Ringo Nominees Come to the 2025 Baltimore Comic-Con

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - October 7, 2025 - The crowds will be buzzing at the 2025 Baltimore Comic-Con, taking place October 17-19 at the Inner Harbor's Baltimore Convention Center. The Baltimore Comic-Con is pleased to announce the appearance of 2025 Ringo Awards nominees Michael Adams, Francine Delgado, Jason Douglas, Ryan Dunlavey, Joey Esposito, Megan Grey, Dirk Manning, Rob Potchak, Wells Thompson, Fred Van Lente, and Sean Von Gorman to our 2025 event. You can now get your tickets online, including limited ticket availability to the 2025 Ringo Awards Banquet and Ceremony!

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Michael “Gecko” Adams is an established comic book artist, colorist, and creator best known as the mind behind Kung Fu Legume. In 2022, he partnered with Keenspot Comics to launch his first creator-owned series, Kung Fu Legume, which ran for five issues between July 2022 and March 2023. The property is now in development as an animated series with SpongeBob SquarePants writer Richard Pursel, Executive Producer Kheng Hua Tan (Crazy Rich Asians), and Sherry Cola (Joy Ride).

Building on that success, Adams co-created ZOR with Rob Potchak in 2024 and Hero Hiro with Jeff McClelland in 2025, expanding his reputation for original, genre-bending storytelling.

Beyond comics, Adams’ artwork has been showcased on HBO’s Entourage, appearing as part of Vanessa Angel’s character “Angel Quest” in Season 2, Episode 9.

Michael will be signing Saturday from 11:00am-2:00pm in Booth #1813.

Jason Douglas is a Northville-based, Plymouth-raised, MSU-educated, Michigan author of comics, stage plays, and prose. He has been a public school teacher for the last 26 years, which means that while his entry into the world of published comics is relatively new, fresh, and exciting, he is no spring chicken. While he is humbled and honored to be at this absolutely wonderful event, you should not chase him at book signings, conventions, or even on the street, as his knees no longer work the way they once did.

Parallel, Jason’s very first published comic, sold out of its initial SPP print run and garnered not one, but TWO Ringo Award nominations for Best Writer and Best Single Issue or Story. The story is a dark, twisted sci-fi tale in the vein of the most mind-bending episodes of Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone, and is now available in an expanded Special Edition. 

Jason’s newest book, Jane American, entered the world last year as a 32-page one-shot in partnership with Comix WellSpring. It is set in historic Plymouth Michigan and is inspired by and dedicated to the life of his late grandparents (long time pillars in the community).  

The exciting and Ringo-nominated 132-page followup original graphic novel continuing Jane’s adventures is OFFICIALLY available in both hardcover and softcover formats today! Jane was living a life of family, stability, and hope during the war years... until she wasn’t -- until the war brought tragedy to her front doorstep and changed her in unbelievable ways that were better left hidden. But the economic hardships brought on by the end of the war have left Jane with a choice... stay safe, stay hidden... or embracing who she really is and what she can really do for the sake of everyone that she loves!

Jason will be signing Friday from 1pm-7pm and Saturday 10:00am-1:00pm and 4:00pm-6:00pm in Booth #1813.

Francine Delgado is a Costa Rican–Canadian comic artist, best known for her dynamic cover work and distinctive character design. Her covers and illustrations have appeared on titles such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Addams Family (IDW), Gatchaman, Speed Racer, and Flash Gordon (Mad Cave), and Legendary: Black Widow (Marvel Upper Deck). She was featured in the 2025 LA Strong anthology, recipient of the Clampett Humanitarian Award, and contributed to the 2024 Ringo Award–nominated Lower Your Sights.

Francine’s bold visual style —- blending manga, European comics, and fashion influences —- has made her well-known for her cover work, as well as her sequential art for publishers including Marvel, IDW, and Mad Cave.

Ryan Dunlavey is a cartoonist best known for drawing multiple non-fiction graphic novels, including the ALA and Xeric award-winning Action Philosophers, the best-selling The Comic Book History of Comics, and the four volume, multi-award-winning Action Presidents series - all co-authored with his frequent collaborator Fred Van Lente. The duo's most recent projects include Action Activists in partnership with the New York City Department of Education and The Comic Book History of Animation, which was successfully funded by a Kickstarter campaign before being acquired for mass-market publication by IDW. As a solo comics creator, Ryan has written and drawn The Secret Loves of Geeks for Dark Horse, G.I. Joe for IDW, Tommy Atomic for Royal Flush, Polidiocy for Webtoons, and M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay for Marvel which was recently adapted as Marvel’s MODOK on Hulu. Ryan also co-authored the graphic novel cookbook Dirt Candy with chef Amanda Cohen (of Iron Chef Canada), now in its 8th printing. Outside of comics, Ryan is a graphics professional with 30 years of experience - he’s illustrated dozens of Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes books, animated cartoons for the WWE, was a long-time graphic designer and illustrator for Wizard and ToyFare magazines, and created t-shirt graphics for The Children’s Place, Spencer's, and dozens of recording artists including Green Day, Bon Jovi, Guns & Roses, and The Allman Brothers. Ryan has also produced endless drawings of monsters and cute animals for his children (usually on-demand). He probably needs a nap.

