Broken Frontier

Legendary comic artist Todd McFarlane will be attending the Phoenix Comicon, the convention announced today.  In addition, the current creative line up of Spawn with writer Brian Holguin and artist Whilce Portacio will also be at the convention.

"Todd McFarlane's company has been a sponsor of our convention since year one," says Convention Director Matt Solberg, "To have the man himself attend brings us full circle and further fulfills our promise of being the signature pop culture convention in the southwest."

Todd McFarlane became a comic book superstar in the 1980s due to his work on Marvel Comics Spider-Man franchise.  In 1992, he launched his own comic title, Spawn, which became one of the 1990s' most popular heroes. The comic became an Emmy Award-winning animated series on HBO and a live-action feature film from New Line Cinema that grossed $100 million.

Todd will be joined by Brian Holguin and Whilce Portacio, the current writer and artist of Spawn, respectively. 

Brian not only has been a writer for the enormously popular Spawn, he has to his credit the award-winning fantasy series Aria, KISS: The Psycho Circus, The Magdalena, and the Spawn spin-off titles Spawn: The Dark Ages and Godslayer.

Whilce began his career inking for already established artists like Art Adams (Longshot) and Jim Lee (Alpha Flight). He made a name for himself as a penciler on Punisher and Uncanny X-Men, before joining Todd McFarlane to form Image Comics in the early 1990s. 

Todd McFarlane will be in attendance Saturday January 24th at the Phoenix Comicon.   Brian Holguin and Whilce Portacio will be at the convention all weekend.
"Our attendees will get the opportunity to hear from Todd himself Saturday afternoon of our convention," says Comic Director Ed Harris, "along with having the opportunity to shake his hand and receive his autograph.  For a comic book fan, and a fan of his work, it doesn't get better than that."

More information on Todd McFarlane, Brian Holguin, and Whilce Portacio's speaking and autograph schedule will be posted on www.phoenixcomicon.com.

The Phoenix Comicon is January 23-25th at the Mesa Convention Center, with a Thursday Preview Night.  It is Arizona's largest, multi-media, popular arts convention, focusing on comic books, anime, gaming, movie, and TV. The Comicon presents a full weekend schedule of guests and programming for hobbyists by attracting the top segments of the comics, anime, and gaming worlds.  For more information visit www.phoenixcomicon.com.