Special Guests

Born and raised in Rimouski, Mel Gosselin considers herself first and foremost as a geek passionate about anime, cosplay, cinema, comics and video games. Noticed by literary critics for its originality and heart-rending scenes in Cétacia, her historical fiction, this time she draws from the retro-futurism and the steampunk genres to create the intriguing and quirky universe of Jacky Salaberry : Collectionneur de virus. Mel is proud to present to Otakuthon the second opus of this fantasy series: La Confrérie du Vautour.

Official Site
http://www.jackysalaberry.com

Jeff Simpson is a concept artist and illustrator living in Montreal Canada, currently working for Eidos Montreal. His previous clients include Ubisoft Montreal (Assassins Creed: Revelations, Assassins Creed: 3, Assassins Creed: Unity), Universal Pictures (Snow White and the Huntsman), Lionsgate (The Last Witch Hunter), MovingPictureCompany (various films to be announced), The Mill (VFX concept for several advertisements), Wizards of the Coast (Magic The Gathering).

Ben Lo is a concept artist working in the game industry. He is currently working for Bioware on the next Mass Effect project in Montreal. Before moving to the city, he worked at Irrational Games in Boston on Bioshock Infinite. Coming from a classical animation background at Sheridan College, his passion lies in creating both beautiful and believable environment work, as well as fun and visually appealing characters.

Jayd "Chira" Ait-Kaci is an American-born, French-raised artist working on art full time in Canada. She focuses on stories of a magical nature with her partner, Alex Singer, producing stories through Little Foolery. They are most known for their webcomic "Sfeer Theory.".

Christopher Macdonald was the long-time editor-in-chief of Anime News Network and is now the company's publisher and CEO as well as the new editor-in-chief of the leading French anime magazine, Animeland. He is also a consultant for anime companies in Japan, America and other surprising corners of the planet. He's currently addited to caffeine, Shirobako and I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying.

Presented by: O-TAKU Manga Lounge

Tony Valente started in comics at Delcourt, working on illustration and colour with fantasy series Les 4 princes de Ganahan written by Raphaël Drommelschlager.

After this was completed, he set out solo with his own 3-volume project, Hana Attori, in which he returned to his initial influences: Japanese manga and anime. Following this, he illustrated for S.P.E.E.D Angels, a more contemporary-style series published by Soleil Manga, written by Didier Tarquin and coloured by Pop.

In parallel to this collaboration, his personal projects have resurfaced, particularly with the debut of the first volume of Radiant, published by Ankama, of which 3 volumes are available so far.