Baltimore Comic-Con returns October 17-19, 2025 at the Inner Harbor’s Baltimore Convention Center. The Baltimore Comic-Con is pleased to announce comics guests John Beatty, Jim Cheung, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Shawn Martinbrough, Adriana Melo, and Craig Rousseau appearing at this year’s event!. Get your tickets are now on our website.
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John Beatty got his first break working for Marvel and DC Comics when he was 19. The year was 1980 and the decade that followed is now referred to as the “Bronze Age” of comic books! Beginning with short filler stories for DC Comics anthology books, Beatty soon found himself as the finisher on the JLA working over George Perez. However, the run was limited to 4 issues due to Marvel Comics offering him the inking duty over his favorite character, Captain America, with his long-time mentor and collaborator, Mike Zeck. Coming off of a 2.5 year run on Cap, Zeck and Beatty were tagged to do the art on the first major clash of heroes and villains, Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars! which saw the change of Spider-Man’s costume to black in issue #8 of the series, something that turned into a bigger deal as Venom. After Secret Wars, the team of Zeck and Beatty produced the hit limited mini-series and a graphic novel starring Marvel’s newest “A-List” character, The Punisher. The last major work the team produced was the Captain America Annual 8. Covers for Captain America, G.I. Joe, and many other titles were a staple of work for the team during the ’80s. Beatty continued projects for Marvel, including Thanos Quest, Squadron Supreme, Venom: The Madness, and others. At DC Comics, John was the inker for Batman: Year 3 and the first 5 issues on the new Batman title, Legends of the Dark Knight. Eight years of work on various Batman titles with writer Doug Moench and penciler Kelley Jones became well-known in the ’90s, including the last 2 installments on the Vampire/Batman GN series, other Batman graphic novels, and a 3-year run on the monthly Batman title, recently reprinted in two beautiful hardcover editions. Eventually turning his sights on DC Licensing, Beatty has produced vector ink and color for style guides, from movies to animated series to products such as toys, cards, packaging, and clothing, among other things. This is uncredited work, but is still being used. Traditional inking is still Beatty’s main love, and he continues to practice it and teach those around him who want to learn.
Jim Cheung originally hails from the sunny land of Great Britain, and landed his first professional penciling job at Marvel UK in the mid 90s. From there, he went on to establish himself on titles such as Iron Man and X-Force for Marvel US, and in 2000, he moved to the US to co-create and launch Scion for Crossgen Comics. After Scion, he worked exclusively for Marvel Comics for over 15 years, creating titles such as Infinity, which spawned the Avengers: Infinity War movie, and the award-winning Young Avengers!
Jim has recently worked on various covers for Marvel and DC.
Past credits include Justice League for DC Comics, and numerous titles for Marvel Comics, including Spider-Man: The Clone Conspiracy, Avengers vs. X-Men, New Avengers, Illuminati, and Original Sin. Further credits include work for The New York Times, ESPN, Mattel, Blizzard Entertainment, The Royal Mail, Amazon, Skybound Entertainment, Todd McFarlane Productions, IDW, The Village Voice, Dorling Kindersley (DK Books), The Daily Mirror, Dynamite Comics, The Folio Society, and Upper Deck. Follow his work on Instagram, Facebook, or Tumblr
Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez was born in Spain and began drawing comics professionally in Argentina at age 13. In the 1960s, he drew romance titles for Charlton Comics. Garcia-Lopez came to the U.S. in 1974 and started working for DC Comics, drawing series such as Superman, Batman, Hawkman, Tarzan, and Jonah Hex. His other notable work includes Atari Force, Deadman, New Teen Titans, and On The Road to Perdition. Since 1982, Garcia-Lopez has designed and pencilled the definitive versions of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and many other characters for various DC Comics style guides, which are created for licensees only. His style guide art has been seen on countless DC Comics licensed products and is still being used today.
