A Paid Advertisement.  Officials at New York Comic-Con, a new trade as well as consumer event for comics, games, anime and other related industries, have announced several appointments to the staff which oversees all special events and conference programming for the convention.  While conference sessions, special events, and guest appearances will begin to be made public in the near future, convention officials are pleased to announce that Joe Quesada, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, will be a New York Comic-Con Guest of Honor, and will lead an all-star contingent of Marvel creators.  Organizers also note that industry-leading companies continue to show enthusiasm for the new show, with Dark Horse, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), and the Sci Fi Channel signing up for participation this past week.  In addition, the Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA) has come on board, joining Diamond Comic Distributors, among others, as a co-sponsor of the event. New York Comic-Con, which is managed by Reed Exhibitions, will take place in New York City at the Jacob K. Javits Center and will be open to the trade only on February 24th , 2006 and to the trade and the public on February 25th and 26th , 2006.

'I think Joe Quesada's appearance as a Guest of Honor is a great indication of the type of programming that we can look forward to at New York Comic-Con,' notes Greg Topalian, Group Vice President in charge of Launch Pad for Reed Exhibitions.  'This is just the tip of the iceberg.  We've put together a great team of professionals to work on our special events and this will be reflected in quality programming.'  The professionals who will be responsible for special events and conference sessions are all veterans of the comics, anime and convention industries.  Milton Griepp, CEO of ICv2 and a leading expert in the industry, will serve as Program Chairman.  Terry Chu, who is the creator of FlyByNightDesign.com, and who has been involved in event planning and coordination as well as a myriad of other duties for several conventions, including Otakon, will oversee the conference programming for New York Comic-Con in all areas relating to anime.  Steve Rosato, who is Director of Strategic Accounts and Industry Development for BookExpo America, which is also managed by Reed Exhibitions, will take on the additional role of Conference and Special Events Director for New York Comic-Con. 'Together, Milton, Terry and Steve bring a wealth of knowledge to the table,' concludes Topalian.  'I'm confident that we will have programming that will be of interest to virtually everyone who attends New York Comic-Con.' 

Convention officials note that the Exhibitor List is now live on the Web site and details of the Retailer Partner Program are also available on the Web site at www.nycomiccon.com.  Sales inquiries should be directed to: Bill Butler (203) 840-5350 or bbutler@nycomiccon.com.  Event or Guest inquiries should be directed to Steve Rosato at (203) 840-5463 or srosato@reedexpo.com.  Press inquiries should be directed to: Roger Bilheimer (203) 966-0792 or bilheim@aol.com.

New York Comic-Con is managed by Reed Exhibitions (RX), a division of Reed Elsevier plc.  Reed Exhibitions, the world's largest organizer of business-to-business events.  Each year Reed events assemble over 90,000 suppliers and over 5 million buyers from around the world.  Today, Reed events are held in over 30 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia/Pacific, and are organized by 26 fully staffed offices.  Reed's portfolio of events serves 49 industries in 12 key sectors.  BEA is one many Reed Elsevier properties within the Reed Global Book Publishing Network, whose trade events include the Asia International Book Fair, London International Book Fair, Salon du Livre: Paris Book Fair, Tokyo International Book Fair and BookExpo Canada, and whose Reed Business Information (RBI) properties include Publishers Weekly, Variety Magazine, Playthings, Video Business, Library Journal, and School Library Journal.  As a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group, a world-leading business and information provider, Reed offers integrated market access programs covering exhibitions, trade publications, direct marketing and the Internet over a database of more than 9 million.