Take a Stroll Down Artists’ Alley at Sea!

May 22, 2024

Artists’ Alley is often considered the heart of any con, and we’re bringing it to the high seas for the first time! Comic-Con: The Cruise is excited to continue the tradition of offering fans a chance to meet— and take home work from— some of today’s most intriguing and engaging creators in a more intimate way!

We’re excited to welcome Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Afua Richardson, and Kip Rasmussen onboard the inaugural sailing of Comic-Con: The Cruise, and the first ever Artists’ Alley on the high seas!

Meet the Artists

Amanda Conner

Amanda Conner is an iconic multi-talented award-winning writer and artist that has worked on many of the top titles in comics for companies like Marvel, DC, and Image Comics. Amanda created the original character of Nautalie, who will serve as the emblem of Comic-Con: The Cruise Celebrates Sci-Fi festivities. Amanda and her husband Jimmy Palmiotti will continue to craft artwork for the three remaining theme nights, each piece infused with their signature style while featuring unique characters tailored to the theme of the night.

Amanda’s work can also be seen in such places as ABC’s Nightline, New York Times, MAD Magazine, Nickelodeon and on shows like The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon. She has also enjoyed a huge success with her husband Jimmy Palmiotti, reimagining DC Comics’ Harley Quinn into the character you see today in film and animation. She continues to work on her own creator owned titles as well as other companies’ top characters like Powergirl, Silk Spectre, Painkiller Jane, and so many more.

See more of her work here: paperfilms.com

Jimmy Palmiotti

Writer, editor and award-winning character creator (including co-creating Comic-Con: The Cruise’s Nautalie) Jimmy Palmiotti has a wide range of experience in advertising, production, consulting, editorial, film writing, development and production, media presentation and video game development.

He is the co-founder of such companies as Event Comics, Black Bull Media, Marvel Knights, a division of Marvel comics, and Paperfilms, where he is partners with his wife, Amanda Conner. Several of his contributions for both DC and Marvel can be found in major motion pictures and TV series including Black Panther, Painkiller Jane, Daredevil, Suicide Squad, Harley Quinn, Random Acts of Violence, Deadspace: Downfall, and more.

See more of his work here: paperfilms.com

Afua Richardson

Best known for her work on the Eisner Award-winning series “Black Panther World of Wakanda,” Afua made history as one of the first Indigenous Afro-American female artists to work for Marvel Comics as a penciler, inker, and colorist, earning her the Nina Simone Award for artistic excellence.

Afua Richardson is an Eisner award-winning American Comic book illustrator, writer, Musician, Lecturer and cosplayer known for her work on Marvel’s Black Panther World of Wakanda, Indigenous Voices, X-Men 92, DC’s Batman/Superman World’s Finest, and such films as HBO’s Lovecraft Country and Spiderman Across the Spiderverse.
Afua is also creator of the “Aquarius, the Book of Mer” series, and a Juilliard-trained classical flutist, singer, songwriter, vocalist and performer.

See more of her work here: afuarichardson.com

Kip Rasmussen

Kip Rasmussen is an illustrator, author and independent film producer. Inspired by the works of JRR Tolkien, he interrupted his career as a family therapist to illustrate scenes from The Silmarillion, the work he considers more fundamental than both The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. His illustrations have been included in Peter Jackson’s DVD “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” in seven books for the Hachette Publishing’s Tolkien commentary series and were specially featured at Salt Lake City Comic Convention. Kip is a published author as well as a producer of feature-length science-fiction and fantasy films. As an artist, Kip’s greatest wish is to promote The Silmarillion to those fans who know Tolkien’s more familiar works but who find The Silmarillion somewhat more difficult to read. Kip’s work was also selected for the official 2023 Tolkien calendar and “The Illustrated World of Tolkien: The Second Age.”

See more of his work here: kiprasmussen.com

Get Onboard

The only place to see all of these amazing artists together on the high seas is the inaugural sailing of Comic-Con: The Cruise in 2025. Get onboard! Stay tuned for more upcoming announcements as we roll out additional members of our Artists’ Alley and more. Curious about the onboard experience? Learn more here!