The Baltimore Comic-Con will host its 25th anniversary event on September 20-22, 2024. The con is adding new guests on a weekly basis, with the latest including Howard Chaykin, Katie Cook, Greg Hildebrandt, Bob McLeod, Joe Staton, and Brian Stelfreeze.
As a writer and artist, Chaykin is considered one of the architects of modern comics, known for creating American Flagg!. His credits include Micronauts, Star Wars, Weird War Tales, Blade, and Punisher War Journal, among many others. Recently he worked on The Divided States of Hysteria and his new series Hey Kids! Comics!, a fictional history of the comic industry.
Cook created the comic Nothing Special on LineWebtoon, wrote and drew the webcomic Gronk: A Monster’s Story, she spent several years as a primary writer on IDW’s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, has illustrated Star Wars children’s books, and has worked with Marvel, BOOM!, and other publishers.
As an artist, Hildebrandt and his brother Tim illustrated the first of a series of Lord of the Rings calendars and created a movie poster for Star Wars: A New Hope. He has painted covers for Star Wars comics, Deadpool, Secret Wars, Black Panther, and Thor. More recently he has been painting movie posters for classic films like King Kong.
McLeod is best known for co-creating and illustrating Marvel’s The New Mutants. Throughout his career, he has penciled or inked major titles for Marvel and DC, including Spider-Man, X-Men, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, GI Joe, Star Wars, The Hulk, and Conan. He also wrote and illustrated the Superhero ABC children’s book, edited and wrote articles for Twomorrow’s Rough Stuff magazine, and taught art at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design.
Staton started drawing comics in 1971, co-creating E-Man and Michael Mauser at Charlton Comics. His credits include Action Comics, The Legion, Classics Illustrated, Batman, and Green Lantern, for which he co-created Kilowog and designed Guy Gardner’s bad boy look. He penciled over 100 issues of the Scooby Doo comic, he illustrated the graphic novels Anthem for NAL and Ronald Reagan, and has been a longtime artist on the Dick Tracy newspaper strip.
Stelfreeze, one of the original Gaijin Studios members, is a multi-talented artist, with experience and credits penciling, inking, coloring, painting, and even writing. His comic book covers have gained him much attention, and his run painting covers on DC’s Shadow of the Bat for over 50 issues is noteworthy by itself. Stelfreeze’s creative output can be found on BOOM! Studios’ Day Men and The Signature Art of Brian Stelfreeze, and Marvel Comics’ Black Panther.
“There’s a great deal of talent here,” Baltimore Comic-Con show promoter Marc Nathan said. “From works going back decades to some of the latest hits, this group of guests has it all. Their work speaks for itself, and their fans won’t want to miss the chance to see them in September!”
