"Arrow" Media Guests Cassidy and Blackthorne Come to Baltimore Comic-Con

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - August 17, 2015 - The Baltimore Comic-Con returns this September 25-27, 2015. Held at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, tickets for the Baltimore Comic-Con and Harvey Awards are now available -- click here to purchase yours now! We are very pleased to announce our first media guests for 2015, Katie Cassidy and Paul Blackthorne, stars of television's Arrow, adapting the DC Entertainment character Green Arrow and his supporting cast. Katie and Paul will be in attendance Saturday and Sunday.

Katie Cassidy, one of Hollywood's most engaging young actresses, can currently be seen as the female lead in the smash hit CW series, Arrow. Based on the DC Entertainment Green Arrow comic, Cassidy plays Laurel Lance, an attorney and ex-girlfriend of Oliver Queen, who becomes Black Canary, fighting crime with Oliver (Green Arrow) and his team.  Cassidy can also be seen in the thriller titled The Scribbler, based on the 2006 Image Comics graphic novel, in which she plays the lead character 'Suki' and co-stars with Michelle Trachtenberg and Eliza Dushku. Cassidy's other film credits include: Monte Carlo, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Taken, Black Christmas, Click, The Lost, and When a Stranger Calls. No stranger to the small screen, Cassidy's other television credits include playing the female lead in CBS's 13-week murder mystery mini-series Harper's Island along with CW's Gossip Girl, Melrose Place, Supernatural, and 7th Heaven. Off screen, Cassidy is very involved in H.E.L.P Malawi. Katie and H.E.L.P Board Members journeyed to Malawi in 2009 to visit and participate on the grounds. Katie witnessed first hand H.E.L.P's ongoing efforts. While in Malawi, Katie learned how H.E.L.P. utilizes resources in the natural environment to teach the children and the community self-sustaining skills. She helped to plant crops, make stoves out of mud and clay, and harvest the jam and peanut butter ingredients which were grown at the local school. Katie left her special mark in Malawi by creating the Katie Cassidy and Friends Garden. She also designed a necklace to raise money for the foundation that can be purchased online.  http://shop.helpchildren.org/whate-love-means-collection-katie-cassidy.html

British born actor Paul Blackthorne will be returning to primetime TV this fall for a fourth season as Quentin Lance on the CW's hit series Arrow. Father to Cassidy's Laurel, Quentin Lance is a police officer who struggles with the ongoing vigilantism and his role in law enforcement in Central City. Last fall, he appeared in Dumb and Dumber To, the long-awaited sequel to Dumb and Dumber with original cast members, Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels. In 2000 Blackthorne starred as the villainous Captain Russell in the Oscar nominated film Lagaan. The Oscar campaign brought him to Los Angeles where he landed many roles in American television and film. He played manipulative reality show producer, Clark Quietly in ABC's paranormal thriller The River and has appeared opposite Ted Danson in CSI and Callie Thorne in Necessary Roughness. Blackthorne played Stephen Saunders in Season 3 of 24, and starred in NBC's Lipstick Jungle opposite Brooke Shields. He is well known for his portrayal as the inimitable Harry Dresden in the SiFy series The Dresden Files. Other credits include: ER, Deadwood, Burn Notice, and Monk along with the movies Special and A Christmas Carol directed by Robert Zemeckis. Blackthorne's directorial debut ,This American Journey, was released last fall. This documentary film follows Blackthorne and Australian photographer Mister Basquali as they travel across America interviewing everyday Americans about how they feel about their country and their hopes for its future. Along the way, stereotypes are shattered and wisdom found in the most unexpected places.  Blackthorne spends his free time traveling the world, and is an accomplished photographer. His first exhibition, 'Fish Heads and Other Things', took place in London and raised money for Greenpeace. This was followed by 'Bollywood Backpack' which raised money for the Gujarat Indian earthquake victims. His most recent collection, 'Delhi to Manhattan', was presented at Tibet House, New York and chronicles his journey through India, trekking in the Himalayan Tibetan communities and his meeting with the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala as part of 'The Missing Peace' project. Proceeds from this exhibition, which can be viewed at www.paulblackthorne.com, went to the Tibetan children's villages in India. Blackthorne was born in Shropshire, England in 1969. His acting career began at age 12 year when he joined the illustrious National Youth Music Theater at the Edinburgh festival. Blackthorne studied the Spiritual Psychology of Acting in London from 1996-1998 with acclaimed teacher John Osborne-Hughes. Autograph, Picture, and Media Guest VIP Tickets can be purchased at http://baltimorecomiccon.com/tickets.

