Guests

Dane Ault

Dane Ault is the artist behind Monkey Minion Press, an art company he runs with his wife and business partner, Ashlie Hammond. Monkey Minion Press has been publishing art books, kid’s books, and all manner of POPaganda, science, and space-related art prints and posters for over a decade.

Hawkings Austin

Hawk’s current supervillain title is Director of Radiation Effects. In his quest to take over the world, Hawk has landed a series of jobs with NASA, DoD, and Missile Defense, testing spacecraft for natural (and unnatural) environments. Hawk has published professionally in engineering, science, history, and fantasy.

Anjali Bhimani

Anjali Bhimani is the voice of Symmetra in Overwatch, Nisha in Fallout:4 Nuka World, Kala in Indivisible, Stingray in We’re Alive: Frontier, Miriam on UnDeadwood, and more. TV credits include Modern Family, Grace and Frankie, S.W.A.T., Crazy-Ex Girlfriend, Silicon Valley, and many more.

April Borchelt

April Borchelt is an illustrator that works in both the animation and gaming industries while keeping true to her fine art roots. She's worked with Nickelodeon, Hi-Rez Studios, illustrated for multiple published board games, TCG companies, children's books, and has had her fine art exhibited in galleries around Atlanta.

BREED

BREED has been in the comic book/graphic novel, licensed property, TV, and motion picture industries for over 24 years as a penciler, writer, animator, and sketch/storyboard/conceptual artist. His work has been featured by Zenescope Entertainment, IDW, UDC/Marvel, Action Lab, Counterpoint Comics, MNS Cards, Stranger Comics, and Source Point Press.

Patricia L. Briggs

Patricia Briggs is a New York Times best selling author of both the Mercy Thompson and the Alpha and Omega urban fantasy series. Briggs began her career writing traditional high fantasy novels in 1993, and shifted gears in 2006 to write urban fantasy.

Ed Brisson

Ed Brisson is a comic book writer who first started to garner attention with his self-published crime series Murder Book and the crime/time-travel thriller series Comeback. He’s written and co-created four other series published by Image: Sheltered, The Field, The Mantle, and The Violent.

Raychelle Burks

Raychelle Burks is a chemistry professor with a crime lab background. On the Smithsonian Channel, she brings her expertise to The Curious Life and Death Of… to examine unusual cases. Burks is an award winning science communicator, presenting on the science of true crime and fandoms.

Jeff Burns

Jeff Burns is the creator of action/comedy series Super Knocked Up and the host of geeky improv comedy show Super Geeked Up. He also moderates celebrity, fan, and gaming panels and performs RPG liveplays at super-fun cons across North America.

Jim Butcher

Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, and a new steampunk series, the Cinder Spires. His resume includes a laundry list of skills which were useful a couple of centuries ago, and he plays guitar quite badly.

Ben Caldwell

Ben Caldwell is an artist for games, toys and animation, as well as writing/illustrating comics. His clients range from DC to Disney. Some projects include Harry Potter, Wonder Woman, and Star Wars: Clone Wars. He left the toy biz to branch out, doing visual development for various animation projects.

Zach Callison

Zach Callison is a music artist, actor, voice actor, and content creator who is best known as Steven in Cartoon Network's Steven Universe and Winger in DreamWorks’ Dragons: Rescue Riders, as well as Chuck in Amazon Studios' Just Add Magic and Corbett in ABC’s The Goldbergs.

Ciruelo

Fantasy artist Ciruelo was born in Argentina and has been living in Spain since 1987. He worked for important publishing houses in Europe and in USA illustrating book covers, prints, calendars, and trading cards with dragons as the main subject. He is currently writing and illustrating his own books.

Freddy Clements

Freddy Clements is currently a distinguished professor of drama/costume design at Jacksonville State University. He holds a MFA in costume design from Virginia Commonwealth University. He has designed costumes for various regional theatres and has extensive experience in early twentieth century corsetry, kilt construction, and costume technology.

Sean Andrew Copeland

Sean Copeland is the Historian Supervisor of Story and Franchise Development at Blizzard Entertainment where he leads its team of loremasters. This lore team directly enables the developers of Blizzard and beyond to create with confidence when crafting our award-winning games, goods, and cinematic story content for Activision Blizzard’s franchises.

