Saori Adams is the co-founder of Comicker Press. A creator-friendly publisher of comics and graphic novels from women and persons of color.  Dedicated to make diversity – both in creators and in content – a requirement for all new series they publish. Saori also founded FanFaire NYC, a fundraising comic con benefitting the High School of Art & Design in New York City.


Zaid Aladham: is the author and publisher of Wayl, the Middle East’s first adult superhero graphic novel, illustrated by Saudi illustrator Yasser Alireza. www.waylcomic.com


Chris Allo: Christopher Allo, the founder of Magnus Arts Agency, boasts two decades of experience boosting the careers of promising comic book talent. Chris’s career in the comic book industry beginning at Marvel Entertainment has spanned nearly twenty-two years. @xmagnus_arts_groupx instagram


Cristian Aluas: Romanian-born Canadian illustrator and writer with 18 years of experience. Artist of “Big Boss: Gun For Hire” and author of “IT’S A LIVING: Surviving as a Freelancer in the 21st Century.https://masterpieceartschool.com/


Shelly Bond is the editor of the Eisner award-winning series Bitter Root, Fables, and The Sandman: Overture. She’s the Editor-in-Chief of OFFREGISTER.PRESS, a comics & design lab she founded with her husband, artist Philip Bond. A former DC/Vertigo Executive and Editor for over two decades, Bond has been driven to edit & curate comic books, crush deadlines and innovate. She’s best known for her self-published anthologies funded through Kickstarter including Insider Art, Femme Magnifque:50 Magnificent Women Who Changed The World, and Heavy Rotation. Shelly is currently writing and art directing her magnum opus, Filth & Grammar: The Comic Book Editor’s Secret Handbook, thanks to 2,375 Kickstarter backers.  She wields red pens and tap shoes with equal aplomb and lives in Los Angeles.


My name is Roland Brown. I am a first-generation American artist of German-Filipino descent.
I am primarily a webcomic artist, but I also sell printed versions of my comics. I produce two ongoing titles, “Mindfold” and “Tusk.” Both stories are mashups of the science fiction, steampunk, and fantasy genres. Both deal with the themes of extricating oneself from a hostile family of origin, and finding redemption by building oneself a supportive family of choice. In my writing, I have fun subverting the mythologies of ancient and modern western culture. I like to take the public narratives that influence pop culture, everything from Homer to Star Wars, and turn them on their head in order to make us question (and laugh at) what we consider “normal” cultural role expectations. http://mindfoldcomic.webcomic.ws/comics/first/#content-start


John Jay Cabuay is an illustrator and FIT instructor. His illustrations have graced the covers of newspapers, magazines, and book jackets worldwide. He received his MFA in Illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology. He was featured in a book by Taschen called “100 illustrators” a book about the 100 important illustrators around the globe. John Jay illustrated his first major picture book project “Get Up Stand Up” and is available now on local bookshops and online stores.


Wendy Chin-Tanner is the author of Turn and co-author of American Terrorist. She is a founding editor at Kin Poetry Journal, poetry editor at The Nervous Breakdown, staff interviewer at Lantern Review, and co-founder at A Wave Blue World. https://awbw.com/


Josipa Čok is an IT Engineer by profession in Šabac, Serbia and she also does graphic design, web design, digital illustration and comics.  She teaches and mentors high school students and her work has been exhibited at museums, theaters, festivals, galleries as well as print and online magazines. She’s received an award for her comic Josh Park at Serbia’s Comic Book Strip Festival. Her new comic is Eco Woman about Jane, an ecologist and scientist, who gains superpowers from the Earth and protects the environment. Her superpowers include flying, weather stimulation and healing. https://josipacok.blogspot.com/


