Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell and I haven’t done a lot of events for the past few years, thanks mostly to Covid. Even fewer of those have been in the Phoenix, Arizona area (where we live). But on Saturday, February 25, we’ll be guests at the brand-spankin’-new Arizona Comicbook Arts Festival!
This one-day show is focused on comics–not movies based on comics, not TV shows based on comics, not toys or cosplay based on comics, not any of the other stuff that accompanies most comic conventions–but comics and their creators. Marcy and I have both written novels about comic book characters–her most recent book is Sisters of Sorcery, starring Clea and other female magic-universe from the MCU, and she’s just turned in The Hunger, the first in a series of Marvel Zombies novels; I’ve written books about Superman, Spider-Man, 30 Days of Night, and Gen13. We’ll have some of those with us at the con, but also, we’ll have comics.
There will also be lots of other terrific guests. In a way, it’ll be a reunion of my old WildStorm pals, because seated nearby will be colorist Alex Sinclair, writer John Layman, writer/artist/editor/animator Shannon Eric Denton, all of us WildStorm Productions alums. Also, we’re looking forward to spending time with our son David Mariotte (writer and editor at IDW Publishing) and his partner, writer/artist Rebecca Ann!
Here’s the exhibit hall map, so you can see where everybody’s seated.
Then, on Saturday, March 4, we’ll be down in Tucson for the Tucson Festival of Books. For the first time in the festival’s existence, we won’t be exhibiting, but I’ll be doing a signing at the Tucson Sisters in Crime booth for a brand-new anthology making its debut there called Trouble in Tucson. They’re in booth #427, and I’ll be there Saturday from 1:30 to 3:30. My story in the anthology, “A Page from the Past,” is set AT the Tucson Festival of Books, and features private investigator Dave Tanner, a supporting character from my Major Crimes Squad: Phoenix procedural thriller series. It’ll also be of particular interest to fans of Ray Bradbury. Outside of that signing, we’ll be wandering the festival grounds, and likely spending some time at the Western Writers of America booth (#144), but we won’t be at the festival on Sunday.
If you’re in Arizona, I hope to see you at one or both of these great events!
#Tags: books, comic books, mystery, super heroes, Tucson, writing