Kathleen O'Shea David

Kathleen O'Shea David started working with puppets when she was two and over 50 years later she is still "wiggling dolls" for fun and profit. Along the way she picked up a few more skills and careers. She has done just about everything from cancer research to rock and roll. 

Keith R.A. DeCandido

Keith R.A. DeCandido is the author of tie-in fiction in more than 30 different licensed universes from Alien to Zorro, and also the author of original fiction set in the fictional cities of Cliff's End and Super City and the somewhat real locales of New York and Key West.

Vanesa R. Del Rey

Cuban artist Vanesa R. Del Rey began her career doing concept art for animation. Her work in comics has been described as dark, gritty, and mysterious with great dominance of figurative work. She has illustrated Scarlet Witch, Spider-Women Alpha, and Daredevil Annual (2016). Redlands is her first creator-owned series.

Mark Dos Santos

Illustrator and comic artist Mark Dos Santos has worked with celebrated creators such as Steve T. Seagle (IMPERIAL), Garth Ennis (A Train Called Love) and Bill Willingham (Lark's Killer). He has created book covers for Silence in the Library(Apollo's Daughters),Star Trek TNG, and Hugo award-winning writer, Morgan Gendel (Planet 6).

DC Douglas

Actor and voice over talent, DC Douglas, is best known as the voice of Albert Wesker in the Resident Evil franchise, Legion in Mass Effect 2 & 3, Chase in Transformers: Rescue Bots, as well as countless film & TV shows, most recently Sharknado 2.

Margaret Downey

Margaret Downey created the Friggatriskaidekaphobia Treatment Nurse character in 1996. She is the only one who teaches critical thinking skills dressed in costume every Friday the 13th. Downey is a costumer, event planner, and social activist and has represented the interest of the nontheist community at several United Nations conferences.

J.M. Dragunas

J.M. Dragunas is a freelance illustrator currently working on his creator owned book L.C. Noir. He is best known for his contributions to the Little Nemo anthology, the 1001 Knights anthology, and for being the illustrator for Harry Potter: A Cinematic Gallery.

Nick Eftimiades

Nicholas Eftimiades is a professor and author. He spent 34 years in US intelligence and diplomacy with postings in Europe and Asia. Eftimiades is a renowned expert on China and authored books and articles on national security, emerging technology, and outer space related issues.

Estelle

Grammy award-winner singer/songwriter Estelle achieved mainstream success in the U.S. with her single “American Boy” featuring Kanye West. However, fans of Cartoon Network recognize her as the voice of Garnet, the leader of the Crystal Gems in the insanely popular Steven Universe series.

Mike Faber

Mike Faber is the founder and CCO of the geeky and ever expanding ESO Network. He hosts The Earth Station One and Earth Station Who podcasts. He teaches and mentors new podcasters on starting and producing new projects. The ESO Network celebrates all things sci-fi, fantasy and much, much more.

Bill Fawcett

Bill Fawcett & Associates has packaged and edited over 400 Science Fiction novels and two oral histories of the Navy SEALs. He co-authored the official Mycroft Holmes Mysteries and has written almost a dozen books, many on Mistakes in History. Founded Mayfair Games and designs board and computer games.

Dan Fraga

Dan Fraga is a director and comic book artist who’s career as a storyteller started in late 1991 when he was hired to join the newly formed Image comics. Over the span of his 28 year career, Fraga has worked on a number of the comics industry’s top titles. 

Matt Frank

Matt Frank has become known in both Japan and America as the "Kaiju King!" He has contributed covers and interiors to nearly every Godzilla comic published by IDW, as well as many Transformers titles. Frank has also worked on comics for Power Rangers, Adventure Time, Gamera, Ultraman, and Mars Attacks!

Chandra Free

Chandra Free is the writer/artist of The God Machine comic series, and co-founder of Machina Corpse, a spooky comic book company. She’s an illustrator on books like John Carpenter’s Tales For A Halloween Night, FIRST OFFERINGS, Odie, Fraggle Rock, and Graphic Canon; and colorist for Mice Templar.

Esther Friesner

Nebula Award winning author Esther Friesner has seen the publication of 41 novels, over 200 short stories, nine anthologies, and three collections of her work. She created the popular Chicks in Chainmail series (Baen Books), and the Princesses of Myth series of YA novels (Random House). She keeps busy.

