Strange and Striking Fantasy

Heidi MacDonald is the editor in chief of Comicsbeat.com and the co-author of Secret Teachings of a Comic Book Master. 

Lisa Brown is a New York Times-bestselling illustrator, author, and cartoonist. Her work includes a slew of illustrated books including Goldfish Ghost by Lemony Snicket; The Airport Book, Picture the Dead with Adele Griffin; and Mummy Cat by Marcus Ewert. For adults, Long Story Short is a collection of comic strips about classic novels. She teaches in the illustration department of the California College of the Art.

Gabby Rivera is a Bronx-born, queer Puerto Rican author. She’s the first Latina to write for Marvel Comics, penning the solo series America about America Chavez, a portal-punching queer Latina powerhouse. Her debut novel is Juliet Takes a Breath and she is the writer and creator of b.b. free, a new original comic series with BOOM! Studios. In b.b.free (BOOM! Box) it’s been over twenty years since the Plague That Ate Greed wiped out half the population, and it’s the only world that our hero,  b.b. free has ever known. Broadcasting her underground radio show from her remote swamp community, b.b. has no idea about the world outside her home – or her role in it. She’s the chosen one. But when b.b. discovers a terrible secret about her overbearing father, she realizes that everything she believes in could be a lie. Now on the run from her own family, b.b. will learn the truth about the world she lives in, and about the power she never knew she had.

M.T. Anderson is the author of Feed, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, as well as The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation Volume I: The Pox Party, winner of the National Book Award and a New York Times bestseller, and its sequel, The Kingdom on the Waves, which was also a New York Times bestseller and Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad. He is also the author of the graphic novels: Yvain: The Knight of the Lion, with Andrea Offermann, and The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, with Eugene Yelchin. Jo Rioux is an author and illustrator of children’s books. Her debut graphic novel Cat’s Cradle won the 2012 Joe Shuster award for best comic for kids. She has illustrated young adult books, chapter books and picture books. Ys, city of wealth and wonder, has a history of dark secrets. Queen Malgven used magic to raise the great walls that the city from the sea. But after the queen’s inexplicable death, her daughters drift apart. The Daughters of Ys (First Second) follows them. Rozenn, the heir to the throne, spends her time on the moors communing with wild animals. Dahut, the youngest, enjoys the royal life and is eager to take part in palace intrigue. When their bond is irrevocably changed, the fate of Ys is sealed, exposing the monsters that lurk in plain view. M. T. Anderson and Jo Rioux reimagine this classic Breton folktale