Meet the presenters holding workshops and discussions throughout the day at Fandom Fest! Find your niche!
Mr. Yumy Odom
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The East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC, Inc.) The nation’s first full-service comic book convention, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit literacy and arts organization founded by Mr. Yumy Odom in A.D. 2002. As a full-service comic book convention, ECBACC offers: first-rate professional comic book industry workshops/trainings in conjunction with several community-based organizations, including libraries and museums; comic book mini-cons, workshops, and youth literacy initiatives year-round, including the S.T.A.R.S program.
Be sure to check out his event: The First World Komix Superhero Creation where you'll learn how to use pre-existing media to inspire your own heroic inventions!
Joyce Weisbecker
Joyce Weisbecker is the first independent video game developer, first female commercial video game designer and has worked as a research and product development actuary and as a radar systems engineer. Her first commercial game was the TV Schoolhouse I for the RCA II console in 1976 followed by Speedway and Tag for the same console. Weisbecker describes her process of video game design as "a filmmaker's approach" because she starts by imagining a dramatic scene that could recur throughout a game session. Next comes selecting a game mechanic and genre that create the right conditions for that scene to play out. The goal then becomes to structure the game in such a way that dramatic tension rises and falls as a natural result of the player's actions, because seeing that your choices have an effect on the pace of gameplay enhances the immersive user experience.
Don't miss her presentation: From Scene to Screen: Intro to Video Game Design where Joyce will deep dive into her video game creation process.
Mike Dawson
Mike Dawson is the award-winning author of the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard select middle-grade graphic novel series, The Fifth Quarter. His comics and cartoons have also appeared at The New Yorker, Slate, The Nib, Romper, and in the pages of The New York Times.
Mike’s work has been nominated for multiple Eisner and Ignatz awards, and shortlisted for the Slate Cartoonists Studio Prize. In 2024 he received a Fellowship Grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. He lives along the Jersey Shore with his wife and children and two dogs.
Don't miss Mike's Cartooning Workshop, Cartooning Lessons Workshop: Telling Your Stories Through Comics and his Keynote Presentation: A Cartoonist's Journey.