Ta-Nehisi Coates was a national correspondent for The Atlantic, where he wrote about politics and culture. In 2015, Coates published Between the World and Me, which won the National Book Award. After enjoying considerable success with his relaunch of Marvel Comics’ Black Panther, he ushered Captain America into a new era of storytelling. Coates is also the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a National Magazine award and the George Polk award. His first novel, The Water Dancer, was published in 2019. He lives in New York with his wife and son.

Spanish illustrator Daniel Acuña began his professional career with the publication of the French series Claus & Simon, later reprinted by the popular American magazine Heavy Metal. Acuña then burst onto the American comics scene with DC’s Green Lantern and Flash. For Marvel, he has illustrated such popular series as Young X-Men, Eternals, Black Widow, X-Men Legacy, Avengers, New Avengers, Uncanny Avengers and Wolverine.

Artist Kev Walker cut his teeth on the venerable British comics magazine 2000 AD, eventually moving on to the publisher’s flagship character Judge Dredd and other popular series. After illustrating Annihilation: Nova, Walker teamed with writer Fred Van Lente on Marvel Zombies 3 and 4. He also drew Thunderbolts before joining Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum in pitting Marvel’s youngest heroes against one another in the kill-or-be-killed Avengers Arena, as well as the follow-up Avengers Undercover. Walker has worked on numerous other Avengers titles, the Star Wars series Doctor Aphra and the latest volume of Dr. Strange.

Two-time Eisner Award winner Chris Sprouse first garnered acclaim as the penciler for DC Comics’ Legionnaires and has gone on to draw numerous titles for nearly every publisher in the industry. He is perhaps best known for his work on Wildstorm/DC Comics’ Tom Strong series, which he co-created. Other works include Batman and Justice League for DC, Uncanny X-Men and Thors for Marvel, and an adaptation of the Star Wars novel Splinter of the Mind’s Eye for Dark Horse.