Joey Esposito is an Eisner and Ringo-nominated writer from Maine, where he lives with his wife and pets in a house full of soulmates.

He writes comics like The Pedestrian, Sesame Street, Pawn Shop, Batman: Urban Legends, and more to be announced. He was selected to be part of the DC Comics Writers Workshop in 2017.

Travis Gibb is a Ringo-nominated creator and has been working in comics off and on for over a decade, producing: Coins of Judas, Granite State Punk, Voodoo Nations, and Cthulhu Invades Oz/Wonderland. He has published books with Scout Comics, Caliber Comics, Image Comics, Second Sight, and Band of Bards. Travis is blessed to work with his wife, Heather, in their co-owned publishing company Orange Cone Productions, where she also works with him as his editor. Last but not least, he is the proud father of two awesome daughters and one amazing son.

Travis will be signing Saturday 10:00am-11:00am in Booth #1812.

Megan Grey is a British comic artist and writer and the creator of The Croaking, Crosswires, and Hurt Girls Club.

Megan will be signing on Saturday from 12pm-1pm in Booth #1812.

Dirk Manning is the writer/creator of comic series such as the supernatural noir Tales of Mr. Rhee and the genre-bending horror anthology Nightmare World.

More of Dirk’s comic work includes the official graphic novel adaptation of the classic lost horror film London After Midnight (with the estate of Lon Chaney), RSVP: E.S.P. (with New York Times #1 bestselling author Josh Malerman), Butts in Seats: The Tony Schiavone Story (a #1 Best-Selling Graphic Novel on Amazon), Homestead (Ringo Award Finalist for Best Original Graphic Novel in 2025), Buried But Not Dead (Ringo Award finalist for Best Original Graphic Novel in 2021), Twiztid Haunted High-Ons (Ringo Award finalist for Best Humor Comic in 2020 and 2022), Hope, The Adventures of Cthulhu Jr. and Friends, and Arn Anderson: My Life as the Enforcer among others. Dirk was an early adapter in using crowdfunding to launch his comics and graphic novels, with his works having raised over half a million dollars and counting in pre-sales on Kickstarter alone, and now helps lead publishing at Source Point Press.

Dirk is also the author of the inspirational/how-to column turned book series Write or Wrong: A Writer's Guide to Creating Comics and has contributed several short stories to the RPG game series Clockwork: Dominion for Reliquary Game Studios. His screenplay writing credits include the YouTube horror series Blackbox TV episode “The Hunger” (directed by Drew Daywalt and featuring Bonnie Aarons and Jon Gries).

When not at his desk writing, touring the comic convention circuit, and/or sampling his way across the best ice cream shops in the world, Dirk can be found online at www.DirkManning.com and on most social media platforms as @dirkmanning.

He does not wear a top hat and scarf in real life.

Dirk will be signing Friday from 5:00pm-6:00pm and Saturday from 11:00am-12:00pm in Booth #1812.

Rob "Potsy" Potchak is the co-creator and writer of ZOR, as well as creator of Junior High Horrors, Dyed Hard, DreadMutt, Immortal, and parodies such as X-LIEFELDS, The Mango Lorian, and Dead Sonja. He has provided cover artwork for these titles and more.

He is also an Editor and Talent Developer at Keenspot Entertainment. 

Rob wil be signing on Saturday from 11:00am-2:00pm in Booth #1813.

Wells Thompson (he/him) is an independent comic book writer and editor best known for his series Frankenstein the Unconquered (Action/Horror), The Catskin and the Rose (Sapphic Romance/Fantasy), and Smut (Adult Slice of Life/Comedy) and definitely not known for sticking to any one genre. Originally from Little Rock, AR, Wells now resides in Oak Park, IL with his wife Brianna and way too many cats.

Having graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 2015, Wells brought his passion for storytelling and artistic expression into a workforce that was determined to grind that out of him. Instead of giving up, he created his own production studio and writes outstanding, character driven comics on his own terms. When he’s not writing comics, he’s drinking too much coffee, playing music, or shooting arrows in a field somewhere.

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wellsthomp.bsky.social

Substack: https://wellsthompson.substack.com/

Website: https://wellsthompson.com/

Wells will be signing Friday 2:00pm-5:00pm, Saturday 1:00pm-4:00pm, and Sunday 12pm-3pm in Booth #1813.

