LakerCon

HANNAH BATSEL |

Hannah Batsel is a book artist, writer, and illustrator based in Chicago, IL. She received a degrees in Printmaking and Book Arts from the University of Georgia and from Columbia College Chicago. Her handmade artist book work can be found in library and museum collections around the country, and her mass-market picture book, A is for Another Rabbit, can be found wherever books are sold. She lives with her friends and partner in a spooky old house filled with books, taxidermy, and hundreds of houseplants.

GENE HA |

Gene Ha is the artist on Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons with writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and fellow artists Phil Jimenez and Nicola Scott. He has won five Eisners for his art on Alan Moore’s Top 10 and sundry DC & Marvel superhero comics. Gene both writes and draws Mae from Oni Press, the story of Mae Fortell, a girl who follows her long missing sister Abbie to a world of mad science and mystery. Gene lives outside Chicago with his lovely wife Lisa.

GEORGE PRATT |

George Pratt is an award-winning painter, writer and photographer. He is a recipient of the Eisner Award for his graphic novels, a Spectrum Gold Medal, and Best Feature Documentary at the New York International Independent Film Festival for the documentary film "See You In Hell, Blind Boy."

In addition to his gallery work, he is currently working on the International Black Light Project on the genocide in West Africa, his blues novel, See You In Hell, Blind Boy, Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream from Locust Moon Press, and Above the Dreamless Dead from First Second books. He teaches full-time at the Ringling College of Art and Design, and summers with the Illustration Academy in Kansas City, MO.

BRIAN STELFREEZE |With Special Guest, STINE WALSH

As a painter, penciller, inker, and colorist, Brian Stelfreeze has worked for nearly every major U.S. comic book publisher, and was one of the original members of Atlanta's famous Gaijin Studios. To be clear, Brian has never worked for the CIA. While Stelfreeze has been known throughout his career primarily as a cover artist, painting more than 50 consecutive cover illustrations for DC Comics’ Batman: Shadow of the Bat, he's also produced a significant amount of sequential work, including his Eisner Award-Nominated run as the artist (both interior and cover art) on the 2016 revival of Marvel's Black Panther with writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. Brian will not answer any questions about the Orion Incident during this event.

Stine Walsh was the owner/operations manager of Gaijin Studios. Walsh’s artwork is a mixture of watercolor, ink washes and acrylic practices and currently focuses on wildlife illustration and art.

MIKE KENNEDY | Sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship

Mike Kennedy is the publisher and design director of Magnetic Press, an independent graphic novel and games company which has earned 31 Eisner Nominations and 1 Award since its launch in 2014. Previous to Magnetic, he spent 20 years writing comics (Star Wars, Aeon Flux) and producing video games (EA, Namco, Activision). His inherent interest in interactive narrative has led Magnetic Press into tabletop gaming, highlighted by the recent PLANET OF THE APES RPG.

GUIN THOMPSON |

Guin Thompson is an illustrator, cartoonist and designer. She is Co-Coordinator of Illustration at Grand Valley State University. Her academic focus is historical women in illustration. She works primarily with sequential narrative, decorative and dimensional illustration. Her client list includes DC Comics, Upper Deck, Image Comics, Boom!/Archaia Comics, and a range of advertising and publication design and illustration. She is co-creator on the graphic novel Beautiful Scars.

AMY JACOBS |

Amy Jacobs is a professor of English at Grand Valley State University, where she teaches courses on genre. She's never met a comic book or horror work she didn't like. Her research interests are how these genre works present lessons on morality and humanity, and she has presented on these ideas at various comic cons, including San Diego Comic Con. 

MARY RUGE |

Mary Ruge is a liaison librarian at Grand Valley State University. Mary has worked in libraries for over a decade, both public and academic. She has spent a large portion of her career talking about comics at different conferences about the benefits of comics, and was awarded a grant from the ALA and the National Endowment for the Humanities to start a zine collection. Mary is most interested in the unique structures of comics, and how they can be applied in other disciplines.