Raised in the Chicagoland area, Matt Silady taught public school before studying creative writing at the University of California, Davis. It was there he discovered Comics as a medium for fine art. In 2007, he published the Eisner-nominated graphic novel “The Homeless Channel”. Since then, Matt accepted a teaching position at California College of the Arts where he helped expand the college’s undergraduate Comics curriculum and founded CCA’s MFA in Comics Program.

Radical architect, professor, cartoonist and Comics writer, and no-director of the yearly international underground Comics festival Crack! held in the squatted fortress of CSOA Forteprenestino, now in its 16th edition. Born in Rome 1963, Bindi produces underground zines and Comic books at (Fortepressa). In 1990, Bindi created the “Graforibelli” collective satirical experience. The nineties saw him in numbers of cutting edge situations: in the Sciatto produzie group, producing installations, performances, murals and street art, as well as taking part in and organizing happenings and festivals on the European underground scene. He draws and writes Comics published both independently and through mainstream channels and is also an active participant in the grassroots networks of new media. Since the 2000s, he has focused on teaching architecture and new media languages in universities and specialized schools in Rome, and also on practicing as an architect. He has created graphic novels, animated shorts and games, and has written essays on digital animation, Comics language and on the underground scene. His writings are now published monthly in “Linus” Magazine.

Seif Eddine Nechi was born in Tunis in 1974. After receiving a baccalaureate in literature and an undergraduate degree in psychology, he worked for years in advertising as art director. He launched a satirical/political blog in 2009 that was censored in 2010. He is the co-founder of the Comics magazine “Lab 619”, then co-founder with Aymen Mbarek of the blog “BD Soubia”. He created Comics for news correspondents and his work was featured in a number of exhibitions both in Tunis and abroad (France, Spain, Egypt).He was awarded the Best Electronic Comic at the second “Cairo Comix Festival”. In 2017, he won the Best Digital Graphic Novel at Cairo Comix for his piece “Bombyx Mori”, in collaboration with Aymen Mbarek, which also went on to win the Mahmoud Kahil Award for Graphic Novel Category in that same year. In 2018, he was featured in the exhibition “The New Generation: Arab Comics Today” at the Angouleme Festival. Nechi has served as art director of the “Salon International de la Bande Dessinée de Tazarka” since 2018.

Doaa El-Adl is an Egyptian political cartoonist, currently working at the prominent newspaper “Al Masry Al Youm”. She has been a regular contributor to such renowned periodicals as “Al Dostor newspaper”, “Rose Al Youssef” Magazine and “Sabah El Kheir” Magazine. As a children’s illustrator, her work has been featured in “Qatr El Nada”, “Alaa El Din” and “Bassem” Magazine. Her work has also been featured in exhibitions in France, Italy, Spain, Tunisia, Switzerland and has garnered several awards, including the 2009 Journalists’ Union award in Egypt, given to the year’s best cartoonist. In 2013, she won the Art of Political Satire award, Italy, the Saint Just le Martel prize, France, and the “Resisting Violence Against Women” award from the organization ACT. Doaa El-Adl was also the winner of the “Cartooning-for-Peace” award in 2014, the 2015 “Mustafa & Ali Amin” prize, Egypt, as well as the “Mahmoud Kahil” Editorial cartoonist award in 2016.

Walid M. Taher graduated from Helwan University in Egypt with a BSc in Fine Arts (Puppet Theatre) in 1992. Since then, he has served as a Senior Art Director/ Illustrator at Dar El-Shorouk Publishing, an Adjunct Professor of Illustration at The American University in Cairo (AUC), and was the Co-Founder and Art Director of Weladna. He is also a political cartoonist for Al-Shorouk News and El Dustour Weekly, as well as a Graphic designer and Puppet designer Illustrator for Sabah El Kheir Weekly. Taher is a practicing illustrator, and his work includes the design of educational material for the World Health Organization and the Egyptian Ministry of Education, and the National Center for Children’s Culture among others. Walid Taher won several awards including the prestigious Etisalat Prize for Arabic Children’s Literature in 2012, the Anna Lindt Foundation Award for Dreams of Animals in 2012 and the International Children’s Book Award at The Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF) in 2014.

George Khoury is a renowned Lebanese Comics artist and critic. He has published several Comic albums (graphic novels) and series in daily newspapers since the 1980s and received several awards. He authored several articles and essays on the history of Comics in the Arab world and continues to write critically on Comics from the region. He has been head of the Animation Department at Future Television since its launch in 1993, and teaches animation at the Lebanese American University in Beirut.