Kickoff the 2012 Comic Conventions with the Amazing Arizona Comic Con

Are you ready to kickoff the 2012 comic conventions with the Amazing Arizona Comic Con? You know we are and we are just a month away from the big show! It is thanks to JayCompanyComics.com for creating this "amazing" event that was started this past January. We were fortunate to attend the First Annual Amazing Arizona Comic Con and it was a great show because we had a chance to meet some of our favorite writers and artists without having to deal with all the crazy crowds and overnight staying to make sure we got into The Walking Dead panel. Yes, Robert Kirkman was the guest of honor and he got a special treat by getting a street named after him, "Kirkman Way". He was presented the street sign by the Mayor of Mesa, Scott Smith and it was a great opening ceremony/ribbon cutting for this brand new con. 

Robert Kirkman, who is the creator of Image Comics, The Walking Dead and the executive producer of AMC's The Walking Dead will once again be at the Second Annual Amazing Arizona Comic Con. Well, where there is Kirkman, the Zombies should not be that far behind. Kirkman is a very busy person with not only continuing to write one of my favorite comic series, The Walking Dead, but he also has Invincible, The Infinite, Haunt and Super Dinosaur.

Last year, we had the chance to meet Jon Bernthal who plays Shane and Steven Yeun who plays Glenn in The Walking Dead and that was great fun! They were all part of the Walking Dead panel and it was awesome because Season 1 had recently finished and they discussed a little of what we would expect in the second season. There will be another Walking Dead panel this year, but there will be a new guest who we have not had the chance to meet yet and we look forward to seeing him, Chandler Riggs who plays Carl Grimes. 

The list continues with many great guests and one special guest that was announced today is Joe Casey.  Joe Casey is one of the creators of the Cartoon Network hit shows Ben 10 and Generator Rex. He also is the mastermind behind the great Image Comics series, Butcher Baker. His list of works does not stop here where he has written for Superman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers and soon to have another hit cartoon in early 2012 with Ultimate Spider-Man. 

Rob Liefeld will be making his second appearance this year and hopefully he will have another great sit down with Kirkman. It was a great, fun panel with the two joking around and just enjoying the event. Rob Liefeld is one of the best in the business and sometimes does not get a lot of credit because people criticize his style. We owe it to him for creating Cable, Deadpool, X-Force, Youngblood and he was one of the creators of Image Comics! He is now working with Robert Kirkman in their newest creation, The Infinite and he is also the artist for DC Comics New 52, Hawk and Dove. 

Another of our favorite guests will be returning, the Mighty Layman. John Layman who is the creator of Image Comics, Chew will be in the house once again. He is just like the series, a great, fun guy! Hopefully, he may be coming through with their brand new 2012 Chew "Chog" t-shirt they just released pictures of. 

Steampunk fans should be very pleased because there is yet another one of our favorites returning this year, Joe Benitez. Joe Benitez is the creator of Aspen Comics, Lady Mechanika. He does both the writing and the art for Lady Mechanika, which is such a great series. We recently did an post on the World of Lady Mechanika! He did have a couple of Lady Mechanika exclusives at the first Amazing Con, so hopefully with the release of Lady Mechanika #3 coming in the next couple of weeks, we may get lucky for another exclusive. 

DC Comics definitely created a major buzz this year with the launch of the New 52, so what better way than to have many of the writers and artists to make an appearance at the Amazing Arizona Comic Con. One guest that we are very pleased to be in attendance at this years event is Greg Capullo, the artist behind the New 52 Batman series. I look forward to bringing my Batman books because this is one of my favorites in the New 52. We love Greg Capullo and his amazing style. He has been part of Spawn, Angela, his own creation Creech, Haunt and now Batman. 

Other DC Comics New 52 writers and artists that will be in attendance include Joshua Hale Fialkov, writer of I,Vampire. Fialkov is also the creator of Image Comics, Echoes and Tumor.  Tyler Kirkham, the artist behind Green Lantern: New Guardians will be making his first appearance at the Amazing Arizona Comic Con. Brian Buccellato, the writer/color artist of Flash and Superman will also be making an appearance along with JT Krul, the writer of Green Arrow and Captain Atom. You will not want to forget to bring your DC Comics New 52 comics! 

Image Comics will definitely be making a strong guest appearance with Robert Kirkman, Rob Liefeld, Greg Capullo, Cory Walker, Richard Starkings and Sina Grace. 2012 is a big year for Image Comics, in celebrating their 20th year anniversary. Todd McFarlane was a guest last year and we hope he returns! 

This is just a taste of what is to come at the Second Annual Amazing Arizona Comic Con next month, January 6 - 8th, 2012 at the Mesa Convention Center. Stay tuned as we continue to get more updates on the guests, exclusives and programming. We plan to have a busy month ahead of us lining up interviews and lots of pictures!