The complete Special Guest list for Comic-Con International 2015!
Comic-Con 2015 Special Guests
David Aja
Artist, Hawkeye, Immortal Iron Fist
David Aja is a guy who started drawing when he was a kid just like everybody else, but he hasn't stopped yet. He earned a five-year degree in Fine Arts (Design and Audiovisuals specialty), worked as an illustrator (in press, magazines, books, design, publicity), and then started doing comics, which is like writing with pictures or drawing with words. You may know Hawkeye, Immortal Iron Fist, Daredevil, or Wolverine for Marvel among others. He's won Eisner, Eagle, and Harvey Awards for his work and finds it completely ridiculous to talk about himself in the third person. For more on David, visit blog.davidaja.com.
Lalo Alcaraz
Photo by Bryan Parras
Cartoonist, La Cucaracha
Lalo Alcaraz is the creator of the controversial nationally syndicated daily comic strip La Cucaracha and is a prolific editorial cartoonist. The San Diego native and L.A. resident is currently a producer and writer on Seth MacFarlane 's upcoming animated Fox Television program Bordertown. Lalo's recent books include the New York Times bestseller A Most Imperfect Union graphic U.S. history book with Ilan Stavans, (2014, Perseus Books), and Latino USA: A Cartoon History, 15th Anniversary Edition (2012, Basic Books). He heads the satirical website Pocho.com and co-hosts KPFK Radio's satirical talk show The Pocho Hour of Power on L.A.'s 90.7 FM.
Sergio Aragonés
Cartoonist, MAD, Groo
One of MAD magazine's longest-running cartoonists (only Al Jaffee has been around longer) and the creator of dim-witted barbarian Groo the Wanderer, Sergio Aragonés is one of comics’ most popular creators. In addition to his continuing work for MAD, Sergio—the man some call the world’s fastest cartoonist—had his own comic book series at Bongo Comics, Sergio Aragonés Funnies. This year, Sergio gets the Groo band (including Mark Evanier, Stan Sakai, and Tom Luth) back together with a new 12-issue maxi-series from Dark Horse Comics, Groo: Friends and Foes.
Franco Aureliani
Writer/artist, Tiny Titans, Itty Bitty Hellboy
Franco Aureliani and his forehead have traveled the world and he writes and draws stuff and sometimes throws paint around on canvas. He is the creator, artist, and writer of Patrick the Wolf Boy and Aw Yeah Comics! He has also worked on titles for various comic companies, including the critically acclaimed Superman Family Adventures, Young Justice, Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Battlestar Galactica, Captain Action Cat, and the New York Times bestselling, multi-Eisner Award–winning series Tiny Titans! Currently, Franco is working on Mask, Grimiss Island, and Itty Bitty Hellboy with Dark Horse Comics.
Peter Bagge
Writer/artist, HATE, Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story
Alternative writer, artist and creator Peter Bagge is best known for the ’90s comic series HATE, featuring the semi-autobiographical anti-hero Buddy Bradley, whose adventures have been collected in two volumes: Buddy Does Seattle and Buddy Does Jersey, both from Fantagraphics.
Bagge has also created three graphic novels: Apocalypse Nerd (Dark Horse), Other Lives. (DC/Vertigo), and Reset (Dark Horse). A collection of the journalistic strips Bagge has done for Reason magazine has also been collected into a book titled Everyone Is Stupid Except for Me (Fantagraphics).
Most recently, Bagge has written and drawn a full-length biographical comic, Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story (Drawn & Quarterly).
Art Baltazar
Writer/artist, Tiny Titans, Itty Bitty Hellboy
Art Baltazar is a super-cartoonist machine from the heart of Chicago! He started his funky secret art studio in 1994 with his self-published comic book The Cray-Baby Adventures. Since then he has created other comics, including Patrick the Wolf Boy.
