New comic guests announced for Portsmouth Comic Con 2026
Portsmouth Comic Con – taking place at the Portsmouth Guildhall on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd May 2026 – has announced a number of new comic artists and authors appearing in Artists Alley over the two-day celebration of the best in comics, film, TV and pop culture entertainment.
Joining previously announced Chris Wildgoose, Mike Dowling and Lucy Sullivan are Sam Hart, Wren James, Rory McConville and Sarah Graley.
Sam Hart is comic book artist on graphic novels such as Joan of Arc, Grace O’Malley, King Arthur, and Robin Hood, all scripted by Tony Lee, and The Coldest City written by Antony Johnston, published by Oni Press and adapted to cinema in 2017 as Atomic Blonde, starring Charlize Theron. He won Best Fanzine HQMix and 1st Rio Comic Bienal in 1991 with the fanzine MATRIX, and Best Miniseries HQ Mix in 2023 for 10 Lost Days.
Sam has edited the comic books Front and Kaos! in Brazil, and for the UK has drawn Starship Troopers and Judge Dredd in 2000AD. He has worked with editorial illustration for magazines and newspapers, and drawn TV and advertising storyboards. He presently has two online courses on the Domestika platform, on Comic Book Inking and Visual Narrative, and recently published his creator-owned comics Schem-Ha, An Eternity of War and Ruins. In 2026 he will be promoting his new how-to-draw book Comic Art Superheroes.
Sam Hart
Wren James is a Carnegie-longlisted British author of many Young Adult novels as “Lauren James”, including Last Seen Online, Green Rising and The Next Together. Appearing on Sunday only, they are a RLF Royal Fellow and the story consultant on Netflix’s Heartstopper (Seasons 2 and 3). They like writing stories where queer characters get to be messy and toxic, and exploring ‘bad representation’.
Wren is the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League and works as a consultant on climate storytelling for museums, production companies, major brands and publishers, with a focus on optimism and hope. Born in 1992, Wren has a Master’s degree from the University of Nottingham, where they studied Chemistry and Physics. They currently run a Queer Writers group in Coventry
Rory McConville is an Irish writer known for his creator-owned works at Image Comics, including Time Before Time and Write it in Blood, as well as writing iconic characters and titles such as King Spawn, Terminator: Metal, Medieval Spawn and Judge Dredd.
Sarah Graley is the award-winning UK-based cartoonist behind long-running webcomic Our Super Adventure, and the creator of comics like Pizza Watch, Bite + Subscribe!, Donut the Destroyer, Glitch and Kim Reaper. Sarah and her comics partner-in-crime and husband, Stef Purenins, have just seen the release of their latest book, Pizza Watch, through Skybound/Image Comics. The duo has also recently self-published Treats!, the newest comic collection in the Our Super Adventure series, a long-running diary comic about relationships and cats that Sarah and Stef have been posting online since 2012. It has a big following across Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. Sarah has also worked on official comic books for Minecraft, Garfield, Marvel Action Spider-Man and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Portsmouth Comic Con is the largest family-friendly comic con of its kind, attracting more than 8,000 people through its doors in 2025, and is widely regarded as an unmissable event in the comic con calendar. In addition to the impressive comic-focused Artist Alley, visitors can also enjoy the immersive Star Wars Experience, participate in Nerf battles, watch or participate in colourful cosplay parades, listen to compelling panels and discussions, get hands-on in the workshops and gaming zones, and take advantage of the largest selections of comics, collectables and merch around.
Tickets are available at www.portsmouthcomiccon.com
