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Eric Drooker, born and raised on Manhattan Island,?began to slap his art on the streets at night as a teenager. Since then, his drawings and posters have become a familiar sight in the global street art movement, and his paintings appear frequently on covers of the?New Yorker. His first book, Flood, won the American Book Award, followed by Blood Song (soon to be a feature film). Naked City is the third volume in Drooker¡¯²õ?City Trilogy. His graphic novels have been translated into numerous languages in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. After designing the animation for the film?HOWL,?he was hired for a project at DreamWorks Animation.? |
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Judd Winick is a cartoonist and creator of the award-winning, New York Times bestselling Hilo series. Judd has written and produced animation for television and film, created the Cartoon Network series Juniper Lee; has written superhero comics, including Batman, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow; and, along with his wife Pam, was a cast member of MTV¡¯s The Real World: San Francisco. Judd is also the author of the highly acclaimed graphic novel Pedro and Me, about his Real World roommate and friend, AIDS activist Pedro Zamora. |
Eric Nakamura founded Giant Robot as a photocopied and stapled zine in 1994 and grew the publication until late 2010. Giant Robot magazine reached a multiracial audience interested in Asian popular culture and became known as the premier magazine in the field. Nakamura built on the success of Giant Robot with stores and galleries in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and has curated over 300 exhibitions. Currently, Nakamura works in and owns the Giant Robot store and GR2 Gallery in Los Angeles,?? which continues to offer pop culture goods and hold art exhibitions.
Nakamura will be in conversation with: ? Mari Naomi?(they/them) is the?author and illustrator of the SPACE Award-winning graphic memoir?Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22, the Eisner-nominated?Dragon¡¯s Breath and Other True Stories,?Turning Japanese,?I Thought YOU Hated ME, the?Life on Earth?trilogy,?Dirty Produce, and?I Thought You Loved Me. ? Carin Adams?is the Senior Curator of Art at the Oakland Museum of California. ? |
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Derek Kirk Kim is an award-winning writer, artist and director. He is the creator of The Last Mermaid from Image Comics and the Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz Award-winning graphic novel, Same Difference and Other Stories. He garnered his second Eisner Award with The Eternal Smile, a collaboration with MacArthur Fellow Gene Luen Yang. In television, Kim has worked as a director, storyboard artist, and character designer for numerous shows including Disney¡¯s Amphibia, Adventure Time, and Green Eggs and Ham on Netflix. |
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Maggie Tokuda-Hall is the author Also an Octopus, illustrated by Benji Davies, The Mermaid, The Witch and The Sea, Squad, illustrated by Lisa Sterle, and Love in the Library illustrated by Yas Imamura with more books forthcoming. Her latest book The Worst Ronin is described as "Nimona meets Attack on Titan in this edgy, unexpectedly hilarious, genre-defying YA graphic novel about an unlikely pair of female samurai."
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Jordan Morris is an LA-based writer of tv and (most importantly) COMICS! His recent graphic novel, the YA horror-comedy Youth Group with artist Bowen McCurdy is a national bestseller. His previous graphic novel Bubble (with artist Tony Cliff and co-writer Sarah Morgan) was nominated for 2 Eisner awards. He can also be seen on the hit YouTube show Good Mythical Morning and heard on the modestly popular podcasts Jordan Jesse Go and Free With Ads. |
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Eddie Ahn is a self-taught artist and creator of Advocate, a graphic memoir published by Penguin Random House, in April 2024. For over 15 years, he has served as a nonprofit attorney and the executive director of Brightline Defense, a San Francisco-based environmental justice nonprofit. He has also served as an AmeriCorps member, teaching arts and public speaking classes for elementary students in Oakland Chinatown. In addition to his nonprofit work, his art is displayed on utility boxes and walls throughout the city, and he has been recognized as a Cartoonist-in-Residence by the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa.
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Briana Loewinsohn is an American cartoonist. She is the author of the acclaimed graphic memoir Ephemera, published by Fantagraphics in 2023. It was listed as one of the American Library Association's top graphic novels of 2023 and was awarded the 2023 Foreword?Indies Editors Prize for non-fiction. Her new YA book, Raised By Ghosts, will come out in February 2025, also with Fantagraphics. Loewinsohn lives in Oakland, CA with her husband and two?kids. If she doesn't text you back, she is probably gardening.
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Thien Pham is a graphic novelist, comic artist, and educator based in Oakland, CA. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Sumo and did the art for the middle-grade graphic novel Level Up, written by Gene Luen Yang, and is an ongoing comic contributor to Eater SF. His graphic novel Family Style is "a moving young adult graphic memoir about a Vietnamese immigrant boy's search for belonging in America," and was the 2024 Eisner Award Winner for Best Graphic Memoir. He designed our awesome 2024 Comic Con image!
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Jason Shiga (Adventuregame Comics, Meanwhile, Demon, Bookhunter, Empire State) was born and raised in Oakland, California. He has been drawing comics since 1996. His comics have a geeky side, and often feature exciting uses of math. Many of his comics are interactive and require the reader to make choices to move the story along. In his 20 year career, Shiga has created 8 graphic novels, 20 comics books, over a dozen magazines and newspaper strips and the world's second largest interactive comic. Although his works range from strips to graphic novels he is best known for his love of unusual structural forms.
