Industry legend Chris Claremont is best known for his epic sixteen-year run on Uncanny X-Men. Claremont’s focus on the themes of prejudice and tolerance struck at the hearts of comics fans, and he built an unparalleled following during the next three decades. Under his pen, the X-Men franchise spawned a vast array of spin-offs, many of them written by Claremont himself. His other credits include Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Power Man and Spider-Woman. Claremont has returned to the X-Men universe in New Exiles, GeNext, X-Men Forever, Chaos War: X-Men and Nightcrawler. Ed Brubaker is one of the most acclaimed writers in comics, a multiple Eisner Award winner. Following fan-favorite runs on Scene of the Crime, Sleeper, Catwoman and Gotham Central for DC, he moved to Marvel. His Captain America relaunch, in which he controversially revived Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier, won over fans new and old, and his revisionist take on the history of Marvel’s mutants in X-Men: Deadly Genesis resulted in a regular gig on Uncanny X-Men, Marvel’s flagship X-title. He and longtime artistic collaborator Michael Lark took up the baton on Daredevil after Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s legendary run concluded, and Brubaker jump-started Immortal Iron Fist with co-writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja. Marvel’s Icon imprint published Brubaker’s creator-owned Criminal and Incognito, and he has gone on to further success at Image Comics with such titles as Fatale, Velvet and The Fade Out. Beyond comics, Brubaker has written for TV’s Westworld and co-created the crime drama Too Old to Die Young. Writer/producer/director Joss Whedon is a veteran of film, television and comics renowned for his witty dialogue, genre-blending sensibilities and strong female characters. An Emmy-nominated, third-generation talent whose father and grandfather both wrote for television, Whedon got his start as a writer on the Roseanne sitcom in 1989 and soon moved into film where his writing credits included Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alien: Resurrection and the Oscar-nominated Toy Story. Whedon moved back to television, where he converted 1992’s lackluster Buffy film into the critically acclaimed Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series (1997-2003) and its vampire-hero spin-off series, Angel (1999-2004). Whedon’s sci-fi Western series Firefly (2002) was short-lived, but its popularity on DVD led to Whedon writing and directing a Universal feature film based on its characters, Serenity (2005). Whedon returned to television in 2009 with Dollhouse and explores terror in the 2010 feature film Cabin in the Woods. A lifelong comics fan, he entered the business with the 2001 Dark Horse mini-series Fray, featuring the Slayer of a dystopian future. He later co-wrote a Serenity mini-series for Dark Horse (with sequels to follow), helped plot IDW Publishing’s Angel: After the Fall series picking up where the Angel TV show left off, and serves as co-writer and “executive producer” of Dark Horse’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight series, a canonical continuation of the TV heroine’s adventures. At Marvel, Whedon is best known for teaming with John Cassaday on a popular Astonishing X-Men run (2004-2008) and taking over Runaways after series creator Brian K. Vaughan left the book. Whedon’s other Marvel credits include Giant-Size X-Men #3 (2005) and Stan Lee Meets Spider-Man #1 (2006). As a boy, artist Dave Cockrum (1943-2006) dreamed of working in the comic-book industry; after a six-year stint in the Navy, he headed straight for the big time. With a natural talent for illustrating super heroes, Cockrum landed a gig on Legion of Super-Heroes for DC Comics. Soon after his debut, Cockrum showcased his knack for innovative costume designs, becoming the first artist to revamp the look of the classic futuristic super-hero team since its original Silver Age debut. After leaving Legion in 1975, Cockrum collaborated with writer Len Wein to create a new lineup of X-Men – including Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Colossus. Cockrum’s bold new mutants quickly caught the attention of comic-book fans, transforming X-Men into a best-selling title. Although Cockrum has reduced his artistic output in recent years, his strong influence on modern creators remains steadfast – as evidenced by the release of The Uncanny Cockrum Tribute Book in 2004, boasting contributions from more than 75 notable writers and artists. John Byrne has worked continuously in the comics industry as both writer and artist since 1975. After he initially collaborated with writer Chris Claremont on Iron Fist, Byrne and Claremont moved on to X-Men for a run still regarded as one of the title’s finest. Byrne contributed an equally famed stint on Fantastic Four, earning comparisons to the original Lee/Kirby issues for his imaginative plotlines and dynamic artwork. He also spun Alpha Flight into its own title. In 1986, he revamped DC’s flagship hero, Superman, reimagining the Man of Steel in a historic project heralded by a Time magazine cover. His remarkable contribution to the Marvel Universe extends to memorable associations with virtually every major hero, including celebrated runs on Captain America, Iron Man, Sensational She-Hulk, Namor the Sub-Mariner and Thing. In the 21st century, Byrne’s considerable body of work includes IDW’s Star Trek and Angel. A former animator for cult cartoonist Ralph Bakshi, Paul Smith penciled Uncanny X-Men during a brief but pivotal run that included Rogue joining the team, Storm’s controversial makeover, Wolverine’s near-marriage and Cyclops’ wedding to future villain Madelyne Pryor. He then moved to Doctor Strange, Marvel Fanfare and others, later drawing the acclaimed X-Men/Alpha Flight miniseries. With James Robinson, he created DC’s groundbreaking Golden Age miniseries, highlighting the publisher’s wartime heroes like few before or since. His work for other companies includes First’s Grimjack and Image’s Leave It to Chance; he returned to Marvel to pencil the miniseries Kitty Pryde: Shadow and Flame, revisiting some themes from his Uncanny work.
