CCS’s Advisory Board consists of many of today’s most predominant cartoonists and publishers.

Steve Bissette is best known for his multiple award-winning collaborations with Alan Moore on Saga of the Swamp Thing (DC). He was awarded the comics industry Inkpot Award for Superior Career Achievement in 1998.

Bill Boichel has worked in the comic book direct sales market since shortly after its inception and has spent the last twenty years in Pittsburgh, PA working towards integrating comics into the cultural mainstream; first with BEM (1985 – 1999), and for the last five years with The Copacetic Comics Company.

Will Eisner (1917-2005) is recognized internationally as one of the giants in the field of sequential art, a term he in fact coined. His career spanned nearly seventy years. He was the author of over ten graphic novels (another term he coined), two text books about comics, and the creator of the Spirit. Will Eisner’s distinguished career laid the foundation for The Center for Cartoon Studies. He will be sadly missed.

Gary Groth is the founder and publisher of Fantagraphics Books, publishing the world’s greatest cartoonists including Charles Burns, Ivan Brunetti, Dan Clowes, R. Crumb, Los Bros Hernandez, Gary Panter, Charles Schulz, and Chris Ware. He is also publisher and editor of The Comics Journal, the industry’s best and most important magazine for over twenty years.

Judith Hansen, the founder of the Hansen Literary Agency, is the former deputy publisher of Kitchen Sink Press. An attorney, she had a twenty year career with major trade book publishers including Simon & Schuster, NAL, and the Crown and Doubleday divisions of Random House.

Sammy Harkham is the 23-year-old cartoonist and editor of the critically acclaimed anthology Kramer’s Ergot. The Comics Journal calls him the most “astute and clear-eyed” cartoonist of his generation.

William Horberg is the principal of Wonderland Films, a production company based at DreamWorks SKG. Prior, Horberg was partnered with Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella in their film and television production company Mirage Enterprises. During his tenure at Mirage he produced Cold Mountain, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Quiet American, and Heaven.

Denis Kitchen was an important underground cartoonist of the 1960s and as president of Kitchen Sink Press has published legends like Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Milton Caniff, Al Capp, George Herriman, R. Crumb, Frank Frazetta, Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel and Bob Kane.

Scott McCloud is the author of the best selling and seminal text Understanding Comics and is one of comics’ leading theorists.

Chris Oliveros is the publisher of Drawn and Quarterly books, perhaps the most influential art and literary comics publisher in North America, if not the whole world.

Diana Schutz has worked in the comics industry for over 25 years. She is a senior editor at Dark Horse Comics, where she is blessed to work with Will
Eisner, Frank Miller, and Michael Chabon, among others. She is also an adjunct instructor at Portland Community College, where she teaches a course entitled “Introduction to the Art of Comic Books.”

Seth is one of the top five cartoonists working today. His graphic novel, It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken, has been translated into many languages and was selected as one of the 100 best comics of the 20th century by the editors of The Comics Journal. He is illustrating CCS’s inaugural catalogue.

Art Spiegelman is the author and illustrator of Maus: A Survivor’s Tale which, in 1992, won him the Pulitzer Prize and is widely considered the greatest graphic novel of all time. His drawings have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. He taught history and aesthetics of comics at the School for Visual Arts in New York (1979-1986). He is co-founder and editor of RAW, the acclaimed avant-garde comics magazine. His work has been published in many periodicals, including The New Yorker. Other honors he has received include a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a nomination for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Eric Reynolds is a cartoonist and illustrator. He is also marketing director for Fantagraphics books, publisher of the world’s greatest cartoonists. As a cartoon character, he has a cameo in The Simpsons television show as well as comic books including Hate, Eightball and Aliens (where he was gruesomely eviscerated).

R. Sikoryak is best known for his collection Masterpiece Comics. He was formerly an associate editor and contributor to RAW, the groundbreaking 1980s comic anthology. He’s drawn for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Onion, Nickelodeon, The New Yorker, and other media titans.