Dr. Charles E. Gannon

Dr. Charles E. Gannon‘s Caine Riordan hard sf novels have all been national bestsellers. Four (including the latest, Marque of Caine) have been Nebula finalists; two have been Dragon Award finalists, and the first was also a Compton Crook winner. An overlapping series, Murphy's Lawless launched this year.

Andrew E.C. Gaska

Senior Development Editor at Lion Forge Comics and Animation, Andrew Gaska is also 20th Century Fox’s freelance consultant on POTA, ALIEN, and Predator. An author, designer, game-writer, and graphic novelist, his work includes SPACE:1999, Buck Rogers, Death of the Planet of the Apes, and the ALIEN Role Playing Game.

Annie Stegg Gerard

Annie Stegg Gerard exhibits her work in galleries and has done notable publishing work for clients such as Disney, Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, Easton press, Ballistic Publishing, and more. Her work is found in private collections all over the world.

Gil Gerard

Gil Gerard has starred in numerous successful made-for-television movies as well as feature films. He is best-known to SF audiences as Capt. William "Buck" Rogers in the SF TV series, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. His other roles include several movie and TV series appearances. 

Justin Gerard

Justin Gerard is an illustrator whose client list includes Disney, Dreamworks, Warner Brothers, Harper Collins, Penguin, Random House, Sony, Riot, Blizzard, Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, and Riotminds. His work has won awards in art competitions such as Spectrum Fantastic Art, the Society of Illustrators, Infected by Art, and Expose.

Mike Godwin

Mike Godwin is an American attorney and author. He was the first staff counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and he created the Internet adage Godwin's law and the notion of an Internet meme, as reported in the October 1994 issue of Wired.

Michael Gordon

Michael Gordon is a writer, publisher, and podcaster. His creator-owed comic, Tiki Zombie, has been running for nearly a decade. Gordon can also be heard saying, “Howdy!” on the weekly Earth Station One podcast, as well as a number of other shows.

Stacey Gordon

Stacey Gordon is a puppeteer in from Phoenix, Az. She operates Puppet Pie, an art studio in the heart of Phoenix, Arizona, and has the honor of performing one of Sesame Street’s newest friends, Julia, a curious 4-year-old girl with autism.

Daniel Govar

Daniel Govar is a comic, children's book, and fantasy artist known for covers and interiors (Marvel, DC, Valiant, etc). Most recently, Govar has self-published a children’s book: Mr. Trunk Builds a Wall, and a 200 page artbook comprising of his daily illustrations.

Dr. Stephen Granade

Stephen Granade is a physicist specializing in robotics and sensors. His sensors have read fingerprints from 10-feet away, tracked drones, and guided the shuttle to Hubble. He was most recently seen on NASA's Unexplained Files. If you're afraid of the robot revolution, Dr. Granade is someone to watch out for.

Matt Green

Matt Green is a filmmaker as well as a creature and special effects coordinator. Matt taught animatronics and sculpture at the Tom Savini makeup effects school. He has directed nine feature films as well as a number of web commercials, music videos and short films.

Andrew Lee Griffith

Andrew Griffith is an American comic book artist best known for his work on the Transformers franchise, currently working on a three-part story for IDW as part of the Galaxies anthology stories as well as developing a number of creator-owned projects.

Clay and Susan Griffith

Clay Griffith is a writer of fiction and comic books. With his wife, Susan, he is the co-author of The Flash: The Haunting of Barry Allen and Arrow: A Generation of Vipers. They are also the creators of the Vampire Empire series and the upcoming Monstrance series.

Jonathan Hallett

Emmy-nominated animation producer Jonathan Hallett is a professional storyboard artist/ concept artist for the film, television, and video game industries. His next project will be for TokyoPop Comics as the artist on the upcoming Stitch Manga series! He received an Emmy Nomination for his animation work on The Aquabats Supershow!

Chris Hamer

Chris Hamer, raised by Sasquatch in suburbs of Georgia also know as urbnpop, is the creator of the comic book series called The Adventures of Byron, published thru Scout Comics. Hamer has several independent comics published and has done licensed work for Star Wars, Mara Attacks, Rick and Morty, and more. 

Robert E. Hampson

Dr. Robert E. Hampson is a scientist, author, editor, and educator. From developing a prosthetic for human memory to advising SF authors, from anthologies and novels for Baen Books and CKP, he turns science fiction into science, and brings real science into SF.

