LOWER YOUR SIGHTS

Rich Douek is an acclaimed comic book writer known for his compelling storytelling and dynamic narratives. Known for harrowing horror tales like Sea of Sorrows, and the Bram Stoker Award finalist, Road of Bones. Beyond his independent work, Rich has contributed to the Eisner-nominated Superman: Red and Blue, Marvel's Wastelanders, and the GLAAD Media Award winning Young Men in Love, among several other acclaimed anthologies. Rich was born and bred in NYC, and lives just outside of it now with his family and two cats. His work has been featured on The Hollywood Reporter, SyfyWire, Nerdist, Rue Morgue Magazine, and elsewhere. Rich is also an award-winning Copywriter and Creative Director, having developed advertising campaigns for clients such as Snickers, FedEx, and Foot Locker.

Kevin Cuffe is a father, a sorcerer and a comic book author. When not herding three dogs and dealing with three tweens, he saves the universe from extraplanar entities for the good of all mankind. He is one half of the word bros podcast and lives in Williamsburg, VA with his partner, Danielle.

Brian Hawkins is an educator and freelance writer of comic books, novels, and scripts. In education, Brian has taught English in the public school setting for 19 years and he was an adjunct professor of World Religion at NOVA for three years. Additionally, he’s a former editor for Mad Cave Studios and presently, an editor for Battle Quest Comics. Some of his writing credits include Devil’s Dominion, Doctor Wilder, and Empath from BlackBox Comics, Darkwatchers: Featuring Gretel, Van Helsing: Black Annis, and Van Helsing: Beast of Exmoor from Zenescope Entertainment, and a two book children series, Code Name Danger: Unmasking a Villain and Double Agent: The Search for Spymaster Z from Jolly Fish Press. Additionally, Brian Hawkins’ first YA Graphic Novel, Block’d, from Maverick Graphic Novels/Mad Cave Studios is in stores now. Subsequently, his second graphic novel, tentatively titled Listen, is scheduled for release in November 2026 from the same publishing house. Brian Hawkins is also the co-creator and co-writer of Black Cotton, a comic book series published by Scout Comics, and the creator and writer of the mythical horror comic book series, The Vineyard, published by AfterShock Comics. In addition to creator-owned comic book titles with direct market publishers, Brian is also the owner of his own comic book studio, BlaX Trauma Productions, where he focuses on telling horror stories with an emphasis on BIPOC characters. Brian is married and has three children, so when he’s not trying to figure out date night with the wifey, playing air hockey with his oldest daughter, doing basketball training with his son, or watching his youngest daughter’s dance performances, he tries to get some reading done and binge watch movies in his free time, if that’s even a thing.

Ennun Ana Iurov (she/he/they) is a Romanian illustrator known for their work on the young adult graphic novel Needle & Thread. For over 6 years Ennun has created and self-published short comics and stories focusing mainly on empowering charity zines, working with organizations such as, Action Against Hunger, and others. Ennun's illustration skills have a wide range from folk tales to dream core to horror and more, and now in Whisper of the Woods will combine all of these talents.

Gabriel Valentin, the creator and writer of the Digital Lizards of Doom book series, possesses a long-standing passion for fables and mythology. A self-described “hopeless romantic” of the fantasy adventure/genre, Valentin’s approach to storytelling is often noted as playful, humorous and bizarre. Valentin cites Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert E. Howard, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Jarred was born and raised three miles from Mexico, in the small border town of Del Rio, Texas. He graduated Cum Laude from Angelo State University with two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Philosophy and Political Science. In 2019 he won the Mad Cave Studios Talent Search that led to his debut mini-series Dry Foot. Besides comics, Jarred’s interests include existential philosophy, cooking, biking, and the Wu-Tang Clan.

Joe Corallo is an award-winning editor and writer of comics. He’s edited comics for ComicMix, A Wave Blue World, Black Mask Studios, ComiXology Originals, Dynamite, as well as Mad Cave Studios. His writing has been published by DC Comics, Archie, ComiXology Originals, and Vault as well as having written Becstar, Dahlia In The Dark, and the first volume of King Arthur and the Knights of Justice for Mad Cave Studios. He also serves as the blog editor for Geeks OUT, a non-profit that seeks to rally, promote, and empower the queer geek community.

