Hero Initiative Announces Joe Giella as Lifetime Achievement Recipient for 2016

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - August 15, 2016 - The Hero Initiative, the charitable organization dedicated to helping veteran comic creators in medical or financial need, announces Joe Giella as the 2016 Lifetime Achievement recipient. This award promotes the merits of a dedicated career in the comic book industry and recognizes individuals who have produced outstanding work in this American art form. Joe Giella will accept the honor at the 2016 Harvey Awards in recognition for his longevity as DC Comics inker and Mary Worth pencil artist.  Tickets for the Harvey Awards and Baltimore Comic-Con are available now.

Long before drawing Mary Worth, Joe Giella started his career during the Golden Age of comics, working at Fawcett and Timely Comics during the 1940s. Starting in the late 1940s, Giella worked at DC Comics on titles such as The Flash, Green Lantern, Strange Adventures, and Batman under the direction of Julius Schwartz. He continued working for DC all the way through the 1960s and 1970s, inking for top talents of the Silver Age such as Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino, and into the Bronze Age with Gil Kane and Dick Dillin.  He remained a constant artist of DC Comics through the early 1980s. Since 1991, Joe Giella has drawn Mary Worth for King Features, up until his retirement this year, and previously worked on Flash Gordon and The Phantom comic strips. As Joe retires from the business, Hero Initiative and Baltimore Comic-Con are honored to have him as our guest. Hero will host this top talent all weekend! The Lifetime Achievement Award will be offered at the the 2016 Harvey Awards ceremony, on the evening of Saturday September 3rd at the Baltimore Comic-Con.

"Joe Giella is one of the greats" said Marc Nathan, promoter of the Baltimore Comic-Con. "We had an immediate positive response when we first published his name as attending the show, and to honor him with The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Harveys is going to be the cherry on the sundae. We cannot wait!"

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/

GUARANTEED PARKING

To make parking easy and stress-free, we have partnered with Parking Panda, the nationwide leader in online parking reservations, to allow attendees driving to the show to purchase guaranteed parking near the Baltimore Comic-Con. Click here to book your guaranteed parking spot, or if you need help or have questions, call 800-232-6415.

