Barbara Lanza
Barbara Lanza has been imagining fairy worlds since she was a child on the resort island of Wildwood, New Jersey. Encouraged to develop her artistic talent, she graduated from the Philadelphia College of Art, then moved to New York City. There, she began her career as a fashion illustrator, moving gradually into the fields of children’s book illustration, collectible, doll, stationery and textile design. Using graceful drawing and charming imagery, Lanza has illustrated children’s books of everyday family life, holiday activities of forest animals, and classic fairytales for Little Golden Books, Scholastic/Cartwheel and Viking. Along with her children Emily and Dan, Barbara and Jerry Kalogeratos live with a dog and two cats in Orange County, New York. Buy Barbara's books, Enchanting Fairies and Enchanting Elves, here.

Brian & Kristy Miller
Even as a child, Brian Miller loved to color and paint. After earning straight smiley faces in preschool art, he tested into a grade-school gifted program known as Bright Ideas, where he quickly earned the nickname "Marker-Happy" because of his enthusiasm for that medium (and evidenced by the constant stains on his hands and clothing. As a teenager, Brian discovered both Macintosh computers and comics and experimented with coloring comic art. He picked up real-world design experience working part-time for magazine publishers and printing companies while studying art at Southwest Missouri State University. There, he also met Kristy. Kristy Miller has degrees in antiquities and secondary education from Southwest Missouri State, as well as a master's in museum studies from the University of Kansas. After working and living in various countries, Kristy began teaching middle school history and Macintosh computers while Brian worked at an advertising agency. Brian continued to color comics on the side using various pen names until, in 1988, he walked away from his art director position to start Hi-Fi Colour Design with Kristy and a group of talented creators. After one too many harsh Missouri winters, Brian and Kristy moved Hi-Fi to Arizona. There, Kristy worked at a museum as Director of Education until she left her position in 2002 to help Brian run Hi-Fi Colour Design full-time. Kristy handles the day-to-day, non-artistic sides of Hi-Fi. For fun, she teaches anthropology and history at a community college. Brian enjoys coloring and creating fully painted covers and pin-ups for comics, books and magazine covers. Visit their website at www.hifidesign.com. Buy Brian and Kristy's books, Master Digital Color and Hi-Fi Color for Comics, here.

Buddy Scalera
Buddy Scalera is a writer, editor and photographer. He is best known for his bestselling series of photography CD-ROMs, Visual Reference for Comic Artists, and for his writing work on Marvel Comics'Deadpool, Agent X and X-Men Unlimited. He has written and self-published several comic books, including Necrotic: Dead Flesh on a Living Body and 7 Days to Fame, a comic book miniseries about a reality show on which contestants commit suicide in exchange for fame. Buddy was the creator and editor of Wizard Entertainment's WizardWorld.com. He continues to work as a web and multimedia developer in the entertainment industry. Visit his website www.buddyscalera.com. Buy Buddy's IMPACT Comic Artist's Photo Reference series here, including CAPR: People and Poses, CAPR: Women and Girls and CAPR: Men and Boys.

Chris Ryall
Chris is currently IDW Publishing's first Chief Creative Office after being promoted from his long-time position of Editor-in-Chief. He is an Eisner-nominated comic book writer who has authored a variety of comic series including Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show, Zombies vs Robots, Groom Lake, Beowolf and Weekly World News. His first IMPACT book is Comic Books 101: The History, Methods and Madness. Buy the book here.

Chris Seaman
Inspired by the cartoons he watched after school in the early eighties, Chris rushed home to draw dragons, goblins, wizards and sword fighting barbarians. At a young age Chris discovered Dungeons & Dragons and filled his walls with character sketches and battles from the game. Graduating from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 2000, he ventured into illustrating the games he loved as a kid. Using his preferred medium of oil paint, Chris works in the tradition of the ones who have come before him. Chris has created a look and style that he considers “stylized realism”. Illustrating card art for the Harry Potter Collectible Card Game solidified Chris’ career path. He has since worked on some of the top role playing and collectible card games in the industry. His work has appeared in and on the covers of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, Dragon Magazine, Dungeon Magazine, TOMB the board game and World of Warcraft. His work has also appeared in Imagine FX Magazine. Chris’ work was recently awarded “Best in Show” at the 2009 Gen Con art show, the largest gathering in the mid west for fantasy and science fiction gaming. Visit Chris at his website www.chrisseamanart.com. Buy his books, Ink Bloom: Draw and Paint a Fantasy Adventure and Wreaking Havoc: How to Create Fantasy Warriors and Wicked Weapons, here.

