Guests

Andrew Donkin has sold over 10 million children’s books and graphic novels, worldwide. His graphic novel, Illegal (co-written with Eoin Colfer), was an international bestseller and has won or been nominated for over 40 book awards. Andrew has written for many global franchises, including Batman, Superman, Doctor Who, and Artemis Fowl. His non-fiction work includes biographies of Roald Dahl, William Shakespeare and Albert Einstein. He loves books, comics, and tea. Andrew lives near the river Thames in London with his family.

Edward Ross is an Edinburgh-based comic artist who has been drawing comics since he was a kid. He’s the creator of Filmish: A Graphic Journey Through Film and Gamish: A Graphic History of Gaming. His latest book Graphic Novel Builder: The illustrated guide to making your own comics, helps young and aspiring comic creators bring their ideas to life with helpful advice and activities.

Frances Hardinge spent her childhood in a sequence of small, sinister villages, then went on to study English at Oxford. She has now written twelve dark, mystery-laden fantasy books for children and the YA readership.

Her first book Fly by Night won the Branford Boase Award for best debut novel. Three of her novels (Cuckoo Song, The Lie Tree and A Skinful of Shadows) have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. In January 2016, Hardinge’s novel The Lie Tree won the coveted Costa Book of the Year Award. It then went on to win the 2016 Hornbook/Boston Globe Fiction award, the LA Times Book Award for YA literature and the 12-16 years category of the UK Literacy Association Book Awards. In 2018, Frances Hardinge became a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her novel Unraveller won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for YA Literature and Best Book for Young Readers at the British Science Fiction Awards.

Her two most recent books, Island of Whispers and The Forest of a Thousand Eyes, are collaborations with award-winning illustrator Emily Gravett.

Frances is seldom seen without her hat and is addicted to volcanoes.

A veteran of OH!CON and a passionate advocate for social play, Hereward is currently completing a PhD exploring the development of relationships within tabletop roleplaying game groups.

As well as researching TRPGs, Hereward is a keen gamer and has been running a continuous campaign of Basic Fantasy RPG for the past five and a half years.

Jasper Fforde spent twenty years in the film business before debuting on the New York Time Bestseller list with 'The Eyre Affair' in 2001. His 18th novel, 'Dark Reading Matter', will be published in the UK/USA in 2025.

Fforde's writing is an eclectic mix of genres, which might be described as a joyful blend of Comedy-SF-thriller-Crime-Satire. He freely admits that he is fascinated not just by books themselves, but by the way we read and what we read, and his reinvigoration of tired genres have won him many enthusiastic supporters across the world.

Amongst Fforde's output are police procedurals featuring nursery rhyme characters; a four-book series for Young Adults about Magic and Dragons set in a shabby world of failing magical powers,'Shades of Grey' (2011) a post-apocalyptic dystopia where social hierarchy is based on the colours you can see, 'Early Riser' (2018), a thriller set in a world in which humans have always hibernated, and 'The Constant Rabbit' (2020), an allegory about racism and xenophobia in the UK.

Fforde was born in England but has recently decided to adopt the nationality of where he lives when he heard that: 'When you truly love Wales, you are Welsh'.

Jim is a Scotland based artist with over 25 years in the animation industry, Jim has been involved in many best loved animations for Aardman Animations, the BBC and many other clients.

As a sculptor, model maker and character designer Jim is the helping hand behind many classic characters including Wallace and Gromit, Shaun The Sheep, Creature Comforts and animated feature films and commercials.

When not making modelling clay magic in the studio he can be found in schools and universities, festivals and corporate team building sessions sharing a life long passion for plasticine with Screen Argyll and other partners across the world.

Jim has not only added his touch of unique character and personality to many animations but is also a character designer for plush toy manufacturers and brands.

If this wasn’t enough he also has his own studio where he creates small films and online films for brands and charities.

With a lifelong passion for plasticine Jim has made it his mission to celebrate clay and curate a collection of plasticine products throughout the ages and to showcase the many uses of this unique art material.

As the only Scottish/Filipino comic on the UK circuit, Rik’s dual heritage gives him a wealth of funny stories from an intriguing perspective and experience. Engaging, likeable, sharp, and unique, Rik is rising the ranks fast.

He is also the creator and host of Star Trek vs Star Wars, the hit comedy debate panel show that debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016. It has gone on to be performed at comic conventions and venues around the country, to rave reviews.

R P Davis is a 30+ year veteran RPG player, GM, and freelance game creator who has designed RPG content for Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, Onyx Path, Cubicle 7, and Loresmyth Games, among others. In 2020 he started his own pico-publishing company, Kabouter Games.

Sean has been playing games for 26 years. Initially his main interest was in boardgames, but more recently Sean developed an interest in the more social aspect of role-playing games.  It's about time then, that he has finally created his own TTRPG, Sneaksie, which is being launched at OH!CON 2025.

In spite of living, eating and sleeping board games, Sean also found the time to start The Gateway Nerd (taking the bored out of board games...), and has been a volunteer with OH!CON since the before times.

Thomas Welsh is a games writer and fantasy novelist. He was lead writer and narrative director on the award winningCloudpunk, City of Ghosts, Nivalis, Best Served Cold and more. He has written for numerous game sites including Kotaku and has several short stories in print. Tom has presented a talk at The Games Developers conference in San Francisco, and he won the Creativity Award at the Scottish Game Awards in 2023 for Cloudpunk.

He is a BAFTA and Society of Authors member and works with The Scottish Book Trust on their Live Literature Programme. He is the author of Anna Undreaming and the bestselling Metiks Fade Trilogy, and is teaching Interactive Digital Narrative at the Glasgow School of Art.