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PLEASE SUPPORT COMIC BOOK GALAXY BY VISITING OUR SPONSORS Christopher Allen -- Christopher Allen is the Managing Editor of COMIC BOOK GALAXY and has been writing about comics for six years, and has been writing bios about himself nearly as long. He got his start at Comic Book Galaxy when a wise-beyond-his-years Alan David Doane took a chance on a scrappy, wet-behind-the-ears kid, and that kid screwed up immediately, leaving a spot open for Chris to weasel into. He’s 35 years old, lives in San Diego, CA, and has amazing DNA, which he has used to co-create two amazing children, as well as a lot of messes. He has been writing about comics for six years, and in all that time, he’s never abused the mighty power he has. Well, almost never, but that guy was really asking for it. Favorite Authors: Jim Thompson, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Favorite Musicians: Too numerous, but start with The Beatles and work down. Comics Creators Whose Work He’s Most Excited About Lately: Darwyn Cooke, Seth, Chris Ware, Bryan Lee O’Malley; Ed Brubaker. Turn-Offs: Women Who Wear Cowboy Hats; More Than Three Tattoos. Nice Thing I Do That Will Nonetheless Fail To Save My Soul: Give Blood. Favorite Movies: Raging Bull; Night of the Hunter; Caddyshack. In addition to Comic Book Galaxy, Chris has written for The Comics Journal, Kevin Smith's Movie Poop Shoot, Ninth Art and Pop Image. Chris serves as a writer and contributing editor for THE NEW COMIC BOOK GALAXY, and also regularly blogs at Chris Allen Online. He is currently working on Superunknown and Irregular Joe for Speakeasy Comics, coming next year. Prospective artists are welcome to get in touch. Alan David Doane -- ADD is the Publisher and Executive Editor of COMIC BOOK GALAXY, a website he originally created with some friends in the late summer of the year 2000. ADD has written about comics online since the mid-1990s at websites such as Silver Bullet Comic Books, The Great Curve and Newsarama, and even briefly at the standalone ADD BLOG, which is now here at Comic Book Galaxy, where it always should have been to begin with. In print, ADD is a contributor to The Comics Journal, Stalagmite Magazine, the forthcoming Alan Moore's Yuggoth Cultures collection and other publications. ADD lives in Upstate New York with his wife and their two children, and has been in radio broadcasting since 1985. His favourite books include The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler, The Great Movies by Roger Ebert and For Keeps: 30 Years at the Movies by Pauline Kael. His favourite movies include Ghost World, Crumb, Battle Royale, F for Fake, Citizen Kane, Dark City and Donnie Darko. On TV, Mr. Doane prefers The Shield, The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm and 24, and when pressed to name his all-time faves, cites Twin Peaks, The Prisoner, Fawlty Towers and the original, British version of The Office (although he mostly liked the U.S. version, too). ADD enjoys the music of Moby, Green Day and James Kochalka Superstar, and admits that despite his initial reticence, he actually likes the hamster his wife and children talked him into letting them have some months ago. Brian Florence -- Brian is The Galaxy's primary technical advisor and web guru, and the only guy associated with the site who really understands crucial web matters like DNS, FTP, HTML, and most importantly, PDQ. He has been friends with Galaxy editor Alan David Doane since the early days of the first Clinton administration, when Alan was an overnight disk jockey and Brian was calling up to make requests so he could tape them off the radio and play them back over his (pirate!) radio station. In addition to his contributions to COMIC BOOK GALAXY over the entirety of its existence, Brian created and maintains a number of other sites, perhaps most notably Sodafinder and Deadmalls. JC Glindmyer -- JC Glindmyer is the owner of Earthworld Comics in Albany, New York -- which has been rotting minds and seducing the innocent since 1983. He is a contributor to the Comic Buyer's Guide as well as the trade magazine Comics & Games Retailer, and will provide monthly commentary on comics retailing for THE NEW COMIC BOOK GALAXY. Tired of selling illegal phone cards and fixing cockfights, JC looked for a more legitimate business. When he couldn’t find one, he settled for running a comic store. One evening while sitting in his den, drinking Patrón straight from the bottle, a copy of Giant Size Man-Thing came crashing through the window. “It’s an omen,” he said. “I shall become a comic retailer.” He immediately caught the person who broke his window and then proceeded to beat him within an inch of his life. While plying women with high-grade alcohol, he often deludes them into dressing up as super-heroines by telling them he’s Kevin Smith and he’s doing “screen tests” for his “new movie.” There are times when he doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut and surprisingly, THE NEW COMIC BOOK GALAXY will be encouraging this behavior. Despite all of that, Earthworld has been named THE BEST COMIC STORE in the pages of both METROLAND, Albany's outstanding alternative newsweekly, and the daily ALBANY TIMES UNION. In addition, Galaxy editor Alan David Doane says "Earthworld is upstate New York's best comics shop," and you better believe it -- he's looked everywhere. Gordon McAlpin -- Although his parents insist on claiming some of the credit, Gordon McAlpin grew up in Peoria, Illinois, under the watchful eye of the staff at Acme Books & Comics. Gordon currently lives in Chicago, where he works as a graphic designer, freelance writer and cartoonist. He has previously written articles and reviews for Bookslut, PISTIL Magazine, the Chicago-based Gapers Block and other print and web publications. He writes and draws Stripped Books, a non-fiction webcomic covering book-related events; Multiplex, a humor strip set in a movie