Portsmouth Comic Con 2018 is just 4 weeks away and we are starting 3-part series of a spotlighting comic guests appearing at the show on the weekend of 5-6 May, South of the UK in Portsmouth. Tickets are selling fast so get to their website and buy them already!
Walter Simonson began his career in the early 1970s at DC Comics. He first got noticed thanks to his work on the company’s Manhunter, which ran in their flagship book Detective Comics with writer Archie Goodwin. His profile increased when he became writer-artist on Marvel’s Thor in 1983, which propelled him to comics superstardom.
Over his career, he has drawn many of the most iconic superhero characters from both Marvel and DC, including the Fantastic Four, Batman, and Superman. He is also known as a creator who is attracted to the more fantastical subjects; he has drawn Michael Moorcock’s Elric in the comic series The Making of a Sorcerer. Over the last few years, he has returned to the Norse gods, a subject very close to his heart, in his series Ragnarok, published by IDW.
Portsmouth marks the first time he has been to the UK in a decade.
Louise Simonson is a writer and editor whose editing career began at Warren in the 1970s working on magazines like Eerie and Creepy but she moved to Marvel in the early eighties. Simonson was editor on titles like Star Wars and New Mutants.
As a writer, she has worked on a number of major titles for publishers like DC and Marvel, creating Power Pack for the latter and creating Apocalypse during her X-Factor run. She also completed an acclaimed run on Superman: Man of Steel at DC. She is one of the most respected writers and editors in comics thanks to a unique CV.
Tommy Lee Edwards is an artist and illustrator who has worked for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW, Image Comics, Lucasfilm and Microsoft. He has worked on Batman Begins for Warner Bros. as well as working on video games starring such iconic creations as Superman and James Bond.
Currently he is drawing Young Animal/ DC’s Mother Panic. He is also the co-organiser of the North Carolina Comic Con.
Rafael Albuquerque is an Eisner award nominated Brazilian comic artist first noticed drawing Blue Beetle for DC.
He has been an artist in the American field for over a decade, and it was as cocreator of Vertigo’s American Vampire with writer Scott Snyder, with input from horror legend Stephen King, that really brought him to people’s attention. He has collaborated with Mark Millar on Huck for Image and just completed a run on DC’s Batgirl Rebirth series with Hope Larson.
Shawn Martinbrough has been involved in numerous projects for DC, Marvel and Dark Horse Comics over the last 25 years, including Detective Comics, Luke Cage Noir, Captain America, Black Panther and Hellboy. He also co-created characters that featured in Marvel’s Deadpool movie, along with television series such as Gothamand The Gifted. His most notable recent work is Thief Of Thieves, a crime series written by Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman.
A classic illustrator whose work is reminiscent of Alex Toth and Frank Miller, Martinbrough has become known as a pre-eminent fine-line black and white specialist.
One of the most distinctive comic artists of the last 30 years, Frank Quitely began his career on independent magazine Electric Soup, moving to 2000AD spin-off The Judge Dredd Megazine on strips like Shimura & Missionary Man before being noticed by DC’s Vertigo. His CV includes covers & one off images for the The Walking Dead & Marvel’s Daredevil. In 2017 his long career was celebrated by an exhibition at Kelvingrove Gallery & Museum in his hometown Glasgow.