Scott Hanna

Scott Hanna is an inker in the comic book industry who has worked with DC Comics and Marvel. He started his career with Eternity Comics and worked for DC for five years. He has worked for Marvel Comics for almost 14 years and inked almost every major character.

Ian Harris

A fascinating and funny mix of spot-on impressions and clever, cutting-edge comedy, Ian Harris' act has landed him coveted appearances on Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!, Comedy Central, as well as two, one-hour TV specials Critical and Thinking and ExtraOrdinary. Harris has performed at Dragon Con since 2014.

John G. Hartness

John G. Hartness is an author, publisher, and podcaster from Charlotte, NC. He is the author of multiple novel series, including the award-winning Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter series. He is also the co-founder and publisher of Falstaff Books, and a member of the Authors & Dragons Live D&D podcast.

Tom Heintjes

Tom Heintjes is the co-founder and publisher of the Eisner Award-winning Hogan's Alley magazine, one of the leading magazines on contemporary and classic cartooning. He is a former managing editor of The Comics Journal and for years wrote biographical essays for Will Eisner’s Spirit magazine for Kitchen Sink Press.

Leanna Renee Hieber

Leanna Renee Hieber is an actress, ghost tour guide, and award-winning bestselling author of gothic, gaslamp fantasy novels such as the Strangely Beautiful, Magic Most Foul, Eterna Files, and Spectral City series. She’s been featured in film and television on shows like Mysteries at the Museum.

Kenneth Hite

Kenneth Hite has written 100+ tabletop roleplaying game books, including Trail of Cthulhu, The Dracula Dossier, Night’s Black Agents, The Fall of DELTA GREEN, and Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition. He is half of the multiple-award-winning podcast Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff.

Bill Holbrook

Bill Holbrook is the creator of the daily comic strips On the Fastrack, Safe Havens, and Kevin and Kell. The later debuted in 1995 and is the longest continually-running webcomic on the Internet. In 2016 he was nominated by the National Cartoonists Society for Best Webcomic (Short form).

Greg Horn

Greg Horn is an illustrator best known for his Marvel Comics covers. Currently, he is working on new variants for DC Comics’ Harley Quinn 25th Anniversary Special #1 with Unknown Comic Books and ComicXposure. Other recent projects include Marvel's Edge of Venomverse, Generations/ Legacy, Champions, Venom, and Avengers VS Zombies.

Tini Howard

Tini Howard is a comic book writer and swamp witch from the Carolina Wilds. Currently, she writes Euthanauts, Assassinistas (with Gilbert Hernandez), and Hack/Slash: Resurrection, with occasional stories for two of her favorite things: Rick and Morty and WWE. Previous work includes Power Rangers: Pink and The Skeptics.

George Hrab

Multi-instrumentalist, singer songwriter, story teller, science advocate, Emmy Award nominee George Hrab has produced six independent CDs and a concert DVD; published two books; recorded over 650 episodes of an award-winning podcast; is a science conference emcee; a TEDx speaker; and drummer/musical director with Philadelphia Funk Authority.

D.B. Jackson

David B. Coe/D.B. Jackson is the award-winning author of more than two dozen books and as many short stories. As David B. Coe he writes epic, contemporary, and urban fantasy. As D.B. Jackson he writes the Thieftaker Chronicles, a blend of urban fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction.

Steve Jackson

Steve Jackson has been designing games for over 40 years and has no plans to stop. His creations include Munchkin, Illuminati, the GURPS and Fantasy Trip roleplaying systems, Ogre, Car Wars, and Zombie Dice. He is either a citizen of the internet or a Texan, depending on who’s asking.

Dan Jolley

Dan Jolley is a multi-media writer. Over a 20+ year career, he co-created the Jason Rusch incarnation of DC Comics' Firestorm, wrote the main story for the video game Dying Light, and has published more than a dozen original novels, including the Gray Widow Trilogy and The Storm.

Bill Keel

Astronomer Bill Keel is the author of The Sky at Einstein's Feet and The Road to Galaxy Formation. He hosts annual overnight Live Astronomy sessions, and spoken on cosmology, extrasolar planets, citizen discovery in astronomy, science in the Firefly and Avatar universes, spy satellites, and astronomical tourism.

