Another wave of guests revealed for the 7th edition of the Malta Comic Con as Wicked Comics are proud to announce that creators Pasquale Qualano (Soulfire), Andreas Michaelides (Botch!), Christos Stamboulis (The Lords of Crimson Valley), Gianluca Maconi (Elfes) Luciano Regazzoni (Nathan Never), Grafimated Cartoon represented by Salvatore Di Marco and Antonino Pirotta (I Vespri Siciliani) and the School of Bitches (Genesis) will be joining Simon Davis, Sabine Rich, John Freeman, Tim Perkins, Boo Cook, Mike Krome, Heba Rena Yassin, Guillermo Ortego, Sean Azzopardi, Pye Parr, Dani, Giulia Della Ciana, Michael Dialynas, Ilias Kyriazis, Cliodhna, Copper Mouflon, Goran Parlov, Mark Farmer, Nicolas Keramidas, Asia Alfasi, Chris J. Thompson, Nigel Dobbyn, Clint Langley, Gary Erskine, Jenika Ioffreda and Iella as guests for the Malta Comic Con 2015 which will be held on Saturday 5th (10am-6pm) and Sunday 6th (11am-7pm) December 2015 at the Magazino Hall/Old Power House, Valletta Waterfront.
Pasquale Qualano:
Comic artist, sculptor, lecturer at “Scuola di Fumetto Salerno” class 1974. Collaborated with different production houses both Italian and abroad, working on cover art. Among his productions: Marvel (She-hulk), The One (GG Studio) promotional campaign for Tim Sport. Cover and interior artist for Zenescope Entertainment, Moonstone, Lady Death Universe. For Aspen Comics cover artist for various titles and artist Soulfire, Idolized, EA: Iris vol #4, Dellec, for Red Giant Entertainment cover and interior artist Amped. For DC Comics on Harley Quinn Road Trip.
http://www.qualanoart.com
http://www.maltacomic-con.com/guests/pasquale-qualano/
Andreas Michaelides:
Born in Greece in 1982, Andreas has worked as a columnist, journalist and photographer; he has written detective stories and surreal tales which have been published in various Greek anthologies and newspapers. For the past ten years, he has worked as a translator for Greek publishing houses, such as Alexandria, Polis and Metaichmio (having translated in Greek anything from popular science and history books, to Andy Lane’s Young Sherlock Holmes series, as well as George R.R. Martin’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, among others). In 2010 he entered the world of oral storytelling, as well as writing fables for an adult audience. His relationship with comic books has been as wacky as his personality: from 2003 to 2006 he put out a Greek fanzine called Mangaijin, in collaboration with artist John Dalkides. In 2005 he started writing articles about comics as a member of the Comicdom.gr team (the same team responsible for Comicdom Con Athens). In 2014 he started writing for comics per se: from 2014 to mid 2015 he co-created and wrote Botch! with artist Maria Kouloubaritsi – a gag comic and webcomic presenting the (mis)adventures of a group of gamers. Also in 2014, he began collaborating with artist Valia Kapadai, on a series of projects based on mythology (Nekyia, Mythlegendry et al.). In 2015 he began collaborating with artist Pavlos Pavlidis on a sci-fi comic called Last Flight of the Swordbreaker. Andreas, Pavlos and Valia are also working on a project called One Last Dream, the first pages of which are, at the time of this writing, to be featured on the 14th Comic ‘n’ Play Exhibition, “Strange Days”. He is also a founding member of the Greek Crime Fiction Writers’ Club, as well as The House of Oral Tradition, “Mythologion”. At the end of the day, he is basically a storyteller, living inside a cave made entirely out of books.
http://www.maltacomic-con.com/guests/andreas-michaelides/
Christos Stamboulis:
Christos Stamboulis was born in Edessa Greece in 1978 and studied architecture in Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. He has been making comics since 2003. He has produced as many as 9 personal comic books, 8 of them graphic novels, did the artwork for the webcomic “Red Green Blue and You” and has also collaborated with the Greek comic magazine 9 (Ennea) and a couple of newspapers. He has worked in animation, character design and storyboards in video games and in the advertising business. He has participated in numerous comics exhibitions in Greece, in the Biennale for new artists in Napoli in 2005 and has won the award of the “Best Greek Comic of the year” for his graphic novel “The Lords of Crimson Valley” in the Athens Comicdom Con 2011.
http://www.maltacomic-con.com/guests/christos-stamboulis/
Gianluca Maconi:
Born in Pordenone in 1977, graduated in 1996 at the Istituto Statale d’Arte in Cordenone and afterwards he studied at l’Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice from which he graduated in sculpting in 2003. He dedicated himself in various activities from scenery to sculpting, from decoration to animation, from graphics to illustrations from which he integrates everything into comics.
