Dueling Lords of Death to Appear at Matsuricon 2013
Columbus, Ohio (July 24th, 2013): Matsuricon is happy to announce their newest guests - the voice of Soul Eater's Lord Death, John Swasey, and the return of Scott McNeil, the voice of Duo Maxwell!
According to Anime News Network, John Swasey is the most prolific male voice actor in North America with more roles and titles under his belt than any other male VA. John started down the road of anime in 1997, when he landed his first role in Golden Boy from ADV Films. Since then, John has gone on to voice hundreds shows and characters with ADV Films, Funimation, and Illumitoons. Being more of the character actor type has given John the freedom to voice bazillions of characters such as Gendo in Evangelion, the Captain in Halo (VG), Lord Death in Soul Eater, Kogoro in Sgt. Frog, Huang in Darker than Black, Vulcan in Orphen, Ken in Kaleido Star, Captain Ahab in Hakugei The Legend of Moby Dick, Rikudoh in RahXephon, Karl Haushofer in Fullmetal Alchemist, Sir Crocodile in One Piece, Mister in Coyote Ragtime Show, as well as roles in the live action films 2009 Lost Memories, Conduct Zero, Yesterday, Jungle Juice, and the Gamera trilogy. In 2004, John jumped to the other side of the “mic” to direct. Some of the shows he has directed include Welcome to the N.H.K., AirGear, Wandaba Style, St. Seiya, Shadow Skill, E's Otherwise, Michel, Jinki Extend and Shinobi (live action co-directed with longtime pal, Kyle Jones). John loves working in the world of anime as a director and voice actor! Recently, John voiced the evil villain, General Disdain in the animated feature, Last Flight of the Champion. In addition to anime, John has voiced thousands of radio and tv commercials – even a few films. But the coolest acting job was being the Beer Delivery Guy in Dazed and Confused.
Scott McNeil hails from Vancouver, Canada by way of Brisbane, Australia. He started acting at the age of three and hasn't (his mom would say) stopped since. Spanning over two decades and including over 10,000 episodes, Scott's voice career began with The New Adventures of He-Man way back in (gasp) 1988. He is perhaps best known currently as Duo Maxwell in Gundam Wing, Koga, in Inuyasha, Piccolo (the first) and many others in Dragon Ball Z, Dinobot, Rattrap, Waspinator, and Silverbolt in Beast Wars, and Wolverine in X-Men: Evolution., As well as Hohenheim in Full Metal Alchemist, the deeply neurotic Merb Stork in StormHawks, the amazingly inept Voltar in League of Super Evil, and Ali al Satchez in Gundam 00.
Among his other voice credits are: Grumpy Bear in Care Bears, Johnny Test, Black Lagoon, Highlander, Quest for Vengance, Rollbots, Spiderman Unlimited Krypto,the Superdog, Reboot, MegaMan, Powerpuff Girls Z, Mucha Lucha, Monster Rancher, Mummies Alive, Ranma 1/2, Project A-Ko, Kong, The Vision of Escaflowne, Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars, War Planets, Weird-Oh's, Molly O, Conan the Adventurer, The Wacky World of Tex Avery, Extreme Dinosaurs, DragonTales, Warriors of Virtue, D'Myna Leagues, Aagh It's the Mister Hell Show, Double Dragon, Darkstalkers, Street Fighter, GI Joe, and the animated features Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys, and Casper's Haunted Christmas. As well as video games such as Dead Rising II, Warhammer 40,000, Scarface, and The Godfather
Equally successful in film and television, Scott has starred in the feature films Sleeping with Strangers and Sleeping Dogs. He has guest starred on numerous television series and features, including Supernatural, Sanctuary, Highlander, The Outer Limits, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Beyond Belief, Beggars and Choosers, Stargate SG-1 and Disney's Ladies and the Champ, to name a few. This just in: Scott is currently working on a bunch of new roles, Including work in Johnny Test, L.O.S.E, Hero 108, 1001 Tales of the Arabian Nights, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, Numerous Video Games and a number of *cough cough* “Top Secret” Anime Titles. Scott loves cartoons most of all because, "Hey, it's indoor work with no heavy lifting."
Matsuricon is also host to fellow voice actors Travis Willingham, Sean Schemmel, Chuck Huber, J Michael Tatum, Stephanie Young, Kyle Hebert, David Vincent, Lauren Landa, Lisle Wilkerson, Micah Solusod, Ayu Sakata, Scott Freeman, along with musical guests Professor Shyguy and My Parents Favorite Music, webcomic artists Joe Kovell and Alex Kolesar, VP of Marketing for Robotech.com Kevin McKeever, and local comedians Josh Griffin and Ty Jero, the Budget Cuts. Matsuricon 2013 will be held August 23 - 25, 2013 at the Hyatt Regency in Downtown Columbus, Ohio.
Matsuricon would also like to remind everyone that pre-registration ends August 1st, and that hotel rooms are limited! More information, including information about pre-registering and hotel rates can be found at www.matsuricon.org
About Matsuricon: Matsuricon is an annual Japanese pop-culture event that focuses primarily on Japanese animation (known as “anime”), manga (Japanese graphic novels), and video games. We also showcase both American and Japanese popular culture, due to the natural overlap of fandom from both genres. We are considered a “family friendly” event. Most of our panels are all ages unless otherwise stated. We do showcase certain events that are not appropriate for attendees under the age of 18, and our convention staffers check the IDs of all attendees before they enter these events. Because of our “family friendly” image, our mascots are a “traditional” Japanese family consisting of a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, and a dog.
Matsuricon's goal is to promote the cultural awareness of Japanese Pop-Culture through related events, special guest speakers and cultural presentations.
