The following special guests are confirmed for WonderCon Anaheim 2018, March 23–25 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Special Guests
John Jennings
Author, The Blacker the Ink, Octavia Butler’s Kindred graphic novel
John Jennings is a professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. Jennings is co-editor of the Eisner Award winning collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art. Jennings is also a 2016 Nasir Jones Hip Hop Studies Fellow with the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. Jennings' current projects include the horror anthology Box of Bones, the coffee table book Black Comix Returns (with Damian Duffy), and the New York Times best-selling graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler's classic dark fantasy novel Kindred.
Kelley Jones
Artist, Batman, Swamp Thing, Deadman
Kelley Jones began his career at Marvel as the inker then penciller on Micronauts. He was hired by DC comics in 1987 and has been there ever since. Jones took on Deadman, Sandman, Swamp Thing, and Batman. His vision of these characters remains iconic, particularly Batman, where his designs were used for Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises.
He recently finished a successful run on Swamp Thing with Len Wein and a tale of Lobo for the JLA Annual. Jones also helped finish Frankenstein Alive, Alive! at the request of his idol, Bernie Wrightson for IDW comics. Jones is illustrating a series of novels based on the Haunted Mansion for Disney Publishing, and currently pencilling and inking a Batman miniseries, The Master of Fear.
Dan Jurgens
Writer, artist, Superman, Action Comics, Batman Beyond
Dan Jurgens began his comics career over 35 years ago as an artist on DC Comics’ The Warlord. He then created, wrote and drew Booster Gold and added Legion of Super-Heroes, Flash Gordon, Green Arrow, and Justice League America to his resumé. Most notably, he logged a ten-year-plus run as writer/artist on Superman including the best-selling “Death of Superman” story arc for which he won the National Cartoonists Society Award. Jurgens followed up with the mega-hit crossover Zero Hour, which redefined the DC Universe.
More recently, he wrote the acclaimed Superman: Lois and Clark mini-series, which repositioned Superman in the DC universe and helped to set up the company’s Rebirth effort. He is currently writing Batman Beyond and Action Comics Starring Superman as it builds toward its iconic issue #1,000.
Jim Lee
Publisher, DC Comics, artist, Batman: Hush, Immortal Men
Jim Lee is a renowned comic book artist and the publisher of DC Entertainment. In addition to his duties as publisher, he is the artist for many of DC Comics’s bestselling comic books and graphic novels, including Justice League: Origins, Batman: Hush, and Superman Unchained. He also served as the executive creative director for the DC Universe Online (DCUO) massively multiplayer action game from Daybreak Games, currently available free to play on PS4, PS3 and on Windows PC. For his latest project, Lee is handling the art chores on the Immortal Men comic book.
Appearing Friday and Saturday only.
David Petersen
Writer, artist, creator, Mouse Guard graphic novel series
David Petersen was born in 1977 in Flint, Michigan and received a BFA from Eastern Michigan University in 2000. He is the creator of the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed graphic novel series Mouse Guard, which has been published in 17 languages.
David was the 2007 Russ Manning Award recipient for Promising Newcomer. He has since gone on to win three Eisner Awards and two Harveys for his continued work on the Mouse Guard series. In 2016 the Mouse Guard series was optioned by 20th Century Fox for feature film adaptation.
Ed Piskor
Cartoonist, Hip Hop Family Tree, X-Men: Grand Design
Ed Piskor lives and draws out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a former student of the Kubert School, collaborated with Harvey Pekar, and put out the graphic novel Wizzywig. His New York Times bestselling series, Hip Hop Family Tree, which was originally serialized on Boing Boing, has gone back to print numerous times, and won the 2015 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work. Ed is currently working on X-Men: Grand Design for Marvel Comics.
Matthew Rosenberg
Writer, Phoenix Resurrection, Kingpin, We Can Never Go Home
Matthew Rosenberg is a comic book writer from New York City. He is best known for his series 4 Kids Walk into a Bank, and We Can Never Go Home for Black Mask, The Archies for Archie, and The Punisher, Phoenix Resurrection, Rocket Raccoon, Tales of Suspense, Kingpin, and Secret Warriors for Marvel. He's pretty nice. You should go say hi if you see him.
Patrick Rothfuss
Author, The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man’s Fear
Patrick Rothfuss is the New York Times bestselling author of The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man’s Fear, and The Slow Regard of Silent Things. When not writing, Pat plays with his children, makes mead, and runs Worldbuilders, a non-profit that mobilizes the geek community to raise money for charity.
V. E. Schwab
Author, Shades of Magic series, Vengeful
Victoria “V.E.” Schwab is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including the acclaimed Shades of Magic series, This Savage Song, Our Dark Duet, and Vicious. Her work has received critical acclaim, has been featured in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Washington Post, and more, has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and has been optioned for television and film. When she’s not haunting Paris streets or trudging up English hillsides, she lives in Nashville and is usually tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up monsters. Her new book, Vengeful, will be released in fall 2018.
Gail Simone
Writer, Crosswind, Wonder Woman, Clean Room
A multiple award-winning, critically acclaimed writer of comics and animation, Gail Simone began writing as a columnist for comicbookresources.com before making the leap to writing comics with Deadpool and The Simpsons. She has since had fan favorite runs on such books as Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Tomb Raider, Secret Six, Birds of Prey, and the creator-owned Clean Room, Leaving Megalopolis, and Welcome to Tranquility. She is currently writing her first book for Image, Crosswind, and is returning to superheroes with several projects, including Wonder Woman/Conan from DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics. She remains a fierce advocate for diversity in comics.
Scott Snyder
Writer, Batman, Dark Nights Metal, Wytches
Scott Snyder is an American writer. He is best known for his 2011 relaunch of Batman under DC Comics New 52 Imprint with artist Greg Capullo. Currently Scott is helming the massive DC event Dark Nights: Metal with Capullo. His other works include American Vampire, Detective Comics, All Star Batman, Batman: Gates of Gotham, Wytches, and Swamp Thing.