In addition to writing half the Punisher's longest-running series and four of the title's Annuals, Mike Baron penned the Punisher: Origin of Microchip miniseries and three Punisher one-shots: Empty Quarter, G-Force and Intruder. Elsewhere in the Marvel Multiverse, he wrote Feud, Spyke and other Epic titles. Still well-remembered for co-creating Capital Comics' Nexus and Badger during the 1980s, he has also written DC's Batman, Deadman and Flash.

He scribed multiple Star Wars tie-ins for Dark Horse, and teaches self-publishing at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. nNot your traditional super-hero artist, Val Mayerik made his mark on other Marvel Comics titles starting with Chamber of Chills' Brak the Barbarian in 1973. Quickly, Mayerik picked up assignments for Supernatural Thrillers, Creatures on the Loose and Conan before being given the Man-Thing feature in Adventure into Fear, where he designed Howard the Duck. Since his tenure at Marvel in the 1970s, Mayerik has produced artwork for other comic-book publishers and role-playing-game companies. n nLarry Stroman penciled X-Factor during the early '90s before beginning work on his creator-owned title Tribe.