Additional Guests for 2008!

I'm pleased to announce the addition of three new confirmed guests for our 2008 Fest, coming up in April:

Brian Michael Bendis
Award winning comics creator Brian Michael Bendis is one of the most prolific and successful writers working in mainstream comics. For well over five years, Brian's titles have consistently charted in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic sales rankings.

Brian is one of the premiere architects of Marvel Comics Ultimate Universe, a line of comics created specifically for the new generation of comics reader. Since it's best selling launch, he has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-man to date, and has also written Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate X-men, Ultimate Marvel Team Up, and Ultimate Six. In addition to scripting the action in the Ultimate Universe, Brian is also responsible for the writing duties on titles such as Avengers, Daredevil, House Of M, and The Pulse. His long running stint on Alias and his creator-owned title POWERS have brought acclaim and accolades as well.

Brian has won five prestigious EISNER awards, including 'Best Writer of the year' two years in a row.

He is creator of the JINX line of crime comics published by Image Comics. This line has spawned the graphic novels GOLDFISH, FIRE, JINX, TORSO (w/ Marc Andreyko) and TOTAL SELL OUT. Brian's Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle award nominated "POWERS" (w/ series co-creator and artist Mike Oeming) is now offered through Marvel's publishing imprint ICON, and the Hollywood tell all "FORTUNE AND GLORY" from ONI Press, which Entertainment Weekly gave an "A."

Tara McPherson
Tara McPherson is a painter, poster artist and freelance illustrator based out of New York City. Creating art about people and their odd ways, her characters seem to exude an idealized innocence with a glimpse of hard earned wisdom in their eyes. Recalling many issues from childhood and good old life experience, she creates images that are thought provoking and seductive. People and their relationships are a central theme throughout her work.

Tara's array of art includes painted comics and covers for DC Vertigo, advertising and editorial illustrations for companies such as Pepsi and Spin Magazine, and numerous gig posters for rock bands such as Beck, Modest Mouse, Mastodon, and Death Cab For Cutie. She exhibits her paintings and prints in fine art galleries all over the world.

Currently she is painting for an upcoming gallery exhibition at Jonathan Levine Gallery, working on a painted graphic novel for DC Vertigo Comics, designing toys for Kidrobot based on her characters, and teaches a Concept Illustration class at Parsons in NYC.

McPherson's art has been included in books such as Lonely Heart: The Art of Tara McPherson (Dark Horse Press), Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (DC), The Art of Modern Rock (Chronicle), Illusive 2, Illustration Now! (Taschen), SWAG and SWAG 2 (Abrams), and more. She has lectured at the School of Visual Arts, AIGA NYC, AIGA Austin, The University of Arizona, MADE in Edmonton and Foyles London. Her art has also been featured in the film Juno, Veronica Mars, Point Pleasant, and Guitar Hero.

Steve Lieber
Steve is a longtime Portland resident and cartoonist. He illustrated the graphic novel series "Whiteout" written by Greg Rucka, which is currently in production as a feature film starring Kate Beckinsale and Gabriel Macht. Lieber and Rucka are slated to produce a third novel in the series for Oni Press. Steve has also illustrated adventures of The Escapists for Dark Horse Comics, "Road to Perdition 2: On the Road" for Paradox Press, and contributed art for numerous other works including "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Slayers", and "Two-Fisted Science".

With his wife Sara Ryan he was also nominated for an Eisner award for their short comic story "Me and Edith Head". He also is the co-author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel" with Nat Gertler.