Chuck Lukacs
Chuck Lukacs has been illustrating for the science-fiction and fantasy community for the past seven years. He's spent the last five years working in oils, but he has worked in many different crafts, from historical book-craft, papermaking, and wood engraving to ceramics. In terms of philosophical influence, Buddhism, Taoism and a number of world mythologies have played rather large roles in Chuck's art. He is a huge fan of jazz music and comedy. He also keeps on top of global political and economic news and is an activist and advocate of the Progressive Peace movement. Chuck lives happily with his wife and dog and is about as sane as a chickpea sandwich. Lacking any useful social skills, and being prone to extraordinary lapses of common sense, he stays up late into the morning dreaming his daft-wit little dreams, trying his best to bring them into light. When he isn't pushing paint around, he's practicing traditional archery, thinking about solar- and wind-powered projects, craft brewing or playing with manned kites, musical effects, instruments and windup toy design. Visit Chuck at his website www.chucklukacs.com. Buy his books, Fantasy Genesis and Wreaking Havoc, here.

Colleen Doran
Colleen Doran began her comics career at age five after winning a contest sponsored by the Walt Disney Company. She landed her first professional commercial work at age fifteen. With more than five hundred credits to her name as an artist, writer and designer, Colleen is considered to be the first solo female creator of a graphic novel series in the U.S. Published by Image Comics, A Distant Soil has four volumes in print. She's also worked on projects such as The Amazing Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, and The Book of Lost Souls by "Babylon 5" creator J. Michael Straczynski. Colleen has been interested in manga since the 1980s. She worked as a consultant for Japanese toy manufacturer Bandai, and participated in the U.S./Japan Manga Seminar sponsored by Tezuka Productions in Tokyo. She lectured on manga at the American Library Association (ALA) and the Smithsonian Institution, where she was artist in residence. Buy Colleen's books, Girl to Grrrl Manga and Manga Pro Superstar Workshop, here.

David Adams
David Adams is a self-taught professional artist and online teacher. He has perfected his skills over many years of practice, reading, observing and sharing with fellow artists. Born in Japan, David now resides in Washington state. His inspiration is derived from nature; years of observing and photographing the natural beauty of Mother Earth has provided a wealth of reference material for his paintings. David has won many awards for his paintings. His first gallery representation was with the Signature Gallery in Tacoma. Some of his works have been cover art and illustrations for books and magazines. He has also judged several local art exhibitions. David is also one of the top scrimshaw artists in the U.S.; his work is displayed in private and public collections worldwide. He also designs jewelry and carves crystals, using the “reverse intaglio” technique. David’s art is in demand worldwide, keeping him constantly busy with a long waiting list of clients. He freely passes on his knowledge and techniques to the art community through his website www.davidadamsonline.com and his newsletter. Buy his book FairyArt and/or get the digital download here.

David Okum
David Okum has worked as a freelance artist and illustrator since 1984 and has had comic book work published since 1992 when he had a story published in a Ninja High School anthology published by Antarctic Press. He has since been included in two other Antarctic Press anthologies and several small-press comic books. His writing and artwork have appeared in six books by Guardians of Order. David has also illustrated two graphic novels for Scholastic's Timelines series. David studied fine art and history in university and works as a high school art teacher. David has dabbled in martial arts over the years moving from kung fu as a teenager to studying karate at the side of his daughters as an adult. He is also the writer and artist of Manga Madness, Superhero Madness, Manga Monster Madness, Manga Fantasy Madness and, most recently, Manga Martial Arts from IMPACT. Buy the books here.

