Comics Festival Featured Authors
Cecil Castellucci
Cecil Castellucci, author of the DC/Minx comics The Plain Janes and Janes in Love, grew up in New York City, is French Canadian and now makes her home in Los Angeles. She’s the author of three young adult novels, Boy Proof, The Queen of Cool, and Beige. Castellucci is also an indie rock musician, an independent filmmaker and a playwright.
Kim Deitch
Kim Deitch was born in Los Angeles in 1944. His career began in 1967, when he created comics for an underground newspaper called, The East Village Other, creating two of his more famous characters, Waldo the Cat and Uncle Ed, the India Rubber Man. In 1969, he moved to San Francisco and continued to work for underground comic books. For years Deitch pretty much went where the art action was, and he now lives on the Upper East Side of New York City, still drawing and writing comics, graphic novels and other related novelties. The good news in all this is that he still loves doing it — now, more than ever. It is still the big thing that gets him out of bed in the morning.
Evan Dent
Evan Dent was born and raised in the Nevada desert. He received his B.F.A. from the University of Nevada, Reno and his M.F.A. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. After graduate school, he worked for The MacNamara Foundation artist residency on Westport Island, Maine. Evan currently resides in Albuquerque with his wife Renee Conklin.
Steve Englehart
Steve Englehart has been the lead writer for both Marvel and DC on several occasions, and a founding father of Malibu’s Ultraverse. His redefinition of Batman as a mature adult completely changed both comics and the films made from them over the last three decades; but there’s also Captain America, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Coyote, Night Man, the JLA, and dozens of others. The many realities that people enjoy led to a mix of immortality, Neocons, and Suriname in his latest novel, The Long Man, coming from Tor in March 2010 — along with the reissue of his first novel, The Point Man.
Mark Evanier
Recognized as an expert in the fields of comics, animation, and pop culture, Mark Evanier’s popular blog, News From Me, attracts thousands of readers each day. Evanier has written comics (Blackhawk, Crossfire), TV shows (Welcome Back, Kotter, The Nancy Walker Show, The McLean Stevenson Show), and cartoons (Scooby Doo, Garfield and Friends, Superman: The Animated Series) throughout his career and is partially responsible for the 25th anniversary of Groo, along with creator Sergio Aragonés. His biography of Jack Kirby, Kirby: King of Comics, was released in February of 2008, and has since gone on to receive numerous accolades and awards.
Noelle Garcia
www.geocities.com/noellelovesshane
Noelle Garcia was born in Reno, Nevada in 1984. She was raised on the Reno Indian Colony and is an enrolled member of the federally recognized Klamath Tribes. She earned her BFA in Studio Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently, Garcia is an MFA candidate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her work is narrative, influenced by her cultural history and family — drawing from personal photographs and stories. The act of recreating these images brings her closer to the people that are out of reach. Garcia’s current works are small, creating a sweet keepsake. She omits all facial features in the figures; this absence of identity creates an ambiguous character, a mannequin that can be filled by whomever.
Gary Groth
Gary Groth is an American comic book editor, publisher, and critic. He is a strong supporter of art, intellectualism, and creator ownership. Groth is editor in chief of The Comics Journal and a co-founder of Fantagraphics Books.
Laurenn McCubbin
Laurenn McCubbin has been the Managing Editor for Shoto Beat magazine, the art director for Image Comics and the creative director for Kitchen Sink magazine. Her illustration work has been featured everywhere from Boing Boing to The New York Times to On Our Backs. McCubbin is currently getting her MFA in Painting and Drawing from UNLV, and teaching part-time.
Michael Ogilvie
Michael Ogilvie, a native of Nevada, is an artist who has exhibited nationally and internationally. He has a BA in painting from the University of Nevada, Reno, and an MFA in painting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He currently works for the city of Las Vegas facilitating the Las Vegas Arts Commission and he manages the percent for the arts program. He has self-published two works of visual poetry (comics) titled Hugs:Thoughtlead and Hugs:Bloodpond, and has recently co-published the graphic novel Drunk.
Sean Russell
Sean Russell grew up in the fertile rolling hills of the Midwest. Sean received his BFA in art from the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie, WI. In 2002, he moved to Las Vegas to pursue a graduate degree in painting at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. After graduating, he began teaching at UNLV and Nevada State College. In 2008, Sean took a position at the College of Southern Nevada teaching art and art history. Many days of the week, one can find Sean hunched over a pitcher of beer at numerous Vegas bars or in his garage painting.
Deryl Skelton
Beginning his professional life as a fashion illustrator, Deryl Skelton produced his first published comic strip in his Fremont, Nebraska hometown paper. Since then, he has worked as an art director, an illustrator for the Las Vegas Sun, and as a freelance artist. After meeting fellow artist, Steve Carr, the two formed Kirkowood Studios. Together they have worked on virtually every Marvel Comics’ character from the Avengers to the X-Men. Skelton left the studio when offered the job of bringing to comic book life the crew of the USS Enterprise in DC’s Star Trek: The Next Generation. He happily served there, with occasional forays into other strips like Wonder Woman, until DC’s contract with Star Trek’s parent company ended. His latest work is illustrating the children’s book, The Adventures of Lexi and Boomer.