Melody Cooper: Weaned at a young age on sci-fi and horror, Melody had no choice but to happily become a genre screenwriter. Her dad was a science teacher who introduced her to science fiction, and her mother was an English teacher and poet who loved Poe and King. They were also both social justice activists and that lives in all her work. She very excited to have completed the 10-month 2019 HBO Access Writing Program, after doing a 2019 writer’s residency at Yaddo in New York.​ ​​Melody is currently writing the comic book OMNI for Mark Waid at Humanoids (Issues #5 – 10). It’s focused on the character of Cecelia Cobbina, a young Black doctor with super abilities  who fights social injustice. https://www.melodymcooper.com/


Mauricio Cordero teaches comic book creation/production at MIT in Cambridge. He is the founder of BORDERx Projects and has been involved in the underground comix, music and zine scene since the mid 1980s. https://border-x.com/


J.M. DeSantis: is a writer and artist of novels and comic books. Genres include fantasy, horror and humor. He is the Creator of Chadhiyana and Gentleman Cthulhu. http://jmdesantis.com


Mary Dumas: My LGBTQ light romance graphic novel started life as a webcomic 7 years ago. In 2020 I published it as a 250 page book.  Romeo X Julien is a story based at a Renaissance Fair in California.  There are three gay couples, supportive parents, and a busybody cousin, named Benny. www.Justyaoi.com


Ray Felix is a Bronx native born in 1973. His comics include Bronx Heroes 1.0: Runaway Slave, Bronx Heroes 2.0: The Greatest Hero Black Power, Heavy Traffic, Enter: The Roach and A World Without Superheroes. Felix is also the founder of the community-based organization Bronx Heroes Comic Con and co-founder of Women in Comics Con, both of which promote literacy and education through the practice of reading and creating comics. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including from New York State Council on the Arts in 2011 -2016, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Bloomberg Philanthropies; he was also awarded a Citation of Merit from the Borough of The Bronx for his community based work and teaching at-risk LGBTQ youth. https://www.bxhcc.com/


Gula Comic is a two-person team (artist & writter) based in Jakarta, Indonesia.The story is about a novice magical girl of the magi race who lives among ordinary humans. She can turn anything into sweets —in the form of traditional Southeast Asian snacks— but her distinctively different appearance makes her difficult to befriend humans. Not only that the magi kind is a minority in the human world, but there is also her classmate, Sally, who despises magi and does anything to get her expelled from the school.Our work has been published officially by our local online web comic publisher from 2018-2019. Currently is an ongoing project with Difference Engine (a Singaporean publisher). Our works are mainly in Bahasa but we are currently translating it to English bit by bit. https://linktr.ee/gulacomic


Mike Gagnon is a professional writer and artist with over 20 years of experience based in St. Catharines, Canada. He is the founder of not-for-profit publisher All Day Breakfast Productions. http://www.alldaybreakfast.productions


Geeknami is made up of the dynamic duo of Shea and Shaunna. We make geeky designs for geeky folks! Shea is a sketch card artist for Marvel Upperdeck and freelance graphic designer. He is experienced in both traditional and digital art; he has illustrated children’s novels, designed logos and other graphics for various companies, and recently completed Fighter’s Legacy, the enormous 800+ character art piece that is his send up to iconic fighting games, among other projects. Shea describes his style as “comics meets anime” and loves creating the epic, extraordinarily detailed mashups that have become a geeknami ™. Shaunna is a lifelong dork who fell into marketing after trying out an assortment of jobs. She handles all social media and production for geeknami, and also helps develop awesome new products and designs. She is constantly searching for the next great idea. https://geeknami.storenvy.com/


Karen Green founded the graphic novels collection in the Columbia University Libraries, while working as the Ancient and Medieval History librarian. Green holds graduate degrees from Columbia University and Rutgers University. She wrote the “Comic Adventures in Academia” column for Comixology and has served as a Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards judge, was a member of the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning and serves as vice-president of the board of directors of the Society of Illustrators and was former trustee of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. She is Columbia’s first-ever Curator for Comics and Cartoons.


