The 24th annual Baltimore Comic-Con returns to the Inner Harbor’s Baltimore Convention Center on September 8-10, 2023. The Baltimore Comic-Con has announced the appearance of comic guests Dean Haspiel, Charlie McElvy, and Peter Rostovsky. Purchase your tickets online to avoid ticket counter lines at the event.
Brandishing deep cuts of Covid Cop and Billy Dogma, Dean Haspiel will also be debuting his new character, Chest Face in The Spider-Squirrel & Trash Panda Titan-Sized Special #1, a Baltimore Comic-Con exclusive published by Xion Universe co-creator, Charlie McElvy, aided and abetted by his wife, Suzanne “The Librarian” McElvy. Meanwhile, Peter Rostovsky balances their cabal with his debut graphic novel, the critically acclaimed horror comedy, Damnation Diaries.
Emmy and Ringo Award-winning cartoonist Dean Haspiel is best known for creating Billy Dogma, The Red Hook, and Covid Cop, collaborating with Harvey Pekar and Jonathan Ames, and illustrating for HBO’s Bored to Death. His published work includes writing and drawing for Marvel, DC/Vertigo, Archie, Image, and WEBTOON on comics such as The Fox, Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Deadpool, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Wildcat, and Godzilla. In addition, Haspiel is an accomplished playwright, emerging filmmaker, and Yaddo fellow. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Covid Cop is a pandemic-inspired antihero, an officer of the law named Lincoln Bio who’s trying to save what’s left of humanity…and his marriage. Billy Dogma and Jane Legit is a psychedelic romance gone galactic between a dumb-luck bruiser and his knock-em-dead dame. Chest Face is Haspiel’s latest creation, a weird-noir homage to monsters and stand-up comedy.
Charlie McElvy is the head writer and creator of Spider-Squirrel, Trash Panda, and most of the characters within the Xion Universe. Charlie wrote and published the Ogre Award-winning and Ennie Award-nominated RPG supplement The WatchGuard Sourcebook, as well as the follow-up comic book, The WatchGuard #0. He’s the husband of one amazing woman and the father of seven incredible children (yes, really…). He is an athlete that has appeared in Premier Protein commercials, featured in Men’s Health magazine online, and has competed on the TV show American Ninja Warrior.
The Spider-Squirrel & Trash Panda Titan-Sized Special #1 is an homage to classic 80-page giants of old. This special edition bridges volumes one and two of Spider-Squirrel and introduces readers to a whole new herd of heroes and villains from across the Xion Universe! The main story is a brand-new tale featuring our titular Dysfunctional Duo™ as they take on individual adventures. In addition, we will highlight multiple, new characters with stories by Russell Nohelty, Kurt Belcher, Dakota Brown, Kat Calamia, J.C. Carter, Chris Batista, Daniel Kalban, Tom Stillwell, Dale Yaddow, and more, including Dean Haspiel’s brand-new creation, Chest Face, appearing here for the first time ever! YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS SPECIAL!
Peter Rostovsky is a Russian-born artist and writer who emigrated from the former Soviet Union as a political refugee in 1980. His paintings and fine art have been shown widely in the US and abroad and exhibited at museum venues such as PS1/MoMA, The Walker Art Center, MCA Santa Barbara, Artpace, The Blanton Museum of Art, and S.M.A.K. Ghent, as well as a host of private galleries. His illustrated fiction and comics-based work has appeared in the Third Rail Quarterly, Unbag, Topic, in Devil’s Due’s much publicized Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force and Talk Bernie to Me anthologies, as well as the Ringo Award-nominated Pandemix anthology. Rostovsky teaches at NYU, Parsons New School, and Lesley Art + Design. His debut graphic novel, Damnation Diaries, is published by Uncivilized Books.
It’s big, hot, often painful, and a hard place to get creative projects done. But something else is bothering inmate PKRx354—something beyond the unrelenting and often absurd torture routines, the demons, or the tormenting trio of his mother, father, and girlfriend also consigned to the Underworld. Luckily, there’s help: Fred Greenberg—Hell’s only psychotherapist. Combining Dante, Douglas Adams, and Freud, Damnation Diaries is equal parts horror, comedy, and character-driven drama, uniquely converging the look of bronze-age comics with sharp literary satire. The book’s imaginative and surreal landscape serves as a perfect backdrop for caustic social commentary fit for our equally surreal times. The setting may be imaginary, but the urgent issues addressed are not: growing economic inequality, student debt, political crisis, terrorism, and the attempt to find peace under the most hostile of circumstances.