Art is the creative force behind the Eisner Award–winning Itty Bitty Hellboy and the New York Times bestselling, Eisner and Harvey award–winning DC Comics series Tiny Titans. He is also the artist of the DC Super-Pets children’s book series. He co-wrote DC’s Billy Batson and the Magic of SHAZAM, Young Justice, Green Lantern: The Animated Series comics, and is the artist/co-writer for the Tiny Titans/Little Archie crossover and Superman Family Adventures.
Art is the co-founder of the Aw Yeah Comics comic shop and co-creator of the Aw Yeah Comics comic book series starring Action Cat and Adventure Bug. He lives with his lovely wife, Rose, sons Sonny and Gordon, daughter Audrey, and pup Jingle Fett Baltazar.
Jerry Beck
Author/animation historian, The Hanna-Barbera Treasury, The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes
Jerry Beck is an animation historian and cartoon producer. His 12 books on the subject include The Hanna-Barbera Treasury and The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes. Beck formed Streamline Pictures with Carl Macek (Robotech) in 1989, the first U.S. company to import anime features such as Otomo’s Akira and Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky. He was co-founder of the website Cartoon Brew and is currently editing two blogs: Cartoon Research.com and Animation Scoop.com. Beck has also created, written, and produced animated films for various studios, and is the host of the annual Worst Cartoons Ever screening at Comic Con International.
Allie Brosh
Photo by Sarah Henderson
Author, Hyperbole and a Half
Allie Brosh is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Hyperbole and a Half, named one of the best books of the year by NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, Salon, and the Onion A.V. Club, and was the Goodreads Choice Award winner for Best Humor Book. Solutions and Other Problems, a book of all-new autobiographical and illustrated essays, will be published this October. Brosh’s blog, Hyperbole and a Half, has garnered multiple awards, and, in 2013, Advertising Age named Brosh one of the fifty most influential creative figures in the world. She lives in Denver.
Greg Capullo
Artist, Batman, Spawn, The Creech
Greg Capullo is the artist on the New York Times bestselling DC Comic Batman. He also brought you Quasar, X-Force, Haunt, Spawn, and his creator-owned feature, The Creech. In addition, Greg has provided art for Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft as well as for various recording artists, including Five Finger Death Punch, Disturbed, Korn, and Iced Earth.
Michael Cho
Writer/artist, Shoplifter
Michael Cho is a freelance cartoonist/illustrator based in Toronto. He has drawn stories for books such as Batman Black and White for DC and X-Men First Class and for Marvel. His comic story "Trinity" was selected by editor Neil Gaiman for the Best American Comics Anthology in 2010, and he’s won a few other awards and nominations for his comic work. Michael has also put out an art book of his drawings, Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes with Drawn & Quarterly. His first graphic novel, Shoplifter, was published by Pantheon and debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List.
Katie Cook
Writer/artist, Gronk: A Monster’s Story, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Katie Cook is a comics artist and writer who hails from the mitten state (as is Michigan, not that she is in the state of being a mitten). She currently puts an inordinate amount of time in on her creator-owned book, Gronk: A Monster’s Story (www.gronkcomic.com, books published through Action Lab), as well as working on IDW’s smash-hit My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. She has also done work for Marvel, LucasFilm, Fraggle Rock, and so much more! Her mother thinks she is funny. Find her online at www.katiecandraw.com. Katie is also a monthly contributor to Comic-Con's Toucan blog; click here to see her You Can Draw series of posts!
Kelly Sue DeConnick
Writer, Captain Marvel, Pretty Deadly, Bitch Planet
Kelly Sue DeConnick began her comics career writing the English adaptations of Japanese comics for Tokyopop and VIZ. After 7 years and more than 10,000 pages on books like Slam Dunk, Blue Spring, and Sexy Voice and Robo, she transitioned to American comics with 30 Days of Night: Eben and Stella (IDW). In 2012, DeConnick became the spiritual mother of the Carol Corps with her reinvention of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel (Marvel). DeConnick debuted on the creator-owned scene in a big way with the Eisner Award–nominated western Pretty Deadly (Image) and follows that up this year with a women-in-prison exploitation riff, provocatively titled Bitch Planet (Image).