BCAF XI Guest Creators

We are pleased to welcome another stellar group of comic creators to Boise Comic Arts Festival this year! Meet our first round of guests (more to be announced in the following weeks) -

Cassie Anderson

Cassie is a freelance comic artist who loves telling stories and drawing pictures. She is the illustrator behind the Lifeformed series as well as the creator of Extraordinary: A Story of an Ordinary Princess. Anderson also created the artwork for the Nampa Public Library bookmobile. When she’s not drawing comics, you can find her reading a good book, baking some tasty treats, or exploring the outdoors with her adventure-loving husband and baby.

Visit Cassie on Instagram

Morgan Beem

Morgan is a freelance artist who works predominantly with ink and watercolor. Her work includes Crashing, Swamp Thing: Twin Branches, Wonder Woman Black and Gold, The Family Trade, Wolfsbane, and a number of anthologies.

Visit Morgan's website | Instagram | Twitter

Terry Blas

Terry is the illustrator and writer behind the viral webcomics You Say Latino and You Say Latinx (Vox.com). He has written comics for Ariana Grande, the series Steven Universe, and Rick and Morty. His original graphic novels are Dead Weight: Murder at Camp Bloom (Oni Press), Hotel Dare (Kaboom!), and Lifetime Passes (Abrams/Surely Books 2021). He is the writer for the Mexican, Marvel comics, super-hero series, Reptil. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his husband and their dog, Alfie.

Visit Terry's WebsiteTwitter | Instagram

Rose Bousamra

Rose is a queer, Arab-American comic artist and illustrator exploring identity through a fantasy lens. They are currently working on their solo debut fantasy YA graphic novel Gutless with First Second Books. They are the illustrator of the indie bestselling graphic novel Frizzy, written by Claribel A. Ortega, which won the Pura Belpré award and the 2023 Eisner award for Best Publication for Kids (ages 9-12). When not reading or creating comics, they can be found playing fantasy video games, wrangling their tiny dog and two cats, or wandering the woods around Detroit, Michigan.

Visit Rose on Twitter

Chan Chau

Chan is a cartoonist based in Washington with a BFA in Comic Art from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. They have worked on Scholastic’s adaptation of THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB; #10 Kristy and the Snobs & #12 Jessi’s Secret Language. They are a #1 NYT Best Seller and two-time Eisner nominated short story cartoonist.

Visit Chan's Website | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

Dani Colman

Dani is a writer and educator from London, England. She plays the violin, dabbles in standup comedy, and is absolutely terrible at videogames. When she isn't writing comic books and novels, she teaches aspiring writers how not to annoy their editors. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband (creator of many comic books), and two cats (creators of many hairballs).

Visit Dani's Website | Twitter | Instagram | Tik Tok

Jorge Corona

Jorge is an Eisner-nominated Venezuelan comic creator, writer, and Illustrator. His work includes: Batgirls, The Me You Love in the Dark, Middlewest, We are… Robin, Feathers, No. 1 with a Bullet, and many others.

Visit Jorge on Twitter | Instagram

Farel Dalrymple

Farel is the creator of: 20202020, THE OFTEN WRONG, Proxima Centauri (Image comics 2019), IT WILL ALL HURT (Image Comics 2018), Pop Gun War: Chain Letter (Image Comics 2017) and POP GUN WAR: GIFT (2016 Image Comics, 2001 Dark Horse), The Wrenchies (First Second Books 2014), and Delusional (Adhouse 2013). Farel was a co-founder and contributor to the comic anthology, Meathaus, and the artist on Palefire (Secret Acres 2015) written by Mk Reed, Prophet (Image Comics 2012) by Brandon Graham, Omega the Unknown (Marvel Comics 2010) by Jonathan Lethem, Jenny Finn (Dark Horse 2018) by Troy Nixey and Mike Mignola, and Caper (DC Comics 2003) by Judd Winick. Farel is currently working on a book called ROBot TOD and lives in Portland, Oregon.

Visit Farel on Patreon | Instagram

Benjamin Dewey

Benjamin was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He spent most of his upbringing shadowing his father, Robert, who was supervisor of public programming at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Comics proved to be an irresistible pull away from the "fine arts" but Ben still retained all that training and love for the pieces he grew up admiring. Mr. Dewey currently lives in Milwaukie, Oregon with his wonderful wife Lindsey, 2 elderly cats and an excessive number of guitars.

