[Convention] Comic Creators Attending Reno Pop Culture Con (Nov. 8-10)

RENO POP CULTURE CON,
PRODUCED BY THE SAME TEAM BEHIND
THE HUGELY SUCCESSFUL
DENVER POP CULTURE CON,
SET TO DEBUT AT THE RENO-SPARKS
CONVENTION CENTER IN NOVEMBER 2019!

Reno Pop Culture Con (RPCC) is a three-day, family-friendly, fan-focused extravaganza, featuring the best in pop culture entertainment. The event runs November 8th-10th at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center in Reno, Nevada. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet comics artists and writers, book authors, and celebrity guests, shop for collectibles, attend panels and programming, or visit the Pop Culture Classroom’s Kids’ Lab.

RPCC is a program of the Colorado-based nonprofit Pop Culture Classroom, whose mission is to inspire a love of learning, to increase literacy, celebrate diversity, and build community through pop culture education. The proceeds of this event benefit Pop Culture Classroom’s overall educational endeavors.

BUY TICKETS FOR THE 2019 RENO POP CULTURE CON!

The list of comic guests on-hand at Reno Pop Culture Con feature some long-established creators, talent that’s on the rise and needs to be on your radar, as well as some indie publishers making an impact with their titles and business model. Here’s a look at whom you can expect to see at the show!

AMANDA DEIBERT

Amanda Deibert is an award-winning television and comic book writer. Her work includes DC Super Hero Girls, Teen Titans Go!, Wonder Woman ’77, Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman, and a story in Love is Love (NYT #1 Bestseller) for DC Comics as well as comics for IDW and Dark Horse. She has stories in John Carpenter’s Tales for A Halloween Night volumes 2, 3, 4 & 5 for Storm King Comics and is currently working on the graphic novel Work For A Million based on Eve Zaremba’s lesbian detective novel of the same name for Bedside Press. Amanda has written TV shows for CBS, SyFy, OWN, HULU, and she wrote for 4 years for former Vice President Al Gore’s international climate broadcast, 24 Hours of Reality.

ANDY MANGELS

Andy Mangels is the best-selling author of over twenty fiction and nonfiction books, including Star Trek, Roswell, Iron Man and Star Wars tomes, as well as an award-winning comic book editor of the Gay Comics anthology. He has also written licensed material based on properties by Lucasfilm, Paramount, New Line Cinema, Universal Studios, Warner Bros., Microsoft, Abrams-Gentile, and Platinum Studios. You can see his comic-book work with publishers ranging from DC and Marvel, to Dark Horse, Wildstorm, Image, Innovation, WaRP Graphics, Topps, MVCreations, and others. Mangels is a national award-winning social activist in the queer community, and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities over the years. He has produced the yearly Women of Wonder Day event, benefiting domestic violence shelters and is also a Board Member of the non-profit organization PRISM Comics. In addition, Mangels reviews movies, TV, and DVDs for Sci-Fi Bulletin. As an actor and singer, he has appeared in stage productions in Montana and Oregon, and had roles in films and television series such as Grimm, Leverage and The Librarians. DVD sets he’s produced include: The Real Ghostbusters, Dungeons & Dragons, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, The Archies, Flash Gordon, Zorro, The Lone Ranger, Groovie Goolies, and Ark II among a large number of other DVD titles.

ANDY PRICE

Since issue 1, Andy Price has been the lead pencil/ink artist for the incredibly successful and record breaking MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC comic books from IDW Publishing. MLP broke the 100,000 presale mark, the first independent book to beat out DC or Marvel in 9 years! The book has reached an all age audience and brought new readers to comic shops. The book has reached worldwide distribution and translated into multiple languages, and achieved 2 Diamond Gem awards.

Andy is a graduate of the Joe Kubert School, and works in most mediums. Andy has also done work from comics to trading cards to toy designs to whatever comes along, for Storm King Publishing, BOOM! Studios, Archie Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Rittenhouse Archives, Innovation Comics, LEGO, and Slave Labor Graphics, among others. Other licenses include Adventure Time, Quantum Leap, Dark Shadows, Betty & Veronica, Star Trek. He lives in Georgia, USA where he cooks for his wife Alice and is slave to cats. He also celebrates Batman’s and James T. Kirk’s birthdays.