Chris Staros
Chris Staros is the publisher and editor of Top Shelf Productions. He is also the President of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), the non-profit organization founded in 1986 whose charter is to protect the First Amendment rights of the comic’s community. If you want to make him happy, send him something with Elvis on it, as he loves the King more than anything.
Dan Vado
Dan Vado is the president, publisher, and owner of Slave Labor Graphics (SLG). He’s the head honcho, the big cheese, the High Commander. He founded what was to become the Mighty SLG in 1986. An enigmatic figure about whom rumors abound but facts are scanty, Vado is said to enjoy playing hockey, reminiscing about Silver Age Superman comics and making “beer can chicken.” Sightings of him riding in a bullet-proof black limousine are unconfirmed.
Matt Wagner
Acclaimed writer/artist Matt Wagner has worked in comics for close to 30 years. He burst onto the scene in 1982 with one of comics’ most iconic creator-owned characters, the master villain, Grendel. He followed that success with Mage, a more personal and allegorical look at the nature of heroism and creativity. In addition to his creator-owned projects, he’s also known for his work (both written and painted) on Batman, Green Arrow, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Zorro, and currently, Madame Xanadu. Born and educated in Pennsylvania, he currently makes his home in Portland, Oregon.
Michael Uslan
Born into a blue collar family in New Jersey and growing up an avid comic book collector, Michael Uslan is best known as the originator and Executive Producer of the Batman movie series, starting with Tim Burton’s 1989 film and continuing to 2008’s The Dark Knight. In addition, Uslan has produced or been involved with numerous other movies, including The Spirit, Constantine and National Treasure. He’s currently in development on Shazam and The Shadow with Sam Raimi and Josh Donen. Uslan has received an Emmy for Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?, and was the recipient of the Independent Spirit Award, The Hoagy Carmichael Creative Achievement Award and The Distinguished Hoosier Award.
While attending Indiana University, he successfully created and taught the world’s first accredited college course on comic books. Uslan is an authority on comic book history, writing The Comic Book in America, America at War: A History of War Comics and Mysteries in Space: A History of Science Fiction Comics. In 2008, he lent his expertise to the Starz documentary Comic Books Unbound, which explores the popularity of comic book heroes in Hollywood and how they have transitioned from print to screen. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife. They’ve been married for 35 years–a Hollywood record.
About the Moderators
Aziz Bawany
Aziz Bawany is a Las Vegas native and freelance writer. His work can be found in Las Vegas CityLife, Danse Macabre literary journal, and on The Comic Addiction website, where he contributes articles, reviews, and features concerning the world of comics and their impact on pop culture. He advocates comics to promote literacy for all ages and continues to do so through charities within the community.
Jarret Keene
Jarret Keene is the author of the poetry collections Monster Fashion and A Boy’s Guide to Arson, and the unauthorized rock band bio The Killers: Destiny Is Calling Me. He has edited several books, including The Underground Guide to Las Vegas, Las Vegas Noir, and Neon Crush: A Celebration of Las Vegas Poetry. He recently curated an experimental music compilation, Desertscraped: New Noise from the Neon Homeland. His black-metal band, Dead Neon, is currently recording its debut full-length album.
Katherine Keller
Katherine Keller was born and raised in the desert Southwest, came to Las Vegas in 1994 to attend UNLV, and, in 1997, married Alternate Reality Comics owner Ralph Mathieu. In addition to her duties at UNLV’s Lied Library, she currently writes and edits for Sequential Tart, a webzine by women who love comics, which she helped found in 1998.
F. Andrew Taylor
F. Andrew Taylor grew up in bucolic northern Connecticut and eventually made the outrageous decision to live in Las Vegas. Over the years he has been a dishwasher, a macrobiotic baker, a ride operator, a high school teacher, a stationer, a fly boy, a caricature artist, an award winning illustrator, a comic book artist and writer, a graphics editor, a carnie, a wedding video editor, a freelance writer, a professional photographer, an actor, a graphic designer, a health columnist, a stunt driver and a slew of other things he’s either forgotten or is too embarrassed to mention. His published works include contributing to Duplex Planet Illustrated, Murder Can Be Fun, The Smith Brown Jones Halloween Special and Don’t Shoot, It’s Only Comics, as well as his own comics; On the Bus, Camping with Bigfoot and the graphic novel Beer and Roaming in Las Vegas. Some day he may settle down into something resembling a career, but nobody’s holding their breath waiting for that. Currently he works at the Las Vegas View as a staff writer and graphic artist.