Fred Van Lente burst onto the scene with his first collaboration with cartoonist Ryan Dunlavey, Action Philosophers, which the NYT called “intensely goofy but intellectually rigorous” and has been nominated for a 2025 Ringo Award for Best Humor Comic. From there, he went on to a long career at Marvel, where he worked on titles like The Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, and Marvel Zombies. He’s also written for DC, Archie Comics, Dark Horse, BOOM! Studios, Dynamite Entertainment, and Valiant, where his run on Archer & Armstrong was nominated for a Harvey Award for Best Continuing Series.

New at his table in 2025 are his and Chris Panda's amusement-park slasher Murder Kingdom (Mad Cave), his cyberpunk epic The Future Is ****** (check out his separate signings at publisher RECKAH! Comics' booth), and the much-lauded Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games with Tom Fowler (Clover Press).

Sean Von Gorman is an Eisner-nominated comics illustrator and writer. He is known for co-creating Toe Tag Riot (Black Mask Studios), Secret Adventures of Houdini (Alterna), and Pawn Shop with Joey Esposito (Z2 Comics). He has also contributed art for projects published by Image, Dark Horse Comics, and Dynamite Entertainment as well as anthologies such as Occupy Comics (Black Mask) and the Eisner Award-winning Love Is Love (DC/IDW). He has also contributed covers for IDW’s Star Trek line of books.

In addition to his comics work, Sean has also contributed art to The New Yorker, Alt Press Magazine, and The Quarantine Coloring Book. He is also a brilliant guerrilla marketer who has been known to handcuff himself to things and escape straitjackets to promote his comics.

His latest book, The Pedestrian, published by Magma Comix has been nominated for the Will Eisner Award for Best New series of 2025 as well as The Mike Weringo Comic Book Industry Award for Best Series 2025.

Insta/Twitter @VonGormanArt

"WOW!" said Marc Nathan, show promoter for the Baltimore Comic-Con. "All of these creators in addition to the already-announced Keith Champagne, Francesca Fantini, Tom King, Dan Parent, David Walker, and I'm probably forgetting 1 or 2. This is a fantastic group of creators putting out some really interesting work -- don't miss your chance to meet them and check out their latest works!"

Parking

Parking We recommend booking convenient and affordable parking in advance through SpotHero, the nation's leading parking reservations app.

To reserve your parking spot, visit the Baltimore Comic-Con SpotHero Parking Page and book a spot with rates up to 50% off drive-up.

Brian K. Vaughan Fan Package Tickets

Brian K. Vaughan Friday and Saturday Fan Packages are now on sale with limited availability (50 daily). Packages include:

• Exclusive meet and greet
• 10 Autographs
• 1 Signed Print
• Selfie

Does not include convention admission.

