Every year, the comics-loving residents of Portland, Oregon have one major event that they look forward to, and that event is the Stumptown Comics Fest. This year, on April 24th and 25th, Stumptown will bring the best creators, artists, writers, and publishers from all over the comics spectrum to the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel for a weekend-long celebration of the comic arts. The Fest will close out an entire month of events around the Rose City designed to display the depth and artistry of the comics medium.

Stumptown is excited to announce a variety of Special Guests and events this year, starting with appearances by Batton Lash, creator of the long-running Supernatural Law; Brooklyn-based artist and community organizer Dean Haspiel is the driving force behind the online-comics collective Act-I-Vate, and he'll be here with several other Act-I-Vate artists to regale us with tales of the early days of the group; Local artist Theo Ellsworth (whose visually stunning and critically-acclaimed graphic novel 'Capacity' debuted in 2008) will also be joining us as a Guest, and provides artwork for this year's poster. The Panel schedule for 2010 includes a presentation by Kate Beaton talking about her insanely popular historical humor comic Hark! A Vagrant!. Continuing the Stumptown tradition of providing access to the best comics industry resources, we'll also be hosting another round of Portfolio Reviews with editors and art directors from top local publishers Top Shelf Comics, Oni Press, Dark Horse Comics, and Fantagraphics Books. Additional exciting Event and Guest announcements will be made in the coming weeks leading up to the Fest.

Registration of new exhibitors is currently open for this April's Comics Fest, but after early pre-registration following last year's event available table space is limited. Interested exhibitors should download the registration form (available now at stumptowncomics.com/registration) and send it in with payment before the March 24th deadline.