Give me a convention announcement that puts the people making the comics right up front, Crusaders. Portsmouth Comic Con returns to Portsmouth Guildhall on Saturday, May 1 and Sunday, May 2, 2027, and its first Artists Alley announcement brings together Nick Abadzis, Angela Watson, M.R. Carey, Dennis Menheere and Dan McDaid. That is a lineup with a lot of different experiences and bodies of work to talk about before the rest of the guest list even arrives.
The event heads into its seventh outing after welcoming more than 9,000 visitors in 2026. The organizers are keeping the focus on a strong comics lineup while preparing a wider weekend of guests, cosplay, discussions, workshops and gaming. Super early-bird tickets are available now through the official Portsmouth Comic Con website, with further announcements still to come.
Nick Abadzis brings forty years of creating books, magazines, comics, animation and stories for adults and children. His work has been published around the world and recognized with international storytelling awards, including the 2008 Eisner Award for Laika. His bibliography also includes Hugo Tate and numerous Doctor Who collections, giving readers several very different places to begin a conversation.
Abadzis also works as an editorial consultant, graphic recorder and visual facilitator, with clients including EY, NASA and ESPN. His new book, My Beloved Other, is a comics memoir co-authored with his wife, Angela Watson, and is available through Macmillan’s 23rd Street Books imprint. Their collaboration brings another side of his storytelling into the convention’s opening guest announcement.
Angela Watson was born and raised in Birmingham, UK, by Jamaican immigrant parents. Before becoming a mental health therapist, she spent years working in the nonprofit sector in London and New York City. Her writing draws on that background through questions of identity, culture, mental wellbeing, migration and personal growth.
My Beloved Other, her first graphic novel, combines Watson’s experiences with the work of connecting those experiences to readers. Having both co-authors in this first guest announcement gives the event a chance to bring the creative partnership behind the memoir into Artists Alley. For readers interested in how personal history becomes a comic, there is a lot of ground there to explore.
M.R. Carey spent fifteen years as a teacher before leaving to write full time, first establishing himself through long comics runs on Lucifer, Hellblazer and X-Men Legacy. He moved into prose with the Felix Castor novels, and his 2014 novel The Girl With All the Gifts has sold more than a million copies worldwide. He also wrote the screenplay for its film adaptation, which premiered at the Locarno festival before an international release.
The announcement highlights Carey’s 2026 Philip K. Dick Award for Outlaw Planet, alongside recent comics work on Ghostbox at Mad Cave, Cul de Sac at Bad Idea and The Lycan at Comixology. His collaborations extend to his family as well: with his wife Linda and daughter Louise, he co-wrote the fantasy novels The City of Silk and Steel and The House of War and Witness.
Dennis Menheere joins the lineup as a Ringo-nominated artist whose credits include Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Little Nightmares and Hello Darkness. Those titles take his work across established science-fiction worlds, familiar characters and horror. The supplied artist material offers a look at the range of work accompanying his appearance.
Dan McDaid, a comics writer and artist from Scotland, followed his work on Panini UK’s Doctor Who Magazine with U.S. projects including Firefly, IDW’s Judge Dredd and Big Trouble in Little China. More recently he wrote and drew DEGA, teamed with Matt Kindt on Dark Horse’s If You Find This I’m Already Dead, and drew Kneel Before Zod for DC.
McDaid is also working on a new horror western for Oni Press, according to the guest announcement. Put his creator-owned work beside the licensed properties in his career and you have another guest with plenty of comics craft to discuss. This opening group gives Portsmouth readers a mix of artists, prose writers and memoir creators, with their work stretching across a broad section of the medium.
The wider weekend promises more comic creators and celebrity guests, cosplay parades, panels and discussions, workshops, gaming zones and a large selection of comics, collectibles and merchandise. The event is produced by The Guildhall Trust, which has operated the historic 2,000-seat Portsmouth Guildhall since 2011 and runs a year-round program spanning live music, comedy, classical performances, dance, family shows and public events.
The Trust also describes the convention as part of a wider community program built around inclusion and opportunities to inspire, entertain and improve lives. Check portsmouthcomiccon.com for the current ticket options and the next announcements. Media enquiries go to Kate Gordon at Bright Spark PR. For now, comic fans have five names to put on that May 1–2, 2027 convention calendar, and more still to be revealed.
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