Youth in Revolt

Danielle Paige is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dorothy Must Die series, and Stealing Snow. In addition to writing young adult books, she works in the television industry, where she's received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. Princess Mera is teenage royalty and heir to the throne of Xebel, one of the nations of Atlantis. Her father, his court and the entire kingdom are expecting her to marry and introduce a new king. But when the Xebellian military plots to overthrow Atlantis and break free of its oppressive regime, Mera seizes the opportunity to take control over her own destiny by assassinating Arthur Curry – Aquaman, the long-lost prince, half man-half Atlantean and heir to the kingdom of Atlantis. The graphic novel Mera: Tidebreaker (DC Ink) gives us Mera and Aquaman origin story as her mission gets sidetracked when they unexpectedly fall in love and in the process it explores duty, love, heroism and freedom through their eyes. Foreword Reviews celebrated that “Mera: Tidebreaker goes beyond Disney princess territory, depicting a future queen of Atlantis who’s a fascinating and sympathetic role model for teens.”

Greg Means is co-author of The Cute Girl Network and is the editor/publisher of the Ignatz Award-winning anthology series Papercutter. The original graphic novel Penny Nichols (Top Shelf Productions) is a hilarious and loving tribute to the chaos and camaraderie of DIY filmmaking, and the ways we find our future -- and our family -- in the unlikeliest of places. Stuck working mind-numbing temp jobs, our hero, Penny Nichols yearns to break free from the rut she's found herself in. Then, by chance, she falls in with a group of misfits making a no-budget slasher movie called "Blood Wedding," and everything goes sideways. Soon her days are overrun with gory props, failed Shakespearean actors, a horny cameraman, and a disappearing director. Her task is to hold it all together and somehow keep the production from coming apart at the seams. She's probably the only one who can save this movie... but maybe it can save her, too. In his review for ComicBook Round Up, Lenny Schwartz wrote  “This story is simply amazing. […] The horror film setting is nicely researched and feels real. The characters are too. When you put that together with a strong story, you get one of the best books of the year. […] It's a lovely and intelligent experience from start to end that entertains in a way that feels new. Bravo.”

Hannah Templer is a queer cartoonist and graphic designer. She is currently the artist on GLOW (IDW Publishing, Netflix) with writer Tini Howard, and has also worked as a colorist, cover artist and interior artist on well-known titles such as Samurai Jack, Tomb Raider, and Jem and the Holograms. Set in an intergalactic society in which high-tech knights fight each other to win a princess as their prize, Cosmoknights (Top Shelf) tells the story of a band of queer women battling to dismantle the system and rescue the princesses before it’s too late. Pan, a young and disillusioned mechanic, worked in her dad's body shop but still sneaked out with her friend Tara to go dancing, and watch the skies. It didn't matter that Tara was a princess -- until one day it did, and Pan had to say goodbye. Years later, she meets a charismatic pair of off-world gladiators who aren’t what they seem and she learns that to achieve true liberation, they will have to beat the patriarchy at its own game. On the run and off the galactic grid, Pan discovers the astonishing secrets of her neo-medieval world and the intoxicating possibility of burning it all down.

Joan Hilty directs comics and graphic novel publishing at Nickelodeon, and is Editor-in-Chief of the book producer Pageturner. She has been a senior editor at DC Comics/Vertigo and a syndicated cartoonist. She co-chairs the Brooklyn Book Festival graphics committee and teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

MK Reed is the Eisner Award-nominated author of Dinosaurs: Fossils and Feathers, as well as, Americus, Palefire, and The Cute Girl Network (with Greg Means and Joe Flood); all graphic novels and comic series on subjects ranging from humorous paleontology history, to romance, to young adult first amendment rights. Her latest series, The Castoffs, is about teen girl wizards who fight robots. Greg Means is co-author of The Cute Girl Network and is the editor/publisher of the Ignatz Award-winning anthology series Papercutter. Matt Wiegle is the artist of the webcomic Destructor (with Sean Collins) and drew the Romeo & Juliet adaption for Spark Notes. The original graphic novel Penny Nichols (Top Shelf Productions) is a hilarious and loving tribute to the chaos and camaraderie of DIY filmmaking, and the ways we find our future -- and our family -- in the unlikeliest of places. Stuck working mind-numbing temp jobs, our hero, Penny Nichols yearns to break free from the rut she's found herself in. Then, by chance, she falls in with a group of misfits making a no-budget slasher movie called "Blood Wedding," and everything goes sideways. Soon her days are overrun with gory props, failed Shakespearean actors, a horny cameraman, and a disappearing director. Her task is to hold it all together and somehow keep the production from coming apart at the seams. She's probably the only one who can save this movie... but maybe it can save her, too. In his review for ComicBook Round Up, Lenny Schwartz wrote  “This story is simply amazing. […] The horror film setting is nicely researched and feels real. The characters are too. When you put that together with a strong story, you get one of the best books of the year. […] It's a lovely and intelligent experience from start to end that entertains in a way that feels new. Bravo.”