British comic creators Simon Bisley and Liam Sharp are among the slew of artists and writers heading to Rose City Comic Con, in Portland next weekend (5th – 7th September).
Simon Bisley started his career doing magazine and album covers, his first work being a T-shirt design for heavy metal magazine Kerrang! Eventually, even though he had no experience in comics strip drawing at the time, he was hired by 2000AD, after they saw his interpretations of their magazine characters.
According to the Comic Book Database, “while still a student, Bisley did a painting of a robot holding a baby that he sent to the offices of 2000AD. The image was seen by Pat Mills and inspired him to relaunch the ‘ABC Warriors’ strip, with Bisley as artist, in 1987″.
He started with work on “ABC Warrior” in 1987, later moving to “Sláine” and “Judge Dredd”.
Since 1997, Bisley is a regular contributor of the comics magazine Heavy Metal. Bisley has done design work for several music videos, including Chippendales’ “Room Service”.
Liam Sharp is an award-winning, Eisner-nominated Anglo-American writer and artist. He has worked for all the major comic companies, but is primarily known for his more recent stints at DC, where he drew the best-selling Wonder Woman: Rebirth books, ‘The Lies’ and ‘The Truth’ written by Greg Rucka, and the acclaimed The Brave And The Bold: Batman and Wonder Woman mini-series, which he also wrote.
He enjoyed an epic 24 issue run on Green Lantern, scripted by the legendary Grant Morrison, and produced full-color art for DC’s Black Label imprint on Batman: Reptilian, scripted by the great Garth ‘The Boys’ Ennis.
Liam wrote, illustrated and lettered his own creator-owned magnum opus for Image comics, StarHenge – an epic sci-fantasy saga based on the legend of Merlin. Having recently finished writing and producing art for Spawn: The Dark Ages for Todd McFarlane, Liam is currently working on several stories for Titan Comics Savage Sword of Conan – a career-long bucket-list ambition.
Liam is also a novelist. His third prose title Caged Aurora is due to be published this year.
Liam was awarded an honorary doctorate by Derby University in 2022.
• Rose City Comic Con 5th – 7th September 2025 | Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd Portland, OR 97232 | Web: rosecitycomiccon.com
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
Categories: British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events
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