Guests – The Big Lick Comic-Con

Celebrity Guests

Dan Fogler

Dan Fogler is an American actor, comedian and writer. He has appeared in films including Balls of Fury, Good Luck Chuck, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and has done voice acting for Kung Fu Panda, Horton Hears a Who!, and Mars Needs Moms. He appeared on The Walking Dead as Luke. In 2005, Fogler made his Broadway debut as William Barfée in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

Samantha Alleyne

Samantha Alleyne is an actress and model from London. She played the first ever female Stormtrooper in Star Wars and has appeared in all five of the last Star Wars movies, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, Rise of Skywalker, Solo and Rogue One as well as Andor. She also played X-Wing pilot Allie Samta in The Rise of Skywalker. This will be her first US con ever outside of Celebration Anaheim so don't miss Big Lick Comic Con - Roanoke, August 5-6th at the Berglund Center.

Keith Coogan

Born into Hollywood, Keith picked up the acting bug while watching "Sesame Street" when he was five years old. After securing a talent agent, he featured in over 100 national television commercials, then over the course of four decades he performed in 3 series including The Waltons, 3 after-school specials, 4 pilots, 4 MOWs, numerous guest appearances on your favorite TV shows, sang and danced live on The Oscars, performed stand-up comedy, voiced "Tod" the young fox in the last "Classic" Disney animated film ever produced, "The Fox and the Hound", and starred in dozens of feature films, including "Adventures in Babysitting", "Hiding Out", "Book of Love", "Cheetah", "Cousins", "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead", and "Toy Soldiers". Recent credits include the feature films, "Beautiful Garden", "Dawn Patrol", "Cats Dancing on Jupiter", "Limelight", and a creepy turn in Lifetime Television's "A Tale of Two Coreys". Keith was most recently seen on screen in Kevin Smith's "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" for Saban Films/Universal Pictures.

Ming Chen

Ming Chen is an actor, podcaster, reality television personality, and webmaster. Ming Chen’s road to Kevin's Smith's The Stash all began in 1995 when the college student, video store employee and avid Kevin Smith follower, developed a fan website based on the movie Clerks. Smith, who appreciated Chen’s work, reached out and asked him to create a website for his production company, View Askew Productions. Now not only does Chen continue to work on all of Smith’s online projects, but has also ventured into several other areas within the Kevin Smith empire, most recently hosting a weekly podcast called “I Sell Comics” and Ming & Mike Show podcasts with Mike Zapcic and also starred in the AMC reality series Comic Book Men.

Wrestling Stars

Jimmy Hart

Jimmy Hart is an American professional wrestling manager, executive, composer, and musician currently signed with WWE in a Legends deal. He is best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Regarded by many to be one of the greatest managers in professional wrestling history, Hart has managed the likes of The Honky Tonk Man, Bret Hart (no relation) and Jim Neidhart (The Hart Foundation), Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Jerry "The King" Lawler, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, Irwin R. Schyster, The Mountie, The Natural Disasters, Dino Bravo, the Nasty Boys, The Giant, and Hulk Hogan. He was briefly the AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion in 1981. Before becoming involved with professional wrestling, Hart was a member of rock band The Gentrys, best known for their 1965 top five Billboard Hot 100 hit, "Keep on Dancing".

Brutus Beefcake

In 1978, Brutus got his start teaming with Hulk Hogan as one half of “The Boulder Brothers,” Eddie Boulder. He wrestled both in the tag team ranks and also in singles competition (under variations to that name) in Memphis, Mid-South, AWA, NWA, New Japan & Germany. As one of the top name talents during WWE’s national expansion in the 1980s, Brutus beefcake would soon go on to work with virtually everyone. He battled his archenemies like Adrian Adonis, the Honky Tonk Man, Outlaw Ron Bass and Mr. Perfect. He stood by the side of Roddy Piper, the Ultimate Warrior, and his very good friend “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan. Brutus held nine titles throughout his career, and is a former WWF World Tag Team Champion with Greg Valentine. He also competed for major singles titles on pay-per-view and television, headlining the Starrcade 1994, in a match against then-WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan. Brutus was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2019 by Hogan.

