Special Guests

FRANCIS MANAPUL The Legion of Super-Heroes

Francis Manapul is a professional comic book artist based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was born in Manila, Philippines on August 26th, 1979 and moved Toronto with his family in 1989. Francis works out of his home studio in Toronto and enjoys movies, music, poker and video games when he isn't at the drawing table.

Francis began his career as a professional comic book artist at the age of eighteen with a book published by SLG Publishing called "Love in Tights". He moved on to Top Cow Productions, where he worked on several books including a long successful run on their flagship title Witchblade. Following his time on Witchblade, Francis collaborated with writer Joshua Ortega to launch the mini-series Necromancer. Beginning in late 2006 after Francis finished his tenure at Top Cow, he collaborated with creator Jason Rubin (Crash Bandicoot) on his creator owned mini-series called Iron and the Maiden. Iron and the Maiden is the first creator owned property published by Aspen MLT, and was launched at the 2007 San Diego Comicon. Francis is almost finished work on his first European graphic novel - Sept Guerriers to be published first half of 2008 by Delcourt. Over the past several years Francis has also worked on covers or stories for many different titles such as Battle of the Planets, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe Frontline, Masters of the Universe and Tomb Raider.

In 2007, Francis signed a two year exclusive contract with DC Comics and his first project at DC is the fan favourite "The Legion of Superheroes", with writer Jim Shooter starting with issue #37 (January 2008).