Mike Curato

Mike Curato is an author and illustrator of books for children, teens, and adults. He is best known for his Little Elliot picture book series and his young adult graphic novel, Flamer, which received several honors including the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Young Adult, the 2021 Massachusetts Book Award for Young Adult, and was listed as one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020. Flamer also has the distinction of being one of the most banned and challenged books in the United States, and Mike has become a fierce advocate of free speech. He continues to create books that center love, compassion, and friendship. Mike’s debut adult graphic novel, Gaysians, released in June of 2025 to critical acclaim.

Deb JJ Lee

Deb JJ Lee is a Korean-American artist currently living in Brooklyn, New York. They have appeared in the New Yorker, Washington Post, NPR, Google, Radiolab, PBS, and more. Books they have illustrated include The Invisible Boy by Alyssa Hollinsworth and The Other Side of Tomorrow by Tina Cho. Their graphic novel In Limbo was published by First Second Books in 2023. In 2024, they created Death Fiddles and We Dance (2024), for the Shortbox Comics Fair. They enjoy reality TV, sparkling water, and pretending to be an extrovert.

Noah Jodice

Noah Jodice is a cartoonist and zine-maker working in Tucson, Arizona. His self-published work focuses on our social relationship to image-making and often explores personal anxieties or complex systems through narrative cartoons. He frequently collaborates on community justice zines and explainer comics with both national and local advocacy groups. He is a 2025-26 Applied Cartooning Fellow at the Center for Cartoon Studies. His work has appeared in annuals from American Illustration and the Society of Illustrators.

Kazimir Lee

Kazimir Lee has lived for almost equal amounts of time in Malaysia, the UK, and the US. They have been published by Slate, The Nib, OJST and NY Mag. Their work has won a Lambda and an Ignatz. Their first solo YA graphic novel, Low Orbit, is now available from Top Shelf. They now reside in Brooklyn with all the other freaks. Kazimir enjoys queer subtext, parenthood, ghost stories, and karaoke.

Hal Schrieve

Hal Schrieve is a librarian and also writes novels and comics about teens, queer community, monsters and aliens. Hir first novel Out of Salem (2019) was selected for the National Book Award Long List for Young People’s Literature in 2019. Hir second and third novels How To Get Over the End of the World (2023) and Fawn’s Blood (2025) are about trans teenagers living in community and accessing various forms of magic and terror. Hal’s indie graphic novel/webcomic Vivian’s Ghost was published by Go Press Girl in 2024 and was awarded the Cartoonist Studio Prize. Hal has six years of experience leading writing and comics workshops with kids in public libraries.

Kane Lynch

Kane Lynch is a cartoonist from California’s Central Coast whose debut kids’ graphic novel Reel Life was published last spring by Scholastic Graphix. Kane’s comics and illustrations have appeared in The Nib, Slate, and Psychology Today and in the graphic novel Guantanamo Voices. Kane studied film at UC Santa Cruz and cartooning at The Center for Cartoon Studies and today teaches comic-making to students of all ages.

E.K. Weaver

E.K. Weaver is the author and artist of THE LESS THAN EPIC ADVENTURES OF TJ AND AMAL and Shot And Chaser, among other short comics. They are currently lettering comics for multiple clients and developing their next graphic novel.

Steve Bissette

Stephen R. Bissette, a pioneer graduate of the Joe Kubert School, was an instructor at The Center for Cartoon Studies from 2005-2020 and was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame in 2025. He is renowned for his work on Swamp Thing, Taboo, 1963, S.R. Bissette’s Tyrant, co-creating John Constantine, and creating the world’s second 24-hour comic. Since the 1980s, he has been a frequent contributing writer to magazines and zines. He also frequently contributes commentary tracks and bonus features to blu-ray and 4k releases from Arrow Video, Deaf Crocodile, Kino Lorger Studio Classics, Severin, Vinegar Syndrome and others. 

Bissette currently lives in Windsor, Vermont and is the incoming Vermont Cartoonist Laureate, assuming the title from Tillie Walden. 

Raina Telgemeier

Raina Telgemeier is the #1 New York Times bestselling, multiple Eisner Award–winning creator of Smile, Sisters, and Guts, which are all graphic memoirs based on her childhood. She is also the creator of Drama and Ghosts, the adapter and illustrator of the first four Baby-sitters Club graphic novels, and, with Scott McCloud, the co-creator of The Cartoonists Club. Facing Feelings: Inside the World of Raina Telgemeier is based on an exhibition that was held at The Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, and was recently published in October 2025. Raina lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Laura Terry

Laura Terry is the author and illustrator of the graphic novels Adorable Empire and Graveyard Shakes, and illustrator of Anna Strong and the Revolutionary War Culper Spy Ring. As a child, she spent her days in rural Texas raising livestock, playing in the woods, and discovering an intense love for art and books. She studied painting at Pratt Institute, then got her very fancy Masters in Cartooning from The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. Now, she works (and plays) as an illustrator and cartoonist in Brooklyn with her tiny poodle Muffin.