The South African geeky convention calendar is largely clustered in 2019, with biggies like ICON and FanCon a week apart (from 22-24 April and 27-28 April respectively), and just a 3-day gap between Comic Con Africa (21-24 September) and rAge (27-29 September). Reportedly, this grouping will allow event organisers to pool their efforts and budgets (well, at least in terms of the first two events) and bring some of the biggest names in pop culture to South Africa.

In theory anyway. No international comics creators from outside the African continent have been announced yet for any local convention this year. With that in mind, here’s our wish list of comic industry stars we’d most like to see come to our shores, and why. Comment below our choices with your top three picks too.

Noelle:

Gail Simone

Gail Simone is a lifelong comics fan, critic and former hairstylist who made an ultra-successful transition into comics writer. A pioneer for high-profile female creators in the industry, as well as LGBT-positive content on the page, she has enjoyed celebrated, fan-favourite runs on the likes of Batgirl, Birds of Prey, Deadpool, Red Sonja, Wonder Woman and, most recently, Domino. In all of these cases she essentially revived and redefined the characters in question, creating definitive arcs in their histories. Also, she has arguably the busiest, most whacked Twitter account in the business so we’d love to pick her brain in person.

Brian K. Vaughan

Y: The Last Man. Paper Girls. Ex Machina. Pride of Baghdad. And, of course, the multi-Eisner-Award-winning Saga. Over the past 25 years or so, comics writer Brian K. Vaughan has been responsible for some of the most original, thought-provoking and engaging comics outside of the default capes-and-tights genre. And that’s just his creator-driven work. Vaughan was also part of the creative team that originally came up with Marvel’s Runaways comic, worked on cult TV series Lost and acted as showrunner for Stephen King adaptation Under the Dome. Just think of all the knowledge he could share with South Africa’s indie comics creators trying to get their creator-owned projects off the ground.

Stjepan Šejić

Okay, mostly I want Croatian artist and writer Stjepan Sejic to come over for a South African con so that I can thank the unpronounceable-named one in person for his goofy-yet-heartfelt BDSM romance Sunstone. Also, there would be the opportunity to gain insight into how the man (who has worked on such titles as Rat Queens, Witchblade and Aquaman, in addition to his own projects) achieves his signature painterly style so damn quickly. FYI, Sejic is another comics creator with a massively entertaining social media presence, and his appearance would likely be accompanied by his wife, fellow comics creator Linda (Blood Stain) Sejic.

Tracy

Neil Gaiman

The first (and pretty much only) name that comes to mind when I think about which comic creator I would love to meet is Neil Gaiman. Not only is Gaiman a prolific author of many scripts, screenplays, novels, and short stories, but he’s also responsible for The Sandman, which collectively has over 26 Eisner Awards, along with accolades from the Hugo Awards and the Bram Stoker awards.

The Sandman is legendary for a reason, a mix of fantasy, humour, darkness and witticism on a magnificent scale. Though it began its run in 1989 and concluded (officially) in 1996, The Sandman – and Gaiman’s work – still has far-reaching impact today.

Noelle Stevenson

Another Eisner award winner on my list, this time in the form of Lumberjanes developer and writer Noelle Stevenson. Not only has Stevenson turned her own webcomic into a graphic novel that was published by HarperCollins, but she has also worked with BOOM! Studios on Lumberjanes and Sleepy Hollow, and written for Marvel’s Runaways and Thor. Mostly, I seriously admire Stevenson for her work as Executive Producer for Netflix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and would love to thank her in person for such an amazing show.

Sarah Anderson

Sarah Anderson, author and artist of the slice of life webcomic Sarah’s Scribbles, might be a surprising entry on this list. Most people would jump to the heavyweights of Marvel and DC, but for me, webcomics are my jam. They’re easily accessible, relatable, and, very importantly for a country like ours, pretty easy to self-fund. I would love to speak to someone who has made a huge success out of a webcomic about what it’s like to self-fund and find the reach.

Also, I would pretty much do anything to commission Anderson for a tattoo design of her little black cat, seeing as everything that cat does reminds me of my own little black cat.

Well, those are all our picks. Do you agree/disagree with them? Which comics creators would you like to see grace our shores? Sound off in the comments below!