Neil Gaiman is the New York Times bestselling author and creator of books, graphic novels, short stories, film and television for all ages, including
Norse Mythology,
Neverwhere,
Coraline,
The Graveyard Book,
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and
The View from the Cheap Seats. His fiction has received many awards and honours, including the Newbery and Carnegie Medals, and the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner Awards. Gaiman was the writer and showrunner for the mini-series adaptation of
Good Omens, based on the book he co-authored with Sir Terry Pratchett, and for which he won the Hugo Award and Ray Bradbury Award for Screenwriting. His novel
American Gods has been adapted to a critically acclaimed, Emmy-nominated TV series, and the Netflix adaptation of his comic series
The Sandman was released to popular and critical acclaim. In 2017, he became a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
Marc Bernardin is a WGA Award-winning television writer-producer who has worked on
Star Trek: Picard,
Batman: Caped Crusader,
The Continental,
Carnival Row,
Treadstone,
Castle Rock,
Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina,
Masters of the Universe: Revelations, and
Alphas. In 2023, he made his directorial debut with the award-winning short film,
Splinter. In comics, he's an Eisner-nominated writer of
Messenger: The Legend of Muhammad Ali, Adora and the Distance,
Census,
Peter Parker: The Amazing Shutterbug, and
Genius. In an earlier life, he was a journalist for the
Los Angeles Times,
The Hollywood Reporter,
Playboy, and
Entertainment Weekly. He also cohosts the
Fatman Beyond pop-culture podcast with Kevin Smith.
Shawn Martinbrough is the author of "How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling" by Penguin Random House and an Eisner Award nominated artist whose comic book projects include; "Batman: Detective Comics", "Luke Cage Noir", "The Black Panther: Man Without Fear" and "Hellboy". Shawn illustrated "Thief of Thieves", the graphic novel series co-created with Robert Kirkman ("The Walking Dead", "INVINCIBLE") and the Eisner nominated "Prométhée 13:13", published by Éditions Delcourt-Soleil and ABLAZE. He is a co-author of "Judge Kim and the Kids' Court" by Simon & Schuster and the artist of "Like Lava in My Veins", the 2024 NAACP Image Award nominated, best-selling kid's book written by Derrick D. Barnes and published by Nancy Paulsen Books/ Penguin Kids. Shawn is a Vanity Fair contributor, the writer of "Red Hood: The Hill" for DC Comics and currently writing and illustrating "The HEAVY", an original graphic novel for Megascope/ Abrams Books.