More Guests at C2E2 as Team Begins Holiday Tour

12/15/2009 // C2E2

MORE GUESTS OF HONOR AND FEATURED GUESTS ARE ADDED TO GROWING LIST OF APPEARANCES AT C2E2!

Announcement Comes at Start of C2E2 Holiday Tour

Norwalk, CT, December 15, 2009:  Organizers of the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) have announced that four more Guests of Honor and five more Featured Guests have been added to the growing list of special guest appearances by popular writers, creators and artists at the new pop culture convention which is being launched April 16 – 18, 2010 at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center.  Chuck Dixon, Steve Epting, Bob Layton, and David Lloyd will appear as Guests of Honor and Gene Ha, Mark Morales, Joshua Ortega, Khoi Pham, David Uslan, and Dexter Vines will appear as Featured Guests.  Officials note that this brings the total number of Guests of Honor appearing at the new show to 12.  The number of Featured Guests who have been lined up is 10. 

“We are incredibly grateful to all the talented individuals, many of whom are the very best at what they do, who have committed to making an appearance at our show,” notes Lance Fensterman, Group Vice President and Show Manager for C2E2.  “We’re going to deliver a spectacular show, a quality, professional event that brings top artists and creators from across the country together with their many fans – and this is still early in the game!  As soon as 2010 kicks in we will have plenty more guests to announce so stay tuned!”

C2E2’s announcement comes at the start of its Holiday Tour in Chicago, where Show Manager Lance Fensterman and representatives of the C2E2 team will be delivering prizes and gifts during a week-long meeting with fans, professionals, and retailers throughout the greater Chicago area.  Details about the Holiday Tour are available at www.C2E2.com.

Daily, Weekend, and VIP Tickets to C2E2 are now also available at www.C2E2.com  Daily and weekend tickets are currently priced at a discounted, early bird rate.  Fans wishing to take advantage of his lower rate must order their tickets before December 31st, after which the cost will rise to standard pricing.  For more information on tickets, guests, or C2E2 in general, beyond the official show site, fans are encouraged to visit C2E2's official blog, www.mediumatlarge.net, and follow C2E2 on Twitter at www.twitter.com/c2e2.

ABOUT CHUCK DIXON:

Born in Philadelphia, Chuck Dixon has more than 25 years of experience in the graphic novel field as an editor, writer, and publisher. He has contributed well over a thousand scripts to publishers including DC Comics, Marvel, Dark Horse, Hyperion and others featuring a range of characters from Batman to The Simpsons. His comic book adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit continues to be an international bestseller. Considered to be one of the most prolific writers in his field, this award-winning storyteller currently writes G.I. Joe for IDW, The Good the Bad and the Ugly and Stargate Universe for Dynamite, and The Simpsons for Bongo Comics along with many creator-owned projects for various publishers.

ABOUT STEVE EPTING: 

With a career stretching back to First Comics, Steve Epting made his name with Marvel fans everywhere with a 50-issue run drawing Avengers in the early '90s. He also contributed art to various X-Men titles, including the Factor X series, part of the seminal Age of Apocalypse event. This was followed by a stint at DC Comics, working on their flagship Superman, as well as on an acclaimed run on Aquaman. After working on various CrossGen titles, including the Eisner-nominated El Cazador, which he co-created with writer Chuck Dixon, Steve returned to Marvel to embark on his first collaboration with writer Ed Brubaker on Captain America. The award-winning team of Brubaker and Epting then culminated Marvel's 70th Anniversary by redefining the origins of the Marvel Universe in The Marvels Project.

ABOUT GENE HA:

Gene Ha is a comic book artist mainly known for his superhero stories and covers. He started off drawing books such as Cyclops and Phoenix for Marvel and Starman for DC. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, Top 10 and its prequel, The Forty-Niners. Both projects won Eisners, the highest award in American comics. In 2008, he won his third Eisner for Justice League of America #11 with writer Brad Meltzer. He is currently doing a series of painted covers for DC's Blackest Night: JSA and Kevin Smith's Batman: Widening Gyre. Along with writer Bill Willingham, he's diligently working on Backroads for IDW, a modern fantasy graphic novel. Gene Ha's work has been reprinted in countries as far flung as Poland, France, Brazil, and Japan. Gene Ha lives outside Chicago in Berwyn, IL with his lovely wife Lisa and their two beagle bassets. Since college he's tried to avoid temptations that will distract him from drawing more comics, and thus never mastered using a game controller with more than one button. Sad but true. More info about him can be found at www.geneha.com and www.facebook.com/geneha.

ABOUT BOB LAYTON:

In 1978, with writing partner David Michelinie, Bob totally re-imagined Marvel's Invincible Iron Man, ultimately transforming it from a low-end book into one of Marvel's all-time best sellers. Their "Demon in a Bottle" storyline is now considered a milestone in comics history. Second only to his tenure on Iron Man, Bob is also known for his innovative contributions to the Valiant Comics line as Editor-in-Chief and Senior Vice President.  Bob (with David Michelinie) returned to Marvel Comics and Iron Man in 2008, creating two, new limited series to be released in conjunction with the Iron Man motion picture. Marvel has recently released two hardback editions of Layton's classic Hercules series in conjunction with his new four-issue Hercules mini-series for 2009. Along with comics work, Bob and David Michelinie are currently collaborating on the development of properties for major motion pictures and television, including his highly successful web comic, Colony. For more, visit www.boblayton.com.

ABOUT DAVID LLOYD:

David Lloyd was born in North London and trained in advertising art before becoming a sequential artist in 1977. He first attracted attention working on Night Raven for Marvel UK, and later created the globally successful V for Vendetta with Alan Moore. He's worked on various stories in the Hellblazer series, Aliens, Marlowe: The Graphic Novel, Global Frequency, War Stories, and the acclaimed crime thriller, Kickback.  For European publishers, he's drawn for a collection of war memoirs, Words of Stars, and produced his first limited-edition print, The Prizefighter.  He's also written and illustrated a book on Sao Paulo.  Currently he's helping launch an educational website in the UK called Cartoon Classroom. More information on Kickback and David's other past and present projects can be found at www.lforlloyd.com.

ABOUT MARK MORALES:

A graduate of New York's famed School of Visual Arts, Mark Morales is a longtime comics veteran.  Over the course of his 15 year career, he has worked for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics and various others, mostly as an inker.  Through the years, Mark has worked on such titles as Uncanny X-Men, Secret Invasion, Justice League, New Avengers, Thor, Daredevil, and many others.  Currently he is hard at work on Siege from Marvel Comics.

ABOUT JOSHUA ORTEGA: 

Joshua Ortega is a Seattle-based writer whose work spans nearly the entire spectrum of the popular arts. He has written for every major American comic book company including Marvel, DC Comics, Dark Ho