Sherrilyn Kenyon

Defying odds is what New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon does best. With dedicated legions of fans known as Paladins, thousands of whom proudly sport tattoos from her genre-defying series, she’s become one of the most popular and influential authors in the world (in both adult and young adult).

J. Gregory Keyes

Greg Keyes is the author of over 30 science fiction and fantasy novels, from original works like The Age of Unreason and Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, to licensed universes including Star Wars, Babylon 5, Planet of the Apes, Godzilla, and the Elder Scrolls. He lives in Savannah Georgia.

Nancy Knight

Nancy Knight has been an award-winning, bestselling author since 1986 with 12 novels and numerous short stories published. She has also edited anthologies. A produced playwright and screenwriter. with Co-writer Yasmin Bakhtiari, she wrote a screenplay filmed in 2018 and now in distribution. She's taught creative writing since 1987.

Alethea Kontis

New York Times bestselling author Alethea Kontis is a princess, a voice actress, a storm chaser, and a geek. She is the host of Princess Alethea’s Traveling Sideshow every year at Dragon Con. Alethea narrates stories for multiple award-winning online magazines, and she contributes regular book reviews to NPR.

Daniel Kraus

Daniel Kraus is a New York Times bestselling author. With Guillermo del Toro, he co-authored The Shape of Water, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film. Coming soon is The Living Dead, a posthumous collaboration with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero.

George Krstic

As Director of Story for Blizzard Entertainment’s Story and Franchise Development division, Emmy, Annie, and Saturn Award nominated George Krstic helps shepherd the narrative expressions of all of Blizzard’s game IPs including Warcraft and Overwatch. Krstic has also worked on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, League of Legends, and Transformers.

Katherine Kurtz

With her first Deryni Trilogy, Katherine Kurtz helped found the modern fantasy genre, and has more than a score of novels to her credit, along with nearly a dozen co-authored with others. Her first novel, Deryni Rising, is currently optioned and in development with Sony Entertainment for Columbia Pictures.

Cheralyn Lambeth

Cheralyn Lambeth is a professional costume/prop/puppet builder whose work includes feature films (The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Hunger Games), TV shows (Dinosaurs!, Homeland), and live/interactive properties (Avenue Q, Star Trek: The Experience). She is also author of Creating the Character Costume and Introduction to Puppetry Arts.

Tim Lattie

Tim Lattie, half artist; half amazing, now does graphic novels for IDW Publishing, Dark Horse Comics, Boom! Studios, and UNICEF. works on projects such as Ghostbusters, WWE, and Plants vs Zombies, as well as on his creator owned book about teenage time travelers and UFOs called Night Stars!

Leo Leibelman

Leo Leibelman began his professional career in the mid 90's, in pages of Marvel Comics for Savage Sword of Conan. After working in the comics industry, he later moved to the film/tv industry where he has worked on dozens of movies and tv shows doing storyboards and concepts.

Linda Lessmann Reinhold

Leighann Lord

Smart, savvy, and funny, Leighann Lord’s “heads up humor” is stand-up comedy at it’s finest. She is the author of Dict Jokes and Real Women Do it Standing Up. She been a co-host on StarTalkRadio with Neil de Grasse Tyson and is the 2019 winner of the Humanist Arts Award.

John Lotshaw

John Lotshaw is a cartoonist and animator from Atlanta, GA. He is the creator of Accidental Centaurs, which has been running since 2002. In addition, he has been a publisher of cartoonists such as Bill Holbrook and Greg Cravens, and is a member of the National Cartoonists Society.

Comfort Love

Comfort and Adam are the award nominated duo responsible for The Uniques and Rainbow in the Dark, and The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Comics. They also run an art studio called Team Comfort and Adam, and in 2020 will run their first massive Kickstarter for The Uniques Season 2.

Erin P MacDonald

Dr Erin Macdonald is an astrophysicist, science fiction consultant, aerospace engineer, and host of the online series Dr Erin Explains the Universe. Her specialty is in general relativity, having previously worked in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration searching for gravitational waves. She has since found her home in science fiction.

Deedee Magno Hall

Deedee Magno Hall is currently the voice of Pearl on Cartoon Network’s Emmy nominated series, Steven Universe and Snuggs the hedgehog in Doc McStuffins. Magno Hall's resume boasts and extensive list of credits including theater performances, TV and film appearances, and voice recordings.

