Brian O'Halloran is best known for his role as Dante Hicks in Clerks, Clerks 2, and the upcoming Clerks 3, and has appeared in a number of other Kevin Smith classics like Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, and Mallrats.
Brian is a veteran stage actor, working with a number of theater companies in and around New York City. He has also done voice acting work for shows like Clerks: The Animated Series and Pokemon.
Links:
https://twitter.com/BrianCOHalloran
Marooned at a young age on the desert world of Rochester, New York, cartoonist Jason Yungbluth has been waiting for his destiny to find him in the form of a lovable robot or something. Meanwhile, he bides his time drawing comic books that shock the senses and make you wonder which side of the Force he’s really on.
Jason is the creator and publisher of Deep Fried, Weapon Brown and PEEK! He is also the fiendish mind behind Clarissa, the Internet’s most uncomfortable meme.
When not pondering his relationship to Luke Skywalker, Jason also draws cartoons for MAD magazine and teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Dennis Calero is an award-winning writer and artist who helped developed "X-Men Noir" for Marvel Comics, as well as having worked on DC and Dark Horse Comics. Calero has also worked on entertainment projects for CBS Films and Weed Road Pictures and famed horror writer Stephen King. He also adapted "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury as a graphic novel for Hill & Wang.
His first novel is currently being developed into a film by Lisa Bruce, producer of the Academy Award nominated and Bafta award winning film "Theory of Everything." He co-wrote a pilot for Universal Cable Productions and the SyFy channel and is currently writing two projects for Dark Horse Comics that he will illustrate.
He was nominated for the Harvey, an industry award recognizing excellence in comics, and has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators.
Dennis’ most recent work is featured in this year’s free comics, Assassin’s Creed Templars, a title he is currently working on alongside his long time collaborator and fellow Free Comic Book Day special guest, Fred Van Lente.
Links:
We are pleased to welcome the very talented and all around nice guy Fred Van Lente back to Free Comic Book Day!
Fred Van Lente is the #1 New York Timesbestselling, award-winning writer of comics like Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Action Philosophers! (American Library Association Best Graphic Novel for Teens), and Cowboys & Aliens (with Andrew Foley), the basis for the feature film.
His many other titles include Resurrectionists, The Comic Book History of Comics, The Incredible Hercules (with Greg Pak), Taskmaster, Marvel Zombies and The Amazing Spider-Man.
Fred’s work can even been seen in one of this year’s free comics, Assassin’s Creed Templars, a title he is currently working on alongside his long time collaborator and fellow Free Comic Book Day special guests, Dennis Calero.
Links:
https://twitter.com/fredvanlente
Peter David
We are incredibly excited to announce award winning comic writer Peter David for Free Comic Book Day 2016!
Peter David is best known for his work on X-Factor, Incredible Hulk, Aquaman, Young Justice, Spider-Man 2099, Action Comics, Wolverine, and Supergirl. But that barely even begins to scratch the surface of his impressive bibliography, which includes nearly 40 Star Trek novels, movie adaptations, multiple video games, TV shows (Young Justice, Bablyon 5), and way more stuff than we have time to list. Seriously. Check out his official web page. If you’ve read comics in the last 20 years there’s a really good chance that Peter David wrote one of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_David
Last year Holly blew us away with her incredible Wonder Woman cosplay and this year she’s back as a featured guest to empower and inspire with her new venture, EmpoWWer Enterprises. We were even so impressed with her absolutely spot on costume that we asked her to appear in our television commercial! Her dedication to the character of Wonder Woman goes beyond her amazing cosplay, Holly also uses her love of the character to embody the best qualities of Wonder Woman to inspire others through charity work and special appearances.
Links:
Kevin is a veteran cosplayer and a fixture of our events in years past. He even appeared as Captain America in our latest commercial! You may have seen him as Batman, Captain America, Wolverine, James Bond, The Comedian, and many more, both at our events and at just about every major convention on the east coast. This year he joins us as a featured cosplayer! His award winning costumes have been featured by multiple online publications including Pop Culture Uncovered, Fan Boy Nation, as well as many others. When not appearing at conventions in his impressive cosplay, Kevin attends charity events as some of his most famous characters.
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/kevindcosplay/
https://twitter.com/kevindcosplay
This little droid has seen a lot of action! An integral member of the Rebel Alliance, this R2 unit was recently captured by the 501st during an infiltration mission to recover the plans for the Empire’s next superweapon. If you look closely, you may be able to see traces of his time spent with the Rebellion.
This fully functional R2 has been featured on Good Morning America last November alongside the stars of the original Star Wars trilogy and will be available for pictures alongside the 501st at Free Comic Book Day 2016.
There are people that know toys. And then there's Robert Bruce.
A self described “popculturist”, Robert Bruce's knowledge of toys and pop culture is virtually unrivaled. Rob is the co-founder of the Asbury Park Comic Con and New York Comic Fest, but he is best known for his frequent appearances on Kevin Smith’s Comic Book Men on AMC.
Links:
Local comics legend and long time friend of the store, Joe del Beato, returns to Free Comic Book Day!
