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Things have been somewhat slow over the past couple of weeks as it pertains to new Dragon*Con guests, but in the past 7 days since our last Guest List Update there have been 7 added guests. Not too shabby.

Probably the most recognizable guest in this bunch is Matthew Lewis who might be better known as Neville Longbottom from the sickeningly successful Harry Potter series from movies. For you ladies (and homosexual men), keep in mind that he’s celebrating is 19th birthday on June 27th, so…

…well ya know. He’s legal.

You can view the rest of this newest batch of guests by clicking the “Continue Reading” link below.

Bob Burden

Bob Burden is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of Flaming Carrot Comics and the Mystery Men.

Born in Buffalo NY in 1952, Burden grew up in the industrial rust belt of the great Northeast. After 20 years of Buffalo, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Akron and Sharon, Pennsylvania, he moved south to Atlanta, where he has lived since. In 1976, Bob graduated from University Of Georgia, in Athens with a degree in Journalism and minors in Advertising and Political Science.

Burden’s best-known creation, Flaming Carrot, has received some scholarly recognition: a cover story and interview in Atlanta’s prestigious Art Papers; an original cover drawing in Sotheby’s art auction; and reviews in the Village Voice literary supplement. Flaming Carrot even once popped-up as a question on Jeopardy.

Burden’s Mysterymen was the subject of a 1999 film adaptation, directed by Kinka Usher and starring – among others – Ben Stiller, Geoffrey Rush, William H. Macy, Janeane Garofalo and Tom Waits.

Besides Flaming Carrot Comics and Mysterymen, Burden wrote an award-winning Gumby story, a two part Cholly & Flytrap story with Arthur Suydam, and Robot Comics, a series which was reprised in the Robot Crime story for the 20th anniversary of Heavy Metal.

Bob Burden has also produced some prose work, including a short story called You’ve Got Your Troubles, I’ve Got Mine and an anthology of short stories by various writers, including Stephen King called Dark Love from Penguin Books.

Bob Burden’s works have won numerous awards including the Ignatz Award, the Inkpot Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts, the ACE award, and perhaps the most prestigious award in comics, the Will Eisner Comics Industry Award for the Best Single Issue (Gumby’s Summer Fun Special). Burden also had two 1998 Eisner Award Nominations for Invincible Man and Flaming Carrot’s Greatest Hits Volume Three.

Francesco Francavilla

Francesco Francavilla is probably best known as the artist of the Zorro comics series with writer Matt Wagner. He is also the artist of the recent horror GN Sorrow and the upcoming Frazetta Comics special Dracula Meets the Wolfman with writer Steve Niles. He also does concept art and storyboards for several film studios, as well as magazine and freelance illustrations.

Dominic Keating

Born in Leicester, England, Dominic Keating’s early stage performances led his instructors to single him out as a “bright, young hope.” Nevertheless, his major studies at the University College in London earned him a B.A. with honors in history, not theatre arts. But Keating kept the acting flame alive through the academic years, participating in several University productions and pondering an eventual leap into the professional theatre.

Keating’s credits include motion picture, television, and stage. His many credits (TV/Movies Theatre) include Prison Break, Heroes, Beowulf, and Hollywood Kills. He starred in the feature film “Jungle 2 Jungle” (Ian) opposite Tim Allen and Martin Short. Dominic is widely known for his role as Malcolm Reed in Star Trek: Enterprise. He also appeared in the Oscar-nominated feature film “Almost Famous” and starred with Raquel Welch in “What I Did for Love.” In “The Hollywood Sign” (Steve) he plays his first American role opposite Rod Steiger, Burt Reynolds and Tom Berenger.

His stage credits include University productions of “Life Class” and “Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead.” He won an award for Best Actor on the Fringe for his role as Cosmo in “The Pitchfork Disney” at the Bush Theatre in London. He also starred in the one-man play “The Christian Brothers” in King’s Cross and in “The Best Years of Your Life” at the Man in the Moon Theatre in Chelsea. He was awarded the Mobile Prize for his performance in “Amongst Barbarians” at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, which then transferred to the Hampstead Theatre in London. Other performances include roles in “Screamers” at the Edinburgh Playhouse Festival and in “Alfie” at the Tiffany Theatre in Los Angeles.

