About Our President

Stephen Shamus, President and Co-Founder of ACE Universe started out his career serving as the CMO of Wizard in the early 1990’s. In this role, he co-founded the world’s leading magazines covering comic books, toys, games and animation, along with many specialty books. By the mid-90’s, Wizard then acquired and launched its first of many live events including the Chicago Comic Con. This launched Stephen’s 20+ year career of producing over 175 Comic Con festivals across North America. Stephen has booked over 3,000 celebrities, tens of thousands of artists, and played host to millions of happy fans.

Today, Stephen produces the most immersive and experiential events by bringing together the following hard-to-come-by-talent:

• Top name Film and TV Stars
• Professional Illustrators & Writers
• Award-Winning Designers
• Gaming Celebrities
• Cosplay Celebrities
• Comic Books Celebrities
• Top-notch Daytime & Evening Q&A
• Instructional Programming

Stephen works with all the major talent agencies and managers, including CAA, WME, UTA, ICM, APA, Innovative Artists, and Gersh. He is the premiere talent booker of the biggest and most significant celebrities in the industry, including what is considered the greatest Comic Con lineup ever. This historic lineup features nine of Marvel’s The Avengers. His most recent celebrity bookings include Gal Gadot, Brie Larson, Henry Cavill, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Zoe Saldana, Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Hiddleston, Tessa Thompson, Kit Harington, Don Cheadle, Josh Brolin, Michael Fassbender, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Zazie Beetz, Tye Sheridan, Tom Ellis, Lee Pace and more!

Enter Stephen’s next business venture, Break Time Live  – an online company specializing in sports card breaks. It all started because collecting is in Stephen’s blood. From a young age, he would store and treasure anything he could get his hands on – comic books for sale, sports trading cards, comic art, Panini card sets, boxes of Basketball cards for sale, Panini autographed Football cards, and memorabilia. His passion is infectious, and his expertise and understanding of the material is widely respected. If you’re wondering where to buy Panini cards you can trust – Break Time Live is definitely the place. On this website, you’ll find Panini group Baseball card boxes for sale, Panini autographed Football cards, Panini card sets along with other trusted brands of sports trading cards.

As of late, Stephen Shamus created a talk-show style podcast called “Take a Break with Stephen” featuring collectibles, which airs on the ACE Universe podcast network. He is the co-creator of several ingenious and ubiquitous collectible products, including those related to autographed comic books, lithographs and photographs. These products are used on most occasions where special handling is required when comic books are being signed by the illustrators, writers, or celebrities.