Comic Artists Steve Ellis and Mark Texeira To Headline Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival

Comic book artists with credits as diverse as Doctor Strange, Star Wars and Breaking Bad will be among the artists joining the Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival, organizers announced last night.

Steve Ellis (Illustrator of Breaking Bad: All Bad Things, High Moon, The Only Living Boy), Mark Texeira (Marvel's Black Panther, Ghost Rider, Swamp Thing) and Fred Harper (Gallery artist, Illustrator on Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Doctor Strange) will join other artists and filmmakers at the event.

You can see a formal announcement letter from organizers below. The convention takes place next weekend.

Three years ago we had the crazy idea of bringing a Fantastic Film Festival to Ithaca. Present-ing that first edition remains one of our favorite memories; getting positive feedback on that year's selection of 18 movies has pushed us to grow our efforts as we continue to be better, present bigger, and dig broader into the genre. And now, three years later, we have a robust selection of 30 movies and an ever-expanding 5-day festival! This year the team was set on expanding the festival not only in terms of films, but also music and art. We still have our core international competition, retrospective, mini-series, documentaries and special screenings, but are also working with the Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca Underground, and renown comic artist Steve Ellis to bring to you more Fantastic events than ever!For the past year we've been working with the Johnson Museum of Art and their exhibition on Surrealism and Magic. The results? A retrospective on Witchcraft in Popular Imagination screening at Cornell Cinema and featuring classics like Halperin's seminal zombie film, White Zombie; Friedkin's popular classic, The Exorcist; and Hardy's disturbing cult hit, The Wicker Man. The highlight of this retrospective, though, is a cinema-concert held in Sage Chapel on Friday, November 14: Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages with an original score from the Brooklyn-based new music collective, Transit. Don't forget to make time to go see the amaz- ing exhibit at the Johnson Museum of Art where you'll learn everything you ever wanted to know (or didn't want to know!) about witchcraft's influence on surrealism.
This year we will also inaugurate a Fantastic Art Show on the Ithaca Commons! Located next door to the Movie Poster Store, award-winning illustrator Steve Ellis has brought a murderer's row of amazing artists to showcase their art in a gallery exhibition over the weekend. Take a break from the movies and swing by the gallery to chat with the artists and get a glimpse of their amazing work. The full line-up is detailed in the next pages of the booklet. We couldn't be more excited to welcome so many amazing artists to this new addition to the festival. This year's line-up includes:

Steve Ellis (Illustrator of Breaking Bad: All Bad Things, High Moon, The Only Living Boy)
Mark Texeira (Marvel's Black Panther, Ghost Rider, Swamp Thing)
Fred Harper (Gallery artist, Illustrator on Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Doctor Strange)
Story Cook (Illustrator of Jedi Academy Sourcebook)
Jon Haeffner (Illustrator, Colorist of Breaking Bad: All Bad Things)
Steve Walker (Illustrator of Battle of Blood and Ink)
Jason Rosen (Author of Monsterwood, Sculptor)
Jen Lightfoot (Painter, Illustrator of Basement Magazine)
Zachary Jean-Taft (Painter)
Alan Pollack (Internationally-renowned Illustrator)

From its inception, the IIFFF has sought to embrace not only films, but also music and art, and for the past two years we have worked with other venues to program concerts. For our 3rd edition we proudly team up with IthacaUnderground and CSMA to offer a full program of concerts from Thursday to Sunday! Bubba Crumrine, programmer for Ithaca Underground, has put together a fantastic line-up including bands like 100% Black, What Moon Things, and Last Dot! And our closing party will be held at CSMA for a night of concerts to officially – and fantastically - wrap-up the third edition in the best possible way!

Full program: here

IIFFF 2014 schedule: here

Events location:  here