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Fred Noland's?specialty is visual storytelling, whether in animation, comics, or illustration. Noland¡¯s comics have appeared in the New Yorker, Popula and the East Bay Express. His illustrations have appeared in LA Weekly, Nickelodeon Jr., Xbox Magazine, Revolver, Canoe & Kayak and more. He was the chief artist on the animated short series ¡°Priced Out¡± which has been shown world-wide. He is the author of Steady Rollin' and Major Taylor.?Fred lives in Oakland, California, where he is an avid but unremarkable cyclist and a proud poppa.
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Max Toy Company features unique Kaiju collectible toys designed by Mark Nagata and artists and designers from around the world. Son Max Nagata has been painting toys since 2017?and is also a digital colorist. |
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Julia Wertz?is a cartoonist, amateur?historian, and part-time urban explorer. Her latest graphic novels include?Tenements, Towers, & Trash,?and?Impossible People. She does regular short story comics for The New Yorker.?Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she spent a decade in New York City before settling in Sonoma County, CA, with her partner and their son. She¡¯s currently working on the graphic novel?Bury Me Already (It¡¯s Nice Down Here)?to be released in 2026.?
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Justin Hall?is a cartoonist and the creator of the comics series Hard to Swallow (with Dave Davenport), True Travel Tales, and Glamazonia. He has stories in the Houghton Miflin Best American Comics, QU33R, Best Erotic Comics, and the SF Weekly, among others, and has exhibited his art in galleries and museums internationally.?Hall edited the Lambda Literary Award-winning, Eisner-nominated No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, which he¡¯s now producing as a feature-length documentary film. Most recently, he conceived and co-edited the anthology Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers.? |
Jerome Lu?is the head monkey and artist behind Hyperactive Monkey. Hyperactive Monkey is a collectible toy, apparel and entertainment company. Its loving creations are inspired by the cartoons, comics, toys, video games, and movies of the ¡¯80s. Our slogan is "where your Saturday morning adventures come true!" Jerome also designed the library's Story Time Band library card!?
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Martin Hsu?is an Asian American artist living?and working in San Francisco, CA. Since 2006, Martin¡¯s original artwork has been shown all around the world, including Young Art Taipei in Taiwan, Asia Contemporary in Hong Kong, Hello Kitty Anniversary Exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, Disney¡¯s WonderGround Gallery by Disneyland, and on the Google campus. Martin's personal creations include the Asian American Superhero- Dragon Boy.
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Minnie Phan is an illustrator and writer based in Oakland, CA. Her work has been featured by Google, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the San Francisco Public Library, for which she illustrated a citywide reading campaign in 2022. She is the illustrator of Simone, written by Pulitzer Prize winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, and The Yellow ?o D¨¤i, written by Hanh Bui.?
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Nidhi Chanani?is an award-winning author and illustrator of over a dozen books. She was born in Kolkata, India and raised in California. In 2012, she was honored by the Obama Administration as a Champion of Change. Her graphic novels include Pashmina, Jukebox, Super Boba Caf¨¦ and the Shark Princess series. She wrote and illustrated the picture book What will my story be? and her newest picture book Quiet Karima was released October 2024.?
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Andy Warner?is the?author of?This Land is My Land,?Spring Rain, the?NY?Times?Best Selling?Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, and the YA history series?Andy Warner¡¯s Oddball Histories?(Pests and Pets, Spices and Spuds).?His books have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Korean, French and Spanish.?He was a contributing editor at?The Nib?from 2016 until it ceased publication in 2023, and teaches?cartooning?at the?California College of the Arts,?Stanford University?and?The Animation Workshop in Denmark.?He was a?recipient of the 2018 Berkeley Civic Arts Grant and?the 2019 and 2021 and 2023 Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park Artist-in-Residency.?He?works in a garret room in South Berkeley?and comes from the sea.
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Bethanie Murguia?is the creator of the graphic novel series WAGNIFICENT (Roaring Book Press/Macmillan) and numerous picture books. Her books have received many accolades, including starred reviews, Junior Library Guild Gold Standard, IndieNext List, Amazon Best Books of the Year, BCCB Best Books of the Year, and Bank Street College Best Books of the Year. Bethanie earned an MFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family and three forty-pound lap dogs. In addition to writing and illustrating, Bethanie spends her time hiking, biking, and reading while snuggled up with her dogs.
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Mel Gillman?is a cartoonist and colored pencil artist who specializes in queer and trans comics. They're the author of multiple graphic novels, including?As the Crow Flies, Stage Dreams,?and?Other Ever Afters. Currently, they are working on a new kids horror graphic novel for Random House Graphic, and teaching at California College of the Arts, where they are the Chair of the Comics BFA and MFA Programs.
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Laneha House?is a family run small press from Breena Nu?ez and Lawrence Lindell. Laneha House is built on the foundation of family, love of comics, zines and coffee. Projects include comics, graphic novels, art books, zines, music and cartoons. It's pronounced (La.ney.ha). They host the Kinnard Awards every year. Read comics online with their free library!
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Berkeley Public Library
2090 Kittredge Street
Berkeley, California 94704
510-981-6100
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?Actors Ensemble of Berkeley
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