Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Comic Conventions: Women Creators Among Major Guests Appearances at C2E2!



Gail Simone, Amanda Conner and Colleen Doran Join High Profile Personalities



Women creators form a significant part of the powerful programming that is being put together by officials at C2E2. The new pop culture show is set to launch at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center, April 16 -18, 2010 and the women who will be participating in various appearances and activities are the best in their field and they represent the convention’s overall goal to focus on top notch talent. The new guests who will be appearing at C2E2 include award-winning and critically acclaimed writer Gail Simone, and renowned illustrators Amanda Conner and Colleen Doran. These creators join previously announced female creator Jill Thompson. All the women who will be featured guests at C2E2 are accomplished artists who have wide and loyal audiences.

Other guests who have already been announced for C2E2 include: Chuck Dixon, Steve Epting, Jackson Guice, Gene Ha, Bob Layton, David Lloyd, Steve McNiven, Mike Mignola, Mark Morales, Mike Norton, Joshua Ortega, Mike Perkins, Khoi Pham, Alex Ross, Jeff Smith, Ben Templesmith, David Uslan, and Ethan Van Sciver.

"We are wowed with the amazing line up of talented artists appearing at C2E2,” notes Lance Fensterman, Vice President for the Reed Pop Culture Group and Show Manager for C2E2. “Every single creator and artist brings their own sensibility to the show and we want to embrace each individual and give them their own platform to speak and to meet their own individual audience. I couldn't be happier that we have such a diverse group of talent already lined up for C2E2. And we still have so much more to come!"

The women artists joining the pop blowout at C2E2 include:

Amanda Conner: Amanda Conner started out working as an illustrator for New York ad agencies Kornhauser and Calene and Kidvertisers. She worked on a number of launches and campaigns including Arm and Hammer, PlaySchool and Nickelodeon; however, loving comic books and cartooning the most, Amanda found herself working with Marvel on their Barbie and Disney lines. At the same time, she was illustrating Soul Searchers & Co. for Claypool Comics and was soon working on other Marvel projects, such as Excalibur and Suburban Jersey Ninja She-Devils. Amanda then moved on to do what is probably her best known work -- several years as penciler on the hit series Vampirella for Harris Comics. While illustrating Vampirella, Amanda worked with the top writers in the field, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Warren Ellis. Continuing to expand her horizons, Amanda illustrated the best-selling Event Comic Painkiller Jane vs. The Darkness and went on to work on Painkiller Jane #0. She also wrote and illustrated a story for Kid Death and Fluffy. Since then, Amanda has moved on and has worked on many of the top titles in comics such as Lois Lane, Codename: Knockout, Terra and Birds of Prey for DC, X-Men Unlimited for Marvel, co-created Gatecrasher for BlackBull Comics, and The Pro, a creator-owned book for Image with Jimmy Palmiotti and Garth Ennis. Amanda's work can also be seen outside the comic book world in such places as ABC's Nightline, The New York Times, and Mad Magazine. Amanda’s current work can be seen in Powergirl monthly for DC Comics as well as the Supergirl series for Wednesday Comics.

Katie Cook: Katie Cook is a popular artist among Star Wars fans. Her work can be seen in many Topps Star Wars Trading Card sets, Star Wars how-to-draw tutorials, and webcomics for The Clone Wars on starwars.com. She's also done licensed work for The Lord of the Rings, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Heroes, and -- soon -- Fraggle Rock! A fan favorite and a huge nerd, her work can be found at www.katiecandraw.com.

Colleen Doran: Colleen Doran is an illustrator with hundreds of credits for clients including Lucasfilm, The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Comics, Image Comics, DC Comics, Reader’s Digest, Scholastic, and many more. She was artist in residence at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC where she lectured on Hokusai and ukiyo-e prints and their relation to pop culture and manga. She has also lectured on graphic novels in arenas as diverse as the Singapore Writers Festival and the American Library Association. Further, she has illustrated the work of Neil Gaiman, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker. Currently, she is working on two original graphic novels for Vertigo, one by Warren Ellis called Stealth Tribes, and another by the Eisner-nominee Derek McCulloch entitled Gone to Amerikay. She is also artist for an upcoming original graphic novel for publisher Houghton Mifflin with best-selling novelist Barry Lyga. Other credits include Wonder Woman, Amazing Spider-Man, X-Factor, Captain America, Teen Titans, and officially licensed illustrations for Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings. Her graphic novel series A Distant Soil, published by Image Comics, was listed among the 101 best graphic novels of all time and has tens of thousands of readers online.

Lora Innes: Lora Innes's first solo work, The Dreamer, was published by IDW Publishing as a six issue mini-series, then collected as a graphic novel. The Dreamer began as a webcomic in 2007 and quickly gathered a large, cult-like following online. This year, The Dreamer collected two Harvey Award nominations: Best New Series and Best New Talent for Innes herself. The Dreamer is currently a finalist in the 2009 Cybils in the Graphic Novel for Young Adults category. Lora has also done work for Vertigo's American Splendor. Read The Dreamer online at www.thedreamercomic.com.

Sherrilyn Kenyon: The #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon lives a life of extraordinary danger... as does any woman with three sons, a husband, a menagerie of pets, and a collection of swords that all of the above have a major fixation with. But when not running interference (or dashing off to the emergency room), she's found chained to her computer where she likes to play with all her imaginary friends. With more than twenty million copies of her books in print, in over thirty countries, she certainly has a lot of friends to play with, too. In the past two years, her books have claimed the coveted #1 best-selling spot ten times, and this extraordinary bestseller continues to top every genre she writes in. Her current series include The Dark-Hunters, The League, Lords of Avalon, BAD Agency, and the forthcoming Nevermore and Chronicles of Nick. Her Lords of Avalon novels have been adapted by Marvel and her Dark-Hunter novels are now a New York Times bestselling manga published by St. Martins.

Gail Simone: Gail Simone is an award-winning, critically acclaimed writer of comic books and animation. She has had classic runs on titles including Action Comics, Deadpool, Agent X, The All-New Atom, The Simpsons, and The Secret Six, as well as her creator-owned works, Killer Princesses (with co-creator Lea Hernandez) and Welcome to Tranquility. She is currently resuming her definitive run on DC's Birds of Prey. In animation, she's written for Justice League Unlimited and The Brave and The Bold and was co-writer of The Wonder Woman animated film. Gail lives with her family on the Oregon coast.

Allison Sohn: Allison Sohn is an illustrator working primarily in the trading card industry. Allison has worked on such licensed card sets as The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Heroes, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Red Sonja to name but a few. Drawing for both sketch cards as well as printed cards, Allison has been featured in more than a dozen different trading card sets in the last several years. Visit www.justsayah.com and www.allisonsohnart.com for more.

For more information on guests, tickets, or C2E2 in general, visit www.C2E2 or check out the show’s official blog, MediumAtLarge at www.mediumatlarge.net, or follow C2E2 on Twitter at www.twitter.com/c2e2.

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