He published “I delitti di Alleghe”, “Il Delitto Pasolini” (BeccoGiallo Editore), Aztlan #01” (Edizioni Safarà), “Yggdrasil – L’Albero della Vita” (Lavieri), “Mediterranea ” (GG Studio) e “Monkey Business” (Lavieri). He currently works with Soleil (“Elya” and “Elfes”), Disney e Sergio Bonelli Editore.
http://gianmac.deviantart.com
http://www.maltacomic-con.com/guests/gianluca-maconi/
Luciano Regazzoni:
Luciano Regazzoni was born in 1959 and graduated at the School of Comics of Milan.
Since 1985 he has been teaching anatomy applied to comics and illustration technique at the same school and at The European Design Institute. In the 2005 he became part of the teaching staff of the School of Comics of Palermo/Grafimated Cartoon. Between 2007-2008 he worked as a Costume Designer for the movie “Dark Resurrection”. In 2013 he started to work with Sergio Bonelli Editor: He illustrated issue 29 of “Alpha Agency”, a spin-off of the regular series Nathan Never, titled “The Trial”. He collaborates as a storyboard artist, illustrator and visualizer for several ad agencies and major Italian comic publishers.
http://www.scuoladelfumetto.com/palermo.htm
http://www.maltacomic-con.com/guests/luciano-regazzoni/
Grafimated Cartoon:
Salvatore Di Marco and Antonino Pirrotta come to Malta on behalf of the Palermo based Grafimated Cartoon.
Grafimated Cartoon is a cooperative society that produces, promotes and diffuses animated films and comics. Grafimated Cartoon was founded in January 2001 by professionals of the field. With over fifteen years experience, they have participated in several national and international animated film festivals with short author films, in particular the short film “Saudates du sud” with which it took part in the competition in Annecy 97 edition.
They have cooperated in the production of important animated series and feature films such as: The Triplets, Cocco Bill, I Cuccioli, La Gabbianella e il Gatto, Aida degli alberi, etc… Grafmated Cartoon also produced “I Vespri Siciliani” and are working on the upcoming feature animated movie “Pinocchio” by Enzo D’Alo.
With “School of Comics-Scuola del Fumetto” they teach the skills to create comics, from pencils to colouring and lettering. In fact in 2011, the school also started publishing comics created by their students. Their students and collaborators have worked with such editors as Panini Kids, Ape Entertainment, Disney, Marvel Comics, Marathon, Bluewaters, Cronaca di Topolinia, Dc Comics, etc…
Other activities organised in collaboration with several public schools in Sicily, are comics and animated cartoon workshops where students create short films in which some of them won prizes in their respective categories.
http://www.grafimated.com
http://www.maltacomic-con.com/guests/grafimated-cartoon/
School of Bitches:
School Of Bitches is a British ‘art-house’ originally based in Cardiff, Wales.
Established by artist Alan Stealth this collective of various writers, artists and other contributors were assembled to collaborate on Genesis, the House’s flagship publication.
Stealth, who has spent over half of his life conducting experiments in narrative and artistic sciences to create the world of Genesis – was first joined by writer and friend David Dhalia in the spring of 2012, and together, they unleashed a preview on an unsuspecting Maltese audience, at the annual Comic Con. It was soon thereafter, they were joined by part-timer and self-proclaimed brain-thinker Adam “Judas” Rees and thus a formidable trio was born.
Their first issue launched at the 2013 Cardiff Comic Expo, and the team went on to enjoy success at a variety of UK conventions throughout the year, everywhere from Melksham to Northern Ireland. A triumphant return to Malta in the December, saw the launch of Issue 2, which went on to be shortlisted for ‘Favourite British Black & White Comic’ at the True Believer’s Awards (the former Eagle Awards) in 2014.
Last year also saw the launch of Issue 3, Issue 4 and a preview of From The Ashes; a proposed anthology that would continue to “explore the world” outlined in Genesis – specifically the fate of Malta.
With the art-house growing in size and branching out on to multiple projects, a ‘second base’ was established in Malta in April 2015.
Presently, the team is working hard on various projects, including, the concluding parts of Genesis: Virtue’s Chronicles and the first story of From The Ashes: Maria’s Song.