandit.

Diana Schutz

Diana Schutz at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center

Portrait art by comics colorist Brennan Wagner

Diana
Schutz

Editor, 300, Grendel, Usagi Yojimbo

Diana Schutz is an award-winning editor who has worked in comics since 1978. In her 25-year tenure at Dark Horse as senior/executive editor, she shepherded Frank Miller’s Sin City and 300, Matt Wagner’s Grendel, Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo, Paul Chadwick’s Concrete, Larry Marder’s Beanworld, and Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor. She also served as editor to authors Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, and Will Eisner. Schutz is an adjunct instructor of Comics Studies at Portland State University and the first woman to be inducted into the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame. Semi-retired, she now works as a literary translator of European graphic novels.

David Scroggy

David Scroggy at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center
David
Scroggy

Former Comic Book Expo director; head of product development at Dark Horse Comics

David Scroggy has been involved with the comics business since he moved to California from his hometown of Akron, OH in 1975. There, he began a long association with the San Diego Comic Convention (now Comic-Con International), wrote a regular column for Comics Buyer’s Guide, and began working for Pacific Comics, an early comics retailer. When Pacific began publishing comic books in 1981, he served as editorial director.

After leaving Pacific Comics, Scroggy worked as an artist representative, and served as director of Comic Book Expo, the trade show associated with Comic-Con International.

In 1993 David joined Dark Horse Comics. He was asked to start a new department, Product Development, that would develop collectibles. He spent 23 years with Dark Horse, retiring in June 2017.

David Scroggy has won the Eisner Award (for Dark Horse’s comic-related products), Comic-Con’s Inkpot Award, and the Diamond Gem award

Seth

Seth at Comic-Con 2019, July 18-21 at the San Diego Convention Center

Photo: David Briggs Photography

Seth

Cartoonist, Palookaville, Clyde Fans

Seth is the cartoonist behind the long running comic-book series Palookaville. His books include Wimbledon Green, George Sprott, and It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken. He is the designer for The Complete Peanuts, The Portable Dorothy Parker, The John Stanley Library, and The Collected Doug Wright. From 2014 to 2016 he partnered with Lemony Snicket on the young readers series All the Wrong Questions. 2019 marks the release of his highly-anticipated masterwork Clyde Fans, which tells the story of a crumbling small business and a faltering family. He lives in Guelph, Canada.