Special Guests

Lilah Sturges is the Eisner, Ignatz, and GLAAD Media Award–nominated writer of such graphic novels as Lumberjanes (BOOM!), The Magicians (Archaia), and Girl Haven (Oni), as well as the official Dune movie graphic novel adaptation and the upcoming The Science of Ghosts (Legendary). She has focused her career on creating stories that entertain and inspire the trans community, the larger LGBTQIA+ community, and everyone else as well. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Raina Telgemeier is the author and illustrator of the graphic novels Smile, Drama, Sisters, Ghosts, and Guts, all #1 New York Times bestsellers. She also adapted and illustrated four graphic novel versions of Ann M. Martin’s Baby-Sitters Club series and has contributed short stories to many anthologies. Raina’s accolades include five Eisner Awards, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, a Stonewall Honor, and many Best-of and Notables lists.

Adult fans of comic books didn’t begin to contact each other in any organized way until 1960. Among those pop culture fans were Maggie Curtis and Don Thompson, who’d begun collecting comic books before such accumulations were recognized as worthwhile. (She still owns the Dell Four Color #103 [Easter with Mother Goose] that she bought when she was 3.) After 30 years of co-editing Comics Buyer’s Guide, Maggie Thompson now writes online columns for Comic-Con International and Gemstone Publishing, maintains her website www.maggiethompson.com, and is delighted that today’s readers get to see the best of what’s new—and old.

Artist Mark Wheatley has created featured art for The Millers, 2 Broke Girls, and Super Clyde for CBS and Beauty and the Beast and Square Roots for ABC. He created set pieces for Black Eyed Peas and designed for Lady Gaga. His most recent print projects include Songs of Giants, Doctor Cthulittle, and Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time. Past comics creations include Breathtaker, Frankenstein Mobster, Mars, and EZ Street. An Overstreet Hall of Fame inductee, he is an Inkpot, Eisner, Mucker, Golden Lion, Gem, and Speakeasy Award winner. He has lectured and exhibited at the Library of Congress and the Norman Rockwell Museum.