Paolo Herras is the founder of Komiket, a non-profit organization that helps nurture and grow the comics community in the Philippines. Komiket organizes comics art markets, teaches comic book creator’s workshops, publishes comic books and graphic novels in English, and sells comic books in the Secret HQ community bookstore. Paolo is also the Festival Director for the Philippine International Comics Festival, hoping to bring Filipino comics to international readers. www.komiket.org


Pat Higgins is an award-winning illustrator, cartoonist and graphic designer from Delaware. Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to work for a wide variety of clients and agencies; both in-house and as a freelancer. In addition to client work, Pat has led workshops and shown his work in galleries across the United States. He is also a member of the National Cartoonists Society. His recent books include The Covidiot Files (Self Published, March 2021) and Pulp Bytes (Scout Comics, tba 2021). Pat-Higgins.com


Joseph Illidge is an editorial director, writer, creative architect, and public speaker. His career in publishing and media includes groundbreaking work for DC Entertainment, Lion Forge, and other celebrated boutique publishers. Currently, Joseph is the Executive Editor for Heavy Metal, the seminal illustrated magazine and brand for science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Editing for a wide variety of clients, he connects with writers and artists from around the globe developing intellectual properties, comic books, and graphic novels celebrating heroism and inclusion. https://www.josephillidge.com/


Stefan Jackson: I’m a Black writer, actively published since 1987, encompassing all genres, in comics, non-fiction, short stories and my novel, Glass Shore is also available as an audiobook. https://www.facebook.com/novacult


Enrica Jang is the founder and editor-in-chief at Red Stylo Media. She is the writer and creator of Azteca, a comic series and motion comic, Angel With a Bullet, The House of Montresor, and editor of the annual Red Stylo Presents series of anthologies. Her screenplay The Freshmen was made into a short film, Frienemies, winner of a CINE Golden Eagle in 2011.  http://www.enricajang.com

Ozzy Longoria

Ozzy Longoria: is a Colorado-based comic book artist. A former student of Mexican comic book legend and Eisner award-winner Oscar Gonzalez Loyo, he has contributed to comic books and anthologies by countless independent comic book companies such as Ronin Studios, Hamtramck Idea Men, Bluewater Comics, Cryptozoic Entertainment, Viper Comics, and Topps. Longoria himself owns Gemini Comics, through which he works on his own projects, Nathaniel Demon, Project: Noah’s Ark, and Doomsday TV. http://geministudio.deviantart.com


Robert Luczun: is the creator and owner of the Car-toon Truck, 125 years of Comics, hand drawn and painted upon a 1928 Ford Roadster Pick-up currently on display at the Hershey Museum in New Jersey.


Joshua Luna is a Filipino American artist, writer, and comic creator. He graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Sequential Art, and began his career as a co-creator (writer and artist) in the sibling duo “Luna Brothers”. Original works by the Luna Brothers include the comic book series ULTRA, GIRLS, and THE SWORD, published under Image Comics. The Luna Brothers have also worked on Marvel’s SPIDER-WOMAN: ORIGIN. Joshua made his solo debut with WHISPERS in 2012. He is currently working on AMERICANIZASIAN, a collection of comic strips that explore Asian/Filipino American identity and experiences, which he plans to publish. www.joshualuna.com


Imogen Mangle is an illustrator from the south west of England. Her specialty is comics, and her favourite topics are informed by her experiences as a queer, autistic, and biracial woman — so expect to see a lot of sapphic content — from cute and relaxing through punky and energetic to downright horror.  Imogen writes and draws her web comic, Singing Glass, and she’s the main sequential artist on FILTH & GRAMMAR: The Comic Book Editor’s Secret Handbook with editor/writer Shelly Bond.


