Special Guests

Robin is the creator of the webcomic "Anime News Nina," which runs tri-weekly on the popular site, Anime News Network.com. Born and raised in suburban Metro Detroit, Robin knew art was her calling when she found out in the first grade that the ability to scrawl a decent Ninja Turtle with a pencil between your toes was not a regular thing. With a lifelong passion for anime, art, illustration, comics, video games, and general nerdy stuff, Robin earned her BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. She currently resides in Seattle, where she works as an artist in the video game industry and struggles to come up with new comic ideas. You can read the archives of "Anime News Nina" here: animenewsnetwork.com/anime-news-nina or view Robin's online portfolio at: jadedsketch.com.

Eric Allard is an accomplished illustrator who has worked in the comic and video game mediums. He is currently working as an artistic director for Frima Studio in Quebec where he has worked on properties such as Galaxseed, Transformers, Spider-Riders, Neo-shifters, Avatar the Last Airbender and more since 2006. He has worked on his web comic "Herobot" since 2007 and his last published work was for "Atomic Robo" in 2010.

Originally from Rimouski, Mel Gosselin is first and foremost a fan of Japanese animation.  At the beginning of her adolescence, Oliver Twist happened to fall in her hands-- it was love at first sight.  Literature, particularly from the 19th century, became her new passion.  Now, Mel has but one idea in her head: follow in the footsteps of Charles Dickens and Jules Verne.  Persevering, the originality of one of her manuscripts written in 2007, Cétacia, was noticed by a publisher which decided to give Mel her first chance.

"Lacking talent in drawing, it was at the age of 12 that I put away my pencils and, with a heavy heart, I abandoned my dream of becoming a mangaka.  Yet, I always had the desire to create stories and invent characters.  They live in my heart and I see them drawn in my head.  Only, I never had the ability to materialize them on paper.  I therefore turned to literature, where I had discovered that words could be also as heart-rendering as images when you know how to use them.  Inspired by the fact that the Japanese had adapted into anime several hundred Western novels (just think of the cult classic Nobody's Boy: Remi [Ie naki ko]), I noticed that the two genres were far from closed off and that it would be possible to bring a subtle "manga-like" spirit out of a piece of literature.  I don't know if I succeeded in marrying the two with Cétacia, but I can't deny the fact that if I hadn't had the privilege of growing up with Japanese anime cartoons from the good ol' days on Radio-Canada, this project would never have seen the day!"

Mark Sprague is the main artist on the long-running webcomic "Dragon Mango" - a fantasy story with a plot too complicated to explain here, but that basically involves cute girls named after fruit fighting dragons.  

To learn what else is going on in the story - which is a lot - you can read it for yourself at www.dragon-mango.com! 
 
He's still not entirely sure why he's a guest at a convention, but promises to do his best to be really entertaining and fun anyway!

After studies in graphic design and a boring part-time job as an animation colorist, Sirkowski became a freelance illustrator, cartoonist and animator for ad agencies and a regular artist on Starship Titus. He is now working on Sister Wulfia Focka, for Slipshine.net. Sirkowski is most known for the Miss Dynamite anime and manga, created in 1990. Miss Dynamite "follows freelance terrorist Eva Sirkowski and her bisexual assassin associate Blackie Chin on their 'action packed, mostly weird' adventures.

Scott is a renaissance man, which means he's several hundred years behind the times. An Otaku since his birth in 1966, he's made AMVs, owned an anime store, directed the fan parodies "This Is Otakudom" and "S.T.E.A.M.: The Movie" and run panels and workshops at anime conventions. Since then he's lost his store, lost his girlfriend, seen "Lost" on DVD and almost lost his life to diabetes. He is now a Financial Advisor, and has dedicated his life to finding the love of his life and making the world a better place through laughter. 

Jacob is a web designer from Boston, Massachusetts. As a teenager he made websites for his favorite video games and anime, which sparked his interest in web design and development. In college he majored in Marketing and Web Design and while there created FAKKU, now the largest English speaking hentai website in the world. His site attracts over 250 million pageviews a month and over 9 million unique visitors. Recently, he created a second company called Sanshee with two of his close friends. Through Sanshee, they turn their nerdy passions into something productive by making shirts, buttons, and whatever else they can think of.

Jacob has worked with Ariel Rebel, Cosplay Deviants, Danny Choo, Icarus Publishing, J-List, Ultimate Anime, and more. He has been a guest at several anime and gaming conventions including Otakuthon, MangaNext, Kawaii Kon, Tomodachi Fest, and more.

Synopsis of the series:

L'Académie des chasseurs de primes... there isn't a better school throughout the entire galaxy and for apprentice hunters Gaël, Cacendre and Jahmal, it's the beginning of a great adventure.  However, a mysterious organization has staged the fall of the Academy.  This humourous science-fiction adventure series has seen its second volume see the day in 2010.  A third opus is in the works.

About the authors:

Benoit Godbout - artist / author

Born in Montreal in 1977, Benoit graduated from the school of design at UQAM.  In 2004, he received the Emerging Talent Award from the Alliance for Children and Television.  He is the creator of the cartoon "Blaise le blasé" which in 2008 earned him a Gémeaux for Best Animated Series.

Michel Lacombe - story writer

Michel Lacombe was born in 1973 in Montreal where he lives with most number of cats possible.  He has written or drawn for Marvel, Dark Horse, DC and Quebec Science.

MUSEbasement is a comics/manga/doujinshi circle founded in 2005 by Simon Gannon and A.E. Prevost, who have been making comics together since 2001. The Montreal-based studio is nearly a dozen artists in number and whose collective influences and interests span Eastern and Western styles.  The team works on multiple projects, both original and fan-based.

Site: www.musebasement.com

Kyowa is a small publisher which publishes young talent in Quebec.  Roughly ten artists work together under this name, working long and hard to produce collections of comics such as Mangue and Cactus + 16.  They also organize a number of workshops to share their passion for manga throughout the province.

With over ten years of cosplay and performance under their belts, the OAS is a comedy force to be reckoned with. Working with principles of universal comedy, topics relevant to their audience, and a high bar of quality, they always aim to please. Winners of multiple accolades, including several Best Masters, Best in Show, and Judges' Choice awards, they've since been performing out of competition as guests at multiple conventions. This year at Otakuthon, they welcome some new (but quality!) blood. Come see them open the Masquerade!