Auto Assembly 2013 Guests

Auto Assembly 2012 smashed all our previous attendance figures and was a great success but we’re not happy with that! We want to make Auto Assembly 2013 even bigger and better and once again we’re going to bring you all another fantastic line-up of guests. Unlike previous years we have already announced our three voice actors who will be joining us this year but instead we’ll be revealing the rest of our guests gradually in the build up to the convention. However, no matter who comes along in 2013 it’s going to be a great convention…

Dan Gilvezan

Dan Gilvezan

Making a welcome return is Dan Gilvezan. Dan is familiar to fans everywhere as the original voice of Bumblebee from G1, as well as providing the voice of Spider-Man in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. Dan released gis first novel, Drowned In The Grenadine back in and last year released his first Transformers releated book, Bumblebee and Me recounting his work on the series.

Neil Kaplan

Neil Kaplan

Robots In Disguise was one of the most underrated of all of the Transformers shows. Lasting only 39 episodes and being heavily censored for television in the USA airing at the time of the attack on the World Trade Center, it still managed to develop a loyal fan base despite fighting against the odds. Joining us for a second time is Neil Kaplan, the star of the series who voiced Optimus Prime and Ro-Tor. In addition to RiD, Neil has also worked on several Transformers video games.

Outside of Transformers, Neil has worked on numerous anime series and is constantly in demand as a video games voice actor, including working on countless Star Wars titles (he is an approved wookiee voice for Lucasfilm!) and provides the voice of one of the primary roles – Tychus Findlay in Starcraft II.

Steve Blum

Steve Blum

Making his Auto Assembly debut in 2013 is Steve Blum. No stranger to Transformers, Steve started work on the series with Robots In Disguise with the role of Dark Scream. Since then he has been involved in a number of Transformers games, playing minor one-off characters and one or two others you may have heard of… Starscream in Transformers: Prime and in Rescue: Bots! He is widely recognised as being the most prolific voice actor ever to have appeared in video games and has worked on countless television shows and animated movies and the chances are that you will have heard something with him in without realising it!

Simon Furman

Simon Furman

What can be said about Simon Furman that hasn’t been said already? Comic writer, editor, TV animation writer… he’s done it all! Simon has been writing for Transformers since the early Marvel days working for pretty much every publisher to have taken on the Transformers licence – Marvel UK, Marvel US, Dreamwave, Panini, Titan, and IDW as well as BotCon’s own comic and has even written an episode of Beast Wars! He is also the co-creator of Death’s Head, alongside Geoff Senior.

There is very little that Simon doesn’t know about Transformers and Simon will be on hand to talk about Regeneration One… which we hope you’re all buying and enjoying!

James Roberts

James Roberts

Returning again to Auto Assembly in 2013 is James Roberts. James has become one of the hottest properties in Transformers comics. From his beginnings in fandom and his stunning self-publishing and critically-acclaimed fan novel “Eugenesis”, James made his break into professional Transformers work co-authoring Last Stand Of The Wreckers for IDW alongside Nick Roche.

In 2011 he worked on the Chaos storyline as part of the ongoing Transformers series before delighting fans everywhere when it was announced that his partnership with Nick Roche was to be reformed when they were to take the helm of one of IDWs ongoing Transformers series, More Than Meets The Eye.

While Nick has moved onto other projects, James is still working on MTMTE with a number of other IDW artists and no doubt he will have plenty to talk about covering his plans for the book…

Andrew Wildman

Andrew Wildman

We’ve got Simon Furman so Auto Assembly wouldn’t be complete without Simon’s partner-in-crime at Wildfur Andrew Wildman! Andrew has worked on Transformers since the original Marvel UK days and has continued to work on the title at almost every other publisher since then – Dreamwave, Titan, Panini and IDW and is now working with Simon on Regeneration One. As well as that, Andrew has worked on GI Joe, Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers and countless others and is currently working on his own self-published science fiction comic book, Horizon.

John-Paul Bove

John-Paul Bove

John-Paul is a UK based freelance colourist and writer. He has worked on a wide variety of titles including Doctor Who, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, GI Joe, Godzilla and more recently Judge Dredd. He is perhaps best known to Transformers readers as the colourist on Regeneration One – the continuation of the original Marvel series. John-Paul will be digitally colouring sketches at the show so bring along your sketches to be coloured the professional way!

Kris Carter

Kris Carter

Back again is IDW and Titan colourist Kris Carter. Kris has been working on various titles for Titan Books including Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Torchwood, as well as various titles for IDW including Transformers and Doctor Who and he has been a regular contributor to the Auto Assembly postcards for the last few years, The Cybertronian Times convention magazine and wrote and illustrated one of the strips for our exclusive comic, Iacon Independent from Auto Assembly 2012.

Kris was constantly active in the Transformers Mosaic scene as well, and he is also the co-creator of the indie sci-fi comic Lou Scannon which was nominated for an Eagle Award in 2012.

Kris will be sketching throughout the weekend, and will be hosting our Colourist Workshop during the convention…!

