KEYNOTES

Marcus Kwame Anderson is an illustrator and fine artist. He is currently the Deputy Director of the Underground Railroad Education Center. He is the illustrator of Big Jim and the White Boy, a graphic novel, published by Ten Speed Graphic. 

Emil Ferris grew up in Chicago during the turbulent 1960s, where she still lives, and is consequently a devotee of all things monstrous and horrific. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Adrian Tomine was born in 1974 in Sacramento, California. He began self-publishing his comic book series Optic Nerve when he was sixteen, and in 1994 he received an offer to publish from Drawn & Quarterly. His comics have been anthologized in publications such as McSweeney’s, Best American Comics, and Best American Nonrequired Reading. Both his graphic novel Shortcomings and his memoir The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist were named New York Times Notable Books of the year. Since 1999, Tomine has been a regular contributor to the New Yorker. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughters.

David F. Walker is an award-winning comic book writer, author, filmmaker, journalist, and educator. He is the author of Big Jim and the White Boy, a graphic novel, published by Ten Speed Graphic. 

SPOTLIGHTS

Franco Aureliani is the co-creator of Patrick the Wolf Boy and AW YEAH COMICS! Franco created the DINO-MIKE book series and worked for various Comic properties including critically acclaimed titles, New York Times bestsellers, multi-Eisner awards and a Harvey award winning series. His latest work includes DEADMAN TELLS THE SPOOKY TALES (DC Comics) and his original graphic novels THE GHOST, THE OWL (Ringo Award Nominated) and FAE AND THE MOON (Little Bee). His new book TEEN TITANS GO to the LIBRARY is out now! Franco was also a High School teacher for 24 years. Franco is a painter and has shown work in galleries. Franco is one of the principal owners of AW YEAH COMICS retail stores.

Steve Breen is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and his video broadcast work has won several Emmys. He is cartoonist for inewsource.org. His picture books include Stick, Violet the Pilot, Pug and Doug, and Woodpecker Wants a Waffle(2017 New Hampshire Ladybug Picture Book Award). He's the author of the Sky & Ty graphic novel series. He also created Universal Kids’s Powerbirds. He lives in California with his family. In his spare time, he reads, runs, and plays the guitar poorly.

Scott Chantler is the creator of the critically-acclaimed graphic novels Squire & Knight, Bix, and Two Generals, which was nominated for two Eisner Awards, selected for Best American Comics 2012, and voted by CBC’s Canada Reads as one of the 40 best Canadian non-fiction books. His other work includes Northwest Passage (nominated for Eisner and Harvey Awards) and the Three Thieves series (winner of the Joe Shuster Award for Best Comic for Kids and listed by YALSA as a Great Graphic Novel for Teens). In 2015, he served as Cartoonist-in-Residence at the University of Windsor, the first cartoonist to be appointed so by a Canadian university.

Writer and artist Jason Platt grew up in Durham, North Carolina and is a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. He is a member of the National Cartoonists Society and the author/illustrator for the graphic novel series, Middle School Misadventures. When he isn’t writing or cartooning, Jason loves to travel, hike and play board games. He and his family live in Davenport, Iowa. (Middle School Misadventures, Middle School Misadventures: Operation Hat Heist!, Middle School Misadventures: Dance Disaster!)

Arif Rafhan is an award-winning comics artist based in Kuala Lumpur. His contribution includes Malaysia's longest-running humour magazine, Gila-Gila, as well as under Lat’s upcoming graphic novel, Mat Som 2. His graphic novel, Amazing Ash & Superhero Ah Ma 2, a collaboration with writer Melanie Lee, won Best Young Person's Title at the Singapore Book Awards (2023) and Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award (2024).

SPEAKERS

Author Chandrama Anderson, MA, LMFT is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 2007. She is the author of a variety of relationship titles. Chandrama is a SDCC Professional, and was on two panels at Comic Con 2024. She has been interviewed as an expert on couples counseling by various print and online magazines. Chandrama is also a seasoned speaker in both the high-tech (her previous career of 15 years) and therapeutic communities.

Kit Anderson (she/her) is a cartoonist from Boulder, Colorado. Her short stories have been published by Parsifal Press and the Rumpus, and she received her MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies in 2022. Kit lives near Zürich with her partner and tiny dog where she enjoys walking in the woods and making comics about memory, nature, and wizards sometimes, too. Safer Places is her debut graphic novel.

