- Authors -

Al Ewing was born in 1977, three days before Elvis died on the toilet. Indoctrinated into the loathsome practice of comics at an early age by his disreputable brother, the child progressed from his innocent beginnings to the loathsome depths of sin represented by the British comic 2000AD, long known as a haunt of depravity. He remains esconced there to this day as a writer of the bizarre and fantastic, when not involved in even more sordid past-times. El Sombra is his first penny dreadful.

Andy Boot has written twelve novels in the post-apocalypse series Deathlands, and two in the longest-running crime series currently in print, The Executioner. Previous to this he wrote four non-fiction books covering true crime, the paranormal, and horror films. Before that he was a journalist. After this, he'd like to be rich.

Antony Johnston is a prolific and diverse writer of comics and books. His comics and graphic novels include horror, sci-fi, Westerns, thrillers and even romantic comedy. Frightening Curves, his debut illustrated novel, won the 2002 American Independent Press award for "Best Horror", and he's the only other author to have written for Greg Rucka's award-winning espionage series Queen & Country. Antony lives, works and walks his dog in rural north-west England, where it rains a lot.

Jaspre Bark writes fiction and comics for grown ups and children. He has written for everyone in British comics, from 2000 AD through to the Beano and Viz. He has published one previous novel A Fistful of Strontium for Black Flame. Prior to this he toured extensively and made numerous radio and TV appearances as a stand up poet. He has also worked as a national film and music journalist and written scripts for short films, radio and stage plays. He has published two books of poetry and was awarded a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival in 1999.

Jonathan Green has been a freelance writer for the last fourteen years. In that time he has written Sonic The Hedgehog and Fighting Fantasy gamebooks - including the much-anticipated Blood-Bones - atmospheric colour text for a
variety of Games Workshop products, and numerous short stories for the Black Library Inferno! magazine. To date he has written six novels set in the worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, which have been translated into five languages. The co-creator of Pax Britannia, Unnatural History is his first novel for Abaddon Books. He lives in West London with his wife and two young children, where he spends his nights behind a compute keyboard and his days working as a teacher.

Matthew Smith was employed as a desk editor for Pan Macmillan book publishers for three years before joining 2000 AD as assistant editor in July 2000 to work on a comic he had read religiously since 1985. He became editor of the Galaxy's Greatest in December 2001, and then editor-in-chief of the 2000 AD titles in January 2006. He lives in Oxford.

Matthew Sprange has a solid history in roleplaying design as well as writing over two dozen gaming books, including the Babylon 5, Judge Dredd and Starship Troopers games, and has won two Origins Awards for his work in miniature wargames. Death Hulk is his second novel, with his first being a trip into the Babylon 5 universe, entitled Visions of Peace.

Mark Beynon has had screenplays in development with the UK Film Council and Screen South. He began his writing career with a succession of acclaimed theatrical productions before moving into the short film arena where he enjoyed making the official selection of some of the UK's top film festivals. The Devil's Plague is Mark's debut novel.

Mike Maddox's senses departed him, after being a lifelong fan of the short story, and in a moment of weakness he wrote the script for the Lion Graphic Bible, a full-scale comic strip adaptation of the entire bible. He has no idea what he must have been thinking. Since publication, the book has won an award at the prestigious Angouleme Comics festival, and has been translated into 22 languages in hardback alone. The artist on the book, Jeff Anderson, who previously worked on Judge Anderson for 2000AD, must have been reading the script very carefully, as he is currently in theological college, training to be a vicar. Together with Doctor Who TV series writer and novelist Paul Cornell, Mike co-wrote the Big Finish Doctor Who audio play "Circular Time", starring Peter Davison, David Warner and Hugh Fraser. He has had other comic strips published here and there, and is still mostly proud of being responsible for accidentally putting full frontal male nudity in a Roy of the Rovers comic strip. Dreams of Inan: The Worm That Wasn't is his first novel.

Mike Wild is much older than he has a right to be, considering the kebabs, the booze and the fags. Maybe it's because he still thinks he's 15. Apart from dabbling occasionally in publishing and editing, he's been a freelance writer for ever, clawing his way up to his current dizzy heights by way of work as diverse as Doctor Who, Masters of the Universe, Starblazer, 'Allo 'Allo! and ­ erm ­ My Little Pony. Counting one Teen Romance, one ABC Warriors and two Caballistics Inc, The Clockwork King of Orl is his fifth novel. However, only his beloved wife and tuna-scoffing cat give him the recognition he deserves.

Paul Kane has been writing professionally for twelve years. His genre journalism has appeared in such magazines as The Dark Side and Death Ray and his first non-fiction book was the critically acclaimed The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy. His short stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic and have been collected in Alone (In the Dark), Touching the Flame and Funny Bones. His novella Signs of Life reached the shortlist of the British Fantasy Awards 2006 and The Lazarus Condition was introduced by Mick Garris, creator of Masters of Horror. He currently lives in Derbyshire with his wife ­ the author Marie O'Regan ­ his family, and a black cat called Mina.

Rebecca Levene has been a writer and editor for fifteen years. In that time she has storylined Emmerdale, written a children's book about Captain Cook, several science fiction and horror novels, a novelisation and making-of book for Rebellion's Rogue Trooper video game, and a Beginner's Guide to Poker. She has also edited a range of media tie-in books. She was associate producer on the ITV1 drama Wild at Heart, story consultant on the Chinese soap opera Joy Luck Street, script writer on Family Affairs and Is Harry on the Boat? and is part of the writing team for Channel 5's Swinging. She has had two sit-coms optioned, one by the BBC and one by Talkback, and currently has a detective drama in development with Granada Television.

Scott Andrews has reviewed other people's work for magazines like Starburst, TV Zone, Dreamwatch and Film Review, and on websites like Film Focus and BBCi. He's a little nervous about being on the receiving end for a change. He's written two episode guide books for Virgin. One of these was about Dawson's Creek, but he hopes no-one will hold that against him.

Simon Spurrier is an award-winning writer of novels and graphic novel fiction. He's worked extensively for the UK's talent-factory title 2000 AD, has published novels with Abaddon, the Black Library and Black Flame, and has won a series of accolades and prizes for screenwriting. He's worked as a cook, a bookseller, a BBC Art Director and a film student. He lives in London because the night sky is a far better shade of green than anywhere else.