This year's confirmed guests for the show include: Arthur Adams (Longshot), Joel Adams (Ms. Mystic), Zeea Adams (Deadman), Kaare Andrews (Spider-Man: REIGN 2), Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl), Marty Baumann ((Pixar artist), John Beatty (Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars), Rose Besch (Miles Morales: Spider-Man), Josh Blaylock (Mercy Sparx, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Russ Braun (The Boys), Mark Buckingham (Fables), Jacen Burrows (Crossed), Jim Calafiore (NED, Lord of the Pit), Richard Case (Doom Patrol), Donny Cates (Venom), Keith Champagne (Stranger Things), Howard Chaykin (Time Squared), Jo Chen (Runaways), Sean Chen (Evermind), Jim Cheung (Young Avengers), Mark Chiarello (Wednesday Comics), Frank Cho (Harley Quinn), Michael Cho (The Avengers and the Veracity Trap), Amy Chu (Emma Frost: The White Queen), Chris Claremont (X-Men), Matthew Clark (Adventures of Superman, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Becky Cloonan (Somna), Michael W. Conrad (Manowar: Invictus), Denys Cowan (The Question), Dani (Sensational Wonder Woman), Alan Davis (Excalibur), Deans Family Productions (Crass Fed), Jeff Dekal (Something is Killing the Children), Francine Delgado (Gatchaman), Kevin Delgado (Tuff Stuff, courtesy of Comics and Collectibles R Us), Todd Dezago (The Perhapanauts), Ryan Dunlavey (Action Philosophers), Garth Ennis (The Boys, Saturday and Sunday only), Viktor Farro (Invincible Universe: Battle Beast), David Finch (Moon Knight), Tony Fleecs (Stray Dogs), Trish Forstner (Feral), Franco (Deadman Tells the Spooky Tales), Barbara Friedlander (Swing with Scooter), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (DC Nation), Ron Garney (BRZRKR), Chris Giarrusso (Mini Marvels), Dan Goldman (Unfinished Business), Randy Green (Witchblade). Mike Grell (Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters), Torunn Grønbekk (Catwoman), Gavin Guidry (Action Comics), Brian Haberlin (Spawn, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Bob Hall (West Coast Avengers), Cully Hamner (Blue Beetle), Scott Hanna (Amazing Spider-Man), Dean Haspiel (The Red Hook), Jeremy Haun (The Red Mother, courtesy of Ignition Press), Mike Hawthorne (Deadpool), Marc Hempel (Sandman), Jamal Igle (Superman, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Klaus Janson (Daredevil), Nikkol Jelenic (Dreadstar), Dave Johnson (100 Bullets), Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Incredible Hulk), J.G. Jones (Wanted), Chris Kemple (Artist Alley Comics), Chip Kidd (The Avengers in the Veracity Trap), Derek Kirk Kim (The Last Mermaid), Tom King (Wonder Woman), Adam Kubert (Wolverine), Jae Lee (Inhumans), Rick Leonardi (Spider-Man 2099), Rachta Lin (Justice League Unlimited), Jeph Loeb (Batman: The Long Halloween), Tula Lotay (Barnstormers), Nate Lovett (Dungeons & Dragons), Kevin Maguire (Justice League), Alex Maleev (Star Wars: Boba Fett - Black White and Red), Anthony Marques (The Green Hornet), Laura Martin (Nubia: Queen of the Amazons), Shawn Martinbrough (Red Hood: The Hill), Ron Marz (Green Lantern), Jose Marzan Jr. (Y: The Last Man), Justin Mason (Spider-Punk), Charlie McElvy (Spider-Squirrel), Mike McKone (Red Goblin), Bob McLeod (New Mutants), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), Adriana Melo (Action Comics), Josh Middleton (Aquaman), Al Milgrom (Spectacular Spider-Man), Mark Morales (Thor), Trevor Mueller (Albert the Alien), Sarah Myers (TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures), Tom Nguyen (The Switch), Mike Norton (Battlepug, courtesy of Hero Initiative), Kevin Nowlan (Batman: Sword of Azrael), Patrick Olliffe (Untold Tales of Spider-Man), Dan Parent (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), John J. Pearson (In Bloom), Andrew Pepoy (Simone & Ajax), Barbara Perez Marquez (The Cardboard Kingdom), David Petersen (Mouse Guard), Brandon Peterson (Uncanny X-Men), Khoi Pham (Star Wars: Darth Vader), Paul Pope (THB), Joe Pruett (Savage Sword of Conan), Tom Raney (Green Lantern), Amy Reeder (Power Girl), Rod Reis (COWL), Esad Ribic (Conan the Barbarian), Afua Richardson (Kahhori: Reshaper of Worlds), Rafer Roberts (Grumble), Andrew Robinson (Halo), James Robinson (Starman), Craig Rousseau (Herculoids), Stephane Roux (Void Rivals), Jim Rugg (Street Angel), Andy Runton (Owly), Stuart Sayger (Conan the Barbarian), Joseph Schmalke (Seven Years in Darkness, courtesy of Groundbreaking Comics), Bart Sears (Deathstroke), Declan Shalvey (Old Dog), Asia Simone (Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Wreck and Roll), Louise Simonson (The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special), Walter Simonson (Thor), Don Simpson (Megaton Man), Jeff Smith (Bone), John K. Snyder III (Suicide Squad), Mark Sparacio (Chelsea Dagger and the Women of Excalibur), Joe Staton (Dick Tracy), Brian Stelfreeze (Black Panther), Paul D. Storrie (Storm Kids: Stanley's Ghost), Karl Story (The Mandalorian), Zoe Thorogood (It's Lonely at the Centre of the Universe), John Timms (Superman: Son of Kal-El), Peter Tomasi (The Rocketfellers), Billy Tucci (Shi), Fred Van Lente (Action Philosophers), Brian K. Vaughan (Spectators, Friday and Saturday only), Gus Vazquez (Sunfire and Big Hero Six), Charles Vess (Stardust), Wade Von Grawbadger (Justice League), Mark Waid (Justice League Unlimited), David F. Walker (Big Jim and the White Boy, Saturday and Sunday only), Dan Watters (Nightwing), Lee Weeks (Batman/Catwoman Special), Mark Wheatley (Breathtaker), Matt Wieringo (Stargate Atlantis: Gateways), Keith Williams (Web of Spider-Man), Stephanie Williams (Nubia: Queen of the Amazons, courtesy of Ignition Press), Rich Woodall (Electric Black), John Workman (Wild Things), Kelly Yates (Doctor Who), and Thom Zahler (Love and Capes).

In the coming weeks, look for more announcements from the Baltimore Comic-Con. We are looking forward to highlighting our guests, the Ringo Awards, programming, and more. The latest developments can always be found on our website, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages, and follow us on YouTube, TikTok, Bluesky, and Snapchat.