Other Guests Also Added to List of Celebrity Appearances!

Norwalk, CT, October 17, 2006: J. Michael Straczynski and Marc Silvestri will appear at New York Comic Con as Guests of Honor, joining other newly named guests including Gene Colan, Peter David, Michael Golden, George Perez, and Kevin Smith. "The list of special guests who will appear at New York Comic Con is growing day by day," notes Greg Topalian, the Event Director for New York Comic Con. "We couldn't be happier with the enormous talent that has come on board already and we're looking forward to making many more announcements about guest appearances in the weeks and months ahead."

New York Comic Con will take place in New York City at the Jacob K. Javits Center, February 23rd - 25th.

Guest of Honor J. Michael Straczynski is an Eisner, Hugo and Saturn award-winning American writer/producer of television series, novels, short stories, and comic books. He was the creator, executive producer and head writer for the science fiction TV series Babylon 5, Crusade and Jeremiah. Most recently, Straczynski sold a feature film entitled Changeling to Universal and Imagine Entertainment. He is under exclusive contract to Marvel as a comic writer where he currently writes Amazing Spider-Man and Squadron Supreme, as well as several other projects, including Bullet Points (a five-shot miniseries), and an upcoming Thor series.

Guest of Honor Marc Silvestri is an American comic book artist, creator and publisher. He currently acts as the CEO of Top Cow Productions. Silvestri began his career at Marvel Comics and is well-known as the penciller of Uncanny X-Men between 1987 and 1990. In 1992 Silvestri became one of the original seven artists to form the breakaway comics company Image Comics. Silvestri's stable of titles was published under the Top Cow imprint, with the first title released being Cyberforce, which was relaunched this year. He also created Hunter-Killer, with writer Mark Waid, which was released by Top Cow in 2004. In addition to this work, Silvestri has also been a creator of popular characters, including Darkness, which is currently in development as both a videogame and a feature film; and Witchblade, which was a live action TNT series in the United States and is currently an anime series in Japan. He continues to work on Hunter-Killer as well as providing covers for the Marvel Comics mini-series, X-Men: Deadly Genesis by Ed Brubaker and Trevor Hairsine.

Other newly added guests at New York Comic Con include:

Gene Colan: Colan first began working in comics in 1944, illustrating the science fiction adventure series Wings Comics. While freelancing for DC romance comics in the 1960s, Colan did his first superhero work for Marvel under the pseudonym Adam Austin. Taking to the form immediately, he introduced the "Sub-Mariner" feature in Tales to Astonish, and succeeded Don Heck on "Iron Man" in Tales of Suspense. Shortly afterward, under his own name, Colan became one of the premier Silver Age Marvel artists, illustrating a host of such major characters as the Black Panther, Captain America, Dr. Strange, and his signature character, Daredevil. Colan also garnered praise in the 1970s for illustrating the complete, 70-issue run of the acclaimed horror title Tomb of Dracula, as well as most issues of writer Steve Gerber's cult-hit, Howard the Duck.

Peter David: Best known for his work in comic books and for his movie and TV adaptations, David is well regarded for his many Star Trek novelizations, as well as his adaptations based on the Babylon 5 TV series and his novelization of the first Spider-Man movie. He is currently writing Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and X-Factor for Marvel, as well beginning a five-shot Wonder Man miniseries for Marvel in December. David is also the writer of the long-running column, But I Digress, for Comic Buyer's Guide. In the early 80s he worked for Marvel Comics where he became a regular writer for The Spectacular Spider-Man and where he enjoyed a lengthy run writing The Incredible Hulk. In 1990, David joined DC Comics where he achieved acclaim for his work on over 50 comic issues starring Aquaman. In 2005 David launched his newest creator-owned comic, Fallen Angel, with IDW Publishing.

Michael Golden: Michael first rose to prominence in the late 70s with Marvel Comics' Micronauts series. His work was prominent on a number of Marvel comic book covers throughout the late 70s and 80s on titles such as Doctor Strange, Rom, and She-Hulk. More recently, he has drawn covers for DC Comics' Nightwing, Superman: Man of Steel and Vigilante. Other memorable series he worked on included G.I. Joe and the Howard the Duck black & white magazine.

George Perez: A Puerto Rican-American illustrator and writer of comic books, George Perez was one of the most popular and influential artists in American comic books in the 1980s. Perez came to prominence when he started illustrating The Avengers for Marvel Comics. In the 1970s Perez illustrated several other Marvel books, including Fantastic Four, where he began working with Marv Wolfman. Perez soon moved over to DC Comics where his career took off with the launch of The New Teen Titans. Perez' work at DC was further solidified in 2005 and 2006 with the Infinite Crisis series which was a huge hit. At DC Perez has also been responsible for relaunching Wonder Woman and he is currently working with writer Mark Waid on the upcoming series, The Brave and the Bold. Perez is also teaming up with Marv Wolfman on a direct-to-DVD movie adaptation of the "Judas Contract" story arc from Teen Titans.

Kevin Smith: Kevin is a well-known producer, writer, director and actor who has had a rapid rise in the independent film community. In addition to Clerks (which won the Filmmaker's Trophy at Sundance) and Jersey Girl, Mr. Smith is well known for several other films, including Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. He has published the screenplays to all five of his previously released films, written comic books featuring not only his own characters (the multiple-printed Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob), but also legendary mainstays of the superhero world (the award-winning Daredevil and Spider-Man and the Black Cat at Marvel Comics, and the award-winning Green Arrow at DC Comics), and written a monthly column for UK based Arena Magazine. With his View Askew partner, Scott Mosier, he has also executive-produced four low budget, first film efforts (including Bryan Johnson's Lion's Gate release Vulgar) and one large budget, multiple Academy Award winner (Good Will Hunting). Kevin Smith's most recent film, The Passions of the Clerks, was released this past summer (2006). In this film, Smith revisits the zany characters ten years after first being introduced to them in Clerks.

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 5.5 million buyers from around the world. Today, over 460 Reed events are held in 38 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia/Pacific, and are organized by 33 fully staffed offices. Reed's portfolio of events serves 52 industries worldwide. BookExpo America is one of 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. New York Comic Con is not affiliated with any other comic convention event, including any other event having Comic-Con in its name.