Justin Richards is a writer who mostly hides away in the mountains of the PNW and creates comic books when they're not busy being a parent and dog dad, working at their local comic shop and occasionally gaming. They created and wrote the hit series Finger Guns from Vault Comics, have appeared in many anthologies including Lower Your Sights and Sharp Wit & the Company of Women, and have self-published A Silent Night and Everything is Different Now with the help of crowdfunding. Their work is usually full of horror, satire, music and emotional devastation. When they're not writing they can be found playing video games, re-watching Sonic 3 or playing with their dogs.

Lela Gwenn has written Hellraiser Bestiary #4 (BOOM!), Where We Live (Image), All We Ever Wanted (Wave Blue World), Bad Luck Chuck (Dark Horse). She's a proud social justice warrior, and the town weirdo in her rural community. She's currently in school despite being way too old, but she loves it.

Matt Harding is a comics creator from the San Francisco Bay Area, now living in the Pacific Northwest. He's worked professionally for over a decade, contributing to a wide array of books from licensed properties like Batman the Brave and the Bold to creator owned work like the Devil's are All Here. His work has appeared in anthologies that have won both Ringo and Eisner awards and is known for his imaginative concepts and thought-provoking story telling style. He spends his time bumming around the Portland area with his partner Sara, also a writer, and playing with their cats Scully and Mulder.

Matthew Dow Smith is a writer and comic book artist whose work has appeared in Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, DC’s Starman, and many others. He was the writer of the X-Files: Origins comic book series, the third volume of the Dark Crystal: Creation Myths graphic novel series, and several Doctor Who comic book stories for IDW, the BBC, and BBC America. He is the writer and artist of DC’s middle grade graphic novel Misfits of Magic, and creator-owned digital comics Amelia Shadows: Daughter of Darkness, Johnny Chaos, and Arch-Nemesis. He lives on the east coast of the US.

Tim Daniel is a comic book writer and designer. His previously published works include Atoll, Burning Fields, Curse, Denizen, End After End, Enormous, Fissure, Skinned, Spiritus, and The Plot. He is responsible for the design of countless titles spanning nearly 20 years in the comics industry for almost every independent and major publisher including A Wave Blue World, Dark Horse, Dauntless, DC Comics, Icon-Marvel, Image, Mad Cave, Scout, Shadowline, Skybound, Valiant and Vault Comics. Tim resides in Missoula, MT with his wife and two daughters.

David ‘DB’ Andry is a physical therapist and comic book writer from Sacramento, CA. His credits include Resonant and Denizen from Vault Comics, Creepshow from Skybound and Morning Star and Crush Depth from Mad Cave Studios. He has signed a blood pack with co-writer, Tim Daniel, binding their souls together for all eternity.

Dave Chisholm is a graphic novelist and musician currently living in Rochester, NY where he received his doctorate in jazz trumpet from the Eastman School of Music in 2013. His expertise in music as well as his formal inventiveness within the comics medium has resulted in a string of critically-acclaimed music-centric graphic novels including Miles Davis & the Search for the Sound (2023, Z2 Comics), Enter the Blue (2022, Z2 Comics), Chasin' the Bird: Charlie Parker in California (2020, Z2 Comics), and the groundbreaking graphic novel + original soundtrack Instrumental (2017, Z2 Comics). In his free time, Dave enjoys spending time with his family and his cats.