H. McGill provokes curiosity with comics. Graphic novels can be enjoyed quietly by oneself, or shared with friends. They’re never loud and ‘pausing’ one is easy — although a good one is hard to put down! The graphic novel is a safe space for puzzling out the world. Her background is in illustration and graphic design, but found herself drawn to comics as a peaceful mingling of the two disciplines. She loves every page, panel, and speech balloon. http://hmcgill.art


Shanai Melvin is known as Gothic Lolita Angel. Her work is influenced by anime and Japanese and alternative fashion. https://melvinshanai.wixsite.com/myartportfolio


Heidi Naguib is an activist, artist and visual storyteller connecting art with global movements to amplify collective human experiences and empower positive social change. Themes of community are reflected in everything she creates, and she strives to amplify the authentic voices of diverse communities around the world through her work. Heidipix.com


Evan Narcisse is a journalist and critic who writes about video games, comic books, movies and TV, often focusing on the intersection of blackness and pop culture. He is a senior staff writer at io9, having previously written for The Atlantic, Time Magazine, and Kotaku.


Tintin Pantoja graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2005 with a BFA in Illustration/Cartooning. Past works include Hamlet: The Manga Edition, Who is AC? The Makers Club and three volumes of Graphic Universe’s Manga Math series. She currently resides in the Philippines. http://www.TintinPantoja.com


Gabriel Pinto: I am an artist working primarily in TV animation. I have done storyboards and character designs for such shows as Mao Mao, T.O.T.S., Venture Bros., and Motorcity. In my free time I make stickers, screen prints, comics and pins. https://gabrielpinto.carrd.co/


Jill Pratzon is an illustrator, writer and art restorer who mines her life for the horrific and the sweet. She is proud to have contributed to the 2021 Anthology Black Stories Matter! Her graphic novel work includes Raised by Wolves, Restoration & Son and Brooklyn Rhino. Jill has restored hundreds of paintings from the collections of the Society of Illustrators, the Norman Rockwell Museum, Illustration House and countless collectors and created ACTION PRATZON, a YouTube channel about her drawing and restoration work, funded entirely by Kickstarter. https://graphicpratzon.com


Kyunghee Pyun is an Associate Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York. Her scholarship focuses on history of collecting, reception of Asian art, diaspora of Asian artists, and Asian American visual culture. She was a Leon Levy fellow in the Center for the History of Collecting at the Frick Collection. Fashion, Identity, Power in Modern Asia surveyed modernized dresses in the early twentieth century. She is working on a new book on school uniforms in East Asia. As an independent curator, she has collaborated with contemporary artists in New York since 2013.


Randy Reynaldo Creator-artist-writer of the long-running globetrotting serio-comic action adventure series, Rob Hanes Adventures. He is the 2018 recipient of the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Comic Art from the San Diego Comic-Con. http://wcgcomics.com/


Jorell Rivera is a New York City-based artist who specializes in drawing robots punching each other, and other things. You can see his work at https://www.jorellrivera.com/


Fabrice Sapolsky A true storyteller, Fabrice can write, draw, letter and edit any comic book. He is the co-creator/co-writer of Spider-Man Noir for Marvel Comics (with David Hine). He also published creator-owned comics at Image Comics and Dynamite Entertainment. Breathing comics night and day, Fabrice also served as Senior Editor at publisher Humanoids (2017-2020) where he developed the new H1 Comics and BiG imprints. He lives in Los Angeles where founded FairSquare Comics, a new publisher where he’s hosting his own projects like One-Hit Wonder, Intertwined and Lady-Bird as well as those from his amazing friends. FairSquare Comics’ mission statement is “Comics For The Rest of Us”: the goal is to showcase and publish comics and graphic novels from immigrants and under-represented categories of creators. Fabrice is also an editor for Heavy Metal Magazine. https://fairsquarecomics.com/store/


Christopher Smith, aka Chris.Dot, is the creator and writer of the graphic novel series Cleavage. In an attempt to reverse the Earths over heating, Dr. Perciville Hobbs mistakenly sends himself through a different time and must find his way back home. https://www.chrisdot.work/the-works