Visit Benjamin on Tumblr | Instagram | Twitter

Muriel Fahrion

After graduating from the Cooper School of Art, Muriel Fahrion began a life-long career in design, illustration, and art management in Cleveland, Ohio, working at American Greetings as a humorous card designer. While a staff illustrator there she created the first drawings of Strawberry Shortcake in 1977 as a greeting card. Fahrion then joined Those Characters from Cleveland, a toy think tank composed of artists, writers, and marketers. What followed was 39 characters in the Shortcake line, the first 12 Care Bears, and the following year, the Get-Along-Gang characters. She moved on to become Senior Art Director for Enesco Giftware, before accepting the position of Creative VP at United Design Giftware where she oversaw a staff of 75 including sculptors, paint designers, working line designers, and production engineers.

In 2019 Fahrion rebranded her studio as Outta Thin Air Studio, where she continued to create fresh designs that were produced as art merchandise at her home studios in Tulsa, and then Beggs, Oklahoma. Fahrion spends her time holding Creative Retreats at her #tinystudio, regularly appearing at meet & greets and toy and comic conventions and has accumulated followers on social media from all corners of the world for her art and her #kitchendance videos.

Visit Muriel's website | Instagram | Facebook

Soph Franz

Soph is a painter and cartoonist.

Visit Soph on Instagram

Rye Hickman

Rye(previously published as Jen Hickman) is a visual storyteller and a graduate of SCAD's Sequential Art program. Past work includes Buzzing, Lonely Receiver, TEST, Moth & Whisper, and more. They get really excited about dystopian fiction, good coffee, and drawing hands.

Visit Rye's Website | Twitter | Instagram | Tumbler

Joamette Gil

Joamette is an Afro-Cuban cartoonist, editor, and letterer for hire. Her client list includes Wieden+Kennedy, Abrams ComicArts, Dark Horse, Oni-Lion Forge, and Macmillan, among others. She’s best known for her independent comics imprint centering LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC creatives, Power & Magic Press, publisher of such award-winning titles as Power & Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology and Heartwood: Non-binary Tales of Sylvan Fantasy. Her heart resides in Miami, Florida, while her body does its thing in Portland, Oregon.

Visit Joamette's Website | Twitter

Alex Graudins

Alex (she/they), currently based out of Rhode Island, is the creator of the graphic memoir Improve: How I Discovered Improv and Conquered Social Anxiety and the artist of Science Comics: The Brain and History Comics: The Great Chicago Fire. She specializes in autobio comics and narratives following mental health, asexuality, and/or friendship. When she’s not drawing, she’s usually at the library or thinking a liiiittle too much about D&D.

Visit Alex's Website | Twitter | Instagram

Greg & Fake

Greg & Fake are the creators of The Santos Sisters comic book.

Visit the Santos Sisters Website | Greg & Fake's Instagram | Santos Sisters Instagram

Andrew Kafoury

Andrew is from Portland, Oregon. He runs Battle Quest Comics and is the writer/creator of the graphic novel series No'madd: The Unconquerable and Steel Siege.

Visit Andrew's Website | Twitter

Shing Yin Khor

Visit Shing's Website | Twitter | Instagram

Bones Leopard

Bones is a twin and nonbinary writer and artist who currently resides in Massachusetts. Their projects include illustrating Clean Up from CCP Comics, twice successful Kickstarter project [Super]Natural Attraction, and their webcomic Mr. Hare & Mr. Bear.

In 2018 they successfully funded a Kickstarter for Pandora’s Book of Monsters which led to writing Pandora’s Legacy for BOOM! Studios. In 2021 they worked with BOOM! Studios again with Save Yourself! in four single issues. They have a book called Identical coming out in 2023 with Hatchett/Little Brown.

Visit Bones' Website | Twitter | Instagram

Aaron McConnell

Aaron has been drawing graphic novels, various comics, and illustrations professionally since 2007. He illustrated New York Times Best Seller The Comic Book Story of Beer (Ten Speed Press, 2015) and currently draws comics and covers for Battle Quest Comics as well as the graphic novel series Ancient Futures (Seven Studio, 2022 to the present).

Visit Aaron's Website | Instagram | Facebook

Madeline McGrane

Madeline is a cartoonist and Illustrator living in Minneapolis. She is the creator of The Accursed Vampire graphic novel series. She does comics and illustration work for various clients and regularly self-publishes mini-comics.

