Special Guests, 2022

Guests of Honor

Guests

Ben Templesmith

Eisner Award-Winning Artist of 30 Days of Night, Fell, Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, Dead Space, Groom Lake, Welcome to Hoxford and Singularity 7.

Rob Salkowitz

Writer on pop culture for Forbes and ICv2, communications educator, and author of Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture

Chris Ryall

Publisher Syzygy Publishing, Writer and Editor of Locke & Key, ROM, Onyx, Groom Lake and Zombies vs. Robots.

Jonathan Maberry

NY Times Bestseller, 5-time Bram Stoker Award winner, creator of V-WARS, the Joe Ledger thrillers, the Rot & Ruin series, and the Dead of Night series

Greg Preston

Author of The Artist Within

Jim Krueger

Eisner Award-Winning Writer of Justice, The Earth X Trilogy and Project Superpowers

Willie Ito

Animator for Disney (starting with the spaghetti-kissing scene in Lady and the Tramp), Warner Bros. Cartoon’s (working with Chuck Jones and Fritz Freleng), Bob Clampett Cartoons (The Beany and Cecil Show), and Hanna-Barbera (The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and The Yogi Bear Show)

Michael Ravine

Michael Ravine is the Advanced Projects Manager at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, CA. In that capacity, he managed the development of three cameras currently orbiting the Moon, three orbiting Mars, four on the surface of Mars, one orbiting Jupiter and three at the asteroid Bennu.

Juanele Tamal

Físico y autor de cómics (monero) / Physicist and cartoonist. He really like tamales!

Trina Robbins

Award-winning herstorian and writer Trina Robbins has been writing books, comics, and graphic novels for over forty years.

Dustin Nguyen

New York Times Bestselling and multiple Eisner Award winning comic creator, best known for his work on the creator owned series Descender and his various iterations of Batman for the past 20 years.

Dr. Jamie Molaro

Jamie Molaro is a Research Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and an Affiliate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She earned her BS in physics at San Francisco State University and her MS and PhD in planetary science at the University of Arizona.

Paul M. Sammon

Paul M. Sammon is an author, filmmaker, Hollywood insider and one of the most respected and knowledgeable writers on film working today.

Pete Von Sholly

Pete has written and illustrated three quasi-fumetti graphic novels: Morbid, Morbid Volume 2 and Extremely Weird Stories, (Dark Horse Comics) and three satiric magazines for TwoMorrows, Crazy Hip Groovy Go Go Way Out Monsters (2 issues) and Comic Book Nerd.

Mark Badger

I started in comics with The Gargoyle mini-series in the mid-eighties. Along with Greenberg the Vampire and Martian Manhunter, I bounced around Marvel and DC. My run on American Flagg is remembered fondly by a few.

Brian Haberlin

An award-winning comic book artist, writer, editor and producer, Brian began his career in comics working at Top Cow Productions, where he co-created the Witchblade franchise. He co-founded Avalon Studios, which published many successful fantasy and sci-fi titles, including: Stone, Aria and Area 52.

Mark Evanier

An American comic book and television writer, known for his work on the animated TV series Garfield and Friends and on the comic book Groo the Wanderer. He is also known for his columns and blog News from ME, and for his work as a historian and biographer of the comics industry, such as his award-winning Jack Kirby biography, Kirby: King of Comics.

Bruce Simon

A cartoonist, writer and archivist living in Berkeley, CA. Growing up in Los Angeles in the 60’s, Bruce emigrated to Berkeley in 1972 and joined the Underground Comix movement. Bruce has written numerous articles on comic and pop-culture related subjects for MINESHAFT Magazine.

Joe Phillips

Inkpot Award-winning artist of Mister Miracle, The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, Fleer Ultra: X-Men and Marvel Masterpieces.

Scott Shaw!

Cartoonist and Animator of Sonic The Hedgehog, The Flintstones, Camp Candy, Captain Carrot, Muppet Babies and The World Famous Oddball Comics Show.

William Stout

Multi-talented artist and designer of Jurassic Park, Conan the Barbarian, Pan’s Labyrinth, Masters of the Universe and The Myst.

Michael Dooley

Comics and Animation History Professor at Pasadena's Art Center, author of hundreds of features about comics, and 2020 Comic-Con Eisner Awards judge.

Jackie Estrada

She runs the Eisner Awards, started Comic-Con’s Artists’ Alley, and is editor and co-publisher of Exhibit A Press

Ricardo Delgado

Eisner Award-Winning creator of Age of Reptiles, Storyboard Artist of Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Incredibles, How to Train Your Dragon and Men in Black.

Buzz Dixon

Writer for Animation Classics such as G.I. Joe, Transformers, Thundarr The Barbarian, Batman: The Animated Series and Tiny Toon Adventures.

Steve Leialoha

Steve Leialohais best known for his inking and penciling on Fables from the first issue to the last, garnering five Eisner Awards. Since the mid 70’s, he has also drawn Dr. Strange, Iron Man, the X-Men, New Mutants, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Star Trek.

Phil Yeh

Phil Yeh started drawing and writing his own comic books in elementary school and formed his own publishing company in 1970, after attending the first San Diego Comic-Con.

David M. Booher

GLAAD-nominated writer of Canto, Rain, Killer Queens and All New Firefly.

Christopher Sequeira

Editor of CAPED FEAR: SUPERHUMAN HORROR STORIES, Editor-in-Chief and anthologist for IFWG Publishing’s SF parallel universe books and ‘Cthulhu Deep Down Under.’

Hugo A. Castro

Hugo has been one of the top promoters of the Mexican game development industry and founded and leads the creative media production house BC Media Lab.

Frank Santana

Frank Santana is the Herpetology Collections Manager at the San Diego Natural History Museum. He is a biologist with a passion for conservation and sharing his love of nature with his friends and family.

Dr. Linda Hirst

Linda Hirst is Professor of Physics at the University of California, Merced where she has been a faculty member since 2008 after spending three years on the faculty in the Physics Department at Florida State University.

Sydney Heifler

Sydney Heifler is a comic book historian who specializes in romance comics. She is a graduate of the MSt in Women’s Studies from the University of Oxford. She is a Distinguished University Fellow and a current Ph.D. student in the history department at the Ohio State University.

Pearl Stickler

Pearl Stickler was elected President of S.T.A.R. San Diego in 1975, holding that position for numerous years. Pearl created and chaired both America's Quincentennial Celebration in 1976 and Whattacon '79.

Jeff Burns

Jeff is the creator of superhero comedy series Super Knocked Up and host of improv comedy show Super Geeked Up. He’s one of the authors of the Dragons of a Different Tail anthology and writes comedic, geeky erotica as Riley Rose. He loves being part of Comic Fest!

Larry Niven

Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Larry Niven is a legend in the field of science fiction.

Tony Benedict

Writer and animator known for Santa and the Three Bears (1970), The Jetsons (1962) and Daffy Duck's Easter Show (1980).