Other Celebrities, Artists and Writers Will Appear on Behalf of Industry Leading Publisher

Norwalk, CT, February 2, 2006: Marvel Comics has announced several significant additions to its list of celebrities who will be participating in the upcoming New York Comic-Con. Notably, Brian Michael Bendis will be a Guest of Honor at the convention, joining other Guests of Honor, including the previously announced Joe Quesada, Marvel's Editor-in-Chief. Mr. Bendis is part of an all-star cast of creators from Marvel Comics who will be participating in the convention that will also include Brian Hitch and Jae Lee, among others. New York Comic-Con is a new trade and consumer event for comics, games, anime and other related industries and will take place in New York City at the Jacob K. Javits Center, February 24th � 26th.

"These further announcements by Marvel are fabulous," notes Greg Topalian, Group Vice President in charge of Launch Pad for Reed Exhibitions. "Marvel is a leading company and they attract some of the industry's top talent. We couldn't be happier that they will be providing our audience with the chance to meet some of these terrific personalities."

Brian Michael Bendis is a comic book writer and artist who has won five Eisner Awards. He is one of the highest-selling comic book writers in the industry, shooting to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics Super Hero books such as Ultimate Spider-Man, Daredevil, and New Avengers. Bendis was also instrumental in the creation of several Marvel Comics imprints, among them Ultimate Marvel, MAX, and Icon Comics.

Bryan Hitch is the acclaimed artist/co-creator of The Authority, and, currently, Marvel's The Ultimates. Jae Lee began his association with Marvel shortly after he graduated high school and his art has appeared in numerous comics including X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Spider-Man, Shi, Ghost Rider, and Marvel Comics Presents. Other Marvel talent and artists who will be attending New York Comic-Con are Mark Bagley, Sean Chen, Chris Claremont, Scott Hanna, Klaus Janson, Michael Avon Oeming, Tom Palmer, Tom Raney, John Romita, Jr., and John Romita, Sr.

Convention officials note that tickets for New York Comic-Con are now on sale on the Web site at www.nycomiccon.com.

New York Comic-Con is managed by Reed Exhibitions (RX), a division of Reed Elsevier plc. Reed Exhibitions, the world's largest organizer of business-to-business events. Each year Reed events assemble over 90,000 suppliers and over 5 million buyers from around the world. Today, Reed events are held in over 30 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia/Pacific, and are organized by 26 fully staffed offices. Reed's portfolio of events serves 49 industries in 12 key sectors.

BEA is one many Reed Elsevier properties within the Reed Global Book Publishing Network, whose trade events include the Asia International Book Fair, London International Book Fair, Salon du Livre: Paris Book Fair, Tokyo International Book Fair and BookExpo Canada, and whose Reed Business Information (RBI) properties include Publishers Weekly, Variety Magazine, Playthings, Video Business, Library Journal, and School Library Journal. As a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group, a world-leading business and information provider, Reed offers integrated market access programs covering exhibitions, trade publications, direct marketing and the Internet over a database of more than 9 million. (NYSE: RUK/ENL).

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