Dominic worked in a drag act called Feeling Mutual in order to get his Equity card.

Keating currently resides in Los Angeles and enjoys golfing, swimming, music, boogie boarding, reading and traveling.

Dominic supports the Save the Children organizations around the globe.

Matthew Lewis

Matthew Lewis plays the nerdy wizard student Neville Longbottom in the big-budget movies based on the Harry Potter series of books.? Lewis was only five when he landed a role in the TV drama Some Kind of Life, and over the next decade he appeared in a handful of BBC and YTV productions, including Where the Heart Is (1996), Big Bag (1998), and Heartbeat (1999). ?In 2001 he got a major break when he was cast as Neville Longbottom in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (U. K. title: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone). He reprised the role in the sequels Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).

Ted Naifeh

Ted Naifeh swooped onto the comics and goth culture scene as the co-creator of Gloomcookie with Serena Valentino in 1998. Ted illustrated the first volume of the gothic romance hit before departing to pursue his own projects. In 2002, he introduced us to the world of Courtney Crumrin, a young loner girl who learns magic from her mysterious and curmudgeonly Uncle Aloysius and uses it to navigate her world of school bullies and bloodthirsty goblins, adolescent peer pressure and deadly coven politics. Courtney’s adventures have been published in three volumes: Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things, Courtney Crumrin and the Coven of Mystics, and Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom. In 2008, Ted added to Courtney’s adventures with a new volume entitled Courtney Crumrin and the Fire-Thief’s Tale, with another volume, Courtney Crumrin and the Prince of Nowhere, due from Oni Press this fall. Courtney’s grumpiness, ingenuity, sarcasm and loyalty have won her many fans and two Eisner Award nominations: in 2003 for Best Limited Series, and in 2005 for Best Title for a Younger Audience. The Courtney Crumrin movie property was optioned by DreamWorks in summer 2007. Ted’s next creation was Polly and the Pirates, also published through Oni Press, a swashbuckling tale of proper, rule-abiding young Polly Pringle, who is spirited away from her comfortable boarding school existence by pirates who insist that she is their rightful queen and captain. Polly would much rather be drinking a warm glass of milk by the fire, but in the end she’s tempted by the gleam of treasure, the lure of adventure on the open sea, and the mystery of whether her mother could really be the infamous Pirate Queen Meg Malloy. Polly and the Pirates was nominated for a Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album – Previously Published. Ted has also illustrated six volumes featuring videogame character Death Jr. for Image Comics. DJ is a sweet kid, an outsider at school, and the son of the Grim Reaper. Together with his small band of equally creepy friends (box-obsessed Pandora, conjoined geniuses Smith and Weston, and torso-in-a-jar Seep), they dodge bullies and fight terrifying demon monsters. With Tristan Crane, Ted is also the co-creator of How Loathsome, strictly for the 18-and-up crowd. This four-story graphic novel explores the queer underworld of San Francisco, replete with sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, through the eyes of four memorable characters whose struggles with identity make them surprisingly easy to relate to. Loathsome took the comics world by surprise with its gritty, provocative and compassionate take on a taboo subject and garnered critical acclaim as well as a spot on The Advocate’s “Best of 2004” list. How Loathsome was published by NBM. Ted is excited to be illustrating a trilogy of graphic novels written by bestselling fantasy author Holly Black and published by Scholastic. The first volume of The Good Neighbors is due out in late 2008. Ted lives in San Francisco, which influenced his aesthetic from a young age with its magnificently spooky Victorian houses, romantic foggy nights and significant population of Night Things and other fantastic beings.

