Crows, Frankensteins and Danger at Staple! 2013

Gather the pitchfork-carrying mob and light the torches, it's almost time for Staple! 2013. The local indie comic and media convention just announced the team behind the new Frankenstein Alive, Alive! – writer Steve Niles and industry legend Bernie Wrightson – plus The Crow creator James O'Barr as their headline guests.

The creator of 30 Days of Night, Niles has become a regular collaborator with the veteran Wrightson, culminating in their astonishing new take on Mary Shelley's Promethean myth. As for O'Barr, he's currently taking his unquiet spirit of revenge to the Nazi concentration camps with the brutal and soulful The Crow: Skinning the Wolves.

But Staple! isn't just about comics. Headlining the indie gaming panel will be award-winning game designer and games-as-education innovator Jason Morningstar of Bully Pulpit Games; Ultima VI art director Jeff Dee, whose roots in gaming go right back to the Dieties & Demigods supplement for Dungeons & Dragons; And board and card game self-publisher Marc Majcher will be keeping the table top tradition alive.

There'll also be an animation panel featuring local artist Dax Norman and Newgrounds veteran Kyle Sullivan of White Lightning HQ, and podcasters from Geek Bombast and Spill.com's League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen.

Then there'll be a plethora of talent talking about podcasting's new big sister, webTV, including Danni Danger (also known as Austin Books and Comics' Sidekick Girl) from weird-girls.com; Sara Reihani of video collective Slobs, and Jessica Mills, part of the team behind gloriously uncomfortable web comedy Awkward Embraces (Imagine a seriously nerdy Girls in six-minute slabs: "He had me at 'bat'leth'").

Staple! 2013, March 2-3, Marchessa Hall and Theatre, 6406 N. IH-35 Suite 3100. Single and two-day tickets available now. More info at staple-austin.org.