W. Haden Blackman is a writer and creative director who has worked across a wide range of media. He has been a director and producer at LucasArts, where he led multiple teams of designers, engineers and artists in telling new interactive stories, and won numerous awards for outstanding video-game writing from both the WGA and Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences for his work on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. His comic-book credits include Darth Vader & the Lost Command, The Field Guide to North American Monsters, The Field Guide to North American Hauntings, The Irons, the New York Times Best-Selling Batwoman for DC Comics and Marvel’s Elektra.
Jim Krueger cemented his place in Marvel Comics history when he and Alex Ross launched the Earth X trilogy, a comprehensive super-hero saga bringing elements from across Marvel’s decades-long history into a single future. His other Marvel work includes contributions to Avengers and X-Men titles. He again teamed with Alex Ross on the Avengers/Invaders miniseries and Dynamite Entertainment’s Project: Superpowers, assembling the Golden Age heroes of multiple defunct publishers. Elsewhere, he created Foot Soldiers for Dark Horse and Clock Maker for Image Comics. Krueger is also an accomplished videogame designer, copywriter and filmmaker. His short film They Might Be Dragons won Best Short Film from the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.
Since his start on the New Universe’s Psi-Force and backup stories in Classic X-Men, Fabian Nicieza has written most of Marvel’s major super-teams — including Alpha Flight, the Avengers, the New Warriors, the Thunderbolts and the X-Men. Together with artist Rob Liefeld, Nicieza transformed New Mutants into the blockbuster X-Force. The writer also tackled solo heroes ranging from Cable and Deadpool (later combined in Cable & Deadpool) to Gambit and Nomad. He edited Marvel’s Star imprint, contributed to multititle X-events like “X-Cutioner’s Song” and “Phalanx Covenant,” and wrote various “pre-modern” limited series such as Adventures of Captain America and Citizen V and the V-Battalion. Elsewhere, he has written both JLA and Justice League Adventures, The 99, Turok, X-Files, and others.
The career of artist Mahmud Asrar got off to a fast start after collaborating with writer Jay Faerber on Digital Webbing Presents and the 25-issue run of the co-created Dynamo 5. At Marvel, Asrar has drawn War Machine, Nova, Thunderbolts and Avengers: The Initiative, among other titles. He built an association with Marvel’s mutants on Wolverine & the X-Men and All-New X-Men, and was the ideal artist to welcome a new generation into Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on All-New, All-Different Avengers.
After cutting his teeth at Dark Horse drawing Joker/Mask and several Star Wars comics, Spanish artist Ramon Bachs illustrated runs on Wildstorm’s Gen13 and DC’s Detective Comics. He soon brought his gritty style to Marvel, teaming with writer Paul Jenkins on the Decimation limited series Generation M. The pair reunited for the smash hit Civil War: Front Line and teamed again for its sequel, World War Hulk: Front Line. Bachs illustrated the send-up Marvel Apes limited series and has contributed to Ultimate Spider-Man, the adaptation of the hit animated series. His further DC credits include Red Robin and Azrael.
Jesús Saiz made his name with Spanish readers with the fanzine 451º, and then the Azoth miniseries. His first American work, “Iron Reich 3000,” was published in Dark Horse Presents, and he followed it with a story for Star Wars Tales. His work for DC Comics includes Birds of Prey, Swamp Thing and an Eisner Award-nominated collaboration with J. Michael Straczynski on The Brave & the Bold. Saiz moved to Marvel to illustrate Captain America: Steve Rogers, which he followed with such titles as Doctor Strange, Star Wars and Punisher.