Ricky The Dragon Steamboat

Richard Henry Blood Sr., better known by his ring name Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, is professional wrestler best known for his work with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). Steamboat is often regarded as one of the best professional wrestlers of all time. In JCP and WCW, he was a one-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, a four-time United States Heavyweight Champion, a four-time World Television Champion, a twelve-time World Tag Team Champion (eight-time under the WCW banner, one-time (though unofficial) under the NWA banner and three-time under the Mid-Atlantic banner) and a two-time Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion. In the WWF/E, Steamboat was a one-time Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.

Voice Actors

Tony Daniels

Tony Daniels is a Grammy-nominated songwriter and voice actor. Known as the voice of one of the most successful and iconic brand mascots in the history of advertising, Tony the Tiger. Tony also voiced hundreds of characters with a 5 year run with Sailor Moon, but is best known as the voice of Jadeite, the human energy stealing antagonist of from the Dark Kingdom as well as The Wiseman, Baby Jordan and too many to list here. With the massive 90's hit, X-Men the Animated Series, Tony lent his voice talents as various characters. After playing Bobby Lebeau, Tony took over for Chris Potter as Remy Lebeau, better known to most as the fiery, fan favorite, Gambit.

Guest Creators

Tom Defalco

Tom Defalco began his career with Archie Comics, where he wrote for Archie and other titles including Scooby-Doo. He later joined Marvel Comics, where he would spend the next twenty years of his career. DeFalco was the chief designer and author for Dazzler, and later became one of the most popular writers for the Amazing Spider-Man series while at the same time rising through the editorial ranks. DeFalco succeeded Roger Stern as writer of Amazing Spider-Man, and his 1984–1986 run, in collaboration chiefly with artist Ron Frenz, remains one of the series' best periods. DeFalco also wrote a Machine Man limited series in 1984, with art by Herb Trimpe and Barry Windsor-Smith. After a half-year hiatus, DeFalco returned to Marvel and succeeded Jim Shooter as Editor-in-Chief. He served from 1987 to 1994, making him one of the longest serving individuals to hold that post. The only Editors-in-Chief with longer service than him were Stan Lee (1941–1942, 1944–1972) and Shooter (1978–1987). During his tenure as Editor-in-Chief, DeFalco had continued to write as well, with noted runs on Thor (where he created the New Warriors with artist Ron Frenz) and the spin-off Thunderstrike, as well as Fantastic Four. His dismissal coincided with a run on Spectacular Spider-Man which he subsequently swapped for Amazing Spider-Man. During this time he helped co-write the controversial and much maligned Spider-Clone Saga which revealed (temporarily, at least) that Peter Parker was a clone of the original that had been active since 1975. Peter would be replaced by the original Spider-Man under the alias "Ben Reilly". However, following several changes of creators and fan reaction, this was soon reversed. DeFalco is also the author of over a dozen graphic novel, several hundred comic book stories, several dozen cyber-comics, three novels and six children's books, including the best-selling Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide and Hulk: The Incredible Guide. DeFalco has personally created and developed over three dozen characters that have all been licensed for television, toys, t-shirts, posters, trading cards and other merchandise. He also worked with toymaker Hasbro on the G.I. Joe toy line, its animated show and was also part of the team that introduced the Transformers to the American public. DeFalco also created Spider-Girl, writing her series through most of the time.

Rodney Ramos

Rodney Ramos is an American Comic Book Artist with over 600 work credits for DC comics, Marvel, Valiant, Disney, Legendary. He began his storied journey in comics as a Romita Raider at Marvel Comics, learning his craft under the legendary John Romita, Sr. Regular work on titles like “Psi-Force,” “What The!?” “Thundercats” “Punisher War Journal,” “Amazing Spider-Man,” and “Iron Man” followed, as well as work on Green Lantern, Batman, Wonder Woman, and much more. His works include masterful craftsmanship for clients ranging from Valiant, Malibu, Acclaim, Marvel UK, and Neal Adams Continuity Studios, in addition to Marvel and DC. He reached cult status with his work on DC’s “Transmetropolitan,” a huge fan favorite, and most recently over Simon Bisley’s pencils at Legendary. His first published work for DC Comics was in 1992 in the title Gotham Nights. Later on he worked on titles as L.E.G.I.O.N., Guy Gardner: Warrior, Catwoman and more. Most recently he has worked in the Convergence storyline in the Nightwing/Oracle tie-ins. When DC went to reprint the earliest Flash crossover stories in a special collection, the original art and layout didn’t quite work within the new cover design. The editors turned to Rodney.

