Joining already announced guests Gilbert Hernandez, Rutu Modan and Bill Griffith, this year’s SPX has added three more intelligent and exciting guests: Matt Wagner, Jeff Smith and Kim Deitch. This is one of the best balanced guest lists we’ve seen at a small press show, and we’re definitely looking forward to hitting Bethesda October 12-13.

The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comic books, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, is proud to add Matt Wagner, Jeff Smith and Kim Deitch to the roster of guests for SPX 2007. This years SPX will be held October 12 and October 13 at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Matt Wagner is one of the pioneers of indie comics with his original creation of “Grendel”, which celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year. Matt also created, wrote and drew “Mage”, and has worked on a number of projects for both DC and Vertigo. His next installment of the Grendel saga, “Behold The Devil” is due to be released this November from Dark Horse.

Jeff Smith, is the creator of the celebrated epic “Bone”, which has over a half million copies in print and is now available in Italian, Spanish, German and many other foreign languages. Jeff recently completed his critically acclaimed reworking of the Golden Age hero Captain Marvel, “Shazaam! The Monster Society of Evil” for DC Comics. He has recently been named by Fantagraphics as the art designer in charge of the upcoming reprints of Walt Kelly’s classic, “Pogo”.

Kim Deitch will be at SPX to promote his well received latest graphic novel, “Alias The Cat” from Pantheon Books. Kim is one of the original “underground” cartoonists who redefined comics in the 1960’s and has also worked in the field of animation.

These creators are in addition to Bill Griffith, Gilbert Hernandez and Rutu Modan who were previously announced as guests at this years SPX.

Additional guests will be added over the next few weeks, please stay tuned for those announcements.

For further information on the artists or to request an interview, please contact Warren Bernard at webernard@spxpo.com.