Multiple Eisner Award-nominee Brian Wood released his first series, Channel Zero, to considerable critical acclaim in 1997, and has gone on to create hard-hitting original series such as DMZ, Northlanders, The Couriers and The Massive. Adding to that body of work, he's also written some of the biggest titles in pop culture with work on Star Wars; Conan the Barbarian; Lord of the Rings; and, for Marvel Comics, multiple X-Men projects including the headline-grabbing 2013 relaunch of the X-Men ongoing series. Springing from the fertile ground of the U.K. comics scene, Warren Ellis came to Marvel during the early '90s and proved his iconoclastic mettle in the ultra-edgy series Hellstorm and the limited series Druid -- followed by fondly remembered extended runs on Excalibur and Doom 2099. After making a name for himself as a premier talent with Wildstorm's Stormwatch, Transmetropolitan, The Authority and Planetary, Ellis returned to Marvel to pen Ultimate Fantastic Four, the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, Iron Man and more. His Nextwave: Agents of H.A.
T.E. was both a critical smash and a cult favorite. In addition to reviving the 1980s New Universe in newuniversal and writing Thunderbolts, Ellis took over Astonishing X-Men following Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's departure, and penned perhaps the definitive story of the Armored Avenger in Iron Man's "Extremis." In addition, he offered a distinctively memorable new take on Moon Knight. His Wildstorm miniseries Red was adapted into a hit movie in 2010. Ellis broke into prose fiction with Crooked Little Vein and his New York Times best-selling novel Gun Machine. Steve Pugh spent his early years menacing comic readers in horror title Hellblazer before side stepping into super heroics via the Vertigo incarnation of Animal-Man.
Having written and painted the Hotwire books for Radical, Pugh was drawn back to ink for a second stab at Animal-Man for its critically acclaimed revival. He later helped writer James Robinson throw Marvel's Invaders back into combat in All-New Invaders.