Robert J. (“Bob”) Sodaro is an American born writer, editor, and digital graphic artist, who is perhaps best known as a journalist for the comicbook industry during the ‘80s & ‘90s. He currently contributes stories to several indie comicbook publishers including, Red Anvil, Main Enterprises, Pronto, InDELLible, Wunderfunders, and others. He is the creator of a number of intellectual properties including Agent Unknown, Wülf Girlz, Girl Skout Wars, The Adventures of Hot Girl & Totally Hot Girl, and others. https://rjsodaro.wixsite.com/freelanceink


M. Sorcier is a self taught artist and writer from Bronx, NY. Currently, she works on her ongoing comic series called Sacrimony: A Tale of Love, Life and Death – In No Particular Order. https://msorcier.gumroad.com/


Victor and Me by Yvette Silver is a hybrid MG graphic novel, featuring a protagonist with an IEP. Ben, a Brooklyn kid with sensory issues and slow processing meets Victor, the wild child of Aveyron, history’s first student with learning disabilities. While Ben takes on middle school’s ups and downs, Victor reveals to Ben the heroes that fought for education rights and disability pride, turning Ben from victim to activist. https://yvettejeansilver.wixsite.com/my-site


Shannon Spence: I’m lab rat by day and artist by night living in Richmond, VA. I am a comics creator and printmaker currently working on a graphic novel – a medieval fantasy following an ex-knight and priest uncovering the truth about a monstrous plague that is devastating the kingdom.I am making woodcut prints and mini-comics from this universe for dragon, beast, monster and fantasy lovers out there. shannonprints.com


Carli Spina has written extensively about graphic novels for several online publications, particularly for The Hub, the YA Literature blog of the American Library Association’s Young Adult Library Services Association. She is also a member of the American Library Association’s Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table and has a chapter coming out later this year on nonfiction graphic novels for libraries.


Budjette Tan is a Filipino writer best known for writing the horror/crime komiks series Trese, co-creating it with artist Kajo Baldisimo. His work Trese has won the Philippine National Book Award for Best Graphic Literature of the Year in 2009, 2011, 2012. It has been adapted into an animated series by Netflix. https://twitter.com/Budjette


Tak Toyoshima is an American art director with the Weekly Dig and the author of the comic strip Secret Asian Man. According to an interview with AArisings, Toyoshima is a second-generation Japanese American born in New York City. http://secretasianmancomics.blogspot.com/


Billy Tucci is an FIT Graduate and award-winning cartoonist best known for his modern-day samurai fable, “Shi”.  Through Billy’s Crusade Fine Arts, the multi-Eisner Award-nominated Shi has been printed in five languages sold more than 3 million comic books.  2021 celebrates Billy’s 27th Anniversary in comics with the release of the Shi: Return of the Warrior, Shi: Haikyo, and the Shi: Omnibus Vol. 1. He also illustrated “Wonder Woman ” for DC Comics and is writing for the comics return of June Tarpe’ Mills’ golden age icon, Miss Fury for Dynamite Entertainment. www.billytucci.com  


Photo of Jerome Walford

Jerome Walford, an immigrant himself, from Jamaica, Jerome teaches under Computer Graphicsat FIT and is the award winning writer, artist and publisher of Forward Comix which has produced the series Nowhere Man and The Gwan Anthology. A collection of immigrant sto-ries which won the 2017 Independent Book Award. By day he runs his own de-sign company called the Blue Griffin. https://www.forwardcomix.com


WOW Book & Toy: We’re a multicultural children’s bookstore located on the beautiful MS Gulf Coast. We’re one of the few Black owned book spaces along the Gulf Coast, or in MS period. We offer several forms of children’s media and toys, and also delight in creating handmade stationery. We started out online, but have since opened a physical storefront as of July 2021. wowbookandtoy.com


WykedBunny is powered by Morbia Corpus, a self taught Bronx native whose work is heavily influenced by music, emotions and weirdness. WykedBunny creations range from illustrations, comic art, character design and cartoons. https://ko-fi.com/wykedbunny