Octavia Estelle Butler (1947–2006), often referred to as the “grand dame of science fiction,” was born in Pasadena, California, on June 22, 1947. She received an associate of arts degree in 1968 from Pasadena Community College and also attended California State University in Los Angeles and the University of California, Los Angeles. Butler was the first science-fiction writer to win a MacArthur Fellowship (“genius” grant). She is widely considered the best science-fiction writer of her generation and is beloved in feminist literary circles, and her many works are widely included in women’s studies syllabi. She won the PEN Lifetime Achievement Award and the Nebula and Hugo Awards, among others. Damian Duffy is a cartoonist, scholar, writer, curator, lecturer, teacher, and a Glyph Comics, Eisner Comics, Bram Stoker, and Hugo Award–winning, #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novelist. He holds a MS and PhD in library and information sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches courses on computers and culture, and social media and global change. His many publications range from academic essays (in comics form) on new media and learning, to art books about underrepresentation in comics culture. Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation was awarded the 2017 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel, and the 2018 Eisner Comics Award for Best Adaptation From Another Medium. The follow-up, Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation won the 2021 Ignyte Award for Best Comics Team, and the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story or Comic. He lives in Champaign, Ilinois. John Jennings is a professor, author, graphic novelist, curator, Harvard Fellow, New York Times bestseller, 2018 Eisner Award–winner, and all-around champion of Black culture. As professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California at Riverside (UCR), Jennings examines the visual culture of race in various media forms, including film, illustrated fiction, and comics and graphic novels. He is the illustrator of #1 New York Times bestselling Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation and the Hugo Award–winning Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation. He is also the director of the ComicArts imprint Megascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on the experiences of people of color. His research interests include the visual culture of hip-hop, Afrofuturism and politics, visual literacy, horror, and the ethnoGgthic, and speculative design and its applications to visual rhetoric. He lives in Riverside, California. David Brame is blackity Black and Afrofuturist and refuses to comb his hair (he’d rather spend that time making comics). He’s worked on titles such as the Hugo and Eisner Award–nominated graphic novel adaptation of After the Rain from Abrams ComicArts Megascope, Is’Nana The Werespider, Medisin, Baaaad Muthaz, Box of Bones, and Necromancer Bill. You can follow him on graphicpoetics.biz or on Instagram @amazingdavidbrame.
