Tornoe is a reporter and digital editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer—and one of the last remaining sports cartoonists on staff at a newspaper. His art illustrating the Phillies, Sixers, Eagles and Flyers and their surrounding communities has a loyal following on Philly.com’s Tailgaters blog.

As an writer and illustrator, Larsen has worked with clients such as Dark Horse, DC Online, and Cartoon Network, in addition to publishing her own comics on The Larsen Project. Last October, her work appeared in the final issue of the Regular Show comic series, to favorable reviews. Her contributions to a forthcoming Adventure Time shorts collection will be released in November from KaBOOM!

Newcomer Bitros launched indie comic book label Blackstone Comics last fall and has already released two titles: The Fist, a vigilante hero story set in City of Brotherly Love at the dawn of the 20th century, and James vs The New World Order, a post-apocalyptic action comedy set in an ambiguous, not-so-distant future.

Maki is a comic creator and science communicator through comics. His work breaks down topics such as the Zika virus, recently featured on fusion.net, and vaccines, featured on thenib.com. He also writes/draws regularly for Popsci.com, highlighting current topics as well as a popular ongoing webcomic called “Sufficiently Remarkable.”

Emily K’s most popular series is Places You Find Cats, a daily comic blog that features where you can find cats. Her recent work includes a poignant piece called When Dawn Breaks, focused on how franchises like Twilight encourage violence against women, envisioning a world in the not-too-distant future where romanticized abuse has become so pervasive that women’s shelters have ballooned and struggle to keep up with demand, as well as more topical comics on sadfunnytruecomic.com.

An award-winning cartoonist and educator, Jamar Nicholas has brought his work to Wizard World Philly, Baltimore Comic-Con, and New York Comic-Con. His recent work includes Leon: Protector of the Playground, an all-ages super kid hero graphic novel.

An all-girl comic anthology curated by Philadelphia’s own Kelly Phillips and Claire Folkman, Dirty Diamonds strives to give the women of comics a dedicated outlet for telling their stories. Artists from all around the world have contributed their works over the years, and using this outlet, Phillips and Folkman have been able to give numerous women in comics a platform to stand out.

Their fifth issue, an anthology on comics, featured 32 artists from six different countries, all sharing stories about the medium that they hold dear… comics. Their first professionally printed book, Comics is a stunning anthology, featuring a cover by Carey Pietsch (Adventure Time), and raised over $8,000 on Kickstarter to support its printing.

Showing no sign of slowing down, Dirty Diamonds’ latest crowdfund campaign, an anthology on beauty, raised over $17,000 just in June. Learn more about them at www.dirtydiamonds.net.

This winter, Ian Sampson was a resident at the Neighborhood Time Exchange West Philadelphia Artist Residency, where for every hour he spent in the studio, he spent one hour volunteering in the community. He documented that experience in several comics, covering the work of fellow resident artists Kandis Friesen, Phillipe Leonard, and Betty Leacraft.

His book Up to the Top was nominated for an Ignatz Award and accepted into the Society of Illustrators’ 2015 Comic and Cartoon Art Annual. In between taking care of his new baby and teaching at several area colleges, he’s writing new comics.

Learn more about Ian and his work on his website www.ianesampson.com and blog www.blastro.tumblr.com

It’s been a landmark year for Locust Moon Comics, the comic-book-shop-art-gallery-small-publisher located in University City. Their Kickstarter funded Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream went on to raise over $150,000, and swept the Eisner Awards in June, taking home the coveted Best Anthology award.

A passion project that took two years to assemble, artists included in the epic anthology included celebrated locals like J. G. Jones, Jeffro Kilpatrick, and New York Times bestselling author Box Brown. Hundreds of some of the most celebrated artists in comics flocked to be a part of this project, giving them the opportunity to pay tribute to one of the greatest innovators in comics, Winsor McCay.

You can learn more about the anthology over on Locust Moon’s page for the book, here. http://locustmoon.com/littlenemo/

This year Philadelphia’s celebrated illustrator Christine Larsen published Valentine, a book available through Comixology via Image Comics, in 18 languages. Over the years, Larsen has worked on the comic book adaptations of Kung Fu Panda, Shrek and South Fellini’s (Philadelphia based studio) own LaMorte Sisters.