In addition to on-site CGC grading, this year's confirmed guests for the show include: Neal Adams (Superman: The Coming of the Supermen); Zeea Adams (Neal Adams Monsters); Scott Ethan Ambruson (Azteca: Ciudad Paradiso); John Anderson (The Infinites); James Asmus (All-New Inhumans); Sean Astin (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles); Hayley Atwell (Marvel's Agent Carter); Jeff Balke (Zombies vs Cheerleaders: St. Patty's Day Special); Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl); Marty Baumann (Pixar artist); Carolyn Belefski (Curls); Christy Blanch (The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood); Bret Blevins (Harley Quinn Road Trip Special); Danica Bradshaw (Wayward); Nick Bradshaw (Spidey); June Brigman (Power Pack); Reilly Brown (Deadpool); Harold Buchholz (Archie Comics); Mark Buckingham (Miracleman); Dave Bullock (The Rocketeer at War!); Jeffrey Burandt (Odd Squad); Buzz (Super Sikh and the Atma Defenders); Jim Calafiore (Leaving Megalopolis: Surviving Megalopolis); Ben Caldwell (Scooby Apocalypse); Chris Campana (The Accelerators); Jerry Carr (Cryptozoo Crew); Richard Case (Doom Patrol); Christa Cassano (Ghetto Klown); Mike Cavallaro (The Fox); Elias Chatzoudis (Grimm Fairy Tales presents Oz: Reign of the Witch Queen); Howard Chaykin (Imperium); S.A. Check (The Pink Panther); Sean Chen (Aliens vs. Zombies); Lee Cherolis (Little Guardians); Frank Cho (The Totally Awesome Hulk); Amy Chu (Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death); Steve Conley (Bloop); Matthew Clark (Justice League); Richard Clark (Archie vs. Predator); Katie Cook (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic); Stephen Coughlin (Sanctuary); Mike Curtis (Dick Tracy); J. Robert Deans (Crass Fed); Jeff Dekal (New Avengers); J.M. DeMatteis (Scooby Apocalypse); Matt Dembicki (Captive of Friendly Cove); Todd Dezago (Perhapanauts); Dan DiDio (DC Comics, Friday only); Charles C. Dowd (Lilith Dark); Paris Cullins (Blue Beetle); Kevin Eastman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles); Joe Eisma (Morning Glories); Tod Emko (A Piggy's Tale); Joe Endres (Colossians); Steve Englehart, courtesy of Hero Initiative (Captain America); G.D. Falksen (The Ouroboros Cycle); David Finch (Batman); Meredith Finch (Wonder Woman); Veronica Fish (Archie Comics); Shane Fisher (Dick Tracy); Chris Flick (Capes & Babes); Ramona Fradon (Spongebob Freestyle Funnies); Francesco Francavilla (Afterlife with Archie); Franco (Aw Yeah Comics: Action Cat!); Alexis Frederick-Frost (Adventures in Cartooning); John Gallagher (Buzzboy); SL Gallant (G.I. Joe); Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (Batman '66: The Lost Episode); Ransom Getty (FCBD 2016 - Suicide Squad Special Edition); Joe Giella courtesy of Hero Initiative (Green Lantern); Keith Giffen (Legends of Tomorrow); Mike Gold (The Pilgrim); Jason Gounger (Legio Ex Mortis); Anna Gownley and Jimmy Gownley (The Dumbest Idea Ever!); Stephen Green (The Legacy of Luther Strode); Dawn Griffin (Zorphbert & Fred); Rob Guillory (Chew: Demon Chicken Poyo); Laura Lee Gulledge (Will & Whit); Brian Haberlin (Witchblade), Bo Hampton (3 Devils); Tony Harris (Lost Boys); Dean Haspiel (The Fox); Marc Hempel (Sandman); Meghan Hetrick (Red Thorn); Greg Horn (Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars); Jason Horn (Ninjasaur); Adam Hughes (Betty & Veronica); Ken Hunt (Talon); Al Jaffee (MAD Magazine, Saturday panel and Harvey Awards only); Natalie Jane (Equilibrium); Paul Jenkins (Replica); JG Jones (Strange Fruit); Justin Jordan (The Legacy of Luther Strode); Dan Jurgens (Action Comics, Saturday & Sunday only); Chris Kemple (Red Vengeance); Tom King (Batman); Denis Kitchen (Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book); Barry Kitson (Empire: Uprising); Evelyn Kriete (Weird Tales); James Kuhoric (The Three Stooges); Samantha Kyle (Paul & Olly); Greg LaRocque (Stargate Atlantis); Hope Larson (Batgirl); John Layman (Chew: Demon Chicken Poyo); Jeff Lemire (Friday only, Extraordinary X-Men); Paul Levitz (Doctor Fate); Mike Lilly (Red Agent); Aaron Lopresti (courtesy of Painted Visions, Legends of Tomorrow); Nate Lovett (Actionverse Featuring Midnight Tiger); Joe Linsner (Harley Quinn); Kevin Maguire (Howard the Duck); Mike Maihack (Cleopatra in Space); Mike Manley (The Phantom); Mark Mariano (The Other Side of Hugless Hill); Billy Martin (Adventure Time); Laura Martin (Wonder Woman); Ron Marz (Convergence: Batman and Robin); John McCrea, courtesy of Hero Initiative (Judge Dredd); Ed McGuinness (Spider-Man/Deadpool); Pop Mhan (Saturday only, He-Man: The Eternity War); Chris Miskiewicz (Thomas Alsop); Terry Moore (Rachel Rising); Tradd Moore (The Legacy of Luther Strode); Mark Morales (Convergence); Joe Mulvey (SCAM); Kristian Nairn (Game of Thrones); Jamar Nicholas (Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America); Fabian Nicieza (Deadpool & Cable: Split Second); Chris Otto (A Dog's Life); Greg Pak (Teen Titans); Tom Palmer (Doctor Strange); Yanick Paquette (Batman/Superman); Dan Parsons (Convergence: Nightwing/Oracle); Candice Patton (The Flash); Brent Peeples (Gold Key: Alliance); Paul Pelletier (Justice League); Andrew Pepoy (Futurama Comics); David Petersen (Mouse Guard); Brandon Peterson (Uncanny Inhumans); Shelley Pleger (Dick Tracy); Lyle Pollard (Scarlet Huntress); Mark Poulton (A Cat Named Haiku); Eric Powell (The Goon); Andy Price (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic); Brian Pulido (Lady Death: Chaos Rules); Kyle Puttkammer (Hero Cats: Midnight Over Stellar City); Ron Randall (Convergence: Catwoman); Khary Randolph (Robin War); Tom Raney (Ninjak); Paul Renaud (Superman/Wonder Woman); Joe Rivera (Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1953); Rafer Roberts (A&A: The Adventures of Archer and Armstrong); Emily Romano (Comic Art House); Matthew Rosenberg (4 Kids Walk Into a Bank); Craig Rousseau (Kyrra: Alien Jungle Girl); Stephane Roux (Harley Quinn and Power Girl); Joe Rubinstein (Convergence: Batman and Robin); Nei Ruffino (Silk); Alex Saviuk (Spider-Man newspaper strip); Stuart Sayger (Hellboy 100); Mark Schultz (Conan the Slayer); Bart Sears (Bloodshot); Pat Shand (Equilibrium); Dave Sharpe (Ninjak); Brian Shearer (GI Joe); Jeff Shultz (Betty and Veronica); Louise Simonson (Convergence: Superman - The Man of Steel); Walter Simonson (Ragnarok); Matt Slay (TMNT Micro-Series); Andy Smith (Earth 2, Thanos GN); Brian Smith (SpongeBob Comics); Matthew Dow Smith (The X-Files); John K. Snyder III (Doctor Midnight); Allison Sohn (Red Sonja); Charles Soule (Star Wars: Poe Dameron); Mark Sparacio (Sheena: Queen of the Jungle); Jim Starlin (Thanos: The Infinity Finale); Joe Staton (Dick Tracy); Brian Stelfreeze (Black Panther); Mark Stokes (Zombie Boy Comics); Paul Storrie (Sheena: Queen of the Jungle); Karl Story (Thors); Ben Templesmith (Blackholers); Mark Texeira (Doctor Strange); Frank Tieri (Harley Quinn and her Gang of Harleys); Vivek J. Tiwary (The Fifth Beatle); Jeremy Treece (The King Collection); Tim Truman (Convergence: Hawkman); David Trustman (The Rise); Billy Tucci (Harley's Little Black Book); James Tynion IV (Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles); Rick Veitch (Miracleman); Emilio Velez Jr. (The Dodgeball Teens); Mark Waid (All-New, All-Different Avengers); Michael Watkins (Pantha); Todd Webb (Mr. Toast Comics); Mark Wheatley (Doctor Who); Matt Wieringo ('Ringo Scholarship Fund); Marcus Williams (Hero Cats); Ron Wilson (Marvel Two-In-One); Mike Wolfer (The Land That Time Forgot); Rich Woodall (Kyrra: Alien Jungle Girl); John Workman (Shutter); Sasha Yosselani (Comic Art House); and Thom Zahler (My Little Pony: Friends Forever). 

   

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, Instagram, and Facebook pages.