Youngstown Comic Con Will Bring Back Industry Legend Jim Steranko

CANFIELD, Ohio – Legendary comic book artist and pop culture icon Jim Steranko will return to the Mahoning Valley this summer as a celebrity guest at the Youngstown Comic Con.

The event will take place July 8-9 at the new event center at the Canfield Fairgrounds. Steranko will be in attendance both days.

Comic Con owner Corey Ward previously announced that former WWF and WCW world heavyweight champion Sid Vicious will also be a guest at the event on July 8 only.

Ward said he is working on booking a few other guests, including the headliner.

Daily tickets will be $10 for adults (free admission for children 10 and under), and a two-day pass will be $15. Tickets will go on sale HERE on April 3.

This is Ward’s first year as owner of the Comic-Con. 

“I definitely think we’re headed in the right direction,” he said.

The comic con was launched in 2008 by Greg Bartholomew, owner of All American Cards and Comics, who is serving as a consultant this year. It started at Packard Music Hall in Warren and later moved to Covelli Centre.

This will be the event’s first year at the Canfield Fairgrounds.

Steranko is revered in the industry as a creative innovator. He’s best known for his role in creating and shaping Marvel Comics into an industry leader in the 1960s.

He revolutionized comic books by introducing many new approaches to storytelling and art.

Steranko was a writer and illustrator of the “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” comic. He was also pivotal in shaping the Captain America, The Hulk, Superman and X-Men characters.

Last year, an exhibition of artwork by Steranko was displayed at The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown. The artist attended the event.

Steranko also was a guest at past Youngstown Comic Cons.

Outside of comics, Steranko is an author whose two-volume book “The History of Comics” has sold more than 100,000 copies. He has also been an escape artist, designer, magician, model, sideshow fire eater, publisher, ad agency art director and filmmaker.

He was key in developing the Indiana Jones character for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981).

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