Comic-Con 2022 will be held July 21-24 (with Preview Night on July 20) at the San Diego Convention Center. The following special guests are confirmed for this year's event.
Special Guests
Shannon Messenger
Shannon Messenger is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of the award-winning middle-grade series Keeper of the Lost Cities, as well as the Sky Fall series for young adults. Her books have been featured on multiple state reading lists, published in numerous countries, and translated into many languages. She lives in Southern California with her family—and an embarrassing number of cats.
Frank Miller
Frank Miller began his career in comics in the late 1970s, first gaining notoriety as the artist and later writer of Daredevil for Marvel. Next came the science fiction samurai drama Ronin, followed by the groundbreaking Batman: The Dark Knight and Batman: Year One. Next he fulfilled a lifelong dream by doing an all-out crime series for Dark Horse: Sin City, an instant success that spawned two blockbuster films, which he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez. His multi-award-winning graphic novel 300 was adapted into a highly successful film by Zack Snyder. Recently, Miller, alongside Dan DiDio (former Publisher of DC Comics) and Silenn Thomas (CEO of Frank Miller Ink), launched Frank Miller Presents (FMP), an independent publishing company focused on creating and curating a line of comics that will capture his visual and visceral style of storytelling.
Bill Morrison
Bill Morrison has spent his career as an artist and writer working with the most iconic characters in popular culture. He began his career painting movie posters, including many for Walt Disney, such as The Little Mermaid, Bambi, and The Jungle Book. He also spent several years drawing The Simpsons for all kinds of merchandise and writing, drawing, and editing The Simpsons and Futurama comics for Bongo Comics. He was also art director on the Futurama TV series and character artist on Disenchantment. Most recently Morrison created a graphic novel adaptation of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, and was executive editor of MAD Magazine.
Steve Niles
Writer Steve Niles is best known for 30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre, October Faction, Simon Dark, Mystery Society, Frankenstein Alive Alive, Monster & Madman, Winnebago Graveyard, Batman: Gotham County Line, and recently A Town Called Terror. His work has been published by Dark Horse, DC, IDW, Image, Marvel, and Storm King. His comics series The October Faction was made into a Netflix show in 2020, while 30 Days of Night was released as a major motion picture in 2007. Other comics by Niles that have been optioned for film include Remains, Aleister Arcane, and Freaks of the Heartland.
Nathan W. Pyle
Nathan W. Pyle is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Strange Planet, Stranger Planet, NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette, and 99 Stories I Could Tell. He is a former staff writer and illustrator for BuzzFeed. He is based in Pennsylvania but travels the country speaking about creativity and storytelling.
Barbara Randall Kesel
Barbara Randall Kesel’s comics career started in the mid-1980s at DC Comics, where she went from freelance writer to editor before heading west. She joined Dark Horse Comics in the early ’90s as an editor before returning to the freelance life. An unexpected meeting at Comic-Con led to the challenge of helping to start up CrossGen Comics in Florida in 2000. A few freelancing years later, she’s now working for a tech startup (Urus Entertainment—watch for the comics app!) that's creating a new twist on comics.
Steve Saffel
Steve Saffel has attended every San Diego Comic-Con since 1984, first as promotions manager and an editor for Marvel Comics, then as an executive editor for Del Rey Books, and most recently as a senior acquisitions editor for Titan Books. At Marvel he was responsible for the company’s exhibits and guests, and at Del Rey he spearheaded the effort to bring mainstream book publishers to San Diego. He edits science fiction, fantasy, horror, and art books as well as licensed properties that include Alien, Gears of War, original Marvel novels, Mass Effect, and the new fiction initiative for Conan on the character’s 90th anniversary.
Scott Shaw!
For 50 years, Scott Shaw! has created underground comix (Fear and Laughter), mainstream comics (Captain Carrot, Sonic the Hedgehog, Simpsons Comics), children’s books (Marooned Lagoon) syndicated comic strips (Bugs Bunny), graphic novels (Annoying Orange), TV cartoons (Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies), advertising (Post Pebbles cereal), toys, trading cards, video games, packaging art and more. He's known for his Oddball Comics Live! show (the book is coming soon) and playing Quick Draw! with Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés. Scott was one of those who created San Diego Comic-Con.
Dan Slott
Dan Slott is best known for his 10-year run on Amazing Spider-Man, which featured The Superior Spider-Man saga, Go Down Swinging, and the original, New York Times bestselling story, Spider-Verse. His current work includes Fantastic Four for Marvel and new Doctor Who specials for Titan. Dan previously worked on 2014’s Silver Surfer, which won a 2016 Eisner for best single issue, and 2004’s She-Hulk, which will be one of the sources for the upcoming Disney+ TV series. He’s also worked on Tony Stark: Iron Man, Mighty Avengers, Avengers: The Initiative, Ren & Stimpy, Batman Adventures, and Arkham Asylum: Living Hell.
Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning series Bone, which is published in over 30 countries and is among Time magazine's Ten Best Graphic Novels of All Time. Bone was a pioneer in comics publishing for kids when it launched Scholastic’s graphic novel imprint Graphix Books in 2005. Smith’s other award-winning and acclaimed comics include SHAZAM! The Monster Society of Evil, RASL, Little Mouse Gets Ready!, ROSE and Bone: Tall Tales. Smith splits his time between Columbus and Key West with his wife and business partner, Vijaya Iyer, where he is working on his current project TUKI.
Scott Snyder
Scott Snyder is a celebrated comic book writer best known for his extensive work with DC Comics on such titles as Batman, Detective Comics, and Justice League. He has also written American Vampire for DC/Vertigo and Wytches for Image Comics. Scott recently teamed up with some of the comics industry’s finest artists to deliver eight new series through Comixology Originals, including We Have Demons with Greg Capullo, Barnstormers with Tula Lotay, and Dudley Datson and the Forever Machine with Jamal Igle.
Sponsored by Comixology
William Stout
William Stout is one of a handful of people who have attended every San Diego Comic-Con. Early in his career he assisted Russ Manning, Harvey Kurtzman, and Will Elder. Stout drew the Wizards poster and about 120 other film ads. His 70+ film career includes both Conan movies, Predator, Masters of the Universe, Return of the Living Dead, and Pan’s Labyrinth. His book The Dinosaurs: A Fantastic New View of a Lost Era inspired Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. Bill has murals at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Walt Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the San Diego Natural History Museum, and the San Diego Zoo. The hardcover Fantastic Worlds: The Art of William Stout covers his 50-year career.