Meet the NCCC!
Wendy All is one of the early day Comic-Con Kids, where she was inspired to attend Art Center, which resulted in a career in toy and product design. She began at Mattel in Girl’s Toys and Preschool helping launch their Disney Preschool line, and later for Disney Consumer Products and Hasbro, creating concept designs and prototypes for many well-known licensed products and movie tie-ins. She collaborated with archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg for the Easter Island Statue Project in petroglyph motif analysis, studied writing through the UCLA Writers’ Program, and recreated Café Frankenstein, honoring George Clayton Johnson, for Comic Fest 2012.
David Clark is a native San Diegan and one of the original co-founders of the San Diego Comic-Con. With his friend, artist John Pound, he wrote underground commix like “Flip the Bird” for Marvel Comics’ groundbreaking Comix Book. David worked for several pioneering San Diego Comic retailers, including The Comic Kingdom and Pacific Comics. He studied printmaking at Palomar College and his work has been displayed and sold at local galleries. He is a regular contributor to the San Diego Poetry Annual and is the moderator of the Writer’s Workshop for UCSD Osher.
Diane Clark was assistant editor at the science fiction and fantasy publisher, DAW Books, which was founded by Donald and Elsie Wollheim. Diane’s responsibilities included reviewing SF publications such as Locus Magazine, science fiction related periodicals and newspapers for DAW authors, proofreading and copyediting DAW authors, as well as representing DAW at SF Conventions and book signing events in New York City. Diane has published short stories in Weird Tales and Amazing Stories. In 2011, with co-author Astrid Bear, she published a short story in San Diego Noir anthology, entitled “The Home Front.” She studied printmaking at Palomar College and has exhibited at local galleries
Jacob Dubizhansky is a graphic designer and traditional artist, with over 20 years of experience in the design, publishing, and filmmaking field. Jacob has worked on feature films, short films, and music videos both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. His work spans book publishing (illustration and design), fast-paced design firms, to the health and medical industry. Jacob holds a Bachelor's Degree in Digital Art and Design; and a Guinness World Record.
Greg Evans grew up near Disney Studios in Burbank, dreaming that Walt would need a 7 year old animator. Oh well. Graduating from Cal State Northridge, Greg taught high school art in El Centro, and then, with his wife Betty, taught in Australia. Back home, Greg began collecting rejection slips from syndicates. One day, watching his daughter Karen play dress-up, he imagined a strip about a spunky 6 year old girl. If only he'd imagined a tiger, too. Oh well. Luann debuted in 1985. In 2003, Greg received the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of The Year. And Karen Evans? She now writes the strip!
Mary Fleener was raised in the 60s' and had no choice but to be influenced by MAD magazine, and the glorious 18 page "Funnies" that were the staple of any newspaper. Dick Tracy and The Little King were her favorites. Later, ZAP Comics rotted her brain, so in 1986, she finally took the plunge and started doing underground comics. Her first published work was in Weirdo, and her stuff has appeared in Twisted Sisters, Tits ‘n’ Clits, Blab!, Grateful Dead Comix, Mineshaft, and many others. She is currently working on a 200-page bar band graphic novel, The Happy Hour, for Fantagraphics Books.
Nicholas Ivins is an award-winning artist, illustrator, and graphic designer, born and raised in San Diego. His artistic pursuits began at the age of three with crude drawings of undersea life and autobiographical comics. They have developed admirably since then, if only in the smaller amount of tantrums a drawing necessitates.
Jack Habegger is a cartoonist and musician from San Diego, California. He has two ongoing weekly comic strips—All's Well That Ends Well and From Stem to Stern—which appear online for those in the fields of healthcare and the sciences. His influences range from Billy DeBeck and George Herriman to Gary Panter and Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. His band Celebrity Telethon is active in the West Coast cowpunk and garage rock scenes, probably in a town near you.
Mark Habegger is an artist/writer who has worked in the entertainment industry for over 25 years. He produces and directs music videos and commercials and has worked on feature films and television series in various capacities. He has presented on comic convention panels and has conducted interviews with some of the biggest names in Comics fandom for the SDSU Library archival project, Comic-Con Kids. His artwork was used for the 91X Loudspeaker program’s monthly music compilations and has been seen on album covers and band t-shirts. He is also a freelance writer specializing in pop culture.
K.J. Kaminski grew up in the 1980s reading comics, starting with Marvel’s G.I. Joe, and later graduating to super hero and independent comics. In the 1990s, he published books with the original Blue and working at comic shops in Michigan & Oregon, including owning/operating Downtown Comics. He has been a part-time convention dealer and eBay seller for over 30 years. K.J. has spent recent years writing and publishing the sci-fi action/adventure series The Resistants, Hyper-Action, and Sophia Saturn with his company Big Blue Comics. He lives in sunny Southern California with his loving girlfriend, while promoting his books on-line and at comic conventions all over the U.S.
Dean LeCrone is a cartoonist, actor and cosplayer. During San Diego's Comic-Con, Dean can be found at the Cartoon Art Museum booth, drawing for their fundraiser. He also appears at comic conventions as his Steampunk alter ego Dr. Peepers, who has appeared on the Syfy channel and the Comet television network. Dean cosplays as The Joker, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands. As an actor, he appears in the dramatic film, The Elephant in the Room (available on Amazon Prime) and stars in the award-winning comedy he co-created with Allen Freeman, Get Lost in the Outdoors (available on YouTube and the TROMA NOW app).
Tony Newman has spent his long career in various automotive design labs helping ambitious ideas become road-worthy reality. As a sculptor, videographer and model maker, he has honed his skills and become a master at imbuing art with functionality. Tony employs traditional techniques and materials, such as painting and clay sculpting, alongside computer animation and 3D printing for an integrated art practice.
Rocco Versaci grew up in the Chicago suburbs and considers himself a Midwesterner in both origin and temperament. He completed his Ph.D. at Indiana University in 1997, the same year that he started work as an English professor at Palomar College—a job he applied to only because his favorite comic was (and remains) Love and Rockets. At Palomar, he teaches composition, creative writing, and literature (including his “Comics as Literature” class). He is the author of This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature (Bloomsbury, 2007), That Hidden Road: A Memoir (Apprentice House, 2016), and various pieces of comics scholarship and creative nonfiction. He also served as a judge for the 2025 Eisner Awards. More information is available on his website at www.roccoversaci.com.