This year will mark the tenth year of NonCon, a three-day comics and gaming convention that will be presented by the NSO (No Such Organization), a student group at Vassar College, February 19 through 21. There will be presentations by guest speakers and performers including Ken Levine (Class of '88), developer of the award-winning game BioShock; New York Times best-selling author Tamora Pierce; webcomic author Danielle Corsetto; fantasy author and graphic novelist Alisa Kwitney; comic artist and author Lucy Knisley; and hip-hop artist Random, a/k/a Mega Ran. In addition, NonCon 10 will feature a wide variety of artists and vendors, student panels and workshops, karaoke, videogame tournaments, tabletop games, Magic: The Gathering and roleplaying games.

Danielle Corsetto is the creator of the hit webcomic Girls with Slingshots, a dramedy that updates five times a week and features the shenanigans of two girls, a bar and a talking cactus (www.daniellecorsetto.com). Alisa Kwitney is a former Vertigo editor and teaches a graphic novel writing course at Fordham University. She is also the author of numerous novels and graphic novels, including the Eisner Award-winning series Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold and Token (a young adult graphic novel). As Alisa Sheckley, she has written two werewolf novels: The Better to Hold You and Moonburn (www.alisakwitney.com).

Lucy Knisley is the artist and author of the graphic novel travelogue French Milk. She has also self-published a number of collections, such as Radiator Days, Pretty Little Book and Heart Seed Snow Circuit. She works as a comic artist and educator in Chicago. A graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies, she is hard at work on her next book, and working in the Chicago schools to develop an afterschool comics workshop for children aged 8 through 12. She's from upstate New York, and said that she "used to hang around Vassar College during free periods from high school, because they have great climbing trees" (www.lucyknisley.com). Vassar alumnus Ken Levine (Class of '87) is the co-founder, president and creative director of 2K Boston. He led the creation of the multi-million-selling, multiple Game of the Year Award-winning title BioShock. He was named 2007 Person of the Year by the One Up Network and was named the Number One Game Developer of 2007 by Next-Gen.Biz (http://irrationalgames.com).

Tamora Pierce is a New York Times best-selling author and has written 26 books. She has just completed Bloodhound, the second Beka Cooper book set in Tortall. Pierce lives in upstate New York with her husband Tim Liebe and their numerous cats, two parakeets and whatever freeloading wildlife resides in their backyard (www.tamora-pierce.com). Part-teacher, part-rapper, all-hero, Random a/k/a Mega Ran is a videogame music enthusiast who made waves with his Mega Ran albums, sampling tunes from the eight-bit classic Mega Man series and adding humorous, intelligent and nerdy lyrics. Capcom heard the tunes and offered Random an exclusive licensing agreement, pushing Mega Ran into the stratosphere, with stops at Comic-Con, Wired magazine and G4TV along the way (http://megaran.com).

Registration is available at the door for $15 per person, which includes complete access to NonCon events all weekend. For more information, visit the website at http://noncon.vassar.edu. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact the Campus Activities Office at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available. Directions to the Vassar campus are available at www.vassar.edu/directions.