I often wonder how San Diego selects their special guests, but this year there are 47 listed on the website. I was kind of surprised to see only three Canucks made the elite list of official convention guests including:

Kathryn Immonen
Writer, Runaways, Patsy Walker: Hellcat
Kathryn Immonen has written stories for both DC and Marvel, including the sleeper hit miniseries Patsy Walker: Hellcat. She recently completed a run on the fan favorite series Runaways and is currently wrapping the X-Men miniseries Pixie Strikes Back! with Sara Pichelli and this June’s Heralds, with Tonci Zonjic. The creator-owned Moving Pictures, drawn by Stuart Immonen, will be released by Top Shelf in May 2010. The Immonens will soon be moving on to their next project, Russian Olive to Red King. She lives in a Toronto with her very talented husband, her very tall son, and their very bad dog.

Stuart Immonen
Artist, New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, Moving Pictures
Over a span of more than 20 years, Stuart Immonen has worked for virtually every comics publisher (extant and extinct) and is best known for such diverse and critically acclaimed work as Nextwave and Superman: Secret Identity. After a successful run on Ultimate Spider-Man, Stuart is currently the top-selling artist on Marvel’s New Avengers. The creator-owned Never as Bad as You Think (written by Kathryn Immonen) has recently been given the hardcover treatment by BOOM! Studios and Moving Pictures will be released by Top Shelf in May 2010 to debut at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. He lives in Toronto with the good, the bad and the rather tall.

Jillian Tamaki
Artist, Skim, indoor Voice
Jillian Tamaki is the artist behind the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Skim, which was also nominated for a Canadian Governor General’s Literary Award and two Eisner Awards and won a Doug Wright Award and an Ignatz Award. She is a sought-after illustrator for such companies as the New York Times and The New Yorker and has been recognized by Communication Arts Illustrated, the Society of Illustrators, and the Society of Publication Designers. This spring she is publishing a collection of sketches and comics for Drawn & Quarterly, titled Indoor Voice. She is also the artist behind Gilded Lilies.
Courtesy Drawn & Quarterly

Of course, this isn’t it — many guests book their own tables and booths, or appear at their publisher’s booth(s) for special signings.