Dermot Walshe
Dermot Walshe is a freelance artist who creates conceptual art, storyboards and production designs for animated TV, film, print and other media. Clients include Core DP/Dark Horse Comics (concept design and development for Eisner-nominated The Courageous Princess), Nelvana/Corus Entertainment (including design supervision for TV series "Clone High"), Walt Disney (including design, workbook and layout for Return to Neverland, The Little Mermaid 2 and Mulan), Collingwood Entertainment, Story City, Cuppa Coffee Animation, Gammage/Squeeze, Teletoon, Max the Mutt School of Animation, Catapult Entertainment, Eraserdog/Salter St. Productions, Red Rover Animation, Azadart, Phoenix and Lightbox Animation. Visit his website and gallery at www.dermontwalshe.com. Buy his book, Mean Machines: How to Draw Cool Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles, here.

Dick Giordano
When one mentions legends of the comics history, high on that list is Dick Giordano, active in the field since 1951. He has worn many hats during his career, among them artist, editor, administrator and teacher. He began as an artist at the Jerry Iger Studio, working on Sheena for Fiction House, then went on to work for various comics publishers including Charlton (where he became Editor-in-Chief in the 1960s), DC, Marvel, Dell, American, Valiant, Treasure Chest and Junior Life. He has worked with fellow comics legends Neal Adams, John Byrne and George Perez, among countless others. He was an artist for DC's best-selling Batman series in the 1970s. He became Vice President/Editorial Director for DC in 1980 and was the guiding force behind such award-winning series as Alan Moore's Watchmen and Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns in the 1980s. His vision raised the bar for creativity throughout the entire industry. He has also launched two successful ad-art companies, Continuity Associates with Neal Adams and DIK-ART, Inc. Recent freelance projects include penciling Batman: Dark Knight of the Round Table and penciling and inking and producing the covers for Batman: Hollywood Knight, and the six-issue miniseries The L.A.W. for DC. He currently draws The Phantom for Egmont, a Swedish publisher. He is on the Disbursement Committee for ACTOR (A Commitment To Our Roots), the first federally chartered, not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic-book-industry veterans in need. With creative partners Bob Layton and David Michelinie, he has lately formed Future Comics, for which he contributes his artistic talents as well as the administrative duties of a principal. A biography entitled Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time by Michael Eury was released in late 2003 by TwoMorrowspublishing. The book features never-before-seen artwork, Giordano's personal reflections, an index of his published work, and comments from famous co-creators. He is also the author of IMPACT's Draw Comics with Dick Giordano. Buy the book here.

Doug Chiang
Doug Chiang has worked in film and television production since 1986, earning an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards and a Clio Award. As a film production designer, he has worked on The Polar Express and Beowulf and the 2009 Disney film A Christmas Carol. Chiang was design director for the Star Wars prequels Episode I and Episode II. He has written and illustrated several books, including Robota, which he created and co-wrote with novelist Orson Scott Card. Chiang is executive vice president of ImageMovers Digital, a Walt Disney company. Visit his web site www.dchiang.com. Buy his first IMPACT book, Mechanika: Creating the Art of Science Fiction with Doug Chiang, here.

E.J. Su
E.J. Su was born in Taiwan and moved to the United States at age 14. In college, he first wanted to learn to program video games and declared his major in computer science. E.J. grew up reading only Japanese comics. Some of his favorite comics and animations include Microman, Astro Boy, Black Jack, Ghost in the Shell, Doraemon and Dragon Ball. He didn't start reading American comics until the mid-1980s when he came across Alan Moore's The Killing Joke. E.J. has been heavily influenced by Japanese comic book artists. Some of the most influential include Masamune Shirow, Akira Toriyama, Osamu Tezuka, Fujiko F. Fujio and Mitsuru Adachi. In recent years, E. J. has started to draw inspiration from Travis Charest, Adam Hughes, Leinil Francis Yu and Bruce Timm. Visit E.J.'s website at www.protodepot.com. Buy his book, Mechaforce: Draw Futuristic Robots that Fly, Fight, Battle and Brawl, here.

