PANELIST

Mike Cavallaro is from New Jersey and spent his formative years drawing strange things from his imagination and playing guitar poorly, two things he’s been doing since kindergarten and continues to do to this day. Mike received a Will Eisner Award-nomination for his debut graphic novella, Parade (with Fireworks). He’s collaborated with acclaimed author Jane Yolen on the Foiled series, with legendary comics scribe J.M. DeMatteis on The Life and Times of Savior 28 and Impossible, Incorporated, with Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp on Decelerate Blue, and with media lawyer Ian Rosenberg on the nonfiction graphic novel, Free Speech Handbook. Mike is also the creator, writer, and artist of the Nico Bravo graphic novel series, published by First Second Books. Mike teaches at the School of Visual Arts, is a member of the National Cartoonists Society, and currently lives in Brooklyn.

PANELIST

Robyn Chapman is an editor, a publisher, and (sometimes) a cartoonist. At her day job, she is a senior editor for First Second. In her spare time, she runs Paper Rocket Minicomics, a micro-press that produces comics, zines, and graphic novels. Robyn also teaches professional practices in comics at the School of Visual Arts.

PANELIST

Joseph P. Illidge is a writer for DC Comics on Milestone’s The Shadow Cabinet, the horror spy action series Bloodletter for the SPAWN line of comic books by Todd McFarlane Productions and Image Comics, the upcoming Harriet Tubman middle grade graphic novel for Harper Collins, and The Winterfields, a crime noir graphic novel saga following a father and son during the Harlem Renaissance, featured in the FairSquare Graphics anthology Noir Is The New Black. As a story editor, Joseph’s career began at Milestone Media, the influential comic book company known for creating the teenage superhero Static from the “Static Shock” cartoon, along with many other iconic comic book characters of color. At DC Comics, his groundbreaking run on the BATMAN line of comic books ranged from titles including Batman: No Man’s Land, Batman: Detective Comics, Birds of Prey, and Batgirl.

PANELIST

Lydia Nguyen is a cartoonist and illustrator who has taught cartooning classes, edited and crowdfunded artbooks, designed merchandise from dice to dolls, storyboarded commercially, and worked in traditional publishing for TOON books in NYC and Oni Press in Portland, OR. She enjoys any project that's bright, visually interesting, and different, but likes her personal work to be thoughtful and character focused. Her comics have been translated in four languages, and have appeared on Narratively, Medium, in the well-known independent newspaper, Seven Days, and in several independently published anthologies.

MODERATOR

Liz Frances is the founder and publisher of Street Noise Books, an independent publishing company, with a focus on graphic novels and heavily illustrated books, based in Brooklyn, NY. Street Noise books have a radical, intersectional feminist, queer, and inclusive vision, and provide a platform for the voices of marginalized people. Before founding Street Noise, Liz worked for over 15 years as a book designer and art director at several of the big publishing houses in New York.