Shawn Martinbrough is the author of How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling by Penguin Random House and an Eisner Award-nominated artist whose comic book projects include Batman: Detective Comics, Luke Cage Noir, The Black Panther: Man Without Fear, and Hellboy. Shawn illustrated Thief of Thieves, the graphic novel series co-created with Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead, Invincible) and the Eisner-nominated Prométhée 13:13, published by Éditions Delcourt-Soleil and ABLAZE.
He is a co-author of Judge Kim and the Kids’ Court by Simon & Schuster and the artist of Like Lava in My Veins, the 2024 NAACP Image Award-nominated, best-selling kid’s book written by Derrick D. Barnes and published by Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Kids. Shawn is a Vanity Fair contributor, the writer of Red Hood: The Hill for DC Comics, and is currently writing and illustrating The HEAVY, an original graphic novel for Megascope/Abrams Books.
Adriana Melo has worked for Marvel, DC, Image Comics, and Titan Comics. Some of the books she has worked as a penciler/artist are: Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Amazing Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Jackpot, Star Wars: Empire, Rose & Thorn, Witchblade, Miss Marvel, Birds of Prey, Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, Female Furies, Plastic Man, Dr. Who: New Adventures of the Ninth Doctor, Harley and Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica, Marvel Voices, and Trial of the Amazons. You can find her most recent work in the DC Comics series Wonder Girl with Joelle Jones, and in Superman: Action Comics.
Craig Rousseau has been working in the comics industry for over 2 decades, working for all the major publishers, including DC (Impulse, Batman Beyond, Harley Quinn, Batman ‘66) and Marvel (Iron Man Armor Wars, Captain America and the Korvac Saga, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane). Besides Young Hellboy from Dark Horse Comics, he’s currently working on the latest adventures of his creator-owned book, The Perhapanauts (with Todd Dezago)… and a few other things.
“These guests have worked on everything from major indie comics characters to Marvel and DC’s biggest characters,” said Marc Nathan, show promoter for the Baltimore Comic-Con. “Their collective resume is amazing, as is their impact on the landscape of the comics industry. We’re thrilled to have them join us, and fans are going to be excited to meet them this year at the Baltimore Comic-Con!”
Tickets that are now on sale include:
- Weekend
- Friday only
- Saturday only
- Sunday only
- VIP
As always, children 10 and under are free with a paid adult admission!
2025 GUESTS
This year’s confirmed guests for the show include: Kaare Andrews (Spider-Man: REIGN 2), John Beatty (Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars), Russ Braun (The Boys), Jim Calafiore (NED, Lord of the Pit), Howard Chaykin (Time Squared), Jim Cheung (Young Avengers), Chris Claremont (X-Men), Becky Cloonan (Somna), Steve Conley (The Middle Age), Michael W. Conrad (Manowar: Invictus), Jeff Dekal (Something is Killing the Children), David Finch (Moon Knight), Trish Forstner (Feral), Barbara Friedlander (Swing with Scooter), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (DC Nation), Mike Grell (Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters), Tula Lotay (Barnstormers), Kevin Maguire (Justice League), Laura Martin (Nubia: Queen of the Amazons), Shawn Martinbrough (Red Hood: The Hill), Ron Marz (Green Lantern), Mike McKone (Red Goblin), Adriana Melo (Action Comics), Josh Middleton (Aquaman), Al Milgrom (Spectacular Spider-Man), Mark Morales (Thor), Trevor Mueller (Albert the Alien), Kevin Nowlan (Batman: Sword of Azrael), Dan Parent (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), Amy Reeder (Power Girl), Esad Ribic (Conan the Barbarian), Afua Richardson (Kahhori: Reshaper of Worlds), Craig Rousseau (Herculoids), Jim Rugg (Street Angel), Louise Simonson (The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special), Walter Simonson (Thor), Joe Staton (Dick Tracy), Mark Waid (Justice League Unlimited), Maria Wolf (Phoenix), Rich Woodall (Electric Black).
In the coming weeks, look for more announcements from the Baltimore Comic-Con. We are looking forward to highlighting our guests, the Ringo Awards, programming, and more. The latest developments can always be found on our website, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages, and follow us on YouTube, TikTok, BlueSky, and Snapchat.