Visit Madeline's Website | Instagram | Twitter

Lee Moyer

Lee's Hugo award-winning work has been exhibited in NY, LA, London and Helsinki - featured in eight Spectrum and Communication Arts annuals, as well as in China’s Top Artist magazine. He was a Lead Artist for Dungeons & Dragons, docent at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, Art Director for EA, and co-creator of games 13th Age and Cursed Court. Lee illustrated book covers for Seanan McGuire, Kim Newman, and Iain Banks, as well as world-premiere posters for Stephen Sondheim, Stephen King, Tori Amos, The Call of Cthulhu and many more.

Visit Lee's Website | Tumbler

Baldemar Rivas

Baldemar is an illustrator from California, born and raised; drawing in his studio is where he spends most of his days. He graduated from the Kansas City Art institute with a BFA in illustration and has been a professional freelance artist since 2016. He has experiences with murals, editorial illustrations, storyboards and sequential storytelling. Baldemar’s first comic work was Unearth with Image Comics, and he currently draws for DC Comics. He also does covers for Boom! Studios, IDW and many more!

Visit Baldemar's Website | Twitter

Brian Schirmer

Brian has written for Vault Comics (Quests Aside), Image Comics (Fairlady, Black Jack Ketchum), and Third Option Press (Ultrasylvania). He lives and works in Los Angeles, surprising no one more than himself.

Visit Brian's Website | Instagram | Twitter

Norman Shurtliff

Norman grew up in Northern British Columbia, Canada, where he spent his time exploring the forest around his family greenhouses and daydreaming while riding a lawnmower. He now draws comics in Idaho where he lives with his wife and their four children. Together they enjoy creating board games, telling stories, and going on adventures along the canyon.

Visit Norman's Website | Instagram | Facebook

Jess Smart Smiley

Jess is a joke—seriously. He makes rad pictures with his bare hands and has helped thousands of children, teens, and adults around the world to create their first comics. Jess is the creator of the What Happens Next series of interactive graphic novels, as well as Let's Make Comics!: An Activity Book to Create, Write, and Draw Your Own Cartoons. He loves sharing his passion for writing, drawing, and storytelling with schools, libraries, bookstores, and students of all ages and skill levels.

Visit Jess's Website | Instagram | TikTok

Jim Terry

Jim is a writer/illustrator who has worked on The Crow, West of Sundown, Sundowners, Marvel Heritage and many more. His graphic memoir Come Home Indio was nominated for the LA Bookprize and the Ignatz Award.

Visit Terry's Website | Big Cartel Art | Instagram | Twitter

Tony Weaver, Jr.

Tony is a multi-hyphenate creator that uses manga to help people believe in themselves. He is the creator of The UnCommons, an award-winning manga series with over 2.5 million readers. Its success led to him being the first comic writer ever selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30, a national partnership with WEBTOON, a partnership with Warner Media, and an anime produced by an NBA Champion which is in development. In addition to The UnCommons, his two other manga series have been acquired by Macmillan, the third largest publisher in the world.

He’s the founder of Weird Enough Productions, a national nonprofit that uses diverse comics to improve social emotional wellness for over 400,000 students annually. His writing has been so impactful, he was named a Global Barrier Breaker by Marriott International, a History Shaker by Coca-Cola, and CNN selected him as a Champion for Change. Tony’s writing prowess has not only garnered him institutional accolades but has built him a loyal following of over half a million fans on TikTok. His positive influence in the nerd community is so strong, recently Funko selected him to be the first public figure to ever be profiled on the side of a Funko Pop Figure Box, and he won the AdColor Influencer of The Year award.

Visit Tony's Website | Instagram | Twitter

Jeremy Whitley

Jeremy is the award-winning writer and creator of the Eisner Nominated Princeless series, as well as its sister series, Raven Pirate Princess. He is also the writer of The Dog Knight from Macmillan and The School for Extraterrestrial Girls from Papercutz. He has also written extensively for Marvel comics including his critically acclaimed run on The Unstoppable Wasp. He is also well known for having written more issues of the My Little Pony comics at IDW than any other writer. He lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife and two daughters.

Visit Jeremy's Website | Instagram | Tumbler

Alexis Ziritt

Venezuelan-born artist, Alexis Ziritt, as been living in the USA for the past two decades and his work has garnered attention from every corner of the industry. His comics, Space Riders (Black Mask), Tarantula (Adhouse), and Night Hunters (Floating World), have amassed a dedicated following and his work has been published in Complex Magazine, Heavy Metal, Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, and many others. Ziritt has illustrated cards for Magic the Gathering and is the creator of this year’s Boise Comic Arts Festival poster.

Visit Alexis' Website | Instagram

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