theater; and other stuff. He knows that the proper answer to "What is the greatest comics work in the history of the medium?" is "Ash," from Dave McKean's Pictures That Tick. However, other acceptable answers include Cages by Dave McKean, Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, David B.'s Epileptic, Larry Gonick's The Cartoon History of the Universe, and anything by Joe Sacco. Marc Sobel -- Marc was born a Capricorn, under a moonlit sky, in a cornfield in rural Missouri. By his fifth birthday, he was already an overly sensitive, maladjusted comic book addict. Now as an adult, Marc has fully embraced his inner geek by focusing on independent comics and writing about them as if scholarly attention could somehow raise them from childish escapism to respected artform simply on account of his efforts. Somehow he mouseclicked his way into a diaspora of other comics faithful, who believed themselves capable of creating an entire Galaxy where only comic books existed and everyone who entered read them and loved them. Marc believes in the power of independent thought. He wishes others shared this belief, but then wonders if that would defeat the purpose. Of all the things Marc has done in his brief 32 years, none compares in sheer stupidity to the time he hurled a small boulder through the windshield of a pickup truck driving down the highway. Perhaps, if the publishing winds blow his way, he will expand upon this misadventure. Though Marc has never travelled to the moon, witnessed a murder, nor slept with any of the Facts of Life girls, he has made out with a girl inside the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. His favourite movie is The Big Lebowski, favourite musicians are Johnny Cash, Jeff Buckley, Tom Waits and Eric Bibb. Marc's favourite TV series are Twin Peaks, Reno 911 and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Mike Sterling -- Mike Sterling was born in Oxnard, CA nearly four decades ago, moved away and back again about three decades ago, and now lives in a large house filled to the brim with books and comics. He manages a comic book store (Ralph's Comic Corner) in Ventura, CA, produces a silly comic book weblog (Progressive Ruin), and occasionally does the rare thing that is non-comic related. He loves animals, really strange music, really bad movies, and, most of all, his remarkably patient and understanding girlfriend. Mike's favourite books include Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson and darn near anything by Isaac Asimov or Spider Robinson. Among his favourite comics are Love & Rockets, Swamp Thing, Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge and darn near anything by Sheldon Mayer. Diana Tamblyn -- Diana Tamblyn is an Ignatz-nominated cartoonist who has been creating mini-comics for almost 10 years now. She's run the gamut of working comic retail and comics distribution, but is now happily working in a non-comics related job managing web content for one of Canada's largest financial institutions. Diana was born in Mexico City, but grew up in Southern Ontario. This means she's lived her life with most people mispronouncing her name - it's Dee-ana, not Die-ana (this is because "i" is pronounced "ee" in Spanish). Luckily she studied film animation at Concordia University in Montreal where the French knew how to say her name properly. She currently lives in Toronto with her husband and tries to draw as much as she can when not working or looking after her beautiful baby girl. Her website is speedlines.com. Jim Witt -- Jim Witt is a 34 year-old student of theology in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His wife and four year-old son admirably puts up with his many obsessions and interests, which include all manner of arts and music, literature, and whatever else strikes his fancy for a brief moment. Favourite authors (in order of appearance on earth): John Chrysostom, Augustine of Hippo, John Calvin, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, and Gene Wolfe. Favourite musicians: Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Johnny Cash, Little Walter, and Henry Mancini. Favorite comic of all time: that last book he read. Favorite book of all time: Ecclesiastes. Other favorites of note: Gretsch, Guinness, Tim Horton's, and Dunhill Nightcap. Rob Vollmar -- Rob is a longtime comics critic (for such websites as Silver Bullet Comic Books, Comic Book Galaxy and Ninth Art, and for The Comics Journal, the magazine of record for the comics industry) and manager of ATOMIK POP!, a pop culture store that specializes in comics, manga, anime, and Hello Kitty merchandise in Norman, Oklahoma. He has also worked as a professional musician and still plays shows with two groups, one backing-up singer Shelly Phelps, and the other a reunited effort with his band from high school, Brother Tentacle. Both of Rob's published graphic novels have been with the same artist, Pablo G. Callejo. Their first book, THE CASTAWAYS, was released in English by Absence of Ink in 2002 and in Spanish by Dude Comix in 2003, just after it was nominated for an Eisner in the Best Single-Issue/One-Shot category. Their latest effort, BLUESMAN was serialized beginning in 2004 in French by Akileos Comics, in February 2005 by Absence of Ink, and, most recently, in Spanish by the esteemed De Ponent in Spain. Rob also lectures on comics and manga and assists librarians curious about the potential for comics to reach out to the teen audience. In 2003, he did a series of for Young Adult readers in the OKC metro library system and in 2004, he did the same for the Pioneer Library System that services Norman and outlying towns. He recently was invited to deliver a speech to the Oklahoma Librarians Association at their State Convention on the history of comics and censorship. Search WWW Search Comic Book Galaxy [COMIC BOOK GALAXY IS COPYRIGHT (C) 2000-2012 BY COMIC BOOK GALAXY; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED]