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Latest Comic Guest Announcement - Andy Diggle Attending: Saturday & Sunday The Losers, 2000AD, Hellblazer, Daredevil, James Bond Andy Diggle is a comics writer and former editor of cult British comic 2000AD. He is currently writing JAMES BOND. Andy is best know for collaborating with Jock on THE LOSERS, which was adapted into the film starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans, Zoe Saldana and Idris Elba; and GREEN ARROW: YEAR ONE, which partially inspired the hit TV show ARROW. Andy's creator-owned work includes SNAPSHOT, RAT CATCHER and SILENT DRAGON. His work for US publishers includes BATMAN, SUPERMAN, HELLBLAZER, SWAMP THING and ADAM STRANGE for DC Comics; DAREDEVIL, CAPTAIN AMERICA and THUNDERBOLTS for Marvel; DOCTOR WHO for IDW; THIEF OF THIEVES for Skybound; and UNCANNY and CONTROL for Dynamite. http://www.andydiggle.com/

Latest Comic Guest Announcement - Will Simpson Storyboard artist: Game of Thrones Attending: Saturday & Sunday FOUR years after contributing to the first three issues of Ximoc – a comiczine launched in 1980 by fans in his native Belfast – Will Simpson began his professional career, drawing Big Ben for Warrior. Work for 2000 AD, Toxic and a variety of Marvel UK titles swiftly followed until, in 1991, he was approached by DC/Vertigo to work on Hellblazer. Three years later, after a diversion to draw 1993’s Alien: Rogue four-parter for Dark Horse, he illustrated the first of three Vamps miniseries [1994, 1996 and 1998] for that DC mature readers imprint. As the millennium headed towards its end, Simpson – whose association with 2000 AD concluded in 2001 – began winding down his comics work and turning his focus towards the movie industry. The Game of Thrones storyboard artist since 2011, his screen credits also include Reign of Fire [2002], City of Ember [2008] and Your Highness [2011].

Artist: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth; Cages; Black Orchid; Signal to Noise; Celluloid; Violent Cases Cover artist: The Sandman; Hellblazer; The Dreaming; Black Orchid; Death: The High Cost of Living Attending: Saturday Afternoon Only A 21st century Renaissance Man, Dave McKean's talents and renown extend far beyond the world of comics to include photography, filmmaking, sculpture and music. Although he debuted with a contribution to Knockabout's Outrageous Tales From The Old Testament, the British artist's comics career really kicked into gear later in 1987 with the release of Violent Cases. Published by Britain's Titan Books, for whom the artist had already produced a handful of covers, the graphic novel was written by Neil Gaiman, a fellow Brit who would loom large in McKean's comics credits down the years. It led to McKean beginning a parallel career as a noted cover artist. Starting in 1988 with Hellblazer, he went on to produce numerous characteristic covers for a variety of DC titles, especially those that were brought under the Vertigo umbrella or were originated as part of that mature readers line. Among them wereThe Dreaming and Sandman Midnight Theatre but most prominent was The Sandman, the Gaiman-written series that became the imprint's cornerstone. McKean also provided covers for Black Orchid, the ongoing series spawned by the 1988 miniseries of the same name. Written by Gaiman and illustrated by McKean, the three-parter marked the pair's entrance into the US market but its significance was eclipsed by the publication a year later of the Grant Morrison-written Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. A huge commercial and critical success, the hardcover DC graphic novel was a mould-breaker that really put the artist on the map. Although he devoted much of his time covering DC comics, the British artist was increasingly in demand by other publishers for whom he would produce covers as well as the occasional strip for an anthology. Despite all that activity, in 1990 McKean began writing and drawing a creator-owned series. Initially published by Tundra but finished at Kitchen Sink, the 10-issue Cages wasn't completed until 1996. In 1992 McKean again got together with Gaiman; this time at Dark Horse for Signal to Noise. The graphic novel was a revised and expanded version of a serial the duo had produced for The Face magazine three years earlier. The artist, who has produced many album covers for a variety of bands and solo artists, also contributed to Freak Show, a 1992 Dark Horse anthology based on The Residents album of the same name. Two years later came another Gaiman-written graphic novel. Released by Vertigo,The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch was followed in 1995 by Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge. Published under Marvel's short-lived Marvel Music label, the one-shot was written and drawn by Mackean, who reunited with Gaiman in 1996 to provide illustrations for the author's children's picture book The Day I swapped my Dad for 2 Goldfish. It was published by White Wolf while two similar books – The Wolves in the Walls and Crazy Hair – were released in 2003 and 2009, respectively, by Harper Collins, which also published 2002's Coraline and The Graveyard Book (2008), two Gaiman-authored children's novels that McKean also illustrated In 1999, Cyber Octave released The World of Buckethead one-shot. Written and drawn by McKean, the comic was part of a promotional campaign to promote the label's Monsters and Robots album by Buckethead. Six years later William Morrow released MirrorMask: The Illustrated Film Script, which was a tie-in with McKean's directorial debut, which the artist co-scripted with Gaiman. The same year The Alchemy of Mirrormask (a "making of" type book) was released. That was published by Collins Press for which McKean would subsequently illustrate 2006's The Homecoming, which featured Ray Bradbury stories. Two years later the artist returned to the master storyteller's tales to provide art for Subterranean Press's Skeletons with another Bradbury title, The Shop of the Mechanical Insects, following from the same publisher in 2009. McKean had continued to create a steady stream of covers for Vertigo but by the turn of the century The Dreaming – which ended in 2001 with #60 – was his only ongoing title for the DC imprint. By 2003, the artist (who had effectively created the Vertigo look) had all but ceased working for the label, his work outside the comics arena making more and more demands on his time. In 2011 he wrote and drew Celluloid, a graphic novel, for France's Delcourt. It was his last significant comics work although he continues to contribute to the occasional anthology while producing covers from time to time, most notably revisiting Vertigo in 2013 to cover the six issues of The Sandman: Overture. While renowned within the comics community for his unique approach to the medium, McKean has produced several books of his photographs. He has also illustrated books about his travels.

JAMIE DELANO Writer: Hellblazer; Captain Britain; Animal Man; Batman: Manbat; Outlaw Nation Attending: Saturday Only UNDOUBTEDLY best-known for Hellblazer, the Vertigo series that many consider the DC mature readers imprint's flagship title, Jamie Delano began his comics career some five years before Alan Moore hand-picked him to chronicle the exploits of the streetwise magician the acclaimed British writer had introduced in 1985's Swamp Thing #37. Delano's first professional writing assignments were for Marvel UK where, beginning in 1983's Daredevils #11, he authored text stories featuring Night Raven. These were illustrated by Alan Davis, with whom the British writer would move on to launchCaptain Britain in 1985. With all but one of the first 12 issues of that Marvel UK comic under his belt, Delano spent the next two years contributing to other titles, primarily Doctor Who Magazineand 2000 AD, before Moore suggested DC hire him to launch Hellblazer, which marked Delano's US debut. That was in 1988 and across 37 of the first 40 issues of that series he fleshed out John Constantine's character and background, creating a template from which subsequent writers of the comic have seldom strayed. In 1990 Delano scripted DC's World Without End six-parter and then the following year the Night Raven: House of Cards graphic novel, his first work for Marvel itself. After that, his Hellblazer run at an end, he took on Animal Man, scripting 29 straight issues of that DC title. That took him into 1995 but as his run was coming to an end he also authored two 1995 Vertigo projects – the Tainted one-shot and the six issues of Ghostdancing. Next Delano, who'd previously authored a single 1994 issue of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, wrote 1995's Batman: Manbat three-parter and then reunited with John Constantine for The Horrorist, a DC/Vertigo two-parter. The writer's 1996 output was limited to Dynamite's first Vampirella Strikes Annual although he did also contribute to Showcase '96 #3 for DC and script Twisted Metal 2. An extremely rare one-shot, DC produced it for Sony to use to promote its video game of the same name. Come 1997, Delano launched 2020 Visions (a DC/Vertigo 12-parter) but also signed on with Valiant for an 11-issue run on Shadowman. The following year he authored Vertigo's Hell Eternal one-shot. Then with 2020 Visions and Shadowman at end, he migrated to Dark Horse (where he'd previously made a contribution to a 1995 issue ofDark Horse Presents) for the four issues of The Territory before ending 1999 back at Vertigo where he collaborated with fellow writer Tom Peyer on the Cruel & Unusual four-parter. Although he kicked off 2000 with a two-issue serial for Legends of the DC Universehe was soon back at Vertigo where he authored the three issues of Hellblazer Special: Bad Blood before launching Outlaw Nation for which he scripted all 19 issues. That series ended in 2002 at which point Delano's comics output dwindled to virtually nothing until 2008. It was then that he resurfaced at Avatar with two four-parters, first Narcopolis, thenRawbone. Although he would return to Avatar in 2012 for six issues of Crossed Badlands, his last major project was back at Vertigo where he revisited Hellblazer – for which he'd scripted the occasional fill-in down the years – for John Constantine, Hellblazer: Pandemonium, a 2010 graphic novel.

Latest Comic Guest Announcement - Peter Milligan Attending: Sat/Sun Writer – Shadowman; Hellblazer; Justice League Dark; Red Lanterns

Peter Milligan CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF VERTIGO Writer:Shade, the Changing Man; Hellblazer; Animal Man; Human Target;Greek Street Milligan started his comic career with short stories for 2000 AD in the early 1980s. By 1986, Milligan had his first ongoing strip in 2000AD called Bad Company, with artists Brett Ewins and Jim McCarthy. Bad Company was a popular future war story and helped Milligan become better known. Concurrently, Milligan, Ewins and Brendan McCarthy had been working on the anthology title, Strange Days for Eclipse Comics. Strange Days featured three strips, Paradax, Freakwave and Johnny Nemo. Milligan, McCarthy and Ewins produced three issues of this psychedelic comic, it was not a great seller but it picked up a small, loyal readership. The most conventional strip, Johnny Nemo, had its own series while the more quirky Paradax had a two issue series published by Vortex Comics in 1987. By 1989 Milligan was swapping between more conventional strips such as Bad Company, while still writing his more surreal efforts in 2000AD, such as Hewligan's Haircut with artist Jamie Hewlett. Milligan with artist Jim McCarthy created the Steve Ditko-inspired Bix Barton. This was first run as a black and white strip for its first outing ("Barton's Beasts") the second strip was called "Carry On Barton" (originally "Carry On Snuffing"), the strip was very popular and was a precursor of Devlin Waugh and others. In 1989 he had his first work published by DC Comics. Skreemer was a six issue mini series with art by Brett Ewins that was somewhat lost in the midst of the so-called "British Invasion" of American comics of the time. A dark post-apocalyptic gangster story, it did receive critical acclaim but did not sell well. Milligan however was soon to become a regular writer for DC while still working on his more personal comics in the UK in comics such as 2000AD, and its spin off titles Crisis and Revolver.

Mark Buckingham CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF VERTIGO Artist:Fables; Death: The Time of your Life; Hellblazer; Merv Pumpkinhead: Agent of D.R.E.A.M.