Special Guests

Howard Chaykin is a longtime veteran of the comic book business, serving as an artist and writer for nearly every publisher of comics in the past four decades ... and counting. He took the 1990s off from comics to work on mostly unwatchable television, so he missed the money and dreck that was comics in that execrable decade. He is responsible (some might say culpable) for introducing a number of previously unexplored themes to comic books. If you're not hip to what that's supposed to mean, there's always Wikipedia.

Chaykin is generally better regarded by his colleagues than by the enthusiasts, a reality that serves his ego but not his wallet. Thanks to the above-mentioned unwatchable television, he's usually okay with that.

These days, he's on a tear about the inexplicable Alpha position maintained by comic book writers at the expense of comic book artists, working on educating those aforementioned enthusiasts as to just what writing really means in the context of this curious visual medium.

He lives a quiet life on the California coast, hoping to dodge any imminent tsunamis so he can live long enough to die in bed, without ever lapsing into the cute old age so currently popular on movie and television screens.

Peter David is a New York Times bestselling author with over a hundred novels published, including Artful, Fearless, Tigerheart, and Sir Apropos of Nothing. He co-created the bestselling Star Trek: New Frontier series and has also written such Trek novels as Imzadi.

Peter’s comic book résumé includes an Eisner Award–winning run on The Incredible Hulk. He has also worked on such varied titles as Supergirl, Young Justice, Spider-Man 2099, X-Factor, Wolverine, The Phantom, Sachs & Violens, The Dark Tower, and many others. He is also the lead writer for popular games such as Spider-Man: Edge of Time and Future Fight.

Mark Evanier has been writing professionally since 1969, delving into comic books, animation, live-action TV, screenplays, books, magazine articles, and anything else he dreamed, as a kid, of writing. His comic book career commenced in 1969 when he apprenticed with the legendary Jack Kirby and also began writing comic book scripts for Disney. Over the years, he has worked on preexisting characters and his own co-creations, including The DNAgents and Crossfire, along with collaborating since 1983 with Sergio Aragonés on Groo the Wanderer. He began writing live-action TV in 1976 and animation in 1978. He is the author of several collections of columns as well as MAD Art and Kirby, King of Comics, a book about his mentor that won two Harvey Awards and one Eisner Award. Mark is currently writing, producing, and voice-directing The Garfield Show, and his latest book—The Art of the Simon and Kirby Studio—showcases the work of one of comics' greatest creative teams.

Ramona Fradon studied at Parsons School of Design and the New York Art Students’ League. She drew short features for Timely and DC and illustrated Aquaman until 1960. She co-created Metamorpho, illustrated mystery stories, Plastic Man, Plop, Freedom Fighters, and Super Friends as well as Brenda Starr, the syndicated newspaper strip. She has done features for Nickelodeon, Bongo, DC, and Archie Comics, has created covers for Marvel, and just finished illustrating part of a graphic novel. In 2006 she was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.

Kieron Gillen first came to wider attention in 2006 with his collaboration with Jamie McKelvie, Phonogram: Rue Britannia. Soon joined by Matt Wilson on its second volume, the team moved to a re-imagining of Young Avengers for Marvel before launching the award-winning The Wicked + The Divine and a third and final volume of Phonogram, The Immaterial Girl. When not with his mostly platonic life-partner, he's created books like Uber, Three, Mercury Heat, The Modded, and the forthcoming The Ludocrats. His work for Marvel includes Star Wars: Darth Vader, Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, Journey Into Mystery, and many more.