The 2015 Baltimore Comic-Con takes place the weekend of September 25-27 at the Baltimore Convention Center in the beautiful Inner Harbor. Buy your VIP, General Admission, and Harvey Award tickets now!
The Baltimore Comic-Con is privileged to announce this year’s Guest of Honor: Mark Waid.
Waid’s career in comics began in the 1980s when he wrote for Fantagraphics’ comics fan magazine, Amazing Heroes. His first comics contribution, an 8-page back-up story that ran in Action Comics, was at DC Comics, where he would spend his formative years. He took on an editorial role at DC, helming titles including Action Comics, Doom Patrol, Infinity, Inc., Legion of Super-Heroes, Secret Origins, and Wonder Woman. He is also co-creator of the DC Elseworlds line of comics.
In the late 1980s, Waid left his editorial position to begin working freelance, writing for DC’s Impact line on titles like The Comet and Legend of the Shield. As he entered the early 1990s, Waid took over the reins on The Flash, where he would spend the next 8 years developing the story lines and characters, including creating the popular speedster, Impulse, who would go on to star in his own Waid-scripted title. In the mid-1990s, he was the mind behind the DC crossover, Underworld Unleashed, writing the limited series.
Taking on his first role at Marvel Comics in the mid-1990s, Mark contributed to the X-Men crossover event, Age of Apocalypse, writing X-Men: Alpha and X-Men: Omega. Also for the X-Men line, Waid co-created Onslaught, the character behind the line-wide event. Later, he went on to pen numerous and acclaimed runs on Captain America and associated titles, including multiple volumes of the core title.
Back at DC, Waid and artist/creator Alex Ross penned the futuristic Kingdom Come, a limited series painted by Ross that would redirect aspects of the DC Universe to match the story written, and which spawned The Kingdom, a follow-on limited series penned by Waid. He also, along with writer Grant Morrison, came up with the concept of “Hypertime” which explained continuity discrepencies in the DC Universe. He wrote numerous Justice League titles, including JLA, JLA: Year One, Justice League Task Force, Justice League Quarterly, and JLA: Heaven’s Ladder.
At the short-lived Gorilla Comics, of which he was a co-founder, Waid wrote Empire with artist Barry Kitson (but the title completed its run at DC after Gorilla folded after 2 issues of the title had been released). He also worked for CrossGen, penning the first year of Ruse.
Waid wrote an acclaimed, and briefly controversial due to conflicts with management at the time, run on Fantastic Four at Marvel, with late artist Mike Wieringo. The controversy ended after fan outcry caused a decision to fire the team to be reversed.
In the mid 2000s, Waid’s noteworthy work at DC Comics, where he spent 2 years under exclusive contract, included the Superman: Birthright limited series, a run on Legion of Super-Heroes, the 52 crossover series, a relaunch of The Brave and the Bold, and another run on The Flash.
After his DC exclusive ended, Waid’s Marvel work was similarly lauded, with contributions to Amazing Spider-Man, the Strange limited series, The Indestructible Hulk, The Hulk, and S.H.I.E.L.D. He is also one of the brains behind the multiple-Harvey and Eisner Award-winning Daredevil title, which has run in multiple volumes under his leadership.
After writing Irredeemable and Incorruptible at BOOM! Studios, Waid became the publisher’s Editor-in-Chief in 2007, and briefly took on the role of Chief Creative Officer for the publisher in 2010 before returning to freelancing. He also launched the digital publishing website Thrillbent, with his title Insufferable as the inaugural series. He is currently in the process of recreating the Archie character at Archie Comic Publications.
“Mark Waid has been with us every year except our second,” said Marc Nathan, promoter of the Baltimore Comic-Con. “He is an exceptional creative talent, he is an exceptional driver for the forward progress of our industry, and he is an exceptional friend. We love him and, with his 30 years of work in the comics industry and across the publishing landscape, we know his broad fan base loves him too, so we are euphoric to be able to present Mark as our 2015 Guest of Honor.”