Mari Mancusi

Mari Mancusi is a former Emmy award-winning TV producer, current video game writer, and author for Disney Books. She’s published more than two dozen sci-fi/fantasy novels including The Camelot Code, Gamer Girl, Scorched, and Dragon Ops. She also works as a writer for FoxNext Games.

Brianne Marie

Brianna Marie is a player on the Dungeons and Randomness podcast, as well as one of the co-owners of the show. In this past year she was also one of the co-authors of the D&R setting book The Adventurer's Guide to Theria Volume 1: Ellara.

Jason Massey

Jason Massey has been the DM for the Dungeons and Randomness Podcast for 8 years. He now has over 11 years of podcasting under his belt and has co-authored the first book about his setting called The Adventurer's Guide to Theria: Vol 1 with his partner and an incredible team.

Georgia McBride

Georgia McBride is one of Publishers Marketplace’s most prolific editors, and has spent most of 2014 through 2019 atop the editors lists in editors, young adult, digital new adult, children's, and digital deals. She’s completed over 200 publishing deals on behalf of three imprints since March 2012.

Travis Scott Merrill

Travis Scott Merrill has worked professionally for over 20 years in theater, television, and film. He is currently working as an ager/dyer in IATSE local 479. His work can be seen in Macgyver seasons 1-4, Allegiant, Stranger Things, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Live by Night, and Avengers Infinity War.

Mikal Mosley

Mikal Mosley is a avid convention goer and costume designer. He has presented at several major conventions over the past 10 years, such as Dragon Con, Momo Con, and San Diego ComicCon. His professional costume credits include building costumes for the WWE, NFL, and various tv shows

Dean Motter

Dean Motter, artist/writer/designer is best known for the comics sensation, Mister X. He has written The Spirit, Superman, and the film-noir graphic novel, Batman: Nine Lives. His mini-series, Terminal City was nominated for Eisner and Kurtzman Awards. He is known for his graphic novel The Prisoner: Shattered Visage.

James C Mulligan

James Mulligan has been a Disney artist for over two decades, with properties featuring everything from the classics to recent favorite Frozen. His design, fine art and gallery work includes Playboy, Coca-Cola, Fox, Dreamworks, Warner Brothers, the Chuck Jones Family, Marvel, DC, Lexus, and the Elvis Presley Estate.

Bobby Nash

Award-winning author/artist Bobby Nash is a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and International Thriller Writers. He writes novels, comic books, short fiction, and the odd short screenplay. Nash also appears in movies and TV shows, usually standing behind your favorite actor. 

Kevin Nowlan

Kevin Nowlan is a comics artist who works as a penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer. He has been called "one of the few artists who can be called 'artists's artist'", a master of the various disciplines of comic production, from "design to draftsmanship to dramatics".

Jody Lynn Nye

Jody Lynn Nye has written dozens of books and over 160 short stories, most of them with a humorous bent. Her latest books are Rhythm of the Imperium (Baen), Moon Tracks (with Travis S. Taylor, Baen), and Myth-Fits (Ace). She also teaches the annual Dragon Con Two-Day Writers Workshop.

Michael Avon Oeming

Michael Avon Oeming is the Eisner, Harvey, and Eagle award-winning co-creator and artist of Powers. Oeming has written and drawn Thor Ragnarok, Red Sonja, Batman, Superman, but is best known for works such as Hammer of the Gods, The Mice Templar, Takio, United States of Murder Inc, and many others.

James Dean Pascoe

James Pascoe has been an inker/artist in comics for over 30 years. He has worked for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Valiant and Malibu, among others. He is currently working on a cover for Flying Sparks and inks for The Liberty Brigade.

Jennifer Paz

Jennifer Paz is the voice of Lapis on Steven Universe. She is an award-winning musical stage actor and concert-er with Broadway, regional, and international tour credits, including Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Flower Drum Song, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, to name a few.

Diana Peterfreund

Diana Peterfreund has published 13 novels for adults, teens, and kids. Her latest trilogy of YA novels is based on the classic board game, Clue, and began with In the Hall With the Knife, which Kirkus called "ingeniously plotted and vastly entertaining."

Van Allen Plexico

Van Allen Plexico writes award-winning novels, comic books and stories about superheroes, space opera, military SF, and crime fiction. A professor and podcast host, he is the only 3-time winner of Novel of the Year from the Pulp Factory Awards in Chicago.