David Arnold is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Mosquitoland, I Loved You in Another Life, The Electric Kingdom, Kids of Appetite, Luminous Beings, and The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik. He has won the Southern Book Prize and the Great Lakes Book Award, and was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for his debut. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his wife and son. Learn more at davidarnoldbooks.com and follow him on

Brian Michael Bendis is a NYT-bestselling, Peabody, and multi-Eisner award-winning comics writer and artist known for creating characters such as Jessica Jones and Miles Morales, his work with Marvel and DC Comics on iconic series such as Superman, X-Men, Avengers and Spider-Man, and for his original series such as POWERS and Masterpiece. Additionally, he has worked in television, video games and film, and taught courses on Graphic Novels at University of Oregon and Portland State University. In 2014, Bendis wrote Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels.

Archie Bongiovanni is a cartoonist and illustrator living in Minneapolis whose work centers around queerness and chosen family. Their graphic novel, A Quick And Easy Guide To They/Them Pronouns, has been praised by School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly and was one of YALSA's Great Graphic Novels For Teens. Archie’s other graphic novels include Grease Bats, Mimosa and History Comics: Stonewall.

Cullen Bunn is a writer of comic books, prose, film, and TV. He has written stories for some of the most well-known characters in the world. His work for Marvel and DC includes titles such as UNCANNY X-MEN, X-MEN BLUE, DEADPOOL KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE, MAGENTO, SINESTRO, and many others. His creator-owned work includes THE SIXTH GUN, HARROW COUNTY, THE EMPTY MAN, BONE PARISH, BASILISK, and many others.

Gina Chew is a storyteller with a BA(Hons) in English Literature from the National University of Singapore. Her series, Another Day in Paradise, was showcased at the 39th Busan International Short Film Festival and Series Mania 2021. She published her graphic novel, Afterlife, with Difference Engine and participated in the 2023 Singapore Writers Festival. Currently, she is developing her prose manuscript as part of the NAC-NLB Writer’s Lab.

Amanda DeWitt is an author and librarian, ensuring that she spends as much time around books as possible. She also enjoys Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragon-ing, and even more writing, just not whatever it is she really should be writing. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a Masters in Information and Library Science. She lives in Clearwater, Florida with her dogs, cats, and assortment of chickens. She is the author of three Peachtree Teen books, Aces Wild: A Heist, Wren Martin Ruins It All, and The Underwood Tapes

Colleen Douglas is a comic book creator. She was Editor in Chief for Amigo Comics, where she edited such titles as Call of the Suicide Forest, Nancy in Hell, and Tales of Rogues, as well as editing several titles for Sally Books based in Málaga. She now edits for Scout Comics and writes for Ahoy Comics, Interpop, and Leviathan Labs. Her written works include Titan, Gargantuan, and The Apocalypse Girl for Amigo Comics; Carmine for Action Lab Entertainment; and the shorts “Trolley Problem” (Aces Weekly), “I, Hatter” (Cthulhu Invades Wonderland) and “The Gift” (Holiday Spirits) by Orange Cone Productions. Her Caribbean horror graphic novel, Silk Cotton, was released by Rosarium Publishing this past July.

The "Octavia Butler of horror," Tananarive Due has been a leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years. Her novel The Living Blood won an American Book Award and she has also won an NAACP Image Award, a World Fantasy Award, and a British Fantasy Award. She also has had her writing included in multiple best-of-the-year anthologies. Having written for TV, she is also an executive producer on the groundbreaking documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Her latest novel The Reformatory has debuted to rave reviews, earning praise from such horror luminaries as Stephen King. With her husband/collaborator, Steven Barnes, she co-authored the graphic novel The Keeper. The Horizon Experiment: Moon Dogs, published by Image Comics, marks her first solo full-length writing in comics.

Jennifer Dugan is a writer, a geek, and a romantic who writes the kinds of stories she wishes she’d had growing up. She’s the author of the graphic novel Coven, as well as the young adult novels Playing For Keeps, The Last Girls Standing, Melt With You, Some Girls Do, Verona Comics, and Hot Dog Girl, which was called “a great, fizzy rom-com” by Entertainment Weekly and “one of the best reads of the year, hands down” by Paste magazine. She lives in upstate New York with her family, their dog, a strange kitten who enjoys wearing sweaters, and an evil cat who is no doubt planning to take over the world.

Ryan Estrada is the Eisner-nominated co-creator of Banned Book Club, Occulted, Learn to Read Korean in 15 Minutes, and the Student Ambassador series. The best thing he's ever done is marry Hyun Sook. His work can be found at ryanestrada.com.

Huda Fahmy grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, and has loved comics since she was a kid. She attended the University of Michigan where she majored in English. She taught English to middle and high schoolers for eight years before she started writing about her experiences as a visibly Muslim woman in America and was encouraged by her older sister to turn these stories into comics. Huda, her husband, Gehad, and their children reside in Houston, Texas.

