Lucy Bellwood is a professional Adventure Cartoonist based in Portland, Oregon. Her comics projects have covered a range of expeditions, including rafting trips through the Grand Canyon, cutting-edge oceanography in the Pacific, and an expedition aboard the last wooden whaling ship in the world. She is the author and illustrator of Baggywrinkles: a Lubber’s Guide to Life at Sea, an educational, autobiographical account of the worlds of modern and historical tall ship sailing, drawn from her time working aboard 18th-century replica tall ships. Her second graphic novel, 100 Demon Dialogues, explores the relationship between creators and their imposter syndrome through a series of relatable conversations with her inner critic. Lucy contributes comics journalism work on climate change, gender, and history to The Nib and all-ages fantasy stories to Cartozia Tales. She also speaks extensively about the realities of making a living as a full-time artist through essays, conference talks, and podcast appearances.

Meredith McClaren is an illustrator and cartoonist who has no business doing either. She sometimes entertains the idea of drawing the fourth book in Jen Van Meter’s Hopeless Savages series. And her journal comic Scraps indulges her closeted narcissism. Supposedly she has a postal code in Arizona, but really, she could be anywhere. Oh. And don’t touch her stuff. Seriously.

TERRY BLAS is an illustrator and writer based in Portland, Oregon. He is the writer behind the auto-bio comics Ghetto Swirl and You Say Latino (featured on NPR, OPB, Vox.com and Cosmo.com.) Terry’s work has appeared in comics Bravest Warriors, Regular Show, The Amazing World of Gumball, Adventure Time, and Rick and Morty. His first graphic novel, Dead Weight: Murder at Camp Bloom, is a murder mystery set at a weight loss camp. Dead Weight has been named by YALSA as a 2019 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers. His latest graphic novel, Hotel Dare, a love letter to his childhood memories in Mexico, will be in stores June 2019.

Blue Delliquanti is a comic artist and writer based in Minneapolis, MN. Since 2012 Blue has drawn and serialized the Prism Award-winning science fiction comic O Human Starat ohumanstar.com. Blue is also the co-creator of the graphic novel Meal (with Soleil Ho), published through Iron Circus Comics, and The ‘Stan (with David Axe and Kevin Knodell), published through Dead Reckoning. Blue is represented by Jen Linnan of Linnan Literary Management LLC.

Jo Pi's almost full name is Jose Pimienta. They reside in Burbank, California where they draw comics, storyboards and sketches for visual development. They have worked with Random House Graphic, Iron Circus Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Disney Digital Network, and more. During their upbringing in the city of Mexicali, Mexico Jo was heavily influenced by animation, music and short stories. After high school, they ventured towards the state of Georgia where they studied at Savannah College of Art and Design.

Cat Farris is a Portland, OR-based comic artist and illustrator, and a member of the comics collective known as Helioscope. She is the artist for the Dark Horse comic series EMILY AND THE STRANGERS, and MY BOYFRIEND IS A BEAR from Oni Press. She is creator and producer of the comic series FLACCID BADGER and the web comic THE LAST DIPLOMAT. She has also done some short pieces for PLANTS VS ZOMBIES, BANDETTE, HARROW COUNTY(Dark Horse), RICK AND MORTY, THE SIXTH GUN(Oni Press), as well as for independent anthology collections CAUTIONARY FABLES AND FAIRY TALES: ASIA, and CAN I PET YOUR WEREWOLF.

Kate Ashwin has been getting away with putting stories on the internet for over twenty years now, with only mild damage to herself and those around her. Her favourite things are cheese, all manner of beasts, green leafy houseplants, and telling you stories about a bunch of goofy nerds. She lives in Bradford, West Yorkshire, with her impatient cats and a very understanding husband.

Nina Matsumoto is a Japanese-Canadian Eisner Award-winning comic book artist. A Japanese-Canadian born in BC, Nina has always loved fantasy, science fiction, comics, Japanese art, and, of course, The Simpsons. Over the last decade, she’s spent much of her time drawing things and telling stories. In 2007 she uploaded a manga-style remix image of the Simpsons entitled “The Simpsonzu,” not expecting anything special. It became an overnight success. The appearance of “The Simpsonzu” on deviantART‘s front page caught the attention of the news aggregator Digg and the picture’s appearance on Digg caught the attention of everyone else. Suddenly she was being featured in numerous newspapers and magazines from all over the world and within a week, she got a call from Bongo Comics. They had a manga-style Simpsons story written and wanted her to draw it. Nina is still drawing Simpsons regularly for Bongo, and her Death Note parody “Murder She Wrote” (from Simpsons Treehouse of Horror #14), received an Eisner Award for “Best Short Story,” one of the most acclaimed award in comics. In addition, she created the graphic novel Yokaiden for Del Rey Manga, illustrated The Last Airbender Prequel: Zuko’s Story, and regularly designs for video game apparel companies like Fangamer, The Yetee, and Meat Bun.