"This is really exciting for us," said Marc Nathan, promoter of the Baltimore Comic-Con. "We constantly get requests for more media guests, but as a comic book convention, we are specifically interested in staying true to our roots. We're all fans of Arrow and enjoy seeing interpretations of our favorite comic book characters make the leap to television and in movies, so being able to announce Katie and Paul as our first media guests of 2015 is a thrill and a treat. We know their fans, and fans of the show in general, are going to be ecstatic to hear this news!"

TICKETS

General Admission and VIP Package tickets for Weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as well as the Harvey Awards, are now on sale! Visit www.baltimorecomiccon.com/tickets/ for more information and to purchase your advanced tickets now, and as always, kids 10 and under get into the show free with a paid adult General Admission!

HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS

While they are available, be sure to take advantage of discount rate arrangements we have made with hotels near the Baltimore Convention Center. For all the details, see:

http://baltimorecomiccon.com/about/hotels/

In addition to on-site CGC grading, this year's confirmed guests for the show include: Neal Adams (All-New Captain America); Scott Ambruson (Azteca: Ciudad Paradiso); Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl); Marty Baumann (Pixar artist); John Beatty (Secret Wars); Carolyn Belefski (Curls); Gregory Benton (Smoke); Christy Blanch (The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood); Martin Brandt (Kidthulhu); Harold Buchholz (Archie Comics); Mark Buckingham (Fables); Bob Budiansky (courtesy of Hero Initiative, Transformers); Dave Bullock (Wednesday Comics); Ben Caldwell (Prez); Talent Caldwell (Grimm Fairy Tales Presents White Queen: Age of Darkness); Frank Cammuso (Salem Hyde); Chris Campana (Kantara); Joe Carabeo (Black Magic Tales); Jerry Carr (Trickster: Native American Tales); Richard Case (Doom Patrol); Christa Cassano (Ghetto Klown); Tommy Castillo (Squarriors); Jacob Chabot (SpongeBob Comics); Sean Chen (Secret Origins); Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman); Frank Cho (Jungle Girl); Amy Chu (Strange Sports Stories); Rich Clabaugh (The Graveyard Gang); Steve Conley (Bloop); Amanda Conner (Harley Quinn); Katie Cook (Gronk); Darwyn Cooke (Richard Stark's Parker); Mike Curtis (Dick Tracy); Rachel Deering (In the Dark: A Horror Anthology); Vito Delsante (Stray); Todd Dezago (Perhapanauts); Charles Dowd (Lilith Dark); Joe Eisma (Morning Glories); Joe Endres (Colossians); G.D. Falksen (The Ouroboros Cycle); Jules Feiffer (Kill My Mother); Tim Fielder (Dieselfunk Studios' Matty's Rocket, Saturday and Sunday only); David Finch (Wonder Woman); Chris Flick (Capes & Babes); Ramona Fradon (Spongebob Annual-Size Super-Giant Swimtacular); Otis Frampton (Oddly Normal); Francesco Francavilla (Secret Wars: Battleworld); Franco (Itty Bitty Hellboy); John Gallagher (Buzzboy); Katie Gallagher (Zoey and Ketchup); Jack and Will Gallagher (E.P.i.C. Bros.); S.L. Gallant (G.I. Joe); Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (Batman '66: The Lost Episode); Bryan J.L. Glass (The Mice Templar); Mike Gold (Hawkworld); Jimmy Gownley (The Dumbest Idea Ever!); Keron Grant (Father's Day); Mike Grell (courtesy of Hero Initiative, Action Comics); Dawn Griffin (Zorphbert & Fred); Eric Grissom (Planet Gigantic); Allan Gross (Cryptozoo Crew); Laura Lee Gulledge (Will & Whit); Laura Guzzo (Princeless: Short Stories for Warrior Women); Cully Hamner (Convergence: The Question); Scott Hanna (The New 52: Futures End); Tony Harris (Justice League United); Dean Haspiel (The Fox); Russ Heath (G.I. Combat); Marc Hempel (Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream); Eric Henson (The Perhapanauts: Danger Down Under); h-eri (Ivory Dragon Studios); Ken Hunt (Talon); Jamal Igle (Molly Danger); Geof Isherwood (Suicide Squad); Klaus Janson (Superman); Dave Johnson (Inhumans: Attilan Rising); Dani