CMX has a variety of guests. They include cosplayers, actors, authors, artists, voice actors, prop makers, comic artists and many more. Check out our guest section to see all guests that you can meet! CMX has a variety of guests. They include cosplayers, actors, authors, artists, voice actors, prop makers, comic artists and many more. This year, one of our major guests is Karl Yune from the hit TV show, ARROW. And of course, there’s Bill Salyers from Cartoon Network’s Regular Show. Be sure to keep an eye out for the Regular Show movie coming soon! If there are certain guests you would like CMX to bring to you, please send us a message. We love hearing from you. Check out our guest section to see all guests that you can meet!
2015 Guests
Karl Yune
Karl Yune currently portrays Maseo Yamashiro (mentor and friend to Oliver Queen) on the hit show ARROW. Karl’s character MASEO is a DC Comics character who has had a strong presence throughout season 3 in the flashback story line, as well as in the present day story as Maseo’s alter ego SARAB (2nd in command of the League of Assassins and ally to DC character Ras Al Ghul). While casting The Last Samurai, director Edward Zwick was impressed with Yune’s audition tape and Karl went to Los Angeles for the first time to meet with the famed director. Zwick later informed Karl that the studio was to cast the film out of Japan, but encouraged Karl to move to Los Angeles as he saw promise in the young actor’s talent. Karl was picked by producer Steven Spielberg to play the memorable role of Koichi, the secret lover to Li Gong’s Geisha Hatsumomo, in Memoirs of a Geisha, based on the international best selling novel. Karl continued to work in lead and supporting roles in award winning independent, foreign, and Hollywoodfilms. In 2010, Karl was again chosen by producer Steven Spielberg and director Shawn Levy to star as Tak Mashido, the reclusive legend of the robot fighting world in the sci-fi drama Real Steel. Karl nowresides in Los Angeles, California.
Bill Salyers
Bill Salyers is best known for his voice-over work as Rigby in Cartoon Network’s Emmy award winning Regular Show, Reverend Putty in Adult Swim’s Moral Orel, and popular video games such as Skyrim and Mass Effect 3.
D-Piddy
Please welcome our next guest, D-Piddy, to Comic & Media Expo. This YouTube sensation and mysterious cosplayer has helped spurred the popularity of the Deadpool character at conventions all over the country and on the internet. D-Piddy will be at #CMX15 running a few panels, selling some cool merch (that’s merchandise), making a crazy video for his cosplay channel, and just causing some serious (sometimes hilarious) havoc throughout the weekend.
Beware, he might also be in his Colossal Titan, Kakashi or Skeletor cosplay. Expect shenanigans.
Wind of the Stars
I’ve been cosplaying since 2004 and I have accumulated a collection of 90+ costumes based on video games, movies, anime, manga, and of my own design. Myself and my work has been featured on TV, in printed and web publications, and as guests of honor at conventions in the USA and Internationally. Aside from myself I’ve also made costumes for fellow fans and had the honor of creating a Game of Thrones costume for George R. R. Martin. On my site you’ll find a collection of all my works, tutorials, link to my shop where you can by geeky goodies or signed prints, videos of my game streams, and much more!
Armand Villavert Jr
Armand is one of those guys who talks about crossfit. A lot. Armand draws cool comics like Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors and can brew a mean cup of coffee. A triple-threat renaissance man, Armand blends his love of comics and manga together wonderfully. https://www.facebook.com/
Tom Leveen
Tom Leveen is author of six novels at imprints of Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Abrams. His novel SICK (about a group of students trapped in their drama department during a zombie apocalypse) won the Westchester Fiction Award in 2014, and his young adult novel ZERO (set in Phoenix in the 90s) was a Best Book of 2013 with the American Library Association. Additionally, Tom has more than twenty years of theatre experience as an actor and director in the Valley. Visit him on Facebook at /AuthorTomLeveen and on the web at tomleveen.com.
Firelight Cosplay
Firelight Cosplay is a professional cosplayer specializing in alien and non-human cosplays. She is most well-known for her original twi’lek bounty hunter from Star Wars as well as an armored Starfire design, Liara from Mass Effect, and Magik from the Marvel Universe. An avid proponent of the cosplay community, she is also part of Those Cosplay Nerds, a cosplay consulting and tutorial group dedicated to helping newer cosplayers learn all the tricks to create better costumes.
Sharon Skinner
Sharon holds a BA in English, an MA in Creative Writing, and a poetic license. Her work has been published in a number of local, national and international publications. She previously served for eight years as the Executive Editor of Anthology magazine, a small press literary magazine published in Mesa, Arizona. Sharon is an active member of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) and serves as the Assistant Regional Advisor for SCBWI AZ. She has written three published novels, The Healer’s Legacy (2012), The Nelig Stones (2013) and Mirabella and the Faded Phantom (2014). Her fourth book, The Matriarch’s Devise, is due out in November 2015. She also co-writes an online steampunk serial with Bob Nelson called The Chronicles of Tavara Tinker.
