Presenters

• Larry Hama

  Larry Hama is a writer/artist/editor/actor who has is best known as the writer of Marvel’s “GI Joe” and“Wolverine” comics in the ‘80s and ‘90s. He has also written, edited or drawn for Avengers, Conan, Batman, Wonder Woman, X-Men, Spider-Man, and dozens more. His illustrations and cartoons have appeared in National Lampoon, Esquire, New York and Rolling Stone. His most recent novel is “The Death of Captain America.” Recently scripted BATMAN SHADOW OF THE BAT, and WONDER WOMAN for DC Comics’ Convergence Event. Currently writing GI Joe ARAH for IDW, X-MEN LEGENDS, and IRON FIST /Heart of the Dragon for Marvel, and the Spy Hunter/Paper Boy for DC. He has also recently done layouts for Deathstroke, Damage, and Michael Cray @ DC. As an actor, he has appeared on TV in M.A.S.H., SNL, and ANOTHER WORLD. He originated the characters of Lord of the South, and Lt. Williams in the 1976 B’Way production of Stephen Sondheim’s PACIFIC OVERTURES, and has done commercials and voice-overs.

• Christopher Priest

  Christopher James Priest (born James Christopher Owsley June 30, 1961[1] in Queens, New York)[2] is an American writer of comic books who is at times credited simply as Priest. He changed his name legally circa 1993.[3] He was the first black writer-editor in mainstream comics.[4]

• Louise (Weezy) Simonson

  Louise “Weezy” Simonson is an American comic book writer and editor. She is best known for her work on comic book titles such as Conan the Barbarian, Power Pack, X-Factor, New Mutants, Superman: The Man of Steel, and Steel. She is often referred to by the nickname “Weezie”. Among the comic characters she co-created are Cable, Steel, Power Pack, Rictor, Doomsday and the X-Men villain Apocalypse. In recognition of her contributions to comics, Comics Alliance listed Simonson as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition.

• Prof. Jack Tchen

  Jack (John Kuo Wei) Tchen is a historian, curator, dumpster-diver, and teacher surfacing the disappeared stories othered by systems of power and wealth. Dr. Tchen is the Clement A. Price Professor of Public History & Humanities and Director of the Price Institute on Ethnicity, Cultures, and the Modern Experience Rutgers-Newark. He is the founding director of the A/P/A (Asian/Pacific/American) Studies Program and Institute at New York University, NYU. He co-founded the Museum of Chinese in America. His ten-years of work on anti-Asian xenophobia, a two-hour PBS documentary on the “Chinese Exclusion Act,” and exhibition at the New-York Historical Society led him to focus on intersectional history of American eugenics. Via a series of exhibits, conferences, and performances, he has been retelling NYC-US history from the lens of “Nordic” eugenics hierarchies of “fit” elite, white Protestants versus the world’s “unfit” others.