Ennis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar. Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years. Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics' horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis' run. Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation. While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire. Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics. After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint. In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd. Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press. In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle. In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name). Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth\_Ennis

Keith Ian Giffen was an American comic book illustrator and writer. He is possibly best-known for his long runs illustrating, and later writing the Legion of Super-Heroes title in the 1980s and 1990s. He also created the alien mercenary character Lobo (with Roger Slifer), and the irreverent "want-to-be" hero, Ambush Bug. Giffen is known for having an unorthodox writing style, often using characters in ways not seen before. His dialogue is usually characterized by a biting wit that is seen as much less zany than dialogue provided by longtime collaborators DeMatteis and Robert Loren Fleming. That approach has brought him both criticism and admiration, as perhaps best illustrated by the mixed (although commercially successful) response to his work in DC Comics' Justice League International (1987-1992). He also plotted and was breakdown artist for an Aquaman limited series and one-shot special in 1989 with writer Robert Loren Fleming and artist Curt Swan for DC Comics. Giffen's first published work was "The Sword and The Star", a black-and-white series featured in Marvel Preview, with writer Bill Mantlo. He has worked on titles (owned by several different companies) including Woodgod, All Star Comics, Doctor Fate, Drax the Destroyer, Heckler, Nick Fury's Howling Commandos, Reign of the Zodiac, Suicide Squad, Trencher (to be re-released in a collected edition by Boom! Studios)., T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and Vext. He was also responsible for the English adaptation of the Battle Royale and Ikki Tousen manga, as well as creating "I Luv Halloween" for Tokyopop. He also worked for Dark Horse from 1994-95 on their Comics Greatest World/Dark Horse Heroes line, as the writer of two short lived series, Division 13 and co-author, with Lovern Kindzierski, of Agents of Law. For Valiant Comics, Giffen wrote XO-Manowar, Magnus, Robot Fighter, Punx and the final issue of Solar, Man of the Atom. He took a break from the comic industry for several years, working on storyboards for television and film, including shows such as The Real Ghostbusters and Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy. He is also the lead writer for Marvel Comics' Annihilation event, having written the one-shot prologue, the lead-in stories in Thanos and Drax, the Silver Surfer as well as the main six issues mini-series. He also wrote the Star-Lord mini-series for the follow-up story Annihilation: Conquest. He currently writes Doom Patrol for DC, and is also completing an abandoned Grant Morrison plot in The Authority: the Lost Year for Wildstorm.

James "Jimmy" Palmiotti is an American writer and inker of comic books, who also does writing for games, television and film. Photo by Luigi Novi.

Amanda Conner started out in comics working small projects for Marvel and Archie while working as an illustrator for New York ad agencies Kornhauser and Calene and Kidvertisers. working a number of launches and campaigns such as Arm & Hammer, PlaySchool and Nickelodeon. However, loving comic books and cartooning the most, Amanda found herself working for Marvel on their Barbie line (much of Amanda’s covers inspired designs for the line of Barbie toys), Disney line which included the Gargoyles books. At the same time she was illustrating “Soul Searchers & Co.” for Claypool Comics and worked on other Marvel projects, such as Excalibur for the X-Men line and “Suburban Jersey Ninja She-Devils”. During an assignment for Crusade (‘Tomoe’) she and Jimmy Palmiotti became a real team as penciller/inker. Amanda then moved on to do what is probably one of her best known works. She did several years as penciller on the hit series “Vampirella” for Harris Comics and drafted 24 issues. While illustrating “Vampirella”, Amanda worked with the top writers in the field, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Warren Ellis. Continuing to expand her horizons, Amanda illustrated the best-selling crossover “Painkiller Jane vs. the Darkness”, and went on to work on “Painkiller Jane” #0 (the origin book). She also wrote and illustrated a story for “Kid Death and Fluffy”. Since then, Amanda has worked on many of the top titles in comics such as “Lois Lane”, “Codename: Knockout”, and “Birds of Prey” for D.C. Comics Vertigo line, “X-Men Unlimited” for Marvel, co-created “Gatecrasher” for Blackbull Comics, and “The Pro”, an Eisner nominated creator owned book for Image Comics with Jimmy Palmiotti and Garth Ennis. Recently she worked on the highly publicized Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre series with Eisner winning creator Darwyn Cooke. Amanda’s work can also be seen outside the comic book community in such places as ABC’S Nightline, the New York Times, Mad Magazine, the new sci-fi Stan lee “So You Want to be a Superhero” series and the upcoming Disney Underdog movie character designs for film and television, character designs for the Los Angeles Avengers stadium football team and is featured in a Biography magazine commercial on A&E. Amanda does spot illustrations in “Revolver” magazine each month and has had a huge success with the JSA Powergirl miniseries in previous years, each issue going into 3rd printings. She continuously produces cover work for Marvel Comics, DC Comics and an assortment of independent titles. With PaperFilms co-founder Jimmy Palmiotti, they are currently working on the highly received Harley Quinn series and other Harley Quinn related titles for DC Comics, in addition to several upcoming DC related projects. Garnering national attention and sales results, the team continues to receive accolades for their work on these titles. The new relaunch of Harley Quinn for DC in the Rebirth line garnered an estimated 250,000 copies ordered.