With exclusive creators Josh Blaylock, Aaron Campbell, Matthew Clark, Brian Haberlin, Jamal Igle, Mike Norton
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – July 14, 2025 – Hero Initiative, the charity that helps comic book creators in medical or financial need, will host six amazing creators at its booth at the 2025 Baltimore Comic-Con, October 17-19, 2025 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Tickets can be purchased online now.
Featured Creator: Josh Blaylock
Founder of the legacy indy comic book publisher and studio Devil’s Due, Josh Blaylock is not only a prolific comic book writer and artist, but an expert in licensing and pop culture trends. He began publishing comics while still a teenager, rising to fame six years later with the license acquisition and resurrection of G.I. Joe, Voltron, and other classic properties in the comic space, to huge success.
The first of their kind, his comics launched a nostalgia wave that is still felt to this day, and pioneered a trend of independent publishers seizing the spotlight by revitalizing major licensed brands. He is most known for his supernatural action comic Mercy Sparx, and the world of characters surrounding it (currently in development as a major motion picture), with several other creations translated into toys, film, and television.
Having published and written over 1,000 comic books with over $70 million in sales, Josh also regularly collaborates on projects in entertainment, fashion, and tech, including for North Coast Music Fest, Adidas, Pixel Vault, Hannibal Buress, Diplo, 0n1 Force, A System of a Down, Louis the Child, and more.
His non-fiction book, How to Self-Publish Comics: Not Just Create Them, was made required reading at Savannah College of Art & Design.
Featured Creator: Aaron Campbell
Aaron Campbell is known for his critically acclaimed work on titles including Hellblazer: Dead in America, Suicide Squad: Blaze, and the award-winning John Constantine: Hellblazer. He is the co-creator of Infidel (Image Comics), named one of the best horror stories of all time and one of the best books of 2018 by NPR.
Aaron is also the co-writer of West of Sundown (Vault Comics) as well as being a prolific cover artist.
Featured Creator: Matthew Clark
Matthew Clark started his career in earnest in 1997 working at the art studio, Studiosaurus. In 1999, Matthew became the regular artist on DC’s Wonder Woman, following that with Felon from Top Cow (written by frequent collaborator Greg Rucka).
Since then, Clark has worked for DC Comics (including Teen Titans, The Outsiders, Adventures of Superman, Doom Patrol), Marvel (notably, Ghost Rider, The Punisher, The Amazing Spider-Man), and Valiant (Bloodshot, Harbinger), as well as contributing artwork for Kurt Busiek’s acclaimed series, Astro City.
Matthew is currently recovering from a triple bypass operation and has started his rehabilitation as of this writing.
Featured Creator: Brian Haberlin
Brian Haberlin is an award winning American comic book artist, writer, editor, and producer. He is best known as the co-creator of the Witchblade franchise and for his innovative augmented reality and pioneering digital art style.
Haberlin started his career working at Lorimar/Warner Brothers Television, but eventually he gave up his job at Warner Brothers in order to pursue a career in comics, his life-long passion.
Haberlin began his career in comics working at Top Cow Productions, where he developed most of the modern methods of comic book production used today. He rose to VP of Creative Affairs while there and ran the creative side of the company. While there he co-created Witchblade, prompted by the lack of realistic female superheroes in comics.
The Witchblade franchise has since expanded to include multiple spin-offs, a live action television series, and an anime series.
Haberlin formed his own studio soon after, producing work for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Image Comics. He then started Avalon Publishing. Through Avalon, he published/created many successful fantasy and sci-fi titles, including Stone (highest selling independent comic the year released), a fantasy series which incorporated elements of Filipino mythology, Aria (#2 selling comic in the U.S. in its release), an urban fantasy, Area 52, a science fiction title, Nine Rings of the Wu-Tang, and M-Rex, which has been adapted into the successful Cartoon Network series Generator Rex.
Haberlin became Editor in Chief for Todd McFarlane Productions in 2006, and penciled and inked its flagship title, Spawn, for two years during David Hine’s run as writer.
In 2012, Haberlin formed Anomaly Productions with Skip Brittenham to produce truly innovative cross-platform content, and comics that routinely sell out and are top sellers in their releases, with Anomaly, Anomaly: The Rubicon, Shifter, Faster Than Light, Between Worlds, Sonata, Creative Creature Catcher, The Marked, Hellcop, and Lighthouse at the End of the Universe currently in release as graphic novels, comics, children’s books, and augmented reality apps, with the upcoming, Fury Formula and Love Inc. to debut in the coming months.
He has been featured in many books and magazines around the world such as: Wired, Rolling Stone, Imagine FX, 3D World, Creating Comics from Start to Finish, Secrets of Painter Experts, and Secrets of ZBrush Artists to name just a few. He routinely speaks around the country and world from The Wall Street Journal’s All Things D, to the South Korean KOCCA academic conference and currently has 3-4 hours of his own panels each year at San Diego Comic Con.
Haberlin also runs Digitalarttutorials.com and Traditionalarttutorials.com that produce art education tutorials from his methods. He teaches comic art at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and his work is in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Museum.
Haberlin has also entered the fine art community, being featured recently in two prestigious magazines: American Art Collector (cover) and Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, and having his work featured in five gallery shows this year.
Featured Creator: Jamal Igle
Jamal Igle is the recipient of the 2011 Inkpot Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comic Art. He is writer/artist/creator of Molly Danger for Action Lab Entertainment, the co-creator of Venture with Dynamo 5 creator/writer Jay Faerber, and the penciller/co-creator of The Wrong Earth with writer and Editor in Chief, Tom Peyer for AHOY Comics. Jamal is a comic industry veteran whose detailed pencils have graced books as varied as The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the all-ages action miniseries Race Against Time, as well as mainstream hits such as G.I. Joe, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Green Lantern. Jamal has served as the series artist for popular runs on Firestorm the Nuclear Man, Nightwing, Tangent: Superman’s Reign, Superman, Supergirl, and Zatanna for DC Comics, Noble Causes for Image Comics, and a four-issue run on New Warriors for Marvel Comics.
Jamal recently completed the sequel to the hit series Black called White from Black Superpowers/Black Mask Studios, and The Wrong Earth: Night and Day, The Mysterious Micro-Face for NPR Planet Money, and Milestones in History for DC Comics. Jamal also worked with legendary Batman writer Scott Snyder on his new creator-owned series, Dudley Datson and the Forever Machine for Comixology.
Currently, Jamal is hard at work on the newest volume of The Wrong Earth as well as helping shape the next generation of comics creators at The School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Featured Creator: Mike Norton
Mike Norton is the creator of the Eisner and Harvey award-winning webcomic, Battlepug and the co-creator and artist of Grumble as well as the critically-acclaimed Revival. He has worked for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and just about everybody else. He likes to pet dogs, drink beer, and watch movies you wouldn’t see on a dare.
“Hero Initiative is an incredibly important charity supporting people working and who have worked in the comic book industry,” said Marc Nathan, show promoter for the Baltimore Comic-Con. “We love to help them every year raise money in support of the charity, as we know first-hand how those funds have helped friends and acquaintances who have fallen on difficult times. They are bringing a murderer’s row of talent again this year, and we cannot encourage fans strongly enough to stop by and get an autograph, a sketch, or a book they’re selling (or heck, just drop in a buck or two in their collection jars!).”