In addition to on-site CGC grading, this year’s confirmed guests for the show include: Neal Adams (All-New Captain America); Scott Ambruson (Azteca: Ciudad Paradiso); Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl); Marty Baumann (Pixar artist); John Beatty (Secret Wars); Gregory Benton (Smoke); Christy Blanch (The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood); Mark Buckingham (Fables); Bob Budiansky (courtesy of Hero Initiative, Transformers); Talent Caldwell (Grimm Fairy Tales Presents White Queen: Age of Darkness); Chris Campana (Kantara); Richard Case (Doom Patrol); Christa Cassano (Ghetto Klown); Sean Chen (Secret Origins); Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman); Frank Cho (Jungle Girl); Amy Chu (Strange Sports Stories); Steve Conley (Bloop); Amanda Conner (Harley Quinn); Katie Cook (Gronk); Darwyn Cooke (Richard Stark’s Parker); Vito Delsante (Stray); Todd Dezago (Perhapanauts); Joe Eisma (Morning Glories); Ramona Fradon (Spongebob Annual-Size Super-Giant Swimtacular); Francesco Francavilla (Secret Wars: Battleworld); John Gallagher (Buzzboy); Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (Batman ’66: The Lost Episode); Keron Grant (Father’s Day); Mike Grell (courtesy of Hero Initiative, Action Comics); Laura Guzzo (Princeless: Short Stories for Warrior Women); Cully Hamner (Convergence: The Question); Scott Hanna (The New 52: Futures End); Dean Haspiel (The Fox); Russ Heath (G.I. Combat); Eric Henson (The Perhapanauts: Danger Down Under); h-eri (Ivory Dragon Studios); Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets); Ken Hunt (Talon); Jamal Igle (Molly Danger); Geof Isherwood (Suicide Squad); Klaus Janson (Superman); Dave Johnson (Inhumans: Attilan Rising); JG Jones (Strange Fruit); Chris Kemple (Red Vengeance); Denis Kitchen (The Best of Comix Book: When Marvel Went Underground); Barry Kitson (Empire: Uprising); Greg LaRocque (The Avengers); Dan Leister (Grimm Fairy Tales); Mike Lilly (Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: Robyn Hood); Nate Lovett (Midnight Tiger); Kevin Maguire (Justice League); Mike Manley (Darkhawk); Mark Mariano (The Other Side of Hugless Hill); Laura Martin (Star Wars); Ron Marz (Convergence: Batman and Robin); Bob McLeod (Secret Wars); Pop Mhan (He-Man: The Eternity War); Terry Moore (Rachel Rising); Mark Morales (Convergence); Nen (The Memory Collectors); John Ostrander (Suicide Squad); Greg Pak (Storm); Tom Palmer (The Avengers); Jimmy Palmiotti (The Con Job); Dan Parent (Archie); Brent Peeples (Legenderry: Green Hornet); Andrew Pepoy (Afterlife with Archie); David Petersen (Mouse Guard); Brandon Peterson (Uncanny X-Men); Khoi Pham (X-Men Legacy); Andy Price (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic); Ron Randall (Convergence: Catwoman); Tom Raney (Avengers Vs.); Sara Richard (Jem and the Holograms); Rafer Roberts (Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream); David Rodriguez (Skylanders); Budd Root (Cavewoman); Don Rosa (Donald Duck); Craig Rousseau (Batman Beyond); Andy Runton (Owly); Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo); Matteo Scalera (Black Science); Jeff Shultz (Betty and Veronica); Bart Sears (Bloodshot); Louise Simonson (Convergence: Superman – The Man of Steel); Walter Simonson (Convergence: Superman – The Man of Steel); Matt Slay (The Sakai Project: Artists Celebrate Thirty Years of Usagi Yojimbo); Andy Smith (Earth 2); Matthew Dow Smith (X-Files Season 10); Scott Snyder (Batman Eternal); Charles Soule (Uncanny Inhumans); Mark Sparacio (Sgt. Rock); Jim Starlin (Thanos: The Infinity Relativity); Brian Stelfreeze (Day Men); Paul Storrie (Sheena, Queen of the Jungle); Joe St. Pierre (New Zodiax); Marcio Takara (Armor Wars); Eric Talbot (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles); Ben Templesmith (Gotham by Midnight); Mark Texeira (Ghost Racers); Frank Tieri (Suicide Squad); Peter Tomasi (Green Lantern Corps); John Totleben (Swamp Thing); Jeremy Treece (King: Mandrake the Magician); Tim Truman (Hawkman); Billy Tucci (Shi); James Tynion (Constantine: The Hellblazer); Rick Veitch (Saga of the Swamp Thing); Charles Vess (Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream); Mark Waid (Daredevil); John Watson (Red Sonja); Matt Wieringo (‘Ringo Scholarship Fund); Marv Wolfman (courtesy of Hero Initiative, Convergence: New Teen Titans); Rich Woodall (Kyrra); Brian Woodward (Baltimore Comic-Con 2015 Yearbook); Kelly Yates (Doctor Who); Thom Zahler (My Little Pony: Friends Forever); and Mike Zeck (Secret Wars).
In the coming weeks, look for more announcements from the Baltimore Comic-Con. We are looking forward to highlighting our guests, the Harvey Awards, industry exclusives, and programming. The latest developments can always be found on our website, Twitter, and Facebook pages.
About The Baltimore Comic-Con
The Baltimore Comic-Con is celebrating its 15th year of bringing the comic book industry to the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area. For more information, please visit www.baltimorecomiccon.com.
About The Harvey Awards
The Harvey Awards are one of the comic book industry’s oldest and most respected awards. With a history of over 20 years, the last 10 in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con, the Harveys recognize outstanding achievements in over 20 categories. They are the only industry awards nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals. For more information, please visit www.harveyawards.org.
