Anthony Mauro is a graduate from San Francisco State University with a BFA in Creative Writing. He wrote the self-published graphic novel Salvation and contributed to–and co-edited–the small self-published comics anthology Hotdog Water: A Comix Anthology. His current work includes co-writing the popular indie series Skull Maskerade. He resides in Portland, Oregon.

Greg Pak is an award-winning Korean American writer and director best known for writing over six hundred comic books, including series like Planet Hulk, Darth Vader, Mech Cadet Yu, and Ronin Island and Sam Wilson: Captain America (with Evan Narcisse) for Marvel Comics and Lawful for BOOM! Studios. His non-comics work includes the feature film Robot Stories, the children’s book The Princess Who Saved Herself, the illustrated poetry book I Belong to You / Motherland, and the how-to book/memoirs Cooking Will Break Your Heart and 35mm Love Letter.

Amy Roy was born and raised in Philadelphia. She made her directorial debut at age ten, helming the neighborhood’s annual Christmas pageant. There were mandatory rehearsals, a script revision to the main character’s birth and hot chocolate to keep the talent happy. Too scared to try and become a real artist, Amy graduated from Penn State and become a copywriter, working in the ad industry for over ten years. After years of unhappiness, Amy made the leap and went back to film school in Vancouver, starting her life all over again. She moved to L.A. a year later, and has been working in the industry ever since, as an assistant to various writers and directors. Today, she works for the Donners' Company, and considers it a great honor to work with Richard Donner and Lauren Shuler Donner. Recently, she wrote four issues of the Smooth Criminals comic book series for Boom! Entertainment. She wrote and produced the short, Rent Control, which was screened at over a dozen film festivals, including the DC Independent, winning the audience award at three. She produced the short Of Darkness, accepted to over 100 horror festivals. The Lonely Store marks her (official) directorial debut.

Kano is the pseudonym of Spanish comic book artist Jose Ángel Cano López. Kano began his career at the age of thirteen, editing Spanish-language comics fanzines. At fifteen, he was already doing layouts and design work for Planeta-DeAgostini. Kano is a founding member of the Spanish magazine about comics, Krazy Comics, as well as the Phoenix Studio, which provided design, illustration, and publishing services and was eventually merged with Camaleón Ediciones, a publishing house that Kano worked for in his early days. He has worked for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He worked on a long run of Action Comics including the “Emperor Joker” storyline, as well as Gotham Central and Swamp Thing. He worked on Daredevil, Iron Fist, Man Thing, and Beta Ray Bill Godhunter for Marvel, as well as others.

David Lapham is a cartoonist who began his career in the comic industry at the age of twenty, working at Valiant Comics and learning his craft illustrating and helping to create many original titles, including Shadowman, Harbinger, and Rai. He left Valiant to work at Defiant Comics, where he cocreated Warriors Of Plasm with Jim Shooter. Lapham turned his back on the superhero genre in 1995 to cofound the independent publishing company El Capitan Books, which began publishing Lapham’s comic series Stray Bullets. Lapham has won Eisner Awards for his work on Stray Bullets and Murder Me Dead.

Malachi Ward is an illustrator, cartoonist, and writer working in Los Angeles. He has worked in Background Design and Visual Development for Green Street, Netflix and Titmouse on shows like Centaur World, Captain Fall, Exploding Kittens, Jentry Chau Vs. The Underworld, and others. He is also the cartoonist behind Black Hammer: The End, written by Jeff Lemire, and the co-creator of the graphic novels Ancestor and Expansion with Matt Sheean from Image Comics and AdHouse Books. Malachi has done many covers for various Star Trek titles, including the Lore War miniseries from IDW. Malachi’s illustration work includes drawings for The New Yorker, Wired, Craft Records, Secretly Canadian, SpectreVision, New Beverly Cinema, and The New York Times.