Chris Appelhans — “Design and Illustration Process for Film” Born in Idaho to migrant sharecroppers, Chris Appelhans graduated from Art Center College of Design and relocated to Los Angeles, where he is an illustrator, animator and designer for Pixar Studios. He has done conceptual art for numerous clients in the film and videogame industries as well as writing and drawing his own children's stories and comics. His clients include Sony, Dreamworks, BlueSky, Interplay, Mattel and many more. He completed production and character design for the animated feature “Monster House,” and is developing the same for the upcoming animated feature, “Coraline,” based on the Neil Gaiman story. An instructor with Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Applehans has also completed images for an upcoming urban/sci-fi adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. He is a contributor to Flight 1 and Flight 2 comics anthologies, and his webcomic, “Frank and Frank,” can be seen online as well as his “Superman Animated Short.”
Heidi Arnhold — “Making the Transition from Student to Professional” Heidi Arnhold grew up in Orange, Va., and has been drawing since before she can remember; one of her first pieces was completed with markers while sitting on her parents' couch. In middle school, she started reading comics and aspired to become a comic artist herself. She pursued that career when she graduated from high school and enrolled at SCAD. Thanks to the support of her professors and classmates, Arnhold was able to hone her skills and caught the eye of an editor from Tokyopop when she was a senior. Since then, she's been working on her first graphic novel, "Legends of the Dark Crystal Volume 1: The Garthim Wars," which will be released Nov. 13.
Chris Brunner — “Approaches to Storytelling in Comics and Design” Chris Brunner attended SCAD in the late 1990s, and began his professional career after meeting Dark Horse Editor Randy Stradley at a portfolio review. Since then, Brunner has worked as an illustrator, writer, colorist, storyboard artist, concept artist and graphic designer for Image, Dark Horse, Marvel and DC comics; Lucasfilm, Sony, Disney, Nike and Nickelodeon. He most recently finished a 2-year stint as the in-house illustrator for Upper Deck Entertainment, where he helped launch the All Star Vinyl line. In Fall 2007 he returned home to New York to work on the creator-owned comic "Loose Ends."
Bernard Chang — “Tempo, Pacing and Panel Construction” Bernard Chang has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Pratt Institute in New York City, and firmly planted his artistic roots in the comic book industry when he was discovered by the legendary Bob Layton in 1992 for Valiant Comics. In his first year, he landed a coveted spot on the top 10 artists list in Wizard: The Guide To Comics and was nominated for the Russ Manning Award for best newcomer. He has drawn some of the top characters in pop culture, including X-Men, the New Mutants and Superman, for Marvel and DC comics. His new work includes illustrating ReganBooks/HarperCollins' New York Times bestsellers “How to Make Love Like a Porn Star” and “The Game,” as well as their first-ever graphic novel, “How to Make Money Like a Porn Star” with Neil Strauss.
He is a former Walt Disney Imagineer, whose projects include the new Disney MGM Studios icon and interactive games for the “100 Years of Magic” celebration, as well as the Animation Pavilion (California Adventure), the Millennium Village event at Epcot, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold (Disney Quest), all of which received Thea Awards for best new attractions.
Sanford Greene Sanford Greene has worked in comics and animation for several years. His projects include cover art for “Batman Strikes,” art for “The Legion of Superheroes” (comic based on the hit animated series), “Army of Darkness,” “Star Wars Tales” and “The Ride.” He also completed comic cover art for “Sonic” and “Killer 7,” the comic based on the hit video game. He has also done work for Play Magazine, Hasbro, Nickelodian, Upper Deck and Sega. His most recent work can be seen in the pages of the successful new mini series, “Wonder Girl.”
Jeff Parker — “How to Write for Artists (and How to Draw for Writers)” Jeff Parker began his comics career as an artist on Malibu Comics' “Solitaire” series, and went on to work for DC, Dark Horse and Image comics. He moved to Los Angeles to work on Sony Animation's “Big Guy” and “Rusty the Boy Robot,” and then continued as a storyboard artist for live action production, boarding commercials, music videos and short films. In 2003, Parker published his own adventure graphic novel, “The Interman,” whose critical success led to more work as a writer. He now mostly writes for Marvel Comics. Recent books include “Spider-Man/Fantastic Four,” “The Agents of Atlas,” “Marvel Adventures—Avengers” and “X-Men: First Class.” Parker recently wrote the series “Walk-in” for Virgin Comics and will be writing “Gamekeeper.”
Clement Sauve — “Storytelling Through Perspective and Design” Born and raised in Montreal, Clement Sauve started his comic book career working as an assistant to Yanick Paquette’s cat. He then moved on to working as an assistant to Paquette, until, after years of submitting his work, he landed his first job with “Human Defense Corps” for DC Comics. Since then, he has worked on “Stormwatch,” “Infantry,” and “G.I. Joe.” He began working in the European market in 2005 on a series titled “Blackbank” and is now penciling and inking a creator-owned series, “Pantheon City,” for Dark Horse Comics. He recently began doing design work for the animation industry.
Mark Schultz — “Inking With the Brush” Mark Schultz has been cartooning and illustrating for more than 20 years. He is best known as the creator of the award-winning speculative adventure comic book “Xenozoic Tales,” which has been adapted to television as the animated series “Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.” Schultz has been awarded five Harvey awards, two Eisner awards, an Inkpot award, a Spectrum award, and three Haxtur awards (the last from the Salon Del Internacional Comic del Princapado de Asturias).
Kaz Strzepek — “Mini-comic Production and Indie Comics” Kazimir Strzepek is the Eisner and Ignatz-nominated creator of the post-apocalyptic adventure comic “The Mourning Star,” published by Bodega Books. He has also been in numerous publications such as the SPX 2005 anthology, Project: Romantic, Vice magazine and True Pron Volume 2. Originally from Hawaii, he now lives in Seattle and is a member of the Scubotch comics group. He was the first recipient of the Kukoc Award for Comics Inspiration for his mini-comic "The Basilisk."
Jill Thompson — “Storytelling With and Without Words” Jill Thompson has worked as a comic book illustrator for more than 20 years. She has collaborated on such titles as “Wonder Woman,” “Sandman,” “Black Orchid,” “The Invisibles,” “Finals,” “The Badger,” “Those Dog and Cat Stories” for “The “Dark Horse Book of…” series and many more. Her work as both writer and artist can be found in “Death at Death's Door,” “The Little Endless Storybook,” “The Deadboy Detectives” and “The Scary Godmother” series of graphic novels and comics. Upcoming work includes “Magic Trixie,” a graphic novel series from Harper Collins. Her work can be viewed on her .
