Guests – The Big Lick Comic-Con

Guest Creators

Fabian Nicieza

Fabian Nicieza has been in the entertainment industry for over thirty years as a writer, editor, publisher and chief creative officer whose signature co-creation, Deadpool, has become one of the decade’s biggest entertainment and consumer product phenomenon for teens and adults. He has written thousands of characters and his titles have sold over 100 million comics, including X-Men, X-Force, New Warriors, Thunderbolts, and Robin. The children’s animated series he developed, Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten with Arnold Schwarzenegger debuted on the Kartoon Channel! in 2021. His debut novel, Suburban Dicks, published by Putnam, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America as Best First Novel by an American Author. His second novel, The Self- Made Widow, was released in 2022.

Larry Hama

Larry Hama is an American comic-book writer, artist, actor, and musician who has worked in the fields of entertainment and publishing since the 1960s. During the 1970s, he was seen in minor roles on the TV shows M*A*S*H and Saturday Night Live, and appeared on Broadway in two roles in the original 1976 production of Stephen Sondheim‘s Pacific Overtures. He is best known to American comic book readers as a writer and editor for Marvel Comics, where he wrote the licensed comic book series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, based on the Hasbro toyline, revered by many fans as "the Godfather of G.I. Joe". He has also written for Wolverine, Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja, Elektra and more. Hama co-created the character Bucky O’Hare, which was developed into a comic book, a toy line and television cartoon. Larry also created Spider-Ham, who was recently voiced by John Mulaney in the movie Into the Spider-Verse. He is currently working on a new project, Mounties vs Werewolves.

Guy Gilchrist

World-renowned illustrator, author, comic strip artist, and songwriter, Guy Gilchrist is best known as Jim Henson’s cartoonist. He created the “Muppets” comic strip (printed worldwide in 660-plus newspapers daily from 1981 to 1986), and was instrumental in Henson’s “Fraggle Rock,” and the creation of “The Muppet Babies.” Some of his iconic Muppets artwork was enshrined in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. and his work was declared a National Treasure in 1984 by First Lady, Nancy Reagan. Throughout the years, Guy Gilchrist has set his hand to some of the most beloved, high-profile cartoons, such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Looney Tunes,” “Tom & Jerry,” “Tiny Toons,” “The Pink Panther,” “Minnie Mouse,” and others. In 1995, Gilchrist took control of the internationally syndicated, long-running comic strip, “Nancy,” originally introduced to the public in 1938 by the celebrated illustrator Ernie Bushmiller. Gilchrist returned the strip to the simple, yet impactful, illustration style introduced by Bushmiller. Like its creator, Gilchrist would also often inject subtle, yet meaningful, sub-themes in the panel’s background. Reflective of Gilchrist’s love for music and life in Music City, characters were often drawn wearing concert T-shirts or listening to music; Aunt Fritzi was portrayed as a music critic; and occasionally, artists were drawn in cartoon form or given a personal shout out. In 2013, Gilchrist proudly identified Three Rocks (the fictional home of Nancy) as a small suburb located on the outskirts of Nashville—forever cementing the strip with the iconic “it” city. He retired from writing the daily Nancy cartoon in 2018 after 23 years to devote more time to his other varied creative interests. Gilchrist is also an award-winning writer and illustrator of children’s books (42 titles to his name, including the acclaimed “Night Lights & Pillow Fights”), garnering Reuben Awards from the National Cartoonists Society in the Best Book Illustrator category in both 1998 and 1999, and three Children’s Choice Awards by the International Reading Council.

Bob Hall

Bob Hall boasts an extensive history in the comic industry as a writer, artist, and editor. His earliest Marvel work was on Champions and Super-Villain Team-Up. Hall is the original artist and co-creator of the West Coast Avengers team. Hall also served as the regular artist on Avengers and penned issues of Amazing Spider-Man. Bob Hall also served as assistant editor to Jim Shooter at Marvel Comics. Hall later joined Shooter at Valiant Comics. Bob's work has also been featured in Batman, Weird War Tales, Fantastic Four, Squadron Supreme, Power Man & Iron Fist, Daredevil, Defenders, What If?, Darkman, New Mutants and countless more.