Finlay Cowan
Finlay Cowan is a bestselling author, renowned fine artist, as well as a talented graphic designer, and commercial artist. He has worked as a designer for Pink Floyd and many other bands since 1993 and has worked in the film industry. He is currently running his own design company, Endless Design Ltd., and writing graphic novels. Visit his website at www.finlaycowan.co.uk. Finlay has written several books for IMPACT, including Fantasy Artist's Pocket Reference: Incredible Characters, Drawing & Painting Fantasy World and Fantay Artist's Pocket Reference: Dragons & Fantasy Beasts. Buy the books here.

Francis Tsai
Francis Tsai is a conceptual designer and illustrator whose art is used in games, television commercials, books, comics and films. He has been working in the games industry since 1998 on concept art, illustration and art direction, and has been freelance since 2006. His clients include Wizards of the Coast, Marvel Comics, Warner Brothers, Edios Interactive, Midway Home Entertainment, Rockstar Games and ImagineFX magazine. Visit Francis's website at teamgt.com. Francis has written two books for IMPACT: Extreme Worlds and 100 Ways to Create Fantasy Figures. Buy the books here.

Gary Tonge
Gary Tonge is one of the UK's foremost games concept designers, currently working for Swordfish Studio (Vivendi/Sierra) as Art Director. He has his own freelance concept and illustration business where his clients include the BBC, Rock Planet Album Covers and National Geographic. His work can be seen at www.visionafar.com. Buy his IMPACT book, Bold Visions, here.

Harry Hamernik
Harry Hamernik has spent eight years teaching caricature drawing for attractions such as Sea World, Legoland, Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm and Kings Island; as well as teaching at the Art Academy of Los Angeles, Orange County Art Studios, and the Art Institute of California, San Diego. He has drawn many famous figures and different types of people over the course of his career. Harry is the author and illustrator of IMPACT's Face Off: How to Draw Amazing Caricatures & Comic Portraits and Cartoonimals. Buy the books here.

Irene Flores
Irene Flores was born in 1982 in the Philippines, and currently lives and works in California's central coast. She started her career in 2004, co-creating and illustrating Mark of the Succubus for Tokyopop, Inc. Irene has illustrated "Weekly Weird News" for the Princess Ai: Rumors From the Other Side anthology, and "Right to Left, Back to Front" for Wildstorm's Welcome to Tranquility. She is currently illustrating projects for Wildstorm Comics. Visit Irene's website at www.beanclamchowder.com. Buy her book, Shojo Fashion Manga Art School, here.

J “NeonDragon” Peffer
J "NeonDragon" Peffer is a fantasy art illustrator (with overtones of the popular Japanese manga/anime style). Trained at the Columbus College of Art and Design, she has done character and logo commissions, and runs a popular web site, NeonDragonArt.com. The site is a community where fantasy art fans can explore art, comics, art instruction tutorials, products featuring her art, message boards, links and other features. She has had several works licensed for T-shirts, prints, transfers, air fresheners, tins, posters and stickers by Raven Images. She is the author and illustrator of IMPACT's best-selling DragonArt: How to Draw Fantastic Dragons and Fantasy Creatures. Her other books include DragonArt Evolution and DragonArt Mythical Monsters. Buy her books, digital downloads and DVDs, including Digital Dragons, here.

Jason Cheeseman-Meyer
Jason Cheeseman-Meyer is a professional artist who draws from his art, math, teaching and writing backgrounds for his expertise on perspective for comics and fantasy art. He knows how to approach technical subjects and present them in easy-to-understand formats. A Magna Cum Laude graduate of Oberlin College and the Otis College of Art and Design, he has written and edited teaching manuals, and has been working on the subject of curvilinear perspective for eight years, creating a practical system for drawing and teaching it. Visit Jason's website at www.chesseman-meyer.com. Buy Jason's first IMPACT book, Vanishing Point: Perspective for Comics from the Ground Up, here.

Jim Pavelec
In 1974, after viewing The Exorcist at the tender age of two, a pattern began in young Jim Pavelec’s life, one that he cultivates to this very day. That pattern, my friends, is an ever-increasing love of imagery most foul. As a child, demons and monsters and devils of all sorts consumed his every waking hour and serenaded him through the night. But what would be the best way for this neophyte to express his love? The options were many. His eventual choice: paper and pencil, and a little paint, too. Armed with his visual encyclopedia of artists past, a firm hatred of humanity, and the desire to dominate, Jim set off into the gaming world where he slaved tirelessly for companies such as Wizards of the Coast on their Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons lines, and Upper Deck Entertainment on their World of Warcraft game. Jim has also done work for periodicals such as Heavy Metal and Dragon Magazine. Visit Jim's website at www.jimpavelec.com. Buy his books, including Hell Beasts, Ink Bloom and Wreaking Havoc, here.

