(Featured Image Source: FlameCon.org)

Flame Con, the world’s largest queer comic convention, is ready to dazzle New York City again with an amazing lineup of guests, exhibitors, and panels!

Flame Con was created by the LGBTQ+ non-profit Geeks OUT. A 100% volunteer-run comic book convention devoted to creating an inclusive space, it aims to spotlight and feature queer-positive comics, arts, crafts, clothes, and entertainment. This year’s event will have over 200 exhibitors alongside exciting special guests.

Flame Con is a safe space for self-expression while being your best nerdy self!

The full guestlist:

Aatmaja Pandya – @aatmajapandya

“Aatmaja Pandya is an illustrator born and raised in New York. She has been illustrating and self-publishing comics since 2013. SLIP is her debut graphic novel.”

via Flame Con

Amy Reeder – @amyreeder

“Amy Reeder hails from the superhero/action world of comics, working with characters including Madame Xanadu, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Harley/Ivy, and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. She has contributed to both DC and Marvel Pride, and co-created the new Moon Girl for Marvel, who will soon be starring in her own cartoon series on Disney+. Amy draws interiors and covers, she writes, she colors, and she letters, because nobody puts Amy in a corner!”

via Flame Con

Anthony Oliveira – @meakoopa

“Anthony Oliveira (@meakoopa) is a National Magazine and GLAAD award-winning author, film programmer, pop culture critic, and PhD living in Toronto. His work is in a myriad of genres, often incorporating queer themes, and spans comics, prose, journalism, and academic research.”

via Flame Con

Barbara Perez Marquez – @MustacheBabs

“Barbara Perez Marquez was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, now she lives in Baltimore, MD. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Manhattanville College and writes short stories and fiction, usually using coming of age and LGBTQ themes in her work. During her career, she has also been an editor for several publications and projects. She’s part of the team behind the acclaimed Eisner-nominated graphic novel series The Cardboard Kingdom. Her next graphic novel co-created alongside Lissy Marlin, The Library of Memories, is due out in 2025 from Little, Brown.”

via Flame Con

Connor Goldsmith

Connor Goldsmith is the host of the podcast CEREBRO, a character-by-character exploration of Marvel’s X-Men franchise. CEREBRO was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s 10 best podcasts of 2021, and hailed by The New York Times’s Ezra Klein as one of his favorite podcasts. By day, Connor is a Senior Agent at Fuse Literary whose clients include celebrities, journalists, cultural critics, novelists, and comics writers.

via Flame Con

Danny Lore – @weredawgz

“Danny Lore is a queer Black writer and editor raised in Harlem and currently based in the Bronx. They’ve had their short fiction published by FIYAH, Podcastle, Fireside, Nightlight, EFNIKS.com and more. They’re also included in A PHOENIX FIRST MUST BURN (Viking Children’s, 2020) and Janelle Monae’s THE MEMORY LIBRARIAN (Harper Voyager, 2022). They’ve written the comics QUEEN OF BAD DREAMS (Vault, 2019), QUARTER KILLER (Comixology, 2020), and most recently LUNAR ROOM (Vault, 2021). Their next creator-owned project is the middle-grade graphic novel KICKS (Scholastic, 2024) to be illustrated by Seth S. Smith.”

via Flame Con

Hamish Steele – @hamishsteele

“Hamish Steele is an Eisner-award winning creator of comic books and animation. He is the creator of Pantheon, Croc and Roll and DeadEndia, which this summer was adapted into the Netflix animated series Dead End: Paranormal Park by Steele as the show-runner and lead writer.”

via Flame Con

Jadzia Axelrod – @planetx

“Jadzia Axelrod is an award-winning author, illustrator, activist, gadabout, and circus performer. She is the author of comics and graphic novels for Tor, Quirk Books, and DC Comics. She lives in Philadelphia where she cooks overly-elaborate meals for her wonderful wife and delightful child.”

via Flame Con

Jarrett Melendez – @JarrettMelendez

“Jarrett Melendez grew up on the mean, deer-infested streets of Bucksport, Maine. A longtime fan of food and cooking, Jarrett has spent a lot of his time in kitchens, oftentimes as a paid professional! Jarrett is a regular contributor to Bon Appetit and Food52, and is the author of The Comic Kitchen, a fully illustrated, comic-style cookbook. When not cooking and writing about food, Jarrett usually writes comic books and graphic novels, including Chef’s Kiss from Oni Press, and has contributed to the Ringo-nominated All We Ever Wanted, Full Bleed, and Murder Hobo: Chaotic Neutral. He is currently writing a graphic memoir for Oni Press.