You can find out more about Sharon by visiting her webpage www.sharonskinner.com You can also follow her on twitter @sharonskinner56 or find her on FaceBook at Sharon A Skinner (https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSharonSkinner)
Spencer Brinkerhoff
In addition to making Star Wars art, he has also created an anniversary print for Back to the Future as well as posters for The Princess Bride. His prints create an animated version of familiar movies scenes with a cinematic depth of field. He has gone on to incorporate that depth of field into his layered acrylic ShadowBox art, and has even created a interactive digital image viewing platform called ShadowBox Comics. He has also invented keychain toy called a LightStickFX that will add laser effects to any photo you take. All you need is a camera with a flash. It’s not a photoshopped picture or even a special app. LightSticks are a simple yet effective special effect for your point and shoot camera or cell phone camera.
Sara Moni
I specialize in costumes that favor the obscure or less often seen, since 2010. Fan of mutants, timelords, Avengers, robots and fantasy- anything else left of center. I love making my costumes and supporting other talented costumers, prop makers, photographers and various creators of awesome.
Gini Koch
Gini Koch writes the fast, fresh and funny Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series for DAW Books, the Necropolis Enforcement Files series, and the Martian Alliance Chronicles series. Touched by an Alien, Book 1 in the Alien series, was named by Booklist as one of the Top Ten Adult SF/F novels of 2010. Alien in the House, Book 7 in her long-running Alien series, won the RT Book Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Award as the Best Futuristic Romance of 2013. Gini also has stories featured in a variety of anthologies, including the Unidentified Funny Objects 3, Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs. Aliens, and Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets anthologies; writing as Anita Ensal, in The Book of Exodi, Love and Rockets, and Boondocks Fantasy anthologies; and, writing as J.C. Koch, in Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters, The Madness of Cthulhu, Vol. 1, and A Darke Phantastique anthologies, and, coming in 2016, The Mammoth Book of Kaiju. Gini will also be featured in the first book in an X-Files anthology series, X-Files: Trust No One, as well as in the Temporally Out of Order, Timeless Tales, MECH: Age of Steel, Unidentified Funny Objects 4, and Out of Tune 2 anthologies, all coming in 2015.
Jeff Pina
Jeff Pina launched Dr. Oblivion’s Guide to Teenage Dating in late 2005. He has been making comics since. Jeff does the art chores on the web comics Monkey In Space, and Drunk-Robot with collaborator Brian Powell. He also has other self-published series Imaginatives, Bosco & Fleet and SuperPawn that he fits into his schedule. To focus showcasing local talent, Jeff worked as project coordinator for Fiction House Mafia’s “Heart” anthologies. He has also done artwork for Hasbro Games, sketch cards for 5finity. As an eighties kid, Jeff was thrilled to be published in Voltron: United and Drawn. He has also done variant cover art for Big Dog Ink’s Critter and worked with Micheal Kessler in Spazdog Press’ Smiths: Unite and Take Over. You can read some of Jeff’s comics at www.sideways8studios.com
Ben Glendenning
Benjamin Glendenning is one of the industry’s most sought after sketch card artists, working on trading card sets such as Adventure Time, DC Epic battles, Marvel Masterpieces and the Walking Dead. He also creates, writes and illustrates his own comics like Skulljammer, Superworld Presents and the totally great Tin Star Tex, and he has become known in recent years for his eclectic prints featuring mashups and homages inspired by everything from music to film to cartoons. He also rocks a mohawk better than anyone you have ever met. http://skulljammer.com/
Kiba the Cosplay Corgi
Kiba is a 5 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi. His main job is being a service dog for Nicole Spickerman (his mom/owner). Phoenix Comicon 2013 was their first convention and it was decided on a whim to go. Even though Nicole didn’t have time to make herself a costume, she made costumes for him, Link from Legend of Zelda and a moogle from Final Fantasy and made corgi cosplay history!
Allen Amis Props
Allen is a costume and prop builder working out of Chandler, Arizona. He got his start when Star Wars costuming ignited his passion for building and weathering sci-fi armor. He’s since won awards and accolades for his ability to bring artistic concepts and renderings to life as wearable costumes and displayable props.
Blind Squirrel Props
Blind Squirrel is a prop maker.
Latique
Latique is a local artist. He will be providing art for the programming guide cover.
Scott Godlewski
Scott is the creator of Copperhead comic under the Image Comics label.
Itty Bitty Geek
Editor in chief for Geek News Network as well as a formidable cosplayer.
Bryan Augustyn
Brian has spent 30 mostly happy years in the comics business as a writer and editor for DC Comics and others. He’s probably best known as the writer of Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, and its sequel, Master of the Future. Brian also scripted the teen-angst-vampire series, Crimson, with artist, Humberto Ramos. He co-created the cosmic-mystery of kids versus alien demons comic, Out There, also with Ramos. He’s written countless other comics over the years, including, The Flash, Justice League: Year One, Firebrand, Black Condor, The Imperial Guard, Hellboy/BPRD, Mega Man, GoBoy 7, Hell, Warlands, and lots more.