Liana Kangas is a freelance comic artist, illustrator, and writer. Current works include drawing and co-creating the comic miniseries TRVE KVLT, written by Scott Bryan Wilson published by IDW, drawing a short written by James Tynion IV for Razorblades, published by Image Comics and contributing to a short with David Booher on CANTO, Tales of the Unnamed World. Liana has also worked on the IDW/LucasFilm title Star Wars Adventures written by Sam Maggs, co-writing the short one-shot Seeds of Eden, co-written by Joe Corallo, drawn by Paul Azaceta, and published by TKO Studios, co-created and drew a mini series titled She Said Destroy, written by Corallo and published by Vault Comics, and the BlackAF series title Devil's Dye written by Vita Ayala published by Black Mask Studios. Liana’s work has been featured in anthologies including 2000AD, Z2’s The Final Symphony, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Comic Mix’s Mine!, Image Comics Where We Live, and A Wave Blue World’s All We Ever Wanted, Dead Beats, Embodied and Dead Beats: London Calling. Liana has drawn covers for series published with Image Comics, IDW, Comixology, Oni Press, Ahoy, Vault, Mad Cave and Scout and licenses such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Dark Spaces: Wildfire, and more. You can find fun features of Liana’s work on Nerdist, SYFY Artists Alley, Panel x Panel as well as featured articles on Deadline Hollywood, Newsarama, Paste Magazine, AIPT, Doom Rocket, Multiversity, Comics Beat, Vice, and Comics Alliance.

Joe Hunter is an artist based out of Toledo, Ohio. Outside of the independently published BEAST HEART! STRIKERS, his work can be found in RADIANT BLACK from Image and the Ringo Award-nominated LOWER YOUR SIGHTS anthology. He likes wrestling, tokusatsu, and people doing cool things in spandex in general. He hates talking about himself and had his very patient fiance write this bio.

Stelladia is a Spanish comic artist and colorist with a background on visual development for animation. They enjoy working on fantasy, sci-fi and children tales (with a bit of spookiness in them). Some of their past work include The Wilds #4 (Black Mask), Submerged (Vault Comics), Metaphorical Her (Webtoon) or the animation short-film 'Johanne' (Dragonbee). When they are not making comics, you can probably find them doing crafts, home-gardening or studying philosophy and anthropology.

Andriy Lukin is a comic book creator and graphic designer from Sumy, Ukraine. As a letterer, Andriy won Mad Cave Studios’ Talent Search 2022 and his works were published in a variety of books, including Lower Your Sights, Down Below, and Dagger Dagger. He also specializes in creating logotypes, book design and cover art for comic books, music albums, tabletop games and other art forms.

Chas! Pangburn is an award-winning editor, writer, and letterer. He’s been fortunate to collaborate with publishers across the industry, but he found a forever home in Mad Cave. In his free time, a Shiba Inu bosses him around for long walks throughout Cincinnati, Ohio.

Frank Cvetkovic is a comic book letterer who hates when people assume that all he does is put words inside bubbles. There’s a little more to the job than that. For instance, sometimes he puts them in boxes. His work can be seen in Hey Mary!, Toxic Summer, and Gatchaman: Galactor.

Justin Birch is a 2018 Ringo Award nominated letterer born and raised in the hills of West Virginia. Lettering comics since 2015, he is a member of the lettering studio AndWorld Design and has worked with DC, IDW, Dynamite, Lion Forge Comics, Mad Cave Studios, Action Lab Comics, DMC Comics, Source Point Press, Z2 Comics, and numerous indy publishers. Justin still lives in West Virginia, only now it’s with his loving wife, daughter, and their dog, Kirby.

Micah Myers left college after three semesters into an Associate Degree in Graphic Design to become a professional comic book letterer. Micah has worked on comics for Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Mad Cave, Scout, Lions Forge, and many more. He lives in Portsmouth, Virginia with his wife and two kids.

Eisner-nominated letterer Pat Brosseau is a veteran of the comics industry, having contributed to titles across every major publisher, including Hellboy, Wolverine, Aliens vs. Predator, Batman, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Creepshow, and Dick Tracy. He lives in Northern Vermont with his wife and daughter.

Taylor Esposito is multi-award winning comic book lettering professional, owner of Ghost Glyph Studios, and teacher at the legendary Kubert School. A former staff letterer at DC and production artist at Marvel, he has lettered titles such as Red Hood and The Outlaws, Robin Lives!, and Harley Quinn The Eat KILL Bang Tour; Flash Gordon, Edenfrost (Mad Cave Studios), Exorsisters, Drawing Blood (Image); Babyteeth, Maniac of New York, Bunny Mask (Aftershock); No One Left to Fight and Survival Street (Dark Horse). Other publishers he has worked with include BOOM! Studios (Amory Wars, Fence) Dynamite (Elvira, Space Ghost, Jonny Quest, Green Hornet), and IDW (Brynmore).