His work can be found on Deviant art: http://andypriceart.deviantart.com/
and updates on projects on Twitter @andypriceart. Art can be purchased at andypriceart.bigcartel.com/

BEN BISHOP

Ben Bishop is a comic creator from Maine. Ben created the world’s very first SPLIT DECISION COMIC, THE AGGREGATE. (www.theaggregatebook.com) A comic that puts you in the drivers seat with 4 beginnings, 7 endings and 25 choices in between. The Aggregate was nominated for a 2018 RINGO AWARD for best original graphic novel, the only self published book on the ballot. The Aggregate Book 2 is currently in production.

Ben is also the series artist on Kevin Eastman’s newest comic, DRAWING BLOOD.
(www.drawingbloodcomic.com) In addition to being a frequent cover artist for IDW publishing’s TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE series, Ben was the artist for the TMNT RAPHAEL MACRO SERIES also written by Kevin Eastman. Throughout all this Ben has also been worked on characters like the Bloodshot for Valiant Entertainment, Savage Dragon for Image comics, Batman, Transformers, G.I. Joe, and more.

CALIBER COMICS

Creators James Hostler (The Bobcat) and Matt Duplisea (The Infinite) will be in Artist Valley representing Caliber Comics, a publisher with an exciting history and current line of comics! Caliber Comics was established in 1989 and quickly established itself as one of leading American comic book publishers during the 1990s. Since its inception, the publisher has published over 1300 comics and helped launched the careers of some of the leading comic book writers and artists in the industry today. @calibercomics

CAT STAGGS

Cat is an artist best known for her work on the New York Times Bestselling title Smallville Season 11 from DC Comics. Currently working on Crosswind with co-creator, Gail Simone (Image Comics) and John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction; Surviving Nuclear Attack with Joe Harris(Storm King Comics). Recently she completed Death of Superman with Louise Simonson(DC Comics). She has also worked on popular titles like Adventures of Supergirl (DC Comics), Wonder Woman ‘77 (DC Comics), X-Files and Orphan Black (IDW), Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman (DC), The Vampire Diaries (DC), Phantom Lady and Doll Man (DC), Star Trek (IDW), Tales For A Halloween Night Vol. 1-5 (Storm King), and over ten years in the Star Wars universe with Lucasfilm. In 2017 a one of a kind original Wonder Woman piece was inducted to the Library of Congress by Lynda Carter along with Wonder Woman ’77 Vol 1.

DAN CONNER

Dan Conner is a cartoonist who may be best known as the color artist of the Diamond Gem Award nominated comic series, Disney’s Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero’s Journey, published by TokyoPop. My Gal, The Zombie is the most prominent series of his own creation, which includes comics published by Antarctic Press and a horror host TV series which has aired in markets throughout the United States.
Other comics on which he has worked include art or color work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for IDW, Archie Meets Ramones for Archie Comics, American Mythology, Casper’s Ghostland, Pink Panther, Underdog, and Three Stooges, and writing Graphic Chillers: Dracula for Hachette Books. He has also done coloring for comics published by DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Scholastic, and others. Dan has also done artwork for musicians, including Misfits, Five Iron Frenzy, and Hairball8 Records.
Find more information about Dan at www.connercomics.com and follow @crazygoodconner on social.

DAN PARENT

Dan Parent is a comic book artist and writer best known for his work for Archie Comics. A graduate of the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, Parent began working for Archie immediately after graduation and has worked on series like Archie, Betty and Veronica, Kevin Keller. He created the first openly gay character in Archie Comics history, Kevin Keller, who premiered in Veronica #202 (Sept. 2010). Parent has also illustrated Felix the Cat, Barbie, Disney Adventures, and a wide variety of other titles, including the recent series Die Kitty Die.
danparent.com
facebook.com/dan.parent.50
twitter.com/parentdaniel

FREDDIE WILLIAMS II

Freddie Williams II has been for years illustrating the New York Times Best Selling series, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In 2005, he began a long run with DC Comics on the Eisner Award winning series Seven Soldiers Mister Miracle mini-series, moving on to Robin, Detective Comics, JSA All-Stars and Green Arrow. Freddie is a pioneer in digital illustration, and describes his techniques for artists in the DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics.
Website: http://freddieart.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Freddieart
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FreddieArt

JAMES HAICK III

James Haick III is the creator/writer of Solar Flare, Long Live Pro Wrestling and the co-creator and co-writer for The Mall from Scout Comics. James also serves as President and the Director of Sales and Marketing for Scout Comics.

