The eighth edition of the Malta Comic Con (MCC), organised by Wicked Comics, will be held on December 3 and 4 at the south end of the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre (MFCC) in Ta’ Qali.

“The Malta Comic Con continues to offer the biggest platform for Maltese creators to showcase their skills, sell their creations and interact with their fans. The continuous presence of some of the leading names in the comic industry and up and coming creators from all over the world has been of tremendous support to the Maltese comic scene and, each year, more creators seek to be part of this event,” said Chris Le Galle, co-founder of Wicked Comics.

The intimate and friendly atmosphere prevalent at the Malta Comic Con ensures that visitors can spend quality time with their favourite creators, who are always happy to chat, sign, sketch and create commissioned artwork for their fans.

“As customary, we will once again provide a varied guest roster of professional writers and artists who have worked on a number of popular characters for all the major comic publishers, as well as others who have been publishing quality independent books. With virtually no queueing the Malta Comic Con provides the ideal platform for fan-creator interaction.”

The official Malta Comic Con Cosplay competition and the Fat Spidey Roaming Cosplay Awards will be returning. In addition to the various skits performed by cosplayer Marianne Galea and her Fantasy Showgirls, the programme also features themed dance routines.

Visitors can spend quality time with their favourite creators, who are always happy to chat, sign, sketch and create commissioned artwork

The video game area will once again be buzzing with activity ranging from retro to current gaming, while the fan favourite competitions will be returning to determine the best gamers in Malta. There will also be more table top gaming than there has ever been before.

Along with a number of gaming clubs and exciting game developers, the popular war gaming organisation W.A.R.S will be running a variety of introductory table-top and role playing games so that both hardcore gamers and beginners can join in the fun.

This year’s guest creators in-clude Tom Foster, David Hitchcock, Collette Turner, Roger Langridge, Sean Azzopardi Andreas Michealidis, Clíodhna, Aris Labos, PG Holden and Tim Perkins.

Tom Foster is a relatively new face in the comics world, best known for his work for 2000AD. He did his first work for the publisher after winning their 2013 Portfolio Competition and has since gone on to work on number of their most iconic characters, including Judge Dredd, Sinister Dexter and Bill Savage, as well as co-creating the series Storm Warning for The Judge Dredd Megazine.

David Hitchcock is the  writer/ artist of his gothic-styled Spirit of the Highwayman, White-chapel Freak and the Eagle Award-winning Springheeled Jack, among many other self-published tales. He has also worked with writers Leah Moore and John Reppion on various short stories for Accent UK comics.

Other projects include Gothic, a collection of his short stories. Between 2010 and 2012 he illustrated the two-volume graphic novel Madam Samurai, with screenwriter Gary Young, whose credits include the film Harry Brown starring Michael Caine. Both books toured Cannes Film Festival.

Collette Turner is a UK born artist who is fast gaining ground in the industry, working on her personal project Badassical, Southern Nightgown, REM-8 and a number of other comics as a cover/guest artist. She’s also very active in the collectible art card community, working with Upper Deck, Perna and other companies.

Collette will be promoting the first issue of her new project, Badassical, and Southern Nightgown Number 5 during the Malta Comic Con.

Roger Langridge is best known for his work on Marvel’s Thor: The Mighty Avenger (with Chris Samnee), his web strip and self-published series Fred the Clown, Boom! Studios’ The Muppet Show Comic Book, Jim Henson’s Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow and his Eisner-winning series, Snarked!, an original adventure inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll. He has also worked on The Rocketeer, Doctor Who, Popeye, Mandrake the Magician, John Carter of Mars, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and various other publications.

His most recent works are the all-ages graphic novels The Baker Street Peculiars (with Andy Hirsch) and Abigail and the Snowman (both for Boom! Studios), and a return to his signature character, Fred the Clown, with a new book, The Iron Duchess, which among other things he’ll be promoting during the Malta Comic Con.

Sean Azzopardi is a London-based cartoonist who has attended a variety of comics related events, both locally and internationally. He has also been involved with collectives and was a founding member of London Underground Comics, and is currently involved in The Crouch End Festival.

Sean has produced numerous mini comics and books for his Phatcomics imprint, including acclaimed titles such as Ed, Twelve Hour Shift and Dark Matters. Apart from self-published titles he is working on Volume 3 of Necessary Monsters (First comics) and is currently working on his first graphic novel, The Voice of the Hall, with the support of the Malta Arts Council.

Popular war gaming organisation W.A.R.S will be running a variety of introductory table-top and role playing games

Clíodhna is an animator, illustrator and occasional Comic Book Tourist, with a first name that few people outside of Ireland can pronounce or spell.

Her film credits include The Secret of Kells and The 99 Unbound, and she has contributed to several comic book anthologies including War: The Human Cost, Ink+paper and The Whores of Mensa, besides editing the charity anthology I’m sorry I can’t take your call right now but I’m off saving the world.

Words are the one true love of Andreas Michaelides – what they mean, the way they change, the stories they tell. Born in Greece he has written several detective stories and surreal tales which have been published in various Greek anthologies and newspapers. His first two solo books were published in 2016: Tales From the Anvil of Songs by Mamaya and Love in Fhtagn, the first novelette in The Addiction of Christian Ambrose series.

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. He has collaborated with artists Valia Kapadai and Pavlos Pavlidis, eventually forming the LarLarLar Comics collective. Together, they have put out a number of projects in a range of genres, such as mythology (Nekyia, Mythlegendry), science fiction (Last Flight of the Swordbreaker) and, recently, historical fantasy (Iasis).

Tim Perkins is an award-winning comic illustrator and writer and now graphic novelist based in England and has worked for over 30 years on comics as diverse as Dark Dominion, Transformers, Thundercats, Doctor Who, Judge Dredd, Dreamstone, Earthworm Jim and Hot Wheels, for such illustrious giants as Marvel, DC, 2000AD, Defiant, and Tekno, among others.

He also works as a concept artist, designer and writer in the worlds of themed rides and attractions and animation, as well as lecturing about comics, storytelling and creativity.

His science fusion graphic novel, World’s End – Volume 1 – The Riders on the Storm, is the first major publication from the company.

He is currently producing the artwork for the second volume, World’s End – Volume 2 – A Hard Reign’s Gonna Fall.

Artwork from this second volume will be on show at this year’s convention along with the hard backed copies of the first volume, the World’s End Colouring & Storybook, Volume 2 Ashcan and The Dinoswords.

PJ Holden is a UK-based comic artist. He’s been working for 2000AD since 2001, drawing hundreds of pages of Judge Dredd, as well as Rogue Trooper, Sinister Dexter and others. He’s also worked with Garth Ennis on Battlefields for Dynamite, Rob Williams on Robocop/Terminator and co-created, with Gordon Rennie, Dept of Monsterology.

Aris Labos’s first, self-published comic was The Southern Death-Style in 2010. A few years later, he met the mysterious poet Hector Bleak and, in the winter of 2015, they self-published the mini graphic novel Mr Bleak: Candlelight Thoughts, which he will be promoting during the Malta Comic Con. A year later he drew the horror comic Black Light, written by Elias Katirtzigianoglou and published by Comicdom Press.

He has also illustrated the pages of The Addiction of Christian Ambrose series of books. Every Thursday, he publishes an episode of his personal webcomic series, The Metalheads on the Socomic.gr site.

He is also the lead singer of the heavy rock band Deathcrop Valley.

http://www.maltacomic-con.com