Benny R Powell

Benny Powell is a publisher, writer, and artist most known for the hit White Widow comic and upcoming spin-off I Make Boys Cry. He is also the creator and writer for Wayward Legends, Darchon, AMPED, Duel Identity, Wayward Sons, Markiplier, and dozens more.

Jenna M Powell

Jenna Powell is a cover artist for the hit White Widow comic and the spin-off I Make Boys Cry. She also is the editor for the entire Absolute Comics Group and Red Giant Entertainment lines and is the co-writer for the hit Duel Identity series.

Carolina Ravassa

Carolina Ravassa is the voice of Sombra in Overwatch. She also worked on RDR2, GTA5, Max Payne 3, and Just Cause 4. She's been on The Affair and Mr. Robot, and does voices in cartoons for Disney, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Netflix.

Trina Ray

Trina Ray is currently the Investigation Scientist for the radar instrument on NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission. She worked 20 years on Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn (specializing in Titan), and started her career working on the Voyager Spacecraft. She is a public speaker, invited to give many talks around the nation.

Bill Reinhold

Bill Reinhold is a graduate of the American Academy of Art and has been a professional comic book artist since 1981. Over his long career he’s worked for Noble Comics, First Comics, Marvel Comics, DC comics and others. Reinhold is currently illustrating the graphic novel The Flying Column.

Afua Richardson

Afua Richardson is a Native/African American comic creator best known for her work on Top Cow's genius. Richardson is the artist of Marvel's new Blade series, All Star Batman, and Attack on Titan's American anthology. She is the singer and flute player in the band Waking Astronomer.

John D. Ringo

John Ringo is an American science fiction and military fiction author. He has had several The New York Times best sellers. His books range from straightforward science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers. To date, he has over two million copies of his books in print.

Corinne Roberts

Corinne Roberts writes/illustrates the web-comic series Out and About. Her other books are Trip to Trekka and Imaginary Sea 1,2,3! Along with her books, she illustrated the web comic, Kitty Game and games Unreal Estate, Dodgy Dinos, and Founding Fathers Fisticuffs. Her next published comic will be released in 2020.

Caleb Roehrig

Caleb Roehrig is an author of young adult thrillers, including Last Seen Leaving, White Rabbit, and Death Prefers Blondes. As a former actor and television producer, Roehrig has experience on both sides of the camera, with a résumé that includes appearances on film and TV.

Grace Rolek

Grace Rolek is best known for playing Connie on Cartoon Network’s hit show Steven Universe. You may have heard her voice as many characters including Marlene in Final Fantasy VII, Louise in Lou and Lou: Safety Patrol, and Lucy van Pelt in Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown.

Andy Runton

Andy Runton is the creator of the all-ages series of graphic novels, Owly, starring a little owl who's always searching for new friends. Relying on a mixture of symbols and expressions to tell his silent stories, Runton's heartwarming style has made him a favorite of both fans and critics alike.

Noel Saabye

With 25 years in the animation industry, animator and artist Noel Saabye has had the opportunity to work on projects ranging from TV shows to mobile games with companies that include Cartoon Network, Warner Bros, PBS, Disney, Mattel, and Activision.

Robert J. Sawyer

Robert J. Sawyer has won the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards, all for best science-fiction novel of the year. The ABC TV series FlashForward was based on his Aurora Award-winning novel of the same name, and he was one of the writers for that program.

John Scalzi

2020 Literary Guest of Honor John Scalzi is the New York Times bestselling author of Old Man's War, The Collapsing Empire and Redshirts, which won the 2013 Hugo for Best Novel. Other awards include the Locus, the Seiun, the Geffen and the Governor's Award for Arts in Ohio.

Catherine M. Scully

Cat Scully is the writer and illustrator of YA horror comic-novel Jennifer Strange. Scully has worked with a variety of publishers as a professional illustrator. She works in video game development for the Deep End Games and is currently working on their next title.

Dietrich O Smith

Dietrich Smith is an artist in the field of comics who has illustrated a variety of titles such as Superman, Spiderman, Shaft, and a bevy of others. He has been nominated or awarded various honors and currently has his hand in development of a diverse group of projects.

Taki Soma

Taki Soma is an HUGO award nominated artist, writer, and a colorist. She’s worked on projects such as Rapture, Sinergy, The Victories, United States of Murder, Inc., Dick Tracy, Bitch Planet, Iron Man, and others. Her work can be found throughout different publishers.