This year’s confirmed guests for the show include: Dan Abdo (Blue, Barry & Pancakes), Arthur Adams (Longshot), Sarah Andersen (Sarah’s Scribbles), Mirka Andolfo (Sweet Paprika), Art Baltazar (Yahgz), Jeremy Bastian (Dune: House Harkonnen), Marty Baumann (Pixar artist), Carolyn Belefsky (Curls), Brian Michael Bendis (Action Comics), Jon Bogdanove (The Death of Superman), Judy Bogdanove (Steel Annual), Russ Braun (The Boys), Dan Brereton (Nocturnals), Harold Buchholz (Sweetest Beasts), Mark Buckingham (Fables), Greg Burnham (Tuskegee Heirs), Jim Calafiore (NED, Lord of the Pit), Chris Campana (Death Dealer), Joe Carabeo (Black Magic Tales), Richard Case (Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror), Castillo Studios, Howard Chaykin (Time Squared), Jo Chen (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Jim Cheung (Young Avengers), Frank Cho (Harley Quinn), Amy Chu (KISS: The End), Chris Claremont (Uncanny X-Men), Brian Clevinger (Atomic Robo), Steve Conley (The Middle Age), Katie Cook (Nothing Special), Nick Davis (Night Guardians), Deans Family (Crass Fed), Mike DeCarlo (The Simpsons, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Vito Delsante (Stray), Abby Denson (Uniquely Japan), Todd Dezago (The Perhapanauts), Derec Donovan (Adventures of Superman), Jan Duursema (Star Wars: The High Republic), Garth Ennis (The Boys), David Finch (Moon Knight), Tony Fleecs (Stray Dogs), Chris Flick (Capes and Babes), Scott Fogg (Phileas Reid Knows We’re Not Alone), Tana Ford (LaGuardia), Trish Forstner (Stray Dogs), Franco (Fae and the Moon), John Gallagher (Max Meow), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (DC Nation), Ron Garney (BZRKR), Joe Getsinger (Finding Jack Kirby in a Pile of Zinc), Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules!), Mike Grell (Jon Sable), Dawn Griffin (Zorphbert & Fred), Chris Gugilotti (Teen Titans Go!), Gene Ha (Mae), Laura Lee Gulledge (Page by Paige), Bob Hall (West Coast Avengers), Cully Hamner (Blue Beetle), Bo Hampton (Batman: Castle of the Bat), Brian Haberlin (Spawn), Scott Hanna (Amazing Spider-Man), Tony Harris (The Whistling Skull), Dean Haspiel (Covid Cop), Mike Hawthorne (Deadpool), Marc Hempel (Sandman), Greg Hildebrandt (Star Wars), Morry Hollowell (Old Man Logan), Jamal Igle (Superman), Mark Irwin (Green Lantern), Klaus Janson (Daredevil), Geoff Johns (Geiger), Dave Johnson (100 Bullets), Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Alien), J.G. Jones (Wanted), Kata Kane (Altar Girl), Chris Kemple (Artist Alley Comics), Tom King (The Penguin), Barry Kitson (Amazing Spider-Man), Jae Lee (Inhumans), Jeff Lemire (Black Hammer), Nate Lovett (Dungeons & Dragons), Matthew Loux (Prunella and the Cursed Skull Ring), David Mack (Kabuki), Kevin Maguire (Justice League), Tom Mandrake (Spectre), Laura Martin (Nubia: Queen of the Amazons), Mariano Brothers (Claire Lost Her Bear at the World’s Fair), Ron Marz (Green Lantern), Jason May (LEGO Club Magazine), Mike McKone (Red Goblin), Bob McLeod (New Mutants), Adriana Melo (Action Comics), Pop Mhan (Gears of War 3), Al Milgrom (Spectacular Spider-Man), Karl Moline (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Mark Morales (Thor), Trevor Mueller (Re-Possessed), Sarah Myer (Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story), Jamar Nicholas (Leon: Protector of the Playground), Jason Patterson (Blue, Barry & Pancakes), David Pepose (Savage Avengers), Andrew Pepoy (Simone & Ajax), David Petersen (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Usagi Yojimbo: WhereWhen), Brandon Peterson (Uncanny X-Men), Khoi Pham (Star Wars: Darth Vader), Richard and Wendy Pini (Elfquest), Ed Piskor (Red Room: Trigger Warnings), Joe Prado (Superman), Andy Price (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), Tom Raney (Green Lantern), Afua Richardson (Omni), Christopher Ring (Seamus (the Famous)), Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge), Peter Rostovsky (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force), Craig Rousseau (The Perhapanauts), Arsia Rozegar (Shahnameh For Kids), Steve Rude (Nexus), Jim Rugg (Hulk Grand Design), Andy Runton (Owly), Alex Saviuk (Web of Spider-Man), Stuart Sayger (The Joker), Alex Simmons (Archie), Louise Simonson (The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special), Walter Simonson (Thor), Matt Slay (Equilibrium), John K. Snyder III (Suicide Squad), Sozomaika (DC Power: A Celebration), Mark Sparacio (Omega Paradox), Joe Staton (Dick Tracy), Jim Starlin (Dreadstar), Brian Stelfreeze (Black Panther), Paul Storrie (Storm Kids: Stanley’s Ghost), Philip Tan (Web of Carnage), John Timms (Superman: Son of Kal-El), Peter Tomasi (Batman and Robin), Billy Tucci (Shi), Gus Vazquez (Sunfire and Big Hero Six), Emilio Velez Jr. (The Dodgeball Teens), Dexter Vines (Civil War, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Wade von Grawbadger (Justice League), Adam Wallenta (Punk Taco), Todd Webb (Mr. Toast Comics), Lee Weeks (Batman), Scott Wegener (Atomic Robo), Joey Weiser (Ghost Hog), Mark Wheatley (Skultar), Emily S. Whitten (The Underfoot), Bob Wiacek (All-New Wolverine, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Keith Williams (Thor the Worthy), Marcus Williams (Tuskegee Heirs), Rich Woodall (Electric Black), John Workman (Wild Things), Caitlin Yarsky (Black Hammer Reborn), and Thom Zahler (Love and Capes).
Source: Graphic Policy
