We’re delighted to announce the next incredible wave of guests for Comics Salopia. This announcement contains a roster of amazing talent that we’re excited to add to the festival bringing their experience in everything from popular web comics series, to 200AD, Hellboy and Star Wars movie storyboarding.
This festival is all about delivering the best comics talent to Shrewsbury and this round of guests does just that. We’re so pleased that these creators have come on board and we know you, our visitors, are going to love meeting these guests.
John Allison
John Allison is the writer and artist of the webcomics Bobbins (1998–2002, 2014-present), Scary Go Round (2002–2009) and Bad Machinery (2009–present). Most of these comics take place in and around the city of Tackleford, and are all part of a shared universe.
Publishing his first comic on the Internet on September 21st, 1998, John has completed between 4 and 7 comic strips a week every week since. In 2009 he concluded Scary Go Round began the new strip Bad Machinery, focusing on several of the characters, now teenage detectives.
Additional spinoffs of his strips include Giant Days have been collected into several books and continued as an ongoing series by Boom! Studios as well as producing several standalone books including Murder She Writes and That.
The Bad Machinery series is published through Oni Press and include: ‘Volume 1: The Case of the Team Spirit’, ‘Volume 2: The Case of the Good Boy’, ‘Volume 3: The Case of the Simple Soul’, ‘Volume 4: The Case of the Lonely One‘ and ‘Volume 5: The Case of the Fire Inside’.
Duncan Fegredo
Duncan Fegredo made his debut in US comics with Kid Eternity, a book he decided to paint in full colour for no better reason than ‘everybody else was doing it’. This was followed by number of works with Peter Milligan for DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint including the critically acclaimed Enigma.
Subsequently, he has collaborated with writer/artist Mike Mignola on his signature creation, Hellboy, drawing Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt and The Storm & The Fury. Their latest work together is The Midnight Circus, also published by Dark Horse Comics.
More recently Duncan co-created MPH with writer Mark Millar, published by Image Comics.
A step outside comics saw him work as lead storyboard artist on Darren Aronofsky’s NOAH movie.
And Star Wars fans will love to hear Duncan also contributed storyboards to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and in fact is still quite giddy about this.
Ben Stenbeck
Ben Stenbeck is a New Zealand comics artist. He made his Hellboy Universe debut in June 2008 with B.P.R.D.: The Ectoplasmic Man and continued to work on a number of Hellboy titles including the bizarre folklore spin off Koschei the Deathless and Frankenstein Underground. In the expanded Hellboy Universe Ben also illustrated the Witchfinder series.
He has also worked extensively with Mike Mignola on Baltimore, the American horror comics series for Dark Horse.
Ben’s artistic experience is in every capacity from Film (including Credits on Lord of the Rings as well as his own writing and Directing credits on ‘Zombie Movie’) to Comics and Games with a lot of commercial illustration work in between.
Gregg Staples
Greg Staples’ first job on leaving school was as a trainee draftsman in an architect’s office in Sheffield. He also spent time working in a comic and film memorabilia shop and also a computer game store in Sheffield, as well as working for the Computer Games Company Gremlin Graphics. He has also worked on music video production for artists such as Muse (Sing for Absolution) and Shaznay Lewis (You).
Best known for his work in the weekly British comic 2000 AD, especially on Judge Dredd, Gregg’s
2000AD career has seen his collaborations with the likes of Garth Ennis, Pat Mills, Mark Millar, and Dan Abnett.
As well as work for the games company Wizards of the Coast and drawn numerous comic book characters including Batman and Spider-Man, Gregg has also illustrated cards for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game and for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.
David Roach
David Roach started in comic book illustration in the 1980s, self-publishing the Hellfire fanzine. Since 1988 he has worked as an inker and penciller for 2000 AD on such titles as Nemesis the Warlock, Judge Anderson, Judge Dredd and Synnamon as well as artist credits on Dr Who.
In the 1990s, he started producing work for DC Comics, drawing Batman and Demon and inking Challengers of the Unknown, and contributed to the Dark Horse Comics’ Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi.
As an associate editor of the U.S. based magazine Comic Book Artist, David produced a body of work dedicated to the historical representation of comic-book characters. Roach was co-editor of The Warren Companion: The Definitive Compendium to the Great Comics of Warren Publishing, the revised edition of the Slings and Arrows Comics Guide, and The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Comic Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes.
David has also worked as illustrator for consecutive Dungeons & Dragons role playing game book titles for publishers Wizards of the Coast.
His recent work has involved working as storyboard artist and penciller including accompanying graphic novel, Hard Choices ‘What happened on Algol?’, and Ultramarines: The Movie both written by Dan Abnett and released in 2010.
Al Ewing
Al Ewing began his career writing stories in the five-page Future Shocks format for 2000 AD and eventually moved on to regular stints on Judge Dredd where he wrote a story, “Doctor What?” that marked Brendan McCarthy’s return to 2000 AD. The two would go on to work together on a new series The Zaucer of Zilk. Recent work includes Damnation Station and Zombo.
Also responsible for the mobile comic Murderdrome with P. J. Holden, he has also contributed to Solar Wind, FutureQuake, and The End Is Nigh.
In May 2007, he created the comedic blog The Diary of Ralph Dibney, in which he writes as the superhero Elongated Man, his therapist, or Richard Dragon, reacting to the events of each week’s issue of the comic book 52.
Being picked by Garth Ennis to provide a six-issue arc on Jennifer Blood, a comic published by Dynamite Entertainment and spin-off series The Ninjettes gave Al the opportunity to break into American comic books.
His debut novel was published in 2007 by Abaddon Books. Pax Britannia: El Sombra features a mysterious Mexican hero fighting against the menace of steam-powered Nazis as part of the Pax Britannia universe, a story expanded in further novels since.
Al has gone on to become the regular writer for Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor and a leading Marvel writer including Mighty Avengers and Loki: Agent of Asgard and co-wrote the first year of the Eleventh Doctor Who title with Rob Williams for Titan Comics.
He has since written New Avengers, U.S.Avengers, The Ultimates, Rocket, Royals, and The Immortal Hulk, all for Marvel.
The third wave of guests will be announced next month.
