Stan Lee, Felipe Smith to Appear at Comic-Con Int'l

Ultimo creator Stan Lee to also appear in Los Angeles store on Friday

The North American manga publisher Viz Media announced that pop culture icon Stan LeeShonen Jump panel at San Diego's Comic-Con International to discuss his current series Ultimo on Saturday, July 24 at 10:30 a.m. He will then make an appearance at the Viz Media booth for a signing of Ultimo volume 2 at 1:15 p.m. Lee is also attending an Ultimo signing at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in The Grove at Farmers Market in Los Angeles, on Friday, July 16 at 7:00 p.m.

Ultimo, a collaboration between Lee and Hiroyuki Takei (Shaman King), is about two robots named Ultimo (a representation of good) and Vice (a representation of evil). The two were created by Dr. Dunstan 1,000 years ago in order to see whether good or evil is stronger. Ultimo volume 2 is currently available in stores. The series is also serialized in Viz Media's Shonen Jump Magazine.

Another manga publisher, Vertical, has announced that Felipe Smith will be attending Comic-Con International and Baltimore's Otakon in celebration of his Peepo Choo manga's release in North America. He will also have a launch party for his series between the two events.

Smith is one of the few successful American manga artists working in Japan. After winning second place in Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga in 2004, he went on to publish three volumes of MBQ. In 2008, Smith launched Peepo Choo in Morning 2, a monthly magazine published by Kodansha in Japan.

Baltimore's Otakon to Host Felipe Smith, Peter Beagle

Manga creator of MBQ/Peepo Choo & author of The Last Unicorn

Otakon has announced on Thursday that manga artist/creator Felipe Smith and award-winning fantasy author Peter S. Beagle will attend the July 30-August 1 convention in Baltimore.

Smith is one of the few successful non-Japanese manga artists working in Japan today. After winning second place in Tokyopop's 2004 Rising Stars of Manga contest, he went on to publish the three-volume series MBQ. In 2008, he began serializing Peepo Choo in Morning 2, a manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. Vertical is publishing the first volume of Peepo Choo in the United States this month.

Beagle is the author of The Last Unicorn, one of America's classic fantasy tales. The Japanese studio Topcraft animated the novel for Rankin/Bass in 1982, and the film's staff later became pivotal members of Studio Ghibli (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away). Beagle has also written The Folk of the Air, The Innkeeper's song, The Line Between, We Never Talk about My Brother and a number of other novels. He also wrote the scripts for the animated versions of The Last Unicorn and Lord of the Rings, as well as the episode “Sarek” from Star Trek: the Next Generation.

Otakon 2010 will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center. The event will also hosts other guests such as voice actor/sound director Yuji Mitsuya, MADHOUSE studio founder and producer Masao Maruyama, An Café's bassist kanon, hip-hop group Home Made Kazoku, voice actress Maile Flanagan, and director Koji Masunari.

Update: More background information added.