Liam Shalloo

Liam Shalloo

Celebrating six years of work as a professional comic colourist, and one of our more popular guests, Liam Shalloo is making a return once again to Auto Assembly. Liam had his first break into Transformers as a colourist working for IDW Publishing where he has continued to work on several of their titles. He has since gone on to work on Titan Magazines monthly Transformers comic and collaborated with Simon Williams on his Spiderman DVD covers for Clearvision.

In the “real” world away from comics, Liam works for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe as part of the Singstar Team as well as working on a range of other titles… although he refuses to talk about Singstar Take That unless he has had plenty to drink beforehand!

Liam has also contributed to Auto Assembly on a regular basis, providing colours for various postcards and comic strips over the years and was half of the creative team – alongside Nick Roche – behind the covers for both of our convention exclusive variant editions of IDW’s All Hail Megatron #13 and Transformers #9.

Andrew Griffith

Currently providing pencils and inks for IDW Publishing’s Ongoing Transformers series, Robots in Disguise, Andrew Griffith first came to IDW’s attention by taking part in the company’s “Be the Next Transformers Covers Artist” competition. Although he didn’t win the top slot in the contest, he did well enough to arrive on IDW’s radar and eventually landed the gig of illustrating covers for reissue comics of classic Transformers stories from the UK during the 1980s. Shortly after, he was brought on as an inker and fill-in artist on prequel comics for the feature film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, before contributing inks for the critically acclaimed mini-series Last Stand of the Wreckers.

Eventually, he was given his own mini-series to illustrate, a prequel comic to the Transformers: Dark of the Moon film. The success of that book and his working relationship with writer and former Marvel Editor John Barber lead to him being assigned on the current ongoing series job working side-by-side with Barber.

He has also illustrated the DVD covers for Shout Factory!’s recent releases of the original Transformers cartoon series, has done concept work for Hasbro, and illustrated an issue of Titan UK’s Transformers comic. As well as working on Transformers-related properties, he has contributed professional work to franchises including G.I. Joe, Star Wars, and Vampirella.

Jason Cardy

Jason Cardy

Colourist Jason is making another welcome appearance at Auto Assembly. Jason started off as a colouring partner to Simon Williams in the fan scene and his first professional Transformers work was colouring the Optimus Prime and Megatron standees for Cardboardcutout.net. A regular collaborator with Simon Williams on Panini’s Spectacular Spiderman book, Jason has since been a regular colourist for Titan’s Transformers comic working with a wide range of artists and also doing occasional cover artk

Now part of the Regeneration One team alongside Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman providing the colours for the covers on the comic, Jason has firmly planted his mark on Transformers comic books. As he has done so over the last few years, Jason will be taking to the stage again on Saturday night with another Transformers-themed DJ set.

Kat Nicholson

Kat Nicholson

Along with Jason, we also have the return of Kat Nicholson to the convention. Kat is now playing a major role in running the charity Draw The World Together which she and Jason inherited from Andrew Wildman in between her countless colouring projects.

Her Transformers work has included IDW’s Beast Wars Source Books and Titan’s Transformers and Transformers: Animated comics. As with her partner Jason Cardy, Kat also contributed to the monumental resurrection of Death’s Head. Away from Transformers, Kat has worked on Spider-Man, Action Man A.T.O.M, DreamWorks Tales and along with Jason Cardy has produced a graphic novel version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

At Auto Assembly 2013, once again Kat will be hosting one of her famous Art Workshops that have proven to be a smash hit over the years!

Nick Roche

No stranger to Transformers, as with many contemporary artists working with our favourite robots Nick started off as a fan artist working but made his mark on the world with his collaboration with James Roberts on the seminal Last Stand Of The Wreckers. Since then he has written and illustrated a range of titles for IDW. This will be Nick’s fifth appearance at the convention and as well as being on hand for signing autographs and sketching for fans all weekend we may just have to persuade him to take to the stage alongside James Roberts and Andrew Griffith for a special IDW-themed panel…

Ed Pirrie

Making his return to the guest line-up for Auto Assembly is prominent fan artist and our in-house art supremo, Ed Pirrie. With his comic strip work and character art being praised by fans, professionals and voice actors alike, Ed has developed a strong reputation as a prominent fan-artist online, providing work for several Transmasters UK publications and has a number of popular Mosaics under his belt. He came to the attention of Auto Assembly after winning their art competitions two years straight, and after that he was tapped to produce full- length strips for the convention magazine The Cybertronian Times, as well as working on many other illustrative projects for the convention including their exclusive postcards, lithographs and being responsible for the presentation and look and feel of the event since 2011.

Despite this, he considers having his artwork stolen and used without his permission his highest sign of success to date. He also has a soft-spot for mutants, radioactive monsters, and biotechnological humanoid weapons. Probably best ignored.

Alex Milne

Stephen Baskerville

Another guest making a welcome return is inker Stephen Baskerville. Known to most for his work on the Marvel G1 comics, his work added a whole new dimension to the already superb work of artists such as Andrew Wildman whose artwork he often inked. Stephen is making his long overdue return to Transformers picking up where he left off years ago joining forces once again with Andrew Wildman as he takes on the inking responsibilities for Regeneration One.

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