Malta Comics Con adds More Guests to 2019 Line-Up

By John Freeman on October 16, 2019

Malta Comic Con organisers Wicked Comics have announced more guests for their 2019 event, taking place place between Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd November, including Mike Collins, John Higgins, Sally Jane Hurst and John Layman.

Mike Collins

Mike Collins is perhaps most associated with the characters from BBC’s Doctor Who since the TV show’s triumphant return. He holds the record as the longest uninterrupted run as artist on the strip in Panini’s Doctor Who Magazine, and pencilled the debut stories of the first three of the new Doctors. He has worked for Marvel, DC, 2000AD and a whole host of other publishers and he’s written or drawn pretty much all the major characters for each.

Mike has also storyboarded for Doctor Who, Good Omens, Sex Education, Sherlock, Class, Knightfall, Discovery of Witches, Houdini & Doyle, Warhammer 40K, Igam Ogam, Claude, Hana’s Helpline and Horrid Henry.

John Higgins is a comic book penciller, inker, colourist, and writer whose career goes back over 40 years. In 1981 he started getting regular work at 2000AD, and has worked for the company regularly, including the iconic Judge Dredd character, and frequent collaborations with writer Alan Moore. He was part of the “British invasion” of American comics in the 1980s, and holds the distinction of having worked as the colour artist on two of the most notable graphic novels of all time, Watchmen and Batman: The Killing Joke.

John has worked with DC Comics for over 25 years, mainly for the Vertigo imprint, and providing the artwork, and eventually writing, the Curse of the Crimson Corsair back-up feature that ran through the Before Watchmen titles.

Sally Jane Hurst

Sally Jane Hurst is a comics writer and colourist whose credits include colouring “Judge Dredd” and “Greysuit” for and writing the “Tharg’s Future Shocks” story ” Cloud Nine” for 2000AD, Jacked (Vertigo), Before Watchmen (DC Comics), Razorjack (Titan Comics), Eden (for Dark Horse Presents #23) and more.

John Layman

John Layman is the creator, writer and letterer of CHEW, the New York Times best-selling, Harvey Award and multi-Eisner Award winning cannibal cop comedy series from Image Comics.

He was an editor for WildStorm Productions and has written or lettered for every major publisher in comics for the last decade and a half, and has written titles such as Detective Comics, Batman Eternal, Godzilla, Judge Dredd Vs. Aliens Vs. Predator, Thundercats, the Marvel Identity Wars Annuals and much, much more. His latest book is Outer Darkness, for Skybound.

Sculpture work by Kyle Fenech-Work

An array of local talent also joins this year’s line-up, starting with Ashley Peschel, who runs the YouTube channel called Peschel Talks, reviewing pop-culture; Christabelle Mizzi, an MCAST student who loves various art mediums that help her express her love for surrealistic styles; veteran to the MCC, Jeanelle, a manga-oriented illustrator and comic-artist and works together with her fiancé, Bernard Micallef; artist Kevin Attard, who uses the art of silver filigree to make authentic, contemporary pieces and even pop culture icons; John Cascun, a local artist and practising printmaker; and last, but not least, Kyle Fenech, a Freelance 3D designer from Malta founder of 3D-Makes.

The full announced line up of guests for Malta Comic Con comprises the Arcanum Comics collective, Mythopoeia, created by Vincenzo Ferriero and Ray Chou as an artistic body to craft original worlds for its stories; author Bron James; Robert Carey, Former Managing Editor and Co-Founder of Lightning Strike Comics; and comics writers Benjamin Dixon, Al Ewing and Ron Marz.

Comic artists attending include Erik Arreaga, Nick Brokenshire, Chryssv, Mike Collins, Dan Cornwell, Fernando Dagnino, Vasilis Dimopoulos, Kevin Enhart, Léa Gérard, Gene Ha, John Higgins, Jenika Ioffreda, Nikos Koutsis, John Layman, Jessica Martin, David ‘Max’ Millgate, Janine van Moosel, Simon Myers, Nigel Parkinson, Tim Perkins, Robin Recht, Ian Richardson, Renee Rienties, Luisa Russo, Ferran Rodriguez Sanchez, Mark Stafford, Leonidas Stivaktis, Ellen Stubbings, Mario Torrisi, Nigel Twumasi, co-founder of mayamada and colourist Sally Jane Hurst; plus cosplayers Aleeusha, Tasha Cosplay UK and actors Bai Ling, Liliana Sorrentino and Jorgito Vargas, and dancer Femi Taylor.

Also at the event will be award-winning comics retailer, podcaster and publishing veteran Chris Thompson, alongside Hero Collector, the Eaglemoss’ imprint for genre collectibles; and Eoin Coveney and CG director and co-founder of Kugali, Hamid Ibrahim.

The 11th edition of the Malta Comic Con 2019 is held on Saturday 2nd (10am-6pm) and Sunday 3rd (11am-7pm) November 2019 at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre Ta’ Qali.

• Tickets for Malta Comic Con are available online at www.maltacomic-con.com/tickets | And from various outlets around Malta: Pandora’s Box Collectibles in Paola, Toytown in St Venera, Gamebreaker in St Venera, Gamers in B’Kara, Geek Paradise in Iklin, Buzzer and Forbidden Power in Msida (all exhibitors at the Malta Comic Con 2019)

• Web: www.maltacomic-con.com | Malta Comic Con 2019 Guests | Malta Comic Con 2019 Exhibitors

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.