Richard Ashley Hamilton is the award-winning, Cuban-American (no, really) writer best known for his storytelling across DreamWorks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon and Guillermo Del Toro’s Tales of Arcadia franchises. But in his heart, Richard remains a lifelong comic book fan. He currently writes two YA graphic novel series, SCOOP and TECTIV, for Mad Cave/Maverick, and his middle-grade horror title, FEARBOOK CLUB, was named a 2022 Junior Library Guild Official Selection. Richard lives in Glendale, CA, with his wife, their two sons, and a Husky named Lulu.

Jonathan Hill drew on both the experiences of his Vietnamese American family and his love of ’80s sci-fi shows for first book in this series, Tales of a Seventh-Grade Lizard Boy, which was named to several state award lists. He is also the creator of Odessa and the cocreator, with MK Reed, of Americus and Science Comics: Wild Weather: Storms, Meteorology, and Climate. An Ignatz Award–nominated graphic novelist, illustrator, and educator, he lives in Portland, Oregon.

Ben Kahn is a GLAAD Media Award–nominated writer working in New York City, with years of experience writing for comics, video games, and prose. Their other titles include the GLAAD–nominated graphic novel Renegade Rule (Dark Horse Comics) and their prose debut, Elle Campbell Wins Their Weekend (Scholastic). When they're not writing new stories, Ben likes to cook, watch scary movies, and play with the snuggliest kitty around.

Derek Kirk Kim is known for illustrating The Eternal Smile: Three Stories—a collaboration with Gene Luen Yang, and was a director of Disney’s Amphibia, lead character designer of Adventure Time, and writer/artist of Same Difference & Other Stories.

Maple Lam is an author-illustrator originally from Hong Kong and now based in Los Angeles, California. Her previous books include the picture books Dim Sum, Here We Come! and My Little Sister and Me. She has also illustrated numerous books for other authors including What Can You Do With a Toolbox? by HGTV personalities The Cousins. Monkey King and the World of Myths is her debut graphic novel series. Visit her at www.maplelam.com.

Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.

Ingrid Ochoa is a Mexican writer, illustrator, cat owner, and full-time WEBTOON creator. Her most famous work is the number one WEBTOON series in the universe (of her mom’s heart) called The Kiss Bet.

Coco Ouwerkerk, aka Colourbee, is a Dutch comic artist/animator/writer who specializes in YA comics. Professional since 2016, Coco is known for the drama/comedy WEBTOON series Acception (ongoing) and several self-published magazine shorts aimed at kids and teens. To learn more, follow Coco on Instagram @colourbee4.

Alex Paknadel is a writer and academic from London, England. He’s known for his creator-owned works All Against All (Image), Giga and Friendo (Vault), as well as Red Goblin (Marvel), and DC vs. Vampires: All Out War (DC). He is also a founding member of White Noise Studio alongside fellow writers Dan Watters, Ram V, and Ryan O'Sullivan.

Pornsak Pichetshote started his career as a Thai-American rising star editor at DC's Vertigo imprint, his books being nominated for dozens of Eisner awards -- from the award-winning Daytripper to critical darling Sweet Tooth. He left Vertigo to become an executive in DC Entertainment's media team, where he started and oversaw DC's TV department. His critical and commercial horor book INFIDEL marked his first major work as a comics writer. Recent work with Image Comics includes the Eisner- and Harvey-winning THE GOOD ASIAN, which he's currently adapting for television with James Wan's Atomic Monster, and THE HORIZON EXPERIMENT.

Allison Saft is the New York Times and indie bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic and A Fragile Enchantment. After receiving her MA in English Literature from Tulane University, she moved from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast, where she spends her time rolling on eight wheels and practicing aerial silks. She lives with her partner and an Italian greyhound named Marzipan.

Alex Segura is the bestselling and award-winning author of Secret Identity, which The New York Times called “wittily original” and named an Editor’s Choice. It received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist. Secret Identity was also listed as one of the Best Mysteries of the Year by NPR, Kirkus, Booklist, the South Florida Sun Sentinel and more, and was nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Hardcover, the Lefty and Barry Awards for Best Novel, the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel, and won the LA Times Book Prize in the Mystery/Thriller category. His next novel, the YA Spider-Verse adventure Araña/Spider-Man 2099: Dark Tomorrow is out now from Disney Books/Marvel Press.

Ren Strapp is a comic artist, designer, and gender nonconforming lesbian werewolf. She grew up in Susquehannock territory and now lives on unceded land at the confluence of the Wimahl and Willamette Rivers. Ren started her comics career in zines and web comics and will be a zinester until she dies. Her work is inspired by risograph printing and American traditional tattooing. She loves weightlifting and hiking.