Kim Steadman

Kim Steadman is a system engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Currently she is a Science System Engineer for the Mars 2020 Rover and the Operations Lead for the SHERLOC instrument. She has also worked on the Opportunity rover, Curiosity rover, and the Cassini Mission.

Jeanne C. Stein

Jeanne C. Stein is the award winning, national bestselling author of the urban fantasy series, The Anna Strong Vampire Chronicles and the Fallen Siren Series written as S. J. Harper. She has published 14 full length books, several novellas, and numerous short stories both here and in the U.K.

Tj Sterling

TJ Sterling is the President and Lead artist of RAE Comics, a dynamic indie comic company that focuses on telling powerful stories about unique and diverse characters. He also is a 10 year comic industry veteran with art in Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Aspen comics.

S.M. Stirling

S.M. Stirling was born in France. His latest books are The Sea Peoples (October, 2017), Black Chamber (July 2018) and The Sky-Blue Wolves (October, 2018). His hobbies include history, anthropology, archaeology, and travel. He also pursued the martial arts, until knees.  

Jamie Tyndall

Jamie Tyndall is a Canadian Comic book artist, that is known for his depictions of sexy, strong female characters. He is the co-creator of the #1 indie comic White Widow as well as a cover artist for Zenescope, Coffin Comics, IDW, and many more popular publishers.

Trevor S. Valle

Trevor Valle is a paleontologist, a certified cicerone, and an outspoken science communicator on Twitter. He has appeared all over television including The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, BBC/BBC America, in documentaries, and at Nerd Nite meetings across the country.

Mark H Wandrey

International bestselling author of military sci-fi, space opera, and zombie apocalypse, Mark Wandrey is also the only 4 time Dragon Award finalist! He launched his professional career in 2004 with the release of Earth Song - Overture. Now, 15 years later, he has more than 20 books out.

Jean Marie Ward

Jean Marie Ward writes fiction, nonfiction, and everything in between. Her credits include a multi-award nominated novel, two popular art books, and editing CrescentBlues.com. Her short stories have appeared everywhere from ASIMOV’s to the anthologies of Zombies Need Brains. Her video interviews are featured on BuzzyMag.com.

H. C. Warner

HC Warner is responsible for the birth of the Comics and Pop Art installation in a double suite poolside at the Sheraton featuring an array of present leaders in the lowbrow and pop art arena. Warner's been part of Atlanta's lowbrow scene since the early '90s .

David Weber

David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Many of his stories have military, and particularly naval themes, and fit into the military science genre. His most popular and enduring character is Honor Harrington, whose story, together with the Honor-verse she inhabits.

Toni Weisskopf

Toni Weisskopf succeeded Jim Baen as publisher of Baen Books in 2006. She has worked with such authors as David Weber, Eric Flint, Larry Correia, and many others. With Josepha Sherman, she compiled and annotated the definitive volume of subversive children’s folklore, Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts.

Michael Z. Williamson

Michael Z. Williamson is a multiple bestselling, award-winning author and editor in science fiction and a #1 Amazon bestseller in political humor. An immigrant from the UK and Canada, he served 25 years in the US Army and USAF. Williamson also consults on TV and movie productions.

Adam Withers

Comfort and Adam are the award nominated duo responsible for The Uniques and Rainbow in the Dark, and The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Comics. They also run an art studio called Team Comfort and Adam, and in 2020 will run their first massive Kickstarter for The Uniques Season 2.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

In her 49-year-long career, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has sold 97 books and 83 shorter works in many genres. She is best-known for her Saint-Germain series of historical horror stories. She writes in a number of genres and under five different pseudonyms.

Thomas F. Zahler

Thom Zahler is a comic creator and animation writer. He created Webtoons Cupid's Arrows and Warning Label and IDW's Love&Capes, Long Distance, and Time&Vine. He also writes and draws for IDW's My Little Pony and Star Trek and the Ultimate Spider-Man and Knights of the Zodiac shows.

Timothy Zahn

Timothy Zahn is the author of 13 Star Wars books and the Cobra, Quadrail, and Dragonback series. Recent books include Star Wars: Thrawn: Treason and Sibyl’s War 2: Knight. Upcoming books include Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Book 1 and Sibyl’s War 3: Queen.