Joe is best known for his work on iconic 80’s properties like MASK, Inhumanoids, G.I. Joe, Insectaurs, Visionaries as well as many others. His devotion to the medium of comics has lead him to inspire the next generation of comic artists through his popular class on comic illustrations at the Atlantic City Free Public Library
Links
http://www.comicvine.com/joe-delbeato/4040-11081/
"Bad guys doing good" has been the ethos of the 501st Legion since its inception and the North East Remnant exemplifies this ideal. Sporting screen accurate film quality costumes, the 501st is the official cosplay group of the Star Wars fandom. They use their impressive costumes to help raise awareness for causes and charities all over the region.
http://www.501stner.com/
Larry Hama
What can we say about the legendary Larry Hama that hasn’t already been said? Actor, writer, artist, musician, editor, Mr. Hama has done it all throughout his impressive career. Perhaps best known as the writer of the original Marvel G.I. Joe series, Mr. Hama was responsible for defining many of the most iconic Joe characters through the comic and file cards on the original toy packages. Mr. Hama continues to define the Joe universe with his work on the current comic series published by IDW. His other writing credits include Wolverine, X-Men, Punisher, Batman and more. He is also the creator of Bucky O’Hare, a series that went on to become a cartoon, video game, and line of toys.
Mark A. Robinson
Philly native Mark A. Robinson has worked as a penciler and cover artist for nearly every comic publisher out there. His work includes notable titles like Green Lantern, Dragon Age, Spider-Man, G.I. Joe: Storm Shadow, Hulk, Ghost Rider, and more. He is best known for his kinetic work on the Image Comics title I Love Trouble, which is now available as a trade paperback.
Links:
Unlikely Heroes Studios - Zack, Justin, & Laurie
Zack Dolan is an Atlantic City based comic penciler and graphic artist. He has worked on several independent comic series as a penciler, inker, colorist, writer, and character designer. He also is co-creator and lead artist of the internationally acclaimed independent series Super!, a Patreon-supported comic that’s received rave reviews.
Justin Piatt is an Atlantic City based writer and letterer. He’s lends his talents work to the critically acclaimed comic series Super!, and currently he’s hard at work transitioning the Super! universe into a video game. The game will starring the Streak and is being developed with the Unreal Engine with an expected 2016 release.
Laurie Foster is one of the country’s hottest artists. Creatively, she inks and edits the hit indie comic Super! As if this wasn’t enough, she also makes her own costumes and is an up-and-coming Cosplay model!
Zack Dolan
zackdolan@gmail.com
https://www.patreon.com/supercomic?ty=h
Twitter: @ZackDolan_SUPER
Justin Piatt
theycallmepiatt@gmail.com
Mark is freelance comic book creator and children’s book author who most recently worked on Savage Hawkman for DC Comics and Avengelyne for Image Comics. His children’s book, A Cat Named Haiku, was nominated for Best Single Issue Story in the 2011 Eagle Awards, and was selected to be part of the TogetheRead Program by teachersandfamilies.com.
Mark is best known for his Arcana Studio’s series Koni Waves and its all ages spin-off Koni Konfidential, which center around Koni Kanawai, who investigates the supernatural legends of Hawaii’s rich mythology. The series has been featured on the popular USA Network series, Psych, and has been favorably reviewed by the Hawaii Star Tribune.
You can follow Mark on Twitter @koniwaves.
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Dan Khanna has worked as a penciler on comics for IDW, Dreamwave, Titan UK, and the Transformers Collectors Club. He is perhaps best known for his work on Transformers box art. If you’ve seen a Transformer on a store shelf, there’s a good chance that Dan had a hand in the package art.
Links:
Bryan J.L. Glass is the multiple Harvey Award winning co-creator/writer of The Mice Templar from Image Comics, and of Furious from Dark Horse Comics.
A contributor to DC Comics' Adventures of Superman, his Marvel Comics credentials include Thor: Crown of Fools, First Thunder and Valkyrie, as well as adapting Magician, the Riftwar Saga and Cirque du Soleil's KA. Special projects have included Thor: Son of Asgard video game and Thor: Valor for Burger King's Kids Club. He also developed the world and characters of the Forgotten City series for Kid Domino and wrote the first arc.
Bryan's first work in the comic industry was in the role of photographer, providing photo covers and interiors to such 80s series as The Elementals, Mage, and Punisher Armory. His earliest writing projects in the '90s were Spandex Tights and Ship of Fools. After a brief hiatus from the industry, Bryan returned in 2003 with his first Mice Templar short stories, followed by Quixote: A Novel and 86 Voltz: The Dead Girl.
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Alex de Campi writes comics and directs music videos. Her recent books No Mercy and Archie vs Predator have achieved both critical and commercial success, and her Grindhouse series at Dark Horse started the recent revival of exploitation-cinema comic books. Valentine, her groundbreaking fantasy-thriller digital comic with Christine Larsen, is widely credited as having established the digital-native storytelling techniques used by the flood of later digital-native graphic stories It's also been downloaded over half a million times. Alex lives in Northern New England with her daughter and a pair of rescue dogs. She is on nearly all social media as @alexdecampi.
Links:
https://twitter.com/alexdecampi
http://alexdecampi.tumblr.com/
Mike Capprotti has worked in the comic and fantasy gaming industry for over 10 years, creating art for iconic properties like Deadpool, Game of Thrones, and Star Wars.
His work can be found on comic book covers such as Deadpool and Deadpool Corps for Marvel Comics and various covers for Zenescope Entertainment for titles like Robyn Hood and Oz. His illustrations can also be found in collectible card games such as Fantasy Flight Games’ A Game of Thrones and Star Wars as well as many others.
You may also recognize his artwork from both last year and this year's exclusive Free Comic Book Day print!
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