Follow James on Twitter

Visit James’ Solar Flare comic website

JAMES HOSTLER

James Hostler is the Creator and Writer of ‘The Bobcat’ Saga. He received his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Oklahoma State University in 1988. James is a Husband, Father, Grandfather,Oklahoma Native, and a Citizen of The Cherokee Nation. He draws from his experiences in the former Indian Territory, as well as actual accounts and events of his family and predecessors. His people are Cowboys and Indians. James has been an avid fan and collector of the comic world as well as a huge Sci-fi/Fantasy buff.

JAMES PRUETT

James Pruett is the Publisher/COO of Scout Comics and writer/creator of Mindbender and the upcoming Midnight Sky series which premiered on Free Comic Book Day 2019. He brings extensive industry experience stretching over two decades. He began his career as one of the co-creators of the Eisner Award nominated anthology series, Negative Burn and was the Managing Editor/ Associate Publisher of Caliber Comics from September 1994 to January 2000 where he helped propel Caliber to its height as a top ten comic publisher in the latter half of the 1990s. While at Caliber, he created The Apparition, Black Mist, Sojourn, Book Of Angels, New Worlds Anthology, Caliber Core, Strait Jacket and co-scripted the popular, fan favorite Kaos Moon series that was published first by Caliber, then Avatar, Tusk and other European publishers. James over his career has also edited 100’s of titles for Caliber, Tusk, Image and others.Following Caliber, James served as Editor for Tusk Entertainment and continued to write for Desperado Publishing and wrote an issue of X-Men Unlimited for Marvel with art by Mike Deodato, Jr.

JAMIE SULLIVAN

Jamie Sullivan is a cover Artist for IDW’s GI Joe: A Real American Hero comic series. As well as the artist for Toynami’s current line of Robotech Toys and limited edition prints. He’s worked for companies such as Disney and Marvel and has created art for Lucasfilm’s Star Wars. Jamie is the Co-Creator and Artist of the comic book “4 Reasons To Own A Death Ray” and the upcoming series “The Deeply Enthralling Misadventures of My Amputated Toe”. Jamie’s attention to detail, inventive composition and deep love for the subject matter he works with is what continues to make him a fan favorite.

JEFF JOHNSON

Jeff has been drawing comics for almost 30 years, having started as the first penciler for Marvel’s Wonder Man back in 1991 and drawing the character for most of its X-year run. Since then, he’s had long runs on Way of the Rat for CrossGen, Green Lantern for DC, X-O Manowar for Valiant, and Solitaire for Malibu/Ultraverse. He subsequently worked on animated television series including Boondocks, Spectacular Spider-Man, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Young Justice and Transformers: Prime.

JOEL GOMEZ

I got my start in comics as a pencil assistant at Top Cow Productions doing background work on books such as Tomb Raider and Witchblade. A couple of years later I joined Aspen Comics doing backgrounds on Soulfire and Iron Saint. While assisting on Iron Saint, I was offered the opportunity to work as a staff artist at Wildstorm Productions. I was the interior artist on Wetworks, Authority:The Lost Year, Gears of War, Brightest Day, Lost Boys & Flashpoint: Reverse Flash. I was also the artist on ‘The World According to The Joker’ and ‘The World According to Batman’ for Insight Editions/DC Entertainment Licensing department.

