First Wave of 2023 Guests Announced!
Comic-Con 2023 will have a full slate of guests from all aspects of comics and popular arts. Here's a look at the first five to be announced!
Holly Black
Holly Black is the #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of speculative and fantasy novels, short stories, and comics. Her best-known works include the Elfhame series, The Coldest Girl In Coldtown, and the Spiderwick Chronicles. She has sold over 26 million books worldwide, and her work has been translated into over 30 languages and adapted for film. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret library. Book of Night is her adult fiction debut.
Bill Griffith
The creator of Zippy the Pinhead, Bill Griffith began his comics career in New York City in 1969. His first strips were published in The East Village Other and Screw Magazine and featured an angry amphibian named Mr. The Toad. He ventured to San Francisco in 1970 to join the burgeoning underground comics movement and made his home there until 1998. His first major comic book titles included Tales of Toad and Young Lust. He was co-editor of Arcade, The Comics Revue for its seven-issue run in the mid-70s The first Zippy strip appeared in Real Pulp #1 (Print Mint) in 1970. Then, in 1986, King Features Syndicate began distributing the daily Zippy strip nationwide. Griffith published his first graphic novel, Invisible Ink (Eisner Award winner), in 2015, followed by Nobody's Fool in 2019 and Three Rocks, the first graphic biography of Nancy cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller, in 2023.
Junji Ito
Four-time Eisner Award-winning creator Junji Ito made his professional manga debut in 1987 and since then has gone on to be recognized as one of the greatest contemporary artists working in the horror genre. In 2019 his collection Frankenstein won an Eisner Award in the Best Adaptation from Another Medium category, and in 2021 he was awarded Best Writer/Artist, while his book Remina received the award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia. In 2022, Lovesickness won Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia.
Co-sponsored by VIZ Media
Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith is the writer and artist of comics and graphic novels including Bone, RASL, Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil, Rose, Tall Tales, and TUKI. Both Bone and RASL were self-published and are New York Times bestsellers. Bone launched the current YA graphic novel explosion via Scholastic Books’ Graphix imprint and has won 41 national and international awards, including 10 Eisner Awards, and has been translated into over 30 languages. RASL won an Eisner for Best Graphic Novel. The webcomic version of TUKI won the National Cartoonists Award for Best Online Comic in 2014.
Rachel Smythe
Rachel Smythe is the creator of the Webtoon phenomenon Lore Olympus. Debuting on Webtoon Originals in 2018, Lore Olympus captured hearts and minds with its glamorous setting, razor-sharp comedic timing, complex characters in messy relationships, and above all else, its breathtakingly beautiful visuals. Rachel’s craftsmanship and storytelling have seen the series rise to greater and greater success, winning many industry awards, including an Eisner in 2022 and an animation adaptation with Jim Henson Studios currently in development.