Jody Lynn Nye

Jody Lynn Nye lists her main career activity as “spoiling cats.” She lives northwest of Chicago with two of the above and her husband, author, packager and game designer Bill Fawcett. Nye was born in Chicago, and except for brief forays to summer camp and college has always lived in the area. She was graduated from Loyola University of Chicago. Before breaking away to write full time, Jody Lynn Nye worked at a variety of jobs: file clerk, book-keeper at a small publishing house, freelance journalist and photographer, accounting assistant, and costume maker. From 1981 to 1985, she was on the technical operations staff of a local Chicago television station, WFBN (WGBO), serving the last year as Technical Operations Manager. She wrote technical articles for a Chicago video magazine. She also wrote mystery game materials and Dungeons & Dragons supplements free-lance for Mayfair Games. Since 1985 she has published 37 books and over 100 short stories. Among the novels Jody has written are her epic fantasy series, The Dreamland, beginning with Waking In Dreamland, four contemporary humorous fantasies, Mythology 101, Mythology Abroad, Higher Mythology, Advanced Mythology, The Magic Touch, and three science fiction novels, Taylor’s Ark, Medicine Show and The Lady and the Tiger. Jody also wrote The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern, a non-fiction-style guide to the world of internationally best-selling author Anne McCaffrey’s popular world. She has also collaborated with Anne McCaffrey on four science fiction novels, The Death of Sleep, Crisis On Doona, Treaty At Doona and The Ship Who Won. She also wrote a solo sequel to The Ship Who Won entitled The Ship Errant. Jody co-authored the Visual Guide to Xanth with best-selling fantasy author Piers Anthony, and edited an anthology of humorous stories about mothers in science fiction, fantasy, myth and legend, entitled Don’t Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear!, “a science fiction book you can actually give to your mom.” She has also written a fantasy duology for TOR Books. The first book, An Unexpected Apprentice, was just released in paperback. In 2001 Jody started writing with Robert Asprin. Their first collaboration was a stand-alone contemporary fantasy, License Invoked. Since then, they have produced five novels and an anthology in Asprin’s famous humorous fantasy series, the Myth-Adventures: Myth Alliances, Myth-Taken Identity, Class Dis-Mythed, Myth-Gotten Gains and Myth-Told Tales. The latest novel, Myth Chief, was recently published by Wildside Press. Over the last twenty-some years, Jody has taught in numerous writing workshops and participated on hundreds of panels covering the subjects of writing and being published at science-fiction conventions. She has also spoken in schools and libraries around Chicago and its suburbs. In 2007, she taught fantasy writing at Columbia College Chicago. When not writing, Jody is a keen calligrapher, cake baker, photographer and international traveler.

Jon Waterhouse

Writer, actor, musician, rasslin’ manager and all-around jerk of all trades, Jon is ADD personified. By day, he’s an entertainment journalist. His work appears regularly in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper and pops up in national publications including Esquire, BlackBook, Paste and Boy’s Life. He’s also the exclusive publicity writer for legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame act Van Halen and helped promote the band’s 2007-2008 North American Tour, which grossed $93 million.

On the last Saturday of each month, Jon performs as Retch in the Silver Scream Spookshow, a twisted variety show featuring magic tricks, dance numbers and fun-filled frights. Think “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” meets “The Munsters.” A classic horror, fantasy or science fiction film follows each show, which takes place at the historically haunted Plaza Theatre in Atlanta, Ga.

Jon’s career began in 1993 when he graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from Georgia State University. Shortly thereafter, he founded TellTale Publications, and projects included The Red Hot Chili Peppers Illustrated Lyrics comic book. From 1997 to 2000, TellTale published Sideshow, a free, monthly magazine distributed in Atlanta and Athens, Ga. As irreverent as it was funny, Sideshow covered just about everything under the pop culture umbrella and featured exclusive celebrity interviews running the gamut from the Rolling Stones to Kevin Smith.

In between banging away on his computer, Jon trained as a professional wrestling manager. As bad-guy mouthpiece the Monopoly Man, he broke the rules and typically paid for it in the end. Jon worked for Dusty Rhodes’ Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling and appeared on cards featuring legends like Abdullah the Butcher, Diamond Dallas Page, Larry Zbyszko, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and others.

After shaking off the power bombs, Jon executive produced and wrote two short films. First up was “Basically Frightened” starring Col. Bruce Hampton (“Sling Blade”), which screened at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Next up was “Blood Sucking Fiend” starring “South Park” alumni Dian Bachar. A slew of upcoming projects are in the hopper. In addition to the near-constant writing, this married father of three continues keeping his ADD at full throttle by fronting a rock tribute band and performing commercial voice overs.

Source: DragonCon.org