New Guests From New Creative Areas at C2E2!!

C2E2 ANNOUNCES SIX NEW GUESTS
FROM SIX NEW AREAS OF COMICS CULTURE
Art Baltazar, Dash Shaw, And More Come To Chicago

Norwalk, CT, February 18, 2010: Organizers of the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) have added six more creators to their growing list of special guests who will be appearing at the new pop culture convention which is being launched April 16-18, 2010 at Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center -- Art Baltazar, Michael Capps, Chip Kidd, J.J. Sedelmaier, Dash Shaw, and Mark Waid. C2E2's guest list currently includes such comics greats as Alex Ross, Geoff Johns, Gail Simone, and Adam Hughes, and today's additions not only mark more industry talent participating in the event, but very different industry talent.

C2E2 aims to shine a spotlight on the far-reaching realms of the graphic arts beyond tights-and-capes comics, and today's announcement is illustrative of this scope. Dash Shaw, with works including Bottomless Belly Button, is a rock star in the indie comics world; J.J. Sedelmaier is responsible for many of the most talked about animated projects in recent history including Beavis and Butt-Head and SNL's Saturday TV Funhouse; designer, author, and editor Chip Kidd's fingerprints are on Eisner-winning works with subjects ranging from Peanuts to Batman: The Animated Series; native Chicagoian Art Baltazar is the force behind the kid-and-family-friendly Tiny Titans; Mark Waid serves as Editor in Chief of rising powerhouse publisher Boom! Studios; and Michael Capps isn't from the comics world entirely, instead the President of Epic Games, creators of the widely-heralded Gears of War video game series and Unreal technology.

"None of today's guests are necessarily the typical creator you'd expect at a comic book convention, and that fact only makes them all the more important," C2E2 Show Manager Lance Fensterman said. “We're honored by the pantheon of greats who'll be joining us from the main stream comics industry, and we're humbled by these new names, each bringing new perspectives and representing new landscapes in the larger comics and entertainment world."

Art Baltazar, Michael Capps, Chip Kidd, J.J. Sedelmaier, Dash Shaw, and Mark Waid will be appearing at C2E2 in a variety of panels, signings, and special events. They join previously-announced alternative, independent guests including Colleen Doran, Jeff Smith, and Chris Ware.

Daily, Weekend, and VIP Tickets to C2E2 are available now at www.C2E2.com. C2E2's sister show -- The New York Comic Con -- regularly sells out, and fans interested in attending are urged to order their tickets in advance. For more information on tickets, guests, or C2E2 in general, beyond the official show site, fans are encouraged to visit C2E2's official blog, www.mediumatlarge.net, and follow C2E2 on Twitter at www.twitter.com/c2e2.

ABOUT ART BALTAZAR:
Art is a super-cartoonist machine from the heart of Chicago! He's all about the peace, love, and joy. He defines cartoons and comics not only as an art style, but as a way of life. Art started his funky secret art studio in 1994 with the his self-published comic book, The Cray-Baby Adventures. Since then, he created other comics such as Gyro-Man, Captain Camel and The Space Chicken, Jimmy Dydo, Lunar Lizard, Meteor Mite, and the famous Patrick the Wolf Boy. Artie has also had a few gigs with Warner Bros. and had a monthly comic strip in Disney Adventures Magazine called GORILLA GORILLA! Art has some cool character design skills and has recently completed the Big Amoeba graphic novel for Platinum Studios. Currently, Art is the creative force behind The New York Times Best Selling Eisner Award Winning DC Comics' Tiny Titans. From small press to mainstream in a heartbeat! Art is living the dream! He stays home and draws comics and never has to leave the house! He lives with his lovely wife, Rose, big boy Sonny, little boy Gordon, and baby girl Audrey! Right On!

ABOUT MICHAEL CAPPS:
Dr. Michael Capps is the president of Epic Games, Inc. based in Cary, NC. Epic has created multiple million-selling, award-winning titles in its Unreal series, as well as the 2006 Game of the Year, Gears of War, which has sold over 4.7 million copies. Epic is also responsible for the Unreal Engine, which is the underlying technology for a wide range of games including 2K Games’ 2007 Game of the Year, BioShock, and BioWare’s 2007 RPG of the Year, Mass Effect. Michael serves on the board of directors of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the world’s largest nonprofit membership organization for game developers. He also serves on the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS), which is charged with recognition of outstanding achievement in the entertainment software community. Prior to entering the game industry, Michael served as a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He specialized in defense and entertainment collaboration, virtual reality and computer graphics. For his work in these areas, he was one of 50 graphics pioneers interviewed for the ACM SIGGRAPH documentary, The Story of Computer Graphics. He holds master’s degrees in computer science and electrical engineering from the UNC-Chapel Hill and MIT, and a doctorate in computer science from the Naval Postgraduate School.

ABOUT CHIP KIDD:
Chip Kidd is the four-time Eisner Award--winning designer and author of Batman: Animated, Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz, and Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross. As an editor of graphic novels for Pantheon Books, he has worked with some of the very best talents in the medium, including Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Art Spiegelman, Charles Burns, and David Mazzucchelli. Kidd is also the recipient of the 2007 National Design Award for Communications, the design industry’s highest honor.

ABOUT J.J. SEDELMAIER:
J.J. Sedelmaier, president of J.J. Sedelmaier Productions, Inc. (www.jjsedelmaier.com), is responsible for many of the most talked about animated projects of the past 17 years -- the launch season of MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head, SNL's Saturday TV Funhouse, The Ambiguously Gay Duo, The X-Presidents, the pilot for Cartoon Network/Adult Swim's Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, the Tek Jansen/Alpha Squad Seven series for The Colbert Report, and over 400 TV commercials, print and design projects. His studio, which he runs with his wife Patrice, also lends its services to architectural preservation/restoration (like the Dempster Street Skokie Swift terminal in north suburban Skokie), corporate branding for companies like The Chicago Tribune, and contributing archival reference material to publications on everything from animation history to urban mass transportation. If you Google him, prepare to be very confused.

ABOUT DASH SHAW:
Dash Shaw made numerous comics and zines while a BFA student at the School of Visual Arts, Manhattan. Since graduating, he's done the surreal family comedy Bottomless Belly Button, published by Fantagraphics Books in 2008, and the telepathy comedy webcomic BodyWorld, published in book form from Pantheon Books. He is also a regular contributor to the quarterly comics anthology Mome and the animator/director of IFC's The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he's working on another comic book and an animated feature.

ABOUT MARK WAID:
Mark Waid has been a comics professional for over twenty-five years, having written and edited a wider range of popular characters than most anyone, including Flash, X-Men, Superman, Spider-Man, Archie, Fantastic Four, JLA and Captain America. In 1996, he and artist Alex Ross created Kingdom Come for DC Comics. Currently, Waid is the Editor-In-Chief of Boom! Studios. In addition to overseeing Boom!'s successful line of comics, Waid writes their breakaway hits Irredeemable, Incorruptible, and The Incredibles.

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Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo Press Release