Jarrett lives in Somerville, MA, with his collection of Monokuro Boo plush pigs.”

via Flame Con

Nadia Shammas – @Nadia_Shammas_

“Nadia Shammas is a Palestinian-American writer from Brooklyn, now living in Toronto. She is best known as the co-creator of SQUIRE, a Middle Eastern YA fantasy graphic novel, with Sara Alfageeh. Nadia is the writer of MS MARVEL: STRETCHED THIN and the creator/curator of CORPUS: A Comic Anthology of Bodily Ailments. Her work often focuses on identity, memory, and the body. When she’s not writing, she’s trying to perfect her cold brew recipe and win the love of her cats, Lilith and Dash. Nadia’s forthcoming adult eldritch horror graphic novel, WHERE BLACK STARS RISE, releases from Tor Nightfire on October 18th, 2022, and was co-created with Marie Enger.”

via Flame Con

Steve Orlando – @thesteveorlando

“Steve Orlando writes and edits, including VIRGIL, Undertow, and stories in the Eisner Nominated Outlaw Territory and Eisner-Winning Love is Love at Image Comics. As well, he launched 2015’s Midnighter and 2016’s Midnighter and Apollo, both nominated for GLAAD awards, and took part in Justice League of America, Martian Manhunter, DOOM PATROL: MILK WARS, Supergirl, Batman/The Shadow, Wonder Woman and DC Pride for DC Entertainment, where his 2018 sold-out launch Martian Manhunter was one of Tor’s Best Single Issues of 2018. For Dynamite Entertainment, he created the sequel The Shadow/Batman, as well as NAMESAKE for BOOM! Studios, CRUDE for Skybound Entertainment, Dead Kings, Kill a Man, Search for Hu, Party and Prey, Project Patron, and the Eisner-Nominated Rainbow Bridge for Aftershock Entertainment. In 2020, he returned to Image Comics with Commanders in Crisis, as well as The Pull, a headline release from TKO Studios. In 2021, he launched Transformers: King Grimlock at IDW Publishing, as well as the serial STARWARD with Heavy Metal Magazine. In October 2021, he took over the magazine with the Boulet Brothers in the BOULET BROTHERS HEAVY METAL HALLOWEEN TAKEOVER. Outside of comics, he has been featured in Hello Mr and National Geographic. In animation, he’s worked with Man of Action Studios on season four of Ben 10, and in translation, has produced localizations for Arancia Studio’s Best-Selling UNNATURAL, MERCY, SWEET PAPRIKA and DEEP BEYOND at Image Comics, and UN/SACRED with Ablaze Publishing. In 2021, he debuted at Marvel Comics with Curse of the Man-Thing, as well as Magneto and the Mutant Force, Extreme Carnage, Star Wars: Life Day, Marvel Voices: Pride, and the relaunched Marauders and X-Men Green.”

via Flame Con

Tanya DePass – @cypheroftyr

“Tanya DePass is the founder & Director of I Need Diverse Games, Rivals of Waterdeep Producer & Cast Member on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep, a partnered Twitch variety broadcaster, and RPG developer/writer/consultant. She’s the Creator & Creative Director for Into the Mother Lands RPG, as well as a Senior Annenberg Civics Media Fellow at USC. Additionally she’s part of the Inaugural TGA Future Class of 2020. She was also named as one of Gamers of the Year 2020 by Kotaku along with three of her contemporaries. She was also invited to the Xbox MVP program in February 2021.

Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021. Most recently she was named The Gayming Awards Icon for 2022.”

via Flame Con

Terry Blas – @TerryBlas

“TERRY BLAS is the illustrator and writer behind the viral webcomics You Say Latino and You Say Latinx (Vox.com). He has written comics for Ariana Grande and the series Steven Universe, and Rick and Morty. His original graphic novels are Dead Weight: Murder at Camp Bloom (Oni Press), Hotel Dare (Kaboom!), and Lifetime Passes (Abrams/Surely Books 2021). He is the writer for the Mexican, Marvel comics, super hero series, Reptil. He lives in Portland Oregon with his husband and their dog, Alfie. He enjoys drawing people, animals, superheroes and drag queens.” 

via Flame Con

Flame Con continues to bring amazing LGBTQ+ nerdy industry members to the heart of NYC. Make sure to check out the Inferno, the official Flame Con 2022 kickoff party.

Flame Con 2022 will be held @ the Sheraton Time Square in Manhattan, New York, from August 20-21. The Fireball, the official 21+ Flame Con kickoff party, will be held on Friday, August 19th @ the Industry Bar in Midtown Manhattan. To learn more, see a full schedule of panels, and to get your tickets, you can set sail for Flamecon.org.

(Source: FlameCon.org)

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