Jones (My Sister the Freak); JG Jones (Strange Fruit); Chris Kemple (Red Vengeance); Denis Kitchen (The Best of Comix Book: When Marvel Went Underground); Barry Kitson (Empire: Uprising); Greg LaRocque (The Avengers); Dan Leister (Grimm Fairy Tales); Mike Lilly (Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: Robyn Hood); Joe Linsner (Red Sonja); Nate Lovett (Midnight Tiger); Kevin Maguire (Justice League); Mike Maihack (Cleopatra in Space); Mike Manley (Darkhawk); Mark Mariano (The Other Side of Hugless Hill); Laura Martin (Star Wars); Ron Marz (Convergence: Batman and Robin); Bob McLeod (Secret Wars); Pop Mhan (He-Man: The Eternity War); Kevin Miller (The Cat Maiden); Chris Miskiewicz (Thomas Alsop); Terry Moore (Rachel Rising); Mark Morales (Convergence); Nen (The Memory Collectors); Jamar Nicholas (Leon: Protector of the Playground); Chris O>Matic (The Chris O>Matic Show); John Ostrander (Suicide Squad); Chris Otto (A Dog's Life); Greg Pak (Storm); Tom Palmer (The Avengers); Jimmy Palmiotti (The Con Job); Dan Parent (Archie); Jeff Parker (Justice League United); Doug Paszkiewicz (Arsenic Lullabies); Brent Peeples (Legenderry: Green Hornet); Andrew Pepoy (Afterlife with Archie); David Petersen (Mouse Guard); Brandon Peterson (Uncanny X-Men); Khoi Pham (X-Men Legacy); Mark Poulton (A Cat Named Haiku); Andy Price (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic); Kyle Puttkammer (Hero Cats); Ron Randall (Convergence: Catwoman); Tom Raney (Avengers Vs.); Amy Reed (The Cat Maiden); Sara Richard (Jem and the Holograms); Rafer Roberts (Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream); David Rodriguez (Skylanders); Dave Roman (StarBunny Inc.); Budd Root (Cavewoman); Don Rosa (Donald Duck); Craig Rousseau (Batman Beyond); Andy Runton (Owly); Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo); Matteo Scalera (Black Science); Dan Schkade (The Spirit); Chris Schweizer (The Creeps); Jeff Shultz (Betty and Veronica); Bart Sears (Bloodshot); Louise Simonson (Convergence: Superman - The Man of Steel); Walter Simonson (Convergence: Superman - The Man of Steel); Matt Slay (The Sakai Project: Artists Celebrate Thirty Years of Usagi Yojimbo); Andy Smith (Earth 2); Matthew Dow Smith (X-Files Season 10); JK Snyder III (Doctor Mid-Nite); Scott Snyder (Batman Eternal); Charles Soule (Uncanny Inhumans); Mark Sparacio (Sgt. Rock); Jim Starlin (Thanos: The Infinity Relativity); Joe Staton (Dick Tracy); Brian Stelfreeze (Day Men); Paul Storrie (Sheena, Queen of the Jungle); Joe St. Pierre (New Zodiax); Marcio Takara (Armor Wars); Eric Talbot (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles); Ben Taylor (A Dog's Life); Ben Templesmith (Gotham by Midnight); Mark Texeira (Ghost Racers); Frank Tieri (Suicide Squad); Robert Tinnell (Kids of the Round Table); Vivek J. Tiwary (The Fifth Beatle); Peter Tomasi (Green Lantern Corps); John Totleben (Swamp Thing); Jeremy Treece (King: Mandrake the Magician); Tim Truman (Hawkman); Billy Tucci (Shi); Ted Tucker (Caricature art); James Tynion (Constantine: The Hellblazer); Ethan Van Sciver (Green Lantern); Rick Veitch (Saga of the Swamp Thing); Emilio Velez Jr. (The Dodgeball Teens); Charles Vess (Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream); Brennan Wagner (Django/Zorro); Matt Wagner (Grendel); Mark Waid (Daredevil); John Watson (Red Sonja); Todd Webb (Mr. Toast Comics); Matt Wieringo ('Ringo Scholarship Fund); Marcus Williams (Hero Cats); Marv Wolfman (courtesy of Hero Initiative, Convergence: New Teen Titans); Rich Woodall (Kyrra); Brian Woodward (Baltimore Comic-Con 2015 Yearbook); Bernie Wrightson (The Ghoul Treasury Edition); Annie Wu (Black Canary); Kelly Yates (Doctor Who); Thom Zahler (My Little Pony: Friends Forever); and Mike Zeck (Secret Wars). 

   

In the coming weeks, look for more announcements from the Baltimore Comic-Con. We are looking forward to highlighting our guests, the Harvey Awards, industry exclusives, and programming. The latest developments can always be found on our website, Twitter, and Facebook pages.