I’ve worked with Upper Deck Entertainment, Marvel Comics, Legendary Entertainment & 20th Century Fox as a freelance illustrator.
In 2014 Brian Pulido offered me the chance to work with himself & Mike Maclean on a thrilling crime noir concept called La Muerta. Two hundred plus pages and three and half years later, I’m still pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming that I get to work on such a kick-ass concept with some of the
nicest people in comics.
www.deviantart.com/joelgomez

JOSEPH SCHMALKE

Joseph Schmalke is a comics creator, writer, and illustrator residing in Westbrook, Maine. Joe is the author/artist on several horror comics— including THE ELECTRIC BLACK (Scout Comics), CHERRY BLACKBIRD, THE INFERNAL PACT, and THE CALAMITOUS BLACK DEVILS (Broken Icon Comics). Artwork credits include Boom! Studio’s SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDEN variant cover, Vault Comics THE PLOT variant cover, Marvel T-shirts, Exclusive FYE t-shirts, Super 7’s Phantom Starkiller figure box art, and A Sound of Thunder’s IT WAS METAL graphic novel anthology.

KEVIN WEST

There are many places on Earth that are specifically designed to squelch the life from any creature that dares to intrude upon their treacherous domains. One such place is the sweltering heart of the blazing desert aptly named Death Valley. From this scorched , barren landscape strode a man. A man who survived this planet’s brutal assault through his sheer force of will and unconquerable determination to keep his name off the list of the dead. This man was NOT Kevin West. Instead, Kevin grew up in Chicago where the temperatures are pretty tolerable and easy to adapt to. He studied art at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, (the temperatures are tolerable there as well). After a couple of advertising layout jobs, he decided to embark on the endless thrills of the freelancer. He has worked on a variety of projects over the years that have included video games, storyboards, designing various Christmas and Halloween products, illustrating children’s books, theater posters and programs, character design, coloring books and comic books. Since 1991, Kevin has drawn comics for Marvel, DC, Wildstorm, Image, Malibu, Acclaim, and Disney, including long runs on Marvel’s 1990s series of Guardians of the Galaxy, Wildstorm’s A Nightmare on Elm Street in the 2000s, and most recently Heavy Metal’s Iron Maiden Legacy of the Beast. In 2013, Kevin completed almost two years of work on the pencils for the graphic novel, Angel Falling, with fellow RPCC guest Mark McKenna.

MARK MCKENNA

Mark McKenna has worked for more than 30 years as a comic book artist, starting by inking Jon Bogdanove’s art on Power Pack and penciling and inking a wide range of titles for Marvel and 80s indie publishers, such as The G.I. Joe Order of Battle and Dai Kamikaze! And Swords of Texas. His work was everywhere once he embellished titles such as DC’s Doctor Fate, Doom Patrol and L.E.G.I.O.N. in the 80s, and then Marvel’s Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme, Nomad and The Punisher in 90s, among many, many others. Mark has been the go-to inker since then, and his more recent work can be found on Exiles, Batman, Red Robin for DC and Combat Jacks for Banana Tail Press. Mark is credited in over 600 comics and 12,000 pages in his illustrious career.
@MarkMcKenna419
#markmckennaart
MarkMckennaart.com

MARK MORALES

A longtime comics pro, Mark has worked for many companies including Image, Dark Horse, Chaos, DC Comics and Marvel Comics, mostly as an inker. Past projects from Mark include Thor, Daredevil, Batman, X-men, Avengers vs X-men, Spider-man/Deadpool and Astonishing X-men. Currently he is working on The Avengers for Marvel Comics and Justice League from DC Comics.

MARK SPARACIO

Sucessful illustrator, Mark Sparacio studied sequential art for three years under the legendary Will Eisner —recognized as the creator of the Graphic Novel—at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, where he earned a B.F.A. in Illustration and Sequential Art. While still in school, Sparacio received his first professional assignment to create a painting for the movie poster for the United Artist International film, The Draughtsman’s Contract. This opportunity resulted in a long run as a freelance illustrator in the advertising industry. After working for both Marvel and D.C. Comics and creating covers for Comics Buyer’s Guide and The Overstreet Price Guide, creating paintings for card sets for UpperDeck/DC Comics and for Topps’ Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids, Sparacio developed his second Creator-Owned Graphic Novel Series, CHELSEA DAGGER, this one totally conceived, written and drawn by Sparacio and with the help of Chris Summers as interior digital painter and Marshall Dillon as letterer/assistant editor. Constantly developing new ideas, story lines and creating the corresponding artwork, Sparacio lives in Boynton Beach, Florida. For more information, please visit Mark Sparacio’s Facebook and Instagram pages as well as the chelseadaggercomics.com website!

