Exhibitor biographies part 4

Renee Kurilla is a children's book illustrator and animator in Boston, MA.While she is very much a "newbie" at *creating* comics, she grew up loving them, admiring them, and carting them around under her arm. Her first published work as an illustrator is the graphic novel, *Zebrafish* (May 4,2010 - Simon & Schuster), in which she worked closely with the creative talents at FableVision (writer/creative, Sharon Emerson &author/illustrator, Peter H. Reynolds).
She was born in Scranton, PA and migrated to Boston where she earned herBFA in illustration from The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. She found a niche as an artist and game designer at FableVision... and also finds time to run a small freelance operation under the code name "Kurillastration." By power of the internet, she was commissioned by Tim Jones to design the look of a new pre-school book series called *I See I Learn*, written by Stuart J. Murphy. (Fall 2010 - Charlesbridge)
She is currently tackling a graphic novel of her own...and is accepting all forms of encouragement upon this scary, scary task.
Blog: http://www.kurillastration.blogspot.com
Learn more about *Zebrafish*: http://www.zebrafish.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reneekurilla

Zack Giallongo website: http://www.zackgiallongo.com/
Zack Giallongo is a cartoonist living in the smallest state in the U.S. He is one of the creators of the *Novasett Island* series of mini comics, aswell as the creator of *Grune* a story of lost travelers and a strange monster. He is also a co-founder of Life Meter - a video game tribute site. Along with comics and cartoons, Zack loves food, animals and banjo. He is currently drawing a book titled *Broxo* about a boy barbarian for FirstSecond books.

Stephanie Yue
website: http://www.jellycity.com/
Stephanie is currently illustrating a graphic novel series for Lerner,*Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye*, written by Colleen AF Venable. She is aco-creator of the *Novasett Island* series with Zack Giallongo, and self publishes a series of autobiographical comics, *Quezzie vs. Grapefruit,* *Irrefusable Dinner Engagement,* and *Brace for Impact*. Recently, her colors can be seen in Raina Telgemeier's new book, *Smile*. She likes to play guitar, build stuff, climb things, and practice kung-fu, the last of which feeds into a growing number of illustrations of mice doing martial arts. She also likes green tea, mmm.

John Platt, "America's Least-Famous Cartoonist," is a writer and cartoonist living in central Maine. His mini-comics include "My Exploding Head" and "My Beard in Alternate Dimensions." His short story collection, "Die Laughing" was published in 2002, and his fiction and poetry have appeared in more than 100 anthologies and magazines on four continents. John's also draws the irregularly updated webcomic, "Plattitudes." For more information, visit http://www.johnrplatt.com

Cara Bean secretly makes comics when she is not being a high school art teacher. She likes to draw things that are half cute and half creepy. Check out her sketchbook blog here: beandoodling.blogspot.com and her website: badgigi.com for more. She will present mini-comics, paintings, prints, and magnets for sale.

Sarah Winifred Searle is the creator of "Under the Apple Tree", a historical look at life in Maine during WWII with some paranormal parallels to the same area during the Civil War.
http://www.swinsea.com/comic

Christopher Mills is a freelance writer, editor and graphic artist with decades of experience in the publishing industry, working primarily for newspapers and comic book publishers. A professional writer for twenty years, he has scripted numerous independent comic books in a variety of genres, including Leonard Nimoy's Primortals, Shadow House, Kolchak Tales, The Night Driver, Captain Midnight, the Spinetingler Award-winning Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries and the critically-acclaimed crime thriller, Gravedigger: The Scavengers. He has also authored a handful of published short stories, including contributions to Moonstone Books' The Spider Chronicles, Captain Midnight Chronicles and Werewolves: Dead Moon Rising.

He lives in an old farmhouse in Central Maine with his wife, dog, cat, and thousands of books and videos. His website is http://www.atomicpulp.com.

Kenan Rubenstein's comics include Tick, a classic tale of boy-meets-robot-boy, The Oubliette, a series of unfolding autobiographical vignettes, and Last Train to Old Town, an ongoing adolescent adventure. He lives in Brooklyn, where he subsidizes his art habit making wonderful web sites for other artists and creative professionals. His scribbles and scrawls appear somewhat regularly at UnderTheHaystack.net.