John Howe
John Howe was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1957. He attended the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Strasbourg. He has had three monographical titles published on his work, including Myth and Magic (HarperCollins, 2001) and has worked extensively on the conceptual art for The Lord of the Rings films with artist Alan Lee and director Peter Jackson. Visit John's website at www.john-howe.com. Buy John's IMPACT books, including John Howe Fantasy Art Workshop, John Howe Fantasy Drawing Workshop and John Howe Forging Dragons, here.

John Lee
John Lee is an illustrator specializing in a variety of areas, including and not limited to cartoons, character design, monkeys, humor, people, toys, games, graffiti, anime, sleeping, eating and watching TV. His Eastern origins and his Western influences combine to serve as his inspiration for most of his works. He currently resides in New York City.

Mario Galea
Mario Galea is a character designer and animator living in Northeastern Pennsylvania. He is a published manga comic artist with Antarctic Press (Ninja High School Yearbook), and he has been drawing cartoons for most of his life. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University and an Associate degree in computer animation from the Art Institute of Philadelphia, where he won many awards for outstanding achievement. He has designed promotional characters, logos and animation for many companies and groups; and he also sells limited edition prints. He is the author and illustrator of Discover Manga Drawing, (IMPACT Books 2006).

Neal Yamamoto
Neal Yamamoto is a funny guy. A freelance illustrator, Yamamoto sprang from the primordial soup eons ago hoping to be a writer. Today his minor writings are largely forgotten, but magazines such as LA Parent, Backstage West and American Legion have used his recent feverish scribblings. His art has also invaded the pages of dozens of activity books (you can find them by doing an Internet search under his name), tons of T-shirts and at least a few anthology comics. Neal authored and illustrated Superhero Explosion: 60 Easy Lessons for Drawing Comics, (IMPACT Books 2005).

Peter David
In the past two decades, comic book writers have become as much superstars in the industry as illustrators have, and Peter David is one of those superstars. He is well known for his work on Spider-Man, X-Factor, Wolverine, Supergirl, Captain Marvel, Hulk, Star Trek, and Babylon 5. Comics Buyer's Guide readers' most popular columnist for thirteen years, he's written: 857 original comic issues (nearly 400 for Marvel, 200+ for DC), 731 "But I Digress" columns for Comics Buyer's Guide, 74 novels, 34 screenplays for movies and television episodes, 17 books on tape/CD, 13 short stories and 2 nonfiction books. Peter is constantly working on new things, currently with DC, Marvel, Tor Books and a movie adaptation of one of his novels. You can read more about Peter at: www.peterdavid.net.

Randy Martinez
Randy got his first big break in 1999 by doing artwork for Star Wars Kids magazine. Since then, Randy has become a favorite among Star Wars fans. His art has been published and used for official Star Wars publications and collectibles worldwide. Randy currently lives in southern California, where he illustrates books, children’s games, trading cards and Star Wars memorabilia. To learn more about Randy and his art, visit www.randymartinez.net.

Scape Martinez
Born in Newark, New Jersey, and now living and working in San Jose, California, Scape Martinez has been creating art since childhood. Early in his teen years, he fell in love with graffiti art. He creates with spray enamel, house paint, markers, acrylic and watercolor. He owns and operates a street wear clothing line, Liquidscape Clothing, and is an arts advocate for kids. He has exhibited at the Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA) and has been assistant art director and lead artist-in-residence for the Children’s Shelter of Santa Clara County, California. He’s done murals for Stanford Law School, the East Palo Alto Mural Arts Project and San Jose City College. He has lectured on “Sights and Sounds of the Urban Environment,” Arte Américas, Fresno, California; “Style Wars,” Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; “Aesthetics of Graffiti,” San Jose City College; and “History of Graffiti and Rap Music,” Hayward State . He’s shown at Punch Gallery, San Francisco; Berkeley Art Center; Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Art Museum of Los Gatos; Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, Los Angeles; and Works Gallery, San Jose. He has been featured in Artweek, San Jose Mercury News, Metro: Silicon Valley’s Weekly Newspaper, San Jose City Times and San Jose City College Times. He is currently working in the area of public art with various cities on four-dimensional wraparaound murals that are graffiti-based. Visit his website at www.liquidscape.com. and www.scapemartinez.com.

Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law has been painting fantastic otherworlds from early childhood, though her art career did not begin until 1998 when she graduated from a program in computer science. After three years of programming by day and rushing home to paint into the midnight hours, she left the world of typed logic and numbers for painted worlds of dreams and the fae. Her illustrations have been for various game and publishing clients, including Wizards of the Coast, HarperCollins, LUNA Books, Tachyon Books, Alderac Entertainment Group and Green Ronin. In addition to the commissioned projects, she has spent a grat deal of time creating a personal body of work whose inspiration stems from mythology, legend and folklore. She has also been greatly influenced by the art of the Impressionists, Pre-Raphaelites, Surrealistis, and the master hand of Nature. Swirling images of sinuous oak branches, watermarked leaf stains and the endless palette of the skies are her signature. Her background as a flamenco dancer for over a decade is evident in the movement and composition of her paintings. Every aspect of her work moves in a choreographed flow, and the dancers are not only those with human limbs. What Stephanie tries to convey with her art is not simply fantasy, but the fantastic. Visit her webstie at www.shadowscapes.com.

Tom Nguyen
Tom was born in 1976 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a year after his parents, Thao and Thien, immigrated to the U.S. from South Vietnam. Growing up as the oldest of three children, he always had a knack for drawing and drew his favorite cartoon and comic book characters in his spare time. In his teen years, Tom switched his attention to portraiture, but his love for comic book art never went away. Throughout high school, Tom made his side money drawing live airbrushed caricatures at Valleyfair theme park and the Mall of America in Minnesota. In 1996 he broke into the world of professional comics at age 19 as an inker for DC Comics, working with Doug Mahnke on the ill-fated title, Major Bummer. Since then, his work has branched out into other huge titles such as Superman: The Man of Steel, Batman and JLA among others. While doing comics full time, Tom expanded his artistic skills into realistic, painted pinup art. With this, he has garnered plenty of international attention and was a featured artist in the July 2006 issue of Club International. He was also published in Aphrodisia 2: Art of the Female Form. In 2005, Tom produced two instructional DVDs with his partner Jeffrey Pederson, featuring himself and Doug Mahnke, which earned rave reviews in Comic Buyer’s Guide and Wizard magazine. Currently, Tom resides in Shakopee, MN creating full art for Marvel- and DC-related trading cards and DC Comics. He continues to work with models to produce pinups and still draws commissioned caricatures and portraits for those crazy enough to pay his ridiculously high prices. Someday Tom hopes to return to competitive bodybuilding when he isn’t losing sleep over his deadlines.

Vincent Giarrano
Vincent Giarrano has penciled and inked for every major comic book publisher for two decades, producing some of the most consistently exciting works to be seen. He has drawn mainstream characters such as Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Dr. Fate, and many others. He both wrote and drew Redblade for Dark Horse Comics, fusing manga and current American styles. His work on the graphic novel Badlands and the comics version of The Terminator has brought him critical acclaim. He also wrote and illustrated a children's book, Professor Swizzle's Robots. He usually pencils and inks his own work, but his work has been inked by others, and he has inked other artists' pencils as well, so, he's thoroughly acquainted with the collaborative process of comics. Many illustrators use a story to simply showcase their own talents, but Giarrano's work is always intensely story-driven. His stock-in-trade is finding the dramatic core of a story and lacing it with steroids. The writer is safe in his hands. At the same time, Giarrano's drawings stand on their own merits. He is a master of pacing, expression, design and every element that makes a story come alive. For IMPACT Books, Giarrano has recently authored/illustrated Comics Crash Course (IMPACT Books 2004).