MATT DUPLISEA

Matt comes to Reno all the way from Maine, to show off his ongoing comic series, Infinite, described as “X-Men meets District 9”. Where the modern world is on the brink of war between humans and Infinites—people born with the gift of biological ‘immortality’ because their cells do not degenerate. Using fear as an excuse to mask their envy, humans have tried to replicate Infinites’ gifts… and not with the most humane methods. Caught in the middle is Dante, a human and former detective struggling to figure out his place in an increasingly divided and vicious world—and Sarena, an Infinite soldier from a hidden village that’s a refuge for her race. Fate has thrown them together on a journey through the war, and two people who couldn’t be more different find that their pasts are on a collision course with one another.

PARIS CULLINS

Fans of DC Comics will be excited to hear that veteran comics artist, Paris Cullins is coming to RPCC ’19 – to meet fans, do sketches, and share his and our passion for using comics in education! Paris started at DC Comics in 1980, working early in the horror genre before going on to contribute to a number of iconic series (Blue Devil, New Gods, Blue Beetle). Though primarily known for his work with DC, Cullins also branched out into other publishers, such as Marvel (Spider-Man, Cage), Crusade Comics (Shi: The Way of the Warrior), and Epic (Clive Barker’s Hellraiser). Recently, Cullins has been contributing to the smack-down art of WWE Superstars with Super Genius Comics.
Twitter: @pariscullins
Facebook: paris.cullins

PAUL HORN

Paul Horn is the creator of Cool Jerk, a long-running, hilarious newspaper comic strip that’s too edgy for newspaper syndication. Cool Jerk follows the diverse denizens of Spittle Beach, CA, primarily wiseass hodad Armpit Beachhead and his superior-in-every-way girlfriend Puppy Fizgig as they battle the forces of stupidity, inanity, pop-culture horror and the banality of day-to-day life. Cool Jerk ran in the Reno Gazette-Journal from 1991-1996. During that time it was distributed via Gannett’s wire service where it became a mainstay in several other Gannett newspapers. After a hiatus Cool Jerk found its permanent home online at http://cooljerk.com, where an exhaustive back catalog of archived strips, merchandise and other items of interest can be found free of pesky advertisements. Since 1998, Horn has produced new content weekly (barring vacations or a fractured drawing thumb), making it one of the longest-running regular comics features created exclusively for Internet distribution. For Reno Pop Culture Con, Horn will be signing copies of his four Cool Jerk trade paperback volumes, along with Doc Splatter Ominous Omnibus Ð an advice column of the supernatural told in comic form. UNR alumnus circa the late 1980s will remember his Sagebrush newspaper strip, Like, For Shore! (the strip that begat Cool Jerk); Horn has remastered all those strips and collected them in a limited-edition, numbered, three-volume set. Horn will have a limited supply of those collections on hand, as well as T-shirts, art canvases, enamel pins, original artwork and mini-comics. Sketches are always free. Horn is also an award-winning, veteran infographics journalist and illustrator (InsideClimate News), pop-culture aficionado, lizard wrangler, hair gel beta-tester, Faygo enthusiast, sasquatch whisperer and occasional back-up singer. He lives in San Diego with his lovely and charming wife, Darlene. Hobbies include writing bombastic author profiles in the third person.

SCOUT COMICS

Scout Comics & Entertainment develops, publishes and launches creator-owned comics. By consistently bringing exciting new, talented voices and their Intellectual Property to market, Scout has established ourselves as a pipeline to major studios and producers for some of the best new characters, ripe for development in TV, Film, Digital, Mobile, VR and Video Games. With deep knowledge and relationships in Hollywood (across Film, TV and Digital), our mission is to discover, develop, and support creators and help build successful careers for them while translating their projects to different platforms and mediums. Some of Scout’s successful series includeStabbity Bunny, The Source, The Mall, Solar Flare, Mindbender, Long Lost, Henchgirl, Zinnober, among others.

Stay tuned for more pre-show coverage as we look at what you can expect at the show. Be sure to buy your tickets NOW for the 2019 Reno Pop Culture Con. Ticket prices will be higher at the door. But with the lineup in store, Reno is the place to be November 8th-10th, so don’t miss out!

Reno Pop Culture Con