Special Guests

We are thrilled that these talented guests will be joining us at KingCon 2024

We invite you to click on each person’s image below to check out their websites for more information and an opportunity to see their work!
Please check out our promotional material and drop us a line!

Mick Garris

Mr. Garris is known for his work in the horror genre. He has worked with Stephen King several times, such as directing the horror film Sleepwalkers, written by King and starring Mädchen Amick and is the creator of the Showtime series Masters of Horror and the NBC series Fear Itself. Garris won a 1986 Edgar Award for an episode he wrote for the Steven Spielberg-produced television series Amazing Stories. Garris directed the FEARnet web series Post Mortem. He contributes to the web series Trailers From Hell. Garris was also the co-screenwriter and executive producer of Hocus Pocus. Garris directed the 2011 miniseries adaption of Stephen King's novel Bag of Bones and the documentary film Pure in Heart: The Life and Legacy of Lon Chaney Jr., about the life and work of Legend actor Lon Chaney Jr., which screened on the Horror-Rama 2015 in October 2015. He has a role, as Himself in the biography horror film Digging Up the Marrow, from indie director Adam Green.

Dollar Baby Directors Panel

Stay tuned for more details about our Dollar Baby Directors panel and viewings we are planning.

Kristen Bird

The artist, Kristen Bird was born and raised along the white beaches in the Panhandle of Florida and moved away to the Appalachian Mountains of New York upon being accepted into a Master's program. Even as a young child, Kristen liked to find creativity in all aspects of life and tried to bring art into anything and everything possible. Over the years of practicing, Kristen was drawn towards colored pencil as the preferred medium. Now, even while balancing a full-time job and being full-time in Graduate School, Kristen still tries to find time to let the art speak for itself.

Glenn Chadbourne

Glenn Chadbourne is a freelance illustrator specializing in the horror/dark fantasy genres. His work has appeared in numerous books, comics and computer games. Notable Stephen King works include the two volume editions of The Secretary Of Dreams (Cemetery Dance) The Dark Man (Cemetery Dance) The Colorado Kid (PS Publishing) Carrie (PS Publishing) and most recently the illustrated Cujo, also published by PS Publishing. Chadbourne also created the mascot/character Doug E Graves for King's radio station WKIT--the greatest rock 'n roll station in the galaxy! He lives in Newcastle, Maine with his wife Sheila and their pug dog Boo.

Francois Vaillancourt

Francois is a Montreal artist who specializes in images illustrating dark worlds and stories where horror and macabre meet.

His images are characterized by a highly textured, emotionally evocative and sensitive universe. Even through his darkest images, we can recognize a certain beauty and fragility.

Although he is trained as a classical artist, his work and creative methods have been transposed into the digital world, allowing him to rework images in a more fluid way until the desired result is achieved.

Rob Wood

Best known for five Stephen King book covers, Four Past Midnight, Needful Things, Dolores Claiborne, Gerald's Game and Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Rob has also illustrated covers for many other authors including Peter Benchley, Tom Clancy, Peter Straub, Anne Tyler, Jean Auel and Kristin Hannah. He illustrated the interior of books written by Carl Sagan, Robert Ballard, who discovered the titanic, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. He created two paintings for a screenplay of a story from Four Past Midnight entitled “The Library Policeman.” He most recently illustrated Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian for Suntup Editions; two of the paintings were included in the annual exhibition at the Society of Illustrators in New York. He has received awards for excellence from Communication Arts Magazine, the New York Art Directors Club, the American Illustration Annual, Spectrum’s Best in Contemporary Art, Best in Show and gold medals from the Illustrators Club of Washington, Maryland and Virginia. In 2001 he received an Award of Honor from East Tennessee State University in recognition for individual accomplishment as an illustrator. Rob lives on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay with his wife Kassie.