Sarah L. Thomson is a former children’s book editor and an experienced author. She has published original fiction and nonfiction work in a variety of categories, from high fantasy series to nonfiction picture books and also has experience writing for a variety of licensed properties. She is the author of over 25 children's books, including Two Friends, One Dog, and a Very Unusual Week. She lives in Maine with her family.

Michael Walsh is an Eisner Award-winning artist and writer from Southern Ontario, Canada. In 2013, Michael broke into comics with the Image comic book series Comeback. Shortly after, Michael contributed art on a follow-up comic to the The X-Files for IDW. He has also worked with Marvel Comics on superhero properties such as Spider-Man, The Avengers and the X-Men. In 2021, Michael returned to creator-owned comics, creating the hit ongoing Image series The Silver Coin and the viral webcomic The Sleep Stories. In 2022, he released his middle-grade fantasy original graphic novel The Oates & The Elphyne, published by Humanoids BIG.

Jason Walz worked for many years as a special education teacher, and is the creator of several previous graphic novels, including the Last Pick trilogy and the Eisner Award-nominated Homesick.

Caspar Wijngaard is an award-winning comic artist from the U.K. He is Co-Creator of the Image Comics series HOME SICK PILOTS, ALL AGAINST ALL, LIMBO and ANGELIC and has worked on titles such as Marvel Star Wars, Batman Detective Comics and DC's Knight Terrors. His most recent work is THE POWER FANTASY with award-winning author Kieron Gillen.

MODERATORS

Jenny Arch, Children's Librarian, South Hadley Public Library (MA).

Roxanne Feldman is an immigrant from Taiwan who came to the U.S to study children's literature. She holds a Master's in Children's Literature from Simmons University and an MLS from The Palmer School at Long Island University. After 26 years as the middle school librarian at the Dalton School, Roxanne transitioned to the High School Library in 2023 and is working closely with students on research projects. Roxanne served on the Newbery Award, Boston Globe-Horn Book award, and Kirkus Award selection committees, and other notable children's and YA book selection committees.

Allie Stevens Gosselink is the director at the Calhoun County Library in Hampton, AR. She was a 2018 Library Journal Mover & Shaker, a 2018 ALA Emerging Leader, and is a member-at-large of the YALSA Board of Directors. Allie wrote SLJ’s September 2024 Great Books column, “Thrills & Chills: truly scary YA books for horror fans.”  

Donna N. Gray is a Library Operations and Instructional Coordinator for the New York City School Library System/NYC Dept. of Education. She has over 20 years of experience in K-12 education, library services, and higher education. She is interested in developing strategies and programs that help students become engaged lifelong learners who are informed and active citizens in their communities and beyond. Donna is the NYLA conference curator for the New York Black Librarian’s Caucus and proudly serves as the committee chair for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s Children and Youth Literary Awards in partnership with School Library Journal.

Ashley Rayner is a research librarian at NORC at the University of Chicago. She has been an academic and public librarian as well, all within the Chicagoland area. Ashley loves reading any genre but she has a special love for speculative fiction, historical fiction, and thrillers. She started writing book reviews for Booklist in 2020 and they help her stay connected to fiction as a librarian at a social science research organization. When she's not reading or researching, Ashley can be found playing video games, cooking, planning her next karaoke debut song, tweeting at @ashley_rayner, or hanging out with her husband and two kids.

Claire Moore Salgado has worked in both Youth and Adult Services on both coasts. She is currently the Head of Children's Services at Darien Library in Connecticut. Claire has served on various ALSC committees, including the Robert F. Sibert Book Medal, and has reviewed graphic novels for School Library Journal.

As digital media coordinator, Justin Shannin oversees teen makerspace technology (including recording studios, sewing stations, and 3D printers) across Chicago Public Library's 81 branches. He has also served multiple terms on the library's "Best of the Best" committee, helping to select and publicize the library's annual top 50 list of new teen books. Before becoming a librarian, Justin worked in theatre and education. He has a B.A. in theatre from Northwestern University and an MLIS degree from UNC Greensboro.

Sarah-Ruth Tasko (she/her) is a Librarian working in Readers’ Advisory Services at Darien Library, Darien, CT. She celebrates reading across all genres and is passionate about connecting people to their next great read. Her favorite genres include horror, contemporary fiction, queer literature, and poetry.

As a library professional for nearly twenty years for the Johnson County Library, Gregg Winsor has written reviews for Library Journal, Kirkus, and LibraryReads, and presented on Readers' Advisory topics for audiences that include the Missouri Library Association, BookExpoAmerica, BiblioCon, and Worldcon. His to-be-read pile glares at him, ominously.

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