Phil Hester has been making comics for over two decades, beginning while still a student at the University of Iowa. He spent many years on the indie comics scene, culminating in his Eisner Award-nominated series The Wretch. Phil broke into the mainstream as penciller of Mark Millar’s Swamp Thing run at DC. He also drew Kevin Smith’s revival of Green Arrow with long time inker Ande Parks. He created The Coffin with artist Mike Huddleston, and Firebreather with artist Andy Kuhn, now a television feature for Cartoon Network. Phil lives in rural Iowa with his wife and two children.
John McCrea
John McCrea has been drawing comics for 24 years; during that time, he has worked for every Western mainstream publisher including the big two: Marvel and DC. He has drawn Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Hulk, Spider Man, Daredevil, Wolverine, Star Wars, Judge Dredd and the Simpsons amongst others. On the side he has worked as an illustrator in book, record and magazine publishing and design and story boarding for movies. On the other side, he teaches in schools and colleges and has an ongoing class in comic art through Hi8us, a sister company to Maverick Television. He has also worked with charitable organisations and local authorities producing comics spotlighting issues such as drug abuse, homelessness, safe sex and proper foot care!
James Hudnall
James Hudnall burst onto the comics scene in 1986 with Espers, Which David Lloyd illustrated. He went on to produce many acclaimed comics for Marvel, DC, Image, Malibu, Viz such as The Psycho, Sinking, Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography, Streets, The Age of Heroes, Devastator. Last year (2011) his graphic novel Aftermath made its English language debut from Humanoids. James is excited about digital comics having produced one in 2000 with spanish artist Rafa Fonteriz which is the early version of Aftermath. It can be seen on his site thehud.com. In addition to Blue Cat, which he is producing for Acesweekly, James is finishing his self published crime series 2 To the Chest for 2013.
JC Vaughn
In comics, I am the creator of the horror properties Zombie-Proof (with Vincent Spencer), Vampire, PA, and Bedtime Stories For Impressionable Children, and the upcoming Dead Inspector and The Fires of Moonlight, the private detective series McCandless & Company, the romance anthology Twenty-First Century Romances, the Harvey Award-nominated Antiques: The Comic Strip (with Brendon & Brian Fraim), and the soon-to-be-announced Return of the Human and the upcoming Personals (both with Eisner, Inkpot, Mucker, Gem, and Speakeasy Award-winner and Harvey Award- and Ignatz Award-nominee Mark Wheatley).
I have also written or co-written Mighty Samson (with former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter), Shi (with Eisner Award-nominee Billy Tucci), 24 (based on the Fox TV series), Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here & Now (adapting Doctorow’s “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth”), Blue Beetle in the DC Universe Holiday Special 2008, and Battlestar Galactica. In the process I have worked with 20th Century Fox, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Disney, EC Comics, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, Moonstone, and Universal Studios, among others.
My work has been profiled in Emmy magazine, TV Guide, and 24 Magazine and other periodicals, as well as on comic industry outlets such as ComicBookResources.com, Newsarama, ComicsBulletin.com, ComicMonsters.com, Comcs2Film, Fanboy TV, First Comics News, The Pulse and others.
I serve as Associate Publisher and Executive Editor of Gemstone Publishing, which is best known as the home of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and the Scoop email newsletter, which has put me in a position to network with the industry leaders in producing, publishing, and distributing new comics, the key players in the vibrant market for vintage, rare, high end back issues, and the innovative creators who continue to capture Hollywood’s attention. This has also put me in place to facilitate a significant number of projects in which I was not directly involved, as well. With the recent spate of seven-figure comic book sales, I have been a frequent source for the Associated Press, The New York Daily News, and other wire services.
As the author of more than 5,000 feature articles, reviews and informational pieces, I have produced or helped produce The Official Price Guide To Pop Culture Memorabilia, The Official Price Guide To Disney Collectibles, The Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide, The Big Big Little Book Book: An Overstreet Photo-Journal, The Official Price Guide to Mechanical Banks, The Official Price Guide To Mickey Mouse Collectibles, and other books. I have contributed articles to Back Issue, Style Century, Comics Buyer’s Guide, Antique Toy World, and Toy Shop, and have been a columnist for The Journal of Antiques & Collectibles, Toy Collector Magazine, Antique Trader, and Collectors Gazette, and I also assisted in the development and opening of Geppi’s Entertainment Museum in Baltimore’s historic Camden Yards sports complex.
Bambos
Over the past 25 years Bambos has been a comic publisher, editor, writer, penciller, inker, letterer and journalist. He has freelanced for 2000AD, Deadline, DC Comics, Marvel US, Marvel UK, Panini Comics, Titan Books, Walt Disney Magazine, Crisis, Revolver, A1, Blue Peter Magazine, Idols and VIZ. He has worked on such characters as Wallace & Gromit, Spider-Man, X-Men, Star Wars, Rugrats, Savage Sword of Conan, The Mask, Transformers, Felix and His Amazing Underpants, Pathetic Sharks, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Thundercats, The Real Ghostbusters, Ren & Stimpy, Looney Tunes, Thomas The Tank Engine, James Bond Jr, Ed, Edd & Eddy, Casper, Power Rangers, VR Troopers, Knights of Pendragon, He-Man, She Ra, Sid The Snake, The Ray, Marvel Comics Presents, Action Man and a whole bunch of other stuff. In the past he interviewed comic creators such as Jean Giraud, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Gilbert Shelton, Pat Mills, Kev O’Neill, and John Bolton.