Kealan Patrick Burke

Hailed by Booklist as “one of the most clever and original talents in contemporary horror,” Kealan Patrick Burke was born and raised in Ireland and emigrated to the United States a few weeks before 9/11. Since then, he has written five novels, among them the popular southern gothic slasher Kin, and over two hundred short stories and novellas, including Blanky and The House on Abigail Lane, both of which are currently in development for film and TV.
Burke won the Bram Stoker Award in 2005 for his coming-of-age novella The Turtle Boy, the first book in the acclaimed Timmy Quinn series.
As editor, he helmed the anthologies Night Visions 12, Taverns of the Dead, and Quietly Now, a tribute anthology to one of Burke’s influences, the late Charles L. Grant.
Most recently, he completed a screenplay, a new novel, Mr. Stitch, a collection of novellas entitled Guests for Suntup Editions, and adapted Sour Candy as a graphic novel for John Carpenter's Night Terrors.
He lives in a haunted house in Ohio with a Scooby Doo look alike named Red.

Philip Fracassi

Philip Fracassi is the author of the story collections Beneath a Pale Sky (named “Best Collection of the Year” by Rue Morgue Magazine and a finalist for the Bram Stoker award) and Behold the Void (named “Best Collection of the Year” by This Is Horror). He is also the author of several novellas, including Sacculina, Shiloh, and Commodore.
His novels include Don’t Let Them Get You Down, A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, and Boys in the Valley. His upcoming books include the story collection, No One is Safe, as well as the novels Sarafina and The Third Rule of Time Travel.
Philip’s books have been translated into multiple languages and his stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Best Horror of the Year, Nightmare Magazine, Black Static, Southwest Review, Centipede Press, and Interzone.
He has published deluxe editions of his work with respected publishers such as Zagava, Cemetery Dance, Thunderstorm Books, Earthling Publications, and Lividian Press.
As a screenwriter, his feature films have been distributed by Disney and Lifetime, and he currently has several stories in development for film adaptation with major studios.
Philip lives in Los Angeles and is represented by Elizabeth Copps at Copps Literary Services. For more information, visit his website at www.pfracassi.com. He also has active profiles on Facebook, Instagram (pfracassi) and Twitter/X (@philipfracassi).

Jonathan Janz

Jonathan Janz is a novelist, screenwriter, and film teacher. His work has been championed by authors like Josh Malerman, Tananarive Due, Caroline Kepnes, Stephen Graham Jones, Joe R. Lansdale, and Brian Keene. In 2025, he will have a story in the landmark anthology The End of the World As We Know It: Tales from Stephen King's THE STAND (Simon & Schuster). Also next year, Blackstone Publishing will release his sci-fi horror novel Veil. His ghost story The Siren and the Specter was selected as a Goodreads Choice nominee for Best Horror. Additionally, his novels Children of the Dark and The Dark Game were chosen by Booklist and Library Journal as Top Ten Horror Books of the Year. He’s represented for Film & TV by Ryan Lewis (executive producer of Bird Box), and his literary agent is Priya Doraswamy (Lotus Lit). Jonathan's main interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children. You can sign up for his newsletter at www.jonathanjanz.com, and you can follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky, Goodreads, and Amazon.

Ronald Malfi

Ronald Malfi is the award-winning, bestselling author of several horror novels and thrillers. He is the recipient of two Independent Publisher Book Awards, the Beverly Hills Book Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and his novel Floating Staircase was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. He lives with his family along the Chesapeake Bay, and when he's not writing, he's performing in the rock band VEER.

Phantasia Press

Phantasia Press was formed by Alex Berman and the late Sidney Altus with the idea of publishing high quality, limited edition hard-cover science fiction and fantasy books. Each book is produced with extremely high quality materials.
From 1978 to 1989 Phantasia Press published 49 books. Some of its offerings were true first editions; others, the first hardcover editions of works previously published in paperback. In a few instances there had been previous hardcover editions.
In 2023, Phantasia Press returned to the publishing world, once again offering high quality hardcover science fiction and fantasy editions. We are continuing with the tradition of using archival quality, acid-free paper and smythe sewn in reinforced bindings.
In 2024 Diana Petroff joined Alex Berman as partner and co-publisher. Together we will continue to create beautiful books that our fans will be proud to own.

Suntup Editions

Suntup Editions is a publisher of carefully crafted limited edition books. We seek to continue the great tradition of fine bookmaking which was revived by William Morris and other celebrated pioneers of the fine press movement in the late 19th century.

“For us it’s about coming back to a simpler, purer time in our history when the art and craft of the book mattered.”