Christopher Priest

Christopher James Priest is a critically acclaimed novelist and Eisner Award-nominated comic book writer. Priest is the first African-American writer and editor to work in the comic book industry, with over 40 years of writing, editing, and publishing experience. His groundbreaking reinterpretation of Marvel Comics’ Black Panther was lauded by Entertainment Weekly and The Village Voice and became the platform for the Oscar®-winning 2018 blockbuster major motion picture and its 2022 sequel. Static Shock, which Priest co-created with Milestone Media, Inc., was the first nationally syndicated African American super-hero animated series, and the first act of 2005’s Batman Begins was largely based upon Priest’s Batman comic book work,and "Xerø," created by Priest and developed for DC Comics by Priest and artist ChrisCross, is being developed for film by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s G-Unit Film Productions. Priest is also slated to Executive Produce a screen adaptation of his groundbreaking take on the iconic Vampirella universe, which was recently acquired by Arowana Media Holdings/Mike The Pike Entertainment in Partnership with Dynamite Entertainment. Priest has also written and recorded numerous songs and served as producer and sideman for various bands and choirs, and has developed numerous properties for Hollywood including projects with former BET President (and Milestone Media principal) Reginald Hudlin (producer of DJango Unchained), Hamm & Kitchens, Inc. (Tim Burton Batman films), Edward R. Pressman Productions Inc. and Eddie Murphy Productions. He formerly served as a Baptist pastor in Colorado Springs, where he founded PraiseNet Electronic Media in 2001. Priest is a 4-time American Advertising Federation Addy® award winner for graphic and web design. His current comics work includes the Vampirella franchise for Dynamite Entertainment, DC Comics' Black Adam series and Superman: Lost, Heavy Metal's Entropy series, and Babylon, an original series Priest created for Humanoids Inc. as well as to-be-announced 2023 projects for Marvel Entertainment. His publishing catalog includes a trio of Green Lantern novels from iBooks/Simon & Schuster, the procedural crime novels “Dual” and “Zion,” “1999,” a serialized superhero-science fiction novel, “PraiseNet Essentials,” a seven-book ecumenical series of theological criticism, and hundreds of comic book stories, among them the collected editions Deathstroke Omnibus by DC Comics, Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection, Captain America and The Falcon by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection, Quantum & Woody Omnibus by Valiant Entertainment.

Mike McKone

Hailing from England, McKone’s first published work was for DC Comics’ Justice League of America and Marvel Comics’ Punisher series. In the years since he has illustrated almost every major character for the big two publishers, including lengthy runs on Teen Titans, Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. Recent projects were the Avengers graphic novel: Endless Wartime and Justice League United. Now residing in the US, McKone is working on a creator owned project while providing covers and merchandising illustrations for clients such as Marvel, DC, Dynamite, Valiant, Dorling Kindersley and Converse.

Official Photo Ops & Autographs

We do not charge a fee to "meet" any of guests. Guests are available throughout the event at their respective booths aside from Q&A panel sessions, photo ops, breaks as needed and all guests unless otherwise noted will be on site Saturday AND Sunday for our celebration.

Please note Official Photo Ops do NOT include entry to Big Lick Comic Con. Entry must be purchased separately. Photo Ops do NOT include autographs. Autographs are not sold in advance. They will be available for purchase from any of our guests are their respective tables during the event. Prices for autographs vary based on guest. Most guests accept cash or credit. We have an ATM on site. We recommend purchasing official photo ops in advance as they can sell out and are a wonderful keepsake for your experience at Big Lick Comic Con!