Mike McCready is a founding member and lead guitarist of Pearl Jam, one of the most influential rock bands of the past three decades Since the band's breakthrough beyond the Seattle scene in 1991, McCready's unmistakable guitar work and songwriting has helped define Pearl Jam's sound, contributing to more than 85 million albums sold worldwide and a legacy that earned the band induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 In addition to his musical achievements, McCready is a dedicated advocate for health awareness, drawing from his personal journey with IBD to support organizations focused on Crohn's disease research and recovery initiatives He is also an advocate for social justice awareness through his work with Washington Innocence Project, and other local organizations Most recently, McCready co-founded Mutual Arts Collective, a mission driven art gallery and event space at Pike Place Market Mark Sable is a Los Angeles based professional writer for print, stage and screen best known for his creator-owned comic books, and a writing professorHe's written such characters as SPIDER-MAN for Marvel Comics and BATMAN for DC His passion however is his creator-owned work, including GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES, GROUNDED, FEARLESS and HAZED for Image Comics and UNTHINKABLE for Boom! StudiosThe feature film rights to Unthinkable and Hazed were optioned by Mandalay Entertainment and Barry Josephson Fox and producer Howard Gordon (24, Homeland) bought the TV rights to Unthinkable in 2013 Mark was hired to create the original animated pilot Polarity for Cartoon Network and adapt Graveyard of Empires for the screen as well Sebastin Priz is a comic book artist based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, known for his dynamic storytelling and expressive, high-energy style He has worked across a wide range of publishers, contributing interior art to titles such as We Ride Titans (Vault Comics), Exorcists Never Die (Mad Cave Studios), and Disaster Inc (AfterShock Comics), as well as illustrating Canto and the City of Giants (IDW) In addition to his interior work, Priz is an accomplished cover artist, with credits including Stranger Things, Transformers, and Red Sonja He is also the co-creator of Black Beacon for Heavy Metal Known for his cinematic pacing and strong visual storytelling, Priz continues to be a sought-after talent across the comics industry R Kikuo Johnson is an American illustrator and cartoonist born on Maui in 1981 He is known for illustrating several covers of The New Yorker in addition to the graphic novels Night Fisher, The Shark King, and No One Else In 2023 he became the first graphic novelist to receive the Whiting Award for fiction Johnson also teaches a comics creation class at the Rhode Island School of Design which he began teaching in 2009