Jim Demonakos (born 1977) is an American director, graphic novelist, musician and event organizer noted for his work in comic books, conventions, and documentary films. He is most often noted as the founder of Emerald City Comic Con and co-founder of Lightbox Expo.

Early life

The child of Greek immigrants, Demonakos was born September 21, 1977 in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington. He graduated in 1996, and attended

The Art Institute of Seattle The Art Institute of Seattle was a for-profit art and culinary school in Seattle, Washington. The school was one of a number of Art Institutes, a franchise of for-profit art colleges with many branches in North America, owned and operated by ...

in Seattle, Wa. Soon after he opened his first comic shop, and has remained in the comic book and pop culture event industry for two decades.

Career

Jim Demonakos is the founder of Seattle's Emerald City Comic Con which started asa one-day event at the

Qwest Field Events Center Lumen Field is a multi-purpose stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States. Located in the city's SoDo neighborhood, it is the home field for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL), the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL, t ...

in 2003 and broke even with an attendance of 3,000 people. He then spent 15 years developing Emerald City Comic Con into what was the largest independent comic convention in the US, with attendance topping 100,000. After the show was acquired by

ReedPOP RELX plc (pronounced "Rel-ex") is a British multinational information and analytics company headquartered in London, England. Its businesses provide scientific, technical and medical information and analytics; legal information and analytics; ...

, Demonakos worked on events around the world including New York Comic Con, Star Wars Celebration, Oz Comic Con and Comic Con Paris before founding LightBox Expo, a convention for animation, illustration and concept art , that debuted in 2019. He is also the writer of the New York Times Best Selling graphic novel, The Silence of Our Friends, co-written alongside Mark Long and illustrated by National Book Award winner

Nate Powell Nathan Lee Powell (born 1978) is an American graphic novelist and musician. His 2008 graphic novel ''Swallow Me Whole'' won an Ignatz Award and Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel. He illustrated the ''March'' trilogy, an autobiographical ...

. Alongside Kyle Stevens, he co-founded and was a songwriter for the pioneering nerd rock band Kirby Krackle. Most recently, he was one of two directors (alongside Kevin Konrad Hanna) of Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters, a feature length, award-winning documentary about Mike Mignola and the creation of his comic book universe centered around Hellboy.

Personal life

Jim Demonakos lives with his wife in

Mukilteo, Washington Mukilteo ( ) is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located on the Puget Sound between Edmonds and Everett, approximately north of Seattle. The city had a population of 20,254 at the 2010 census and an estimated 2019 ...

Film credits

* '' Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters'' (2022) – director/producer

Bibliography

*''The Silence Of Our Friends'' (art by

written by Mark Long and Jim Demonakos. 1/12, Image Comics) *''SKULLKICKERS #12'' (art by Joel Carroll written by Jim Demonakos, Kyle Stevens, Howard Tayler, Zach Weiner, and Jim Zub. 1/12,

First Second Books First Second Books is an American publisher of graphic novels. An imprint of Roaring Brook Press, part of Holtzbrinck Publishers, First Second publishes fiction, biographies, personal memoirs, history, visual essays, and comics journalism. It al ...

) *'' Shrapnel (Radical Comics) No. 1 – #5'' edited by Jim Demonakos. 1/12, Image Comics)

Awards

* 2022: FilmQuest Film Festival: Best Documentary for " Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters" with collaborator Kevin Konrad Hanna * 2022:

Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playin ...

Film Festival: Best Documentary for " Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters" * 2022: Chagrin Documentary Film Festival: Best Documentary for " Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters" * 2022:

Fantasmagoria Fantasmagoria is an Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical o ...

: Best Documentary for " Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters" * 2022: Prague Independent Film Festival: Best Documentary for " Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters"

References

External links

Emerald City Comic Con
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demonakos, Jim American cartoonists 1977 births American graphic novelists American male novelists Living people Artists from Seattle Filmmakers from Seattle Musicians from Seattle Writers from Seattle