Special Events / Reunions

1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Reunion

Big Lick Comic Con - Roanoke brings a historic event to our February 2025 celebration - a reunion of the 1987 classic animated series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Featuring Rob Paulson, Barry Gordon, Cam Clarke, Townsend Coleman and Renae Jacobs all appearing for both days of our event for autographs, photos and a can't-miss on stage Q&A! Early bird discount tickets go on sale Monday, September 16th at 10am EST at our website and the Berglund Center Box Office!

Media Guests

Michael Cudlitz

Before he redefined himself as a gritty man of action in HBO's critically acclaimed "Band of Brothers" (2001) and on the fan favorite "Southland" (NBC/TNT, 2009-2013), Michael Cudlitz found himself typecast by his naturally cherubic face in roles that rarely strayed far from high school. Cudlitz climbed the industry ladder from behind-the-scene work as a carpenter and construction coordinator to a run of high-profile guest roles on such popular TV series as "Beverly Hills 90210" (Fox, 1990-2000) and "NYPD Blue" (NBC, 1993-2005), as well as in such feature films as "A River Runs Through It" (1992), "D3: The Mighty Ducks" (1996) and "Grosse Pointe Blank" (1997). Playing teenagers well into his thirties, Cudlitz received a major career boost with his casting as Sgt. "Bull" Randleman in "Band of Brothers," a miniseries following the 101st Airborne Division's Easy Company through the European Theater during World War II. A host of man-in-uniform roles followed, including series regular status as the pragmatic SWAT team leader Frank Rogers on the short-lived "Standoff" (Fox, 2006-07), and memorable guest roles on the long-running "Lost" (ABC, 2004-2010) and "24" (Fox, 2001-2010). Cudlitz scored immediately with critics and viewers as troubled LAPD training officer John Cooper on NBC's "Southland" in 2009 of which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2013, then built on that success by joining the critically-acclaimed drama "The Walking Dead" (AMC 2010- ) in 2014 portraying fan-favorite, Abraham. Cudlitz also boasts an amazing voice work resume as he’s portrayed Sgt. Glenn "Hawk" Hawkins in the video game Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. He provided additional voice work for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare He also portrays Josef / Red Rush in the hit animated series Invincible. Recently, he’s portrayed a character defining take on Lex Luthor in the CW superhero drama series, Superman & Lois, receiving massively positive reviews from critics and fans.

Maurice LaMarche

Maurice is a Canadian voice actor and comedian. He has voiced the Brain in Animaniacs as well as its spin-off Pinky and the Brain, Big Bob in Hey Arnold!, the titular character from Inspector Gadget, and a variety of characters in Futurama, including Kif Kroker. He also voiced Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters and its follow-up Extreme Ghostbusters. Maurice will be teaming up with Rob Paulsen for an Animaniacs reunion at Big Lick Comic Con Feb. 1-2 2025 in Roanoke, VA!

Rob Paulsen

Rob Paulsen is an award-winning voice-over artist, coach, and author of Voice Lessons. With over 2,000 half-hour programs, dozens of films, video games, and other animated media to his credit, Paulsen has been one of the industry’s hardest-working, most in-demand, and most beloved voice artists, earning him a Daytime Emmy, Peabody, and three times winning the Annie Award. For nearly three decades Paulsen has voiced some of the most beloved animated characters such as Pinky from Pinky and the Brain, Yakko Warner and Dr. Scratchansniff from Animaniacs, Raphael and Donatello (2012) from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Carl Wheezer from Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, and many many more. From the start of his career voicing the character, Snow Job from G.I. Joe to his most current job reprising his characters Yakko, Dr. Scratchandsniff and Pinky in Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, Paulsen’s voice has reached millions of people worldwide.

Barry Gordon

Barry Gordon is a legendary voice actor. Most notably for Donatello and Bebop in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and as Jake "Razor" Clawson in SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron (1993). Gordon's voice was also featured in other animated series Mostly Hanna-Barbera shows such as Jabberjaw (as Clamhead), Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! (as Captain Marvel Jr.), Meatballs & Spaghetti (as bassist Clyde), Pac-Man (as Inky), Mighty Orbots (as Robert Simmons), Pole Position, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, The Adventures of the American Rabbit (as the titular character), Superman, Snorks (as Junior Wetworth), Gravedale High (as Reggie Moonshroud), Space Cats, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (as Englebert Newton), Darkwing Duck (as Dr. Fossil), Tom & Jerry Kids and its spin-off Droopy, Master Detective, Batman: The Animated Series (as the Penguin's henchman Sheldrake), Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Timon & Pumbaa, Fantastic Max, and The Pirates of Dark Water. Gordon also provided the voice of "Quicky" the Nesquik Bunny in television commercials for Nestlé. In May 2009, Gordon played the Cocker Spaniel in the Webkinz Pet of the Month Music Video for May 2009. He reprised the roles as the original Donatello and Bebop in three seasons of Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. On April 20, 2022, it was revealed that Gordon would reprise his role as Donatello for the video game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. This marks the first time that he would play Donatello for a video game and his first video game role in general. Gordon became a familiar face in numerous feature films and television series. In the last two seasons of the sitcom Archie Bunker's Place, Gordon had the recurring role of Gary Rabinowitz, Archie's Jewish attorney and love interest of Barbara Lee "Billie" Bunker (played by Denise Miller). Gordon also had notable guest-starring roles on Barney Miller as an embezzler, on Fish as a social worker, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a Ferengi businessman, and on Star Trek: Voyager as Ardon Broht, an alien publisher. More recently, he appeared as the Rabbi in Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Renae Jacobs

Renae Jacobs was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in East Lansing, Michigan where she began creating voices at the age of nine for a local children’s show, The Land of Play. At the age of 11 she moved to Los Angeles with her family and began singing and performing on stage. She is a graduate of the USC School of music and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Renae has performed nationally and internationally throughout her career and has worked in voice over for radio, television, instructional DVDs, and animation. She is best known as the voice of APRIL O’NEIL in the original animated series THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES. Renae has been heard on numerous animated shows such as Rose Petal Place and Rose Petal Place: Real Friends as the voices of Orchid and Lilly Fair in 1984 and 1985 with Marie Osmund. In 1985 she voiced characters on a series of books on tape from the toy line “The Land of Pleasant Dreams” as well as characters on the Hanna Barbera series, It’s Punky Brewster! That same year she worked with Carroll O’Conner on the The Glo Friends Save Christmas . In 1986 she a series regular on The Moon Dreamers.. Of course she created the voice for April O’Neil, Lotus Blossom and other characters along the way on The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles during the show’s amazing 9 year run. She provided voices for Hanna Barbera’s The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda , The animated film, The Page Master and the voice of Baby Glen in Bride of Chucky . You would have also seen her on the game series Masters of the Maze (1994–1996) as the “Lady of the Maze” hosted by J.D. Roth. Most recently Renae played the role of April O’Neil mother in The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Nickelodeon under the direction of Andrea Romano and voicing another mother in the critically acclaimed, award winning docudrama “Who will Write our History?”.

Cam Clarke

Cam Clarke began his career in short pants and knee socks in 1965 as a member of T.V.’s “The King Family Show”. His mother is Alyce King of The King Sisters. His father is actor Robert Clarke, who starred in many of the science fiction films of the 1950s and ’60s. Since the early eighties, Cam has been working in voice-overs, particularly in animation, Voicing such characters as Leonardo in the original “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. Cam has voiced many other characters as well including Der Fledermaus in “The Tick”, Mac on “Clifford the Big Red Dog”, He-Man in “He-Man: Masters of the Universe”, and Freddy the Ferret in “Back at the Barnyard”. He has also been the voice of Snoopy, Simba, and can currently be heard as Heath, Hoodude, and Professor Rotter in “Monster High”. Anime fans will know him from the 80’s cult favorites, as Keneda in “Akira”, and as Max Sterling in “Robotech”. He has supplied voices for numerous video games, most notably Kratos in “Tales of Symphonia”, Blood Elf in “World Of Warcraft”, and the voice of Liquid Snake for the popular “Metal Gear Solid” series wherein the sequel his character came back as an arm.

Towsend Coleman

Townsend Coleman is best known for his voiceover work on countless animated television series, his best known being the character Michelangelo from the popular animated program "Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles." Coleman first entered show business as a disc jockey working for WGCL-FM in Cleveland during the late 1970s, and also appeared in several theatre productions during this time. By the mid 1980s, Coleman had entered the world of voiceover work, landing the role of Corporal Caperman on the popular children's cartoon "Inspector Gadget." Further work on animated series would come Coleman's way soon after, including a 21 episode stint as the lead character on "Teen Wolf" (an adaptation of the popular Michael J. Fox film of the same name), from 1986 through 1988. But it would be as part of the aforementioned hit "Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles" that Coleman would score his breakthrough role, appearing in over 100 episodes of the show from 1987 through 1996. (He did not perform Michelangelo's voice in the early 1990s hit films, however; noted voiceover actor Robbie Rist took over the character on the big screen.) In the 1990s, Coleman began playing the title character in the cult-favorite animated hit "The Tick," and continues his voiceover work in the early 21st century. In addition, he is the voice of NBC, providing the narration of the network's promos.

Jason Narvy

Jason Narvy is best known for playing Skull, one half of the bullying rival duo on Fox Television's children's TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a role he reprised on its spin-offs, Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, and Power Rangers in Space, before leaving the franchise to continue college. He made a cameo appearance in the last episode of Power Rangers Super Samurai. He also appeared in the feature film adaptations, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie in 1995 and the Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie in 1997. He also provided the voice of Combat Chopper on the sci-fi children's show Masked Rider. Narvy appeared in a lead role in a Fox Family pilot, Men in White. He also appeared numerous commercials, public service announcements and voiced numerous toys, tie-ins, and video games for Fox, ABC, and Disney. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Franklin and Marshall College, and got his master's degree from Mary Baldwin College, where he studied with the American Shakespeare Center, performing in the title role in Henry V, Pericles, and Hamlet. He also appeared as Richard of Gloucester and Suffolk in a conflation of the Henry VI trilogy. Jason also worked with the Legitimate Theater Company of New York, a Lower East Side company that emphasizes new plays and experimental works. Narvy is a certified actor/combatant with the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat, a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and holds a PhD in Theater Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is currently an assistant professor of acting, directing, and musical theatre at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.

Paul Schrier

Paul Schrier is an American actor, director, and artist. He is best known for his role of Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier in the Power Rangers series. He portrayed the character for seven seasons from 1993 to 1999, returning in 2011 for the eighteenth season of Power Rangers Samurai, and was the last original cast member to leave the show. He also appeared in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie and sequel, Power Rangers Turbo. Schrier has also done some directing work, directing a few Power Rangers episodes, 16 episodes of the Hello Kitty animated series, and a short film, "An Easy Thing". He is also an artist, having worked on the comic book The Red Star. In 2017, he starred in his first animation voice role as Flonk in Cartoon Network's Mighty Magiswords.

Sgt. Slaughter

Sgt. Slaughter, is a WWE Hall of Famer, world championship wrestler, voice actor and WWE ambassador. From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, Slaughter had success in the National Wrestling Alliance, American Wrestling Association, and the World Wrestling Federation. He won the WWF World Heavyweight Championship and headlined WrestleMania VII in 1991. Slaughter also captured the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship twice. He is a WWE Hall of Famer, inducted as part of the class of 2004. As Sgt. Slaughter, he became known for his dark sunglasses, his campaign hat, and his Vietnam War-era military fatigues. In the 1980s, an alternate version of the Sgt. Slaughter character was incorporated into the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy line as well as its animated series and comic books.

More announcements on the way!

Let's celebrate the things we love!

Welcome to Big Lick Comic Con in Roanoke, Virginia – where the pop culture universe and cosplay fans collide! Our celebrity guests include actors, actresses, TV hosts, voice actors and comic book creators who have captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Whether you're a fan of comic books, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, or action, you're sure to find something to love at our con. Our team is committed to creating a welcoming and exciting atmosphere where comic lovers from all walks of life can come together and celebrate their passion for all things pop culture. We can't wait to see you there!