Announcing the Second Wave of Comic-Con 2024 Guests!
In addition to the six names announced previously, Comic-Con is pleased to welcome Juanjo Guarnido, Rick Law, Rick Parker, Thien Pham, Linda Sunshine, and Mariko Tamaki as Special Guests for 2024!
Juanjo Guarnido
Spanish artist Juanjo Guarnido began his career by drawing Marvel Character illustrations published in Spain by Comics Forum. He then moved to animation, mostly working for Disney at the Paris facility (on The Goofy Movie, Mickey’s Runaway Brain, Hercules, The Jungle Book 2, and others). While still at Disney, he created with scriptwriter Juan Díaz Canales the graphic novel Blacksad: Somewhere within the Shadows. Five volumes of Blacksad were released between 2000 and 2013, garnering Juanjo two Eisner Awards trophies. He also drew Sorcelleries with writer Teresa Valero; directed and animated the music video Freak of the Week for the Swedish band Freak Kitchen; and drew and watercolored the graphic novel Les Indes Fourbes, with script by Alain Ayroles. He recently completed the Blacksad adventure They All Fall Down, which is nominated for three Eisner Awards this year.
Rick Law
Rick Law is an American illustrator and producer whose work spans films, TV, music, theme parks, publishing, toys, and video games, reaching an estimated audience of over a billion people worldwide. Best known for his association with The Walt Disney Company since 1993, Law’s contributions to diverse projects include VHS and DVD cover art, toys, products, and leading initiatives such as Disney English and Shanghai Disneyland. As an independent producer, he has contributed to films including Drew: The Man Behind The Poster and Floyd Norman: An Animated Life. With a passion for visual storytelling, he continues to explore and create new art.
Rick Parker
Rick Parker is an artist/writer whose memoir graphic novel Drafted is due out from Abrams ComicArts on September 24. It is about his military service during the Vietnam War, the first in a series about his life and work. Rick’s comics career started at Marvel where he hand-lettered 30,000+ pages; created/wrote/drew “The Bossmen” cartoon strip in Marvel Age; wrote/drew the Bullpen Bullseye cartoon; and drew all 28 issues of MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head comic book. Rick has illustrated graphic novels for Papercutz, webcomics for Harvey Pekar, and The Road to Hell by Dwayne McDuffie and Matt Wayne.
Thien Pham
Thien Pham is a graphic novelist and educator based in Oakland, CA. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Sumo and the illustrator of the graphic novel Level Up. His latest book, Family Style, is a memoir about his family’s immigration to America told through the lens of food. It has been on numerous best-of lists, including the Washington Post’s Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2023 and Publishers Weekly‘s 20 Books We Love. Family Style is also a finalist for the ALA Yalsa Excellence in Non-Fiction and the California Young Adult Book Award and is nominated for the Best Graphic Memoir Eisner Award.
Linda Sunshine
Linda Sunshine is the author of more than 70 books, including the New York Times bestseller Plain Jane Works Out. Many of her other books are about the making of such movies as How to Train Your Dragon and The Hulk. As a young editor in New York, she was responsible for the first publication of hardcover anthologies of Superman, Batman, and Shazam! Along with Michael Uslan, she published several anthologies of DC Comics. Most recently, Linda has written three books about wine. Her true-life holocaust screenplay is currently in preproduction in Hungary.
Mariko Tamaki
Mariko Tamaki is the co-creator of Eisner Award–winning books This One Summer (with Jillian Tamaki) and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me (with Rosemary Valero-O’Connell). Her latest collaboration with Jillian, the graphic novel Roaming, has been nominated for three 2024 Eisner Awards, including Best Writer. Mariko has written superhero stories for DC Comics and Marvel, including a run on Batman: Dark Detective. She is the curator of Abrams’s LGBTQIA imprint, Surely Books.