PORTCONMAINE 2008

Guests:

If you would like to be a guest, or suggest a guest, please feel free to contact us with the information! PortConMaine is a very homey, fan based convention: as such we provide guests with free passes to the convention, 2 per guest for the whole weekend. In return we ask that the guest attend at least one event: how spiff is that? We'll allow them to sell books, art, etc. and provide them with whatever we have within our means. Unfortunately, we do not provide guests a free room, free travel, food, etc. We're just not that type of convention, sorry!! ^_^

This year we're splitting up the guests (by request from our attendees) into New Guests and Veteran Guests. New Guests would be guests attending PortConMaine for the first time... ever! Veteran Guests would be the guests who have shown support year after year for the convention and who are returning once more to visit. ^_^

New Guests:
Andi Wrede (Web Comic)
Bill Rogers (Voice Actor)
Michele Knotz (Voice Actor)
Christina Siravo (Illustrator)
Christian Matzke (Film & Prop Maker)
More Coming Soon...

Veteran Guests:
CJ Henderson (Author)
Clayton McNally (Author)
Kori Michele (Artist)
Michelle Pinard (Artist)
Stacey Kardash (Artist)
Elizabeth Jackson (Artist)
Ninja Studios (Artists)
Daniel Kevin Harrison (Voice Actor)
Mookie (Web Comic Artist)
Tom Brown (Artist)
Sketch (Artist/Cosplayer)
More Coming Soon...

Clayton McNally: Clayton McNally writes in a story-telling manner that is fast-paced and exciting. His stories grab your interest from beginning to end, ‘To The Stars’, will engage the imagination of Science Fiction enthusiasts. This action-packed novel includes hand-to-hand combat using Kenpo Karate and major space battles utilizing unconventional ingenuity. Follow mankind across Galaxies in search of peace. Forced to fight for survival, his battles display unconventional ingenuity against overwhelming forces.

The second in the Galactic Star Force series ‘Surviving Behind Enemy Lines’ will grab you from the first page and hold you until the end. It is a compelling story of battles and human survival when the odds are overwhelming.

The third in the Galactic Star Force series 'Liberty and Freedom - To Die For' set the Commonwealth and Galactic Star Force into battle on three fronts; Sol, Pegasus and Alpha Centauri. Can humanity win one or even two fronts? Will a third front be too much?

Already a screenplay is being written for ‘To The Stars’, read it and ‘Surviving Behind Enemy Lines’ and see what has captured the attention of readers and the media.

‘To The Stars’ and ‘Surviving Behind Enemy Lines’ can both be purchased at the publishers web site:

www.choicereadingbooks.com

Kori Michele is a Portland based painter whose work is heavily influenced by comics and manga. She has experience creating anime mascots for conventions and businesses, but now spends her time dissecting drawings and paintings with superhero content and mechanical comics techniques. Her current body of work involves blowing up drawings of herself as a manga heroine with hand drawn halftoning and bitmapping. Past works have involved yaoi themes and classical figuration. She presides over the Maine College of Art Manga Club and enjoys studying the impact of anime and otaku culture on the fine art scene.

http://homepage.mac.com/werkers

CJ Henderson: Returning guest CJ Henderson is the creator of the Teddy London supernatural detective series and the Jack Hagee hardboiled PI series. Writer of over 50 books and novels, such as "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies" and "Black Sabbath: The Ozzy Osbourne Years." he is also the author of hundreds upon hundreds of short stories and comics, as well as literally thousand of non-fiction articles. Chosen by the H.P. Lovecraft estate to continue the master's characters, he is one of the leading mythos writers today. And yet, despite his international fame and world-wide adoration, he is still one of the most wonderfully cheerful, down-to-earth and humble human beings God ever blessed mankind with by giving him unto the world. We know it's true because he told us so himself. For more details on this most fascinating of human wonders, we refer you to www.cjhenderson.com where you can read free short stories, browse through important news items and find other ways to waste time when you really should be doing something important.

Andi Wrede discovered very early in life that she was good at 2 things- drawing, and sarcasm. After years of honing those skills, and entering the realm of hardcore nerd-ery, she also found out she was adorable. :-) Using her newfound powers, she became a Booth Babe and assisted other artists for a short period before she figured out she, too, could draw a webcomic and began her plans for Intarweb Domination. Some of her comics have been compared to early Penny Arcade, so she figures she doesn't entirely suck. :-) She enjoys long walks on the beach, orange tic tacs, violence, and music from the 90's that everyone says they hate but secretly love. You can read her comics at www.Easy-Skankin.com.

Michelle Pinard: Chaotic Kiss has been touring various New England Artist alleys since 2004! It is the first comic published by independent manga studio MKT Productions. Growing a fan base through two hit parody comics Magical Girl for a Day and Chaotic Con, CK follows the story of a young transgendered girl trying to find her place in an ever more confusing world of deadly cosplay rivals, philandering bishouned, and hopelessly obsessed otaku gamer boys. A romantic comedy drama, CK has helped to introduce anime and manga fans to genuine GLBT issues in real life, love, and spirit. To learn more about CK and MKT Productions News check us out at www.chaotickiss.com

Mariko is also the creator of the New England Plushie Panels! She is added by her seam stressing partner, Magick, to provide plushie panels to most of the Northeast’s major anime conventions.

Stacey Kardash and Elizabeth Jackson are illustrators back for their third time in the PortCon artist's alley! They are currently illustrating images for a new game design studio based in Maine, as well as working on creating comics of their own. Every Saturday night from 6pm to 8pm, they are guaranteed to be drawing at Weekend Anime in Westbrook.

Stacey's comic project is entitled Harbinger and is set in a post-apocalyptic desert world with an old west flair. Liz's project is shrouded in mystery, but it is set in the jungle and follows a family clan named Bruiseye.

Ninja Studios: Jon and Mike are back for their 3rd year at Portcon's Artist Alley. Created in 2003 by Jon Kneeland, Ninja Studios has been striving to bring something different and much-needed to anime cons: A group of artists that each specialize in completely different, yet complimentary, art styles and talents inspired by the anime and comic lifestyle. Jon is a digital artist that is known for his fanart pinups and custom drawn ID cards. Mike is a amazing sculptor who has studied with some of the top people in the field, including makeup and special effects from the horror SFX king, Tom Savini. They both have a TON of new stuff to show us this year, like wearable cosplay masks, giant posters, and more! A couple of super-nice dudes. Check 'em out at www.ninjastudios.net for more info.

Daniel Kevin Harrison is best known as the voice of Hiro in Gravitation. A Maine native, his anime credits include Gokudo, Madara, KO Beast, and Shingu. People with really sharp eyesight might recognize him from movies like The Langoliers, Bird, or Wake. This is his seventh year at PortConMaine and he eagerly awaits seeing old friends from years
past.

Bill Rogers: Since his debut in Assemble Insert back in 2001, Bill has been providing voices to some of your favorite characters in some of your favorite shows. If you’ve watched KO Beast, Madara, His and Her Circumstances, Gokudo, Comic Party and To Heart you’ve probably heard his voice. But he is best known for his work in Gravitation (Touma Seguch), Boogiepop Phantom (Yamamoto), Genshiken (Tanaka Souichiro), Shingu (Kanata Mouken) and more recently in The Third (Kevin). He can also be heard on Saturday mornings as the voice of Brock in Pokémon, (as well as various creatures that appear in that show).

Outside of the anime field, Bill has worked on the children’s show Tarchin and Friends, and the series of Universal Safety Squad educational films.

In the world of video games, Bill has lent his voice to the X-Box game Bullet Witch and m&m’s Kart Racing on the Wii console. He has also voiced various Pokémon including Bonsly, Weavile and a hidden talking Pokémon (you'll just have to find him) in the Wii smash hit Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

He is happy to be making his PortConMaine premiere and looks forward to meeting and chatting with lots of anime fans.

Michele Knotz: A native of the Jersey Shore, Michele Knotz has always had a passion for acting. She was cast in her first animated voice-acting role as Hajime Yagi in The World of Narue in 2003. Since then she has also voiced Takako Kawashima in Shootfighter Tekken, Matsumoto and various additional characters in To Heart, and Razali, Cindy, Greta, and The Fairy in The Third. In 2006, Michele landed the lead roles, Jessie, May, Misty and Nurse Joy for the Pokémon 10th Anniversary Special, The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon, and continued to voice these characters throughout Season 9 of Pokémon, the Battle Frontier. She has also voiced the characters May, Jessie, and Manaphy for the Pokémon Movie 9, Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea. She has voiced the lead character, Chikorita in the Pokémon special, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate. Along with human-speaking characters, she has voiced various Pokémon in the series such as Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Chimecho, Beautifly, Masquerain, Dustox, Cacnea, Mudkip and many others. You can catch Michele as May, Jessie, Misty and Nurse Joy at http://www.pokemonlearningleague.com/; an interactive web site dedicated to educating children in math, science and language arts. In Season 10 of Pokémon, Diamond and Pearl, Michele returned as Jessie and Nurse Joy as well as the Pokédex, Piplup, and many other Pokémon characters. Just released, Michele voiced the Pokémon trainer, Squirtle and various other Pokémon in the Nintendo Wii video game: Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Michele is extremely excited and happy to be a guest at PortConMaine this year and can’t wait to meet all the fans throughout the weekend!

Michael "Mookie" Terracciano is the author and artist of the fantasy manga webcomic, "Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire." Since its humble beginnings over six years ago it has received acclaim for its unique characters, addictive storylines, painful puns, awful alliteration and (gasp!) reliable update schedule. With updates seven-days-a-week and an archive of over sixteen hundred strips, it's no wonder people are talking about this cult webcomic! Want to know what's so interesting about a grumpy seer, his deformed girlfriend, his angelic little brother, his talking cat, his archmage mother and rock-star father? See for yourself at www.dominic-deegan.com!

Tom Brown is a sequential artist-illustrator and founder of Copper Age. He lives in the USA, drinks copious amounts of coffee, spends too much time thinking about demons and describes himself as a 'lunatic' on his myspace page. Although he's heavily influenced by Manga, Tom's artwork also owes a great deal to Western artistic traditions, creating a striking blend of the gothic, cute, and stylised whilst keeping his characters human and expressive (apart from the demons and the things with the tentacles, although admittedly they don't often count as 'characters'). He is particularly adept at sinister trees, unspeakable monstrosities, and endearing experimental occultists. Rumour has it that he was exposed to HP Lovecraft at a delicate age.

For the past few years, Tom has been collaborating with English author Brynneth N Colvin (whose day jobs include novel writing and being a Druid). There are plans for future collaborations with Witchunter's Vincent Ferrante as well (Witchunter being Ferrante's comic title, not his day job!).

Tom's career to date includes cover art, illustration, graphic novel work, Chuthulu Christmas Cards, and other commissioned enterprises. http://copperage.deviantart.com/

Sketch: After his cosplay debut at Anime Boston 2004 as the now legendary “Leathery Vash” cosplayer, Sketch has continued to push the boundaries of the New England cosplay scene with elaborate cosplay after cosplay. Even if it took him three years to still not be done. (HEY!!... Okay, you’re right. –Sketch) He followed up with Lynx from the PS1 game Chrono Cross in ’05. He’s tormented Ed Elrics over countless cons as his Hohenheim of Light and delighted us with his Pervy Sage Jiraiya in the dating games coming up to his reveal of the TV headed robot, Canti (FLCL) in 08. Fitting our theme of robots and he’s bringing it… if it fits in the hallways that’s another matter.

Sketch’s classic training is in illustration, getting his BFA in ’04, has been found off n’ on in artist alleys showing off his art. But, being a constant student of life he sought out other forms of art in sculpture, sewing, electronics, and basket weaving… wait what? He’s known by his convention colleagues as someone who can figure out how to make anything.

His reformed site www.SketchedOutLife.com offers the public, free of charge, insight to Sketch’s plots of world domination. Or that it’s just a growing interactive portfolio. From cosplay to webcomics, it’ll someday be updated to share. >.>

Christina Siravo specializes in whimsical illustration in traditional mediums such as pen & ink with watercolor. She has earned her BFA in Illustration from the Maine College of art, and made her first debut into the children's book world with her magical illustrations for "An Orphan's Promise" by Dan Davis. Christina has worked with Re-ment Miniatures (www.re-ment.co.jp) to provide cute package designs and story-cards to compliment their miniature product "Bread and Butter". Her love for theatre and singing is an ever constant inspiration in her works, in addition to fantasy and fairy tales. She draws inspiration from treasured artists such as Hayao Miyazaki, Chiho Saito, Beatrix Potter, Alphonse Mucha, and Jesse Wilcox Smith. Visit her online Portfolio www.csiravo.com or her deviantart website bluebirdie.deviantart.com/store.

Christian Matzke is an amateur filmmaker and propmaker specializing in period adaptations of H. P. Lovecraft. His work has been favorably reviewed in both Fangoria and Rue Morgue Magazine, and Fortean Times called his short films "darkly apocalyptic". When Christian's pseudo-documentary Experiment 17 won the audience choice award at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in 2005, musician (and hardcore Lovecraft fan) Patti Smith praised the film saying "it is hard to tell where the truth ends and the fantasy
begins".

Christian's props and illustrations have appeared in a dozen Lovecraft adaptations as well as the Cthulhu: Live roleplaying manuals from Fantasy Flight Games. Along with his wife, makeup artist Sarah Matzke, Christian runs Page Street Studios, a production company
specializing in props and effects for both film and theater. To see some of their work, please go to: http://www.myspace.com/pagestreetstudios

This is Christian's first time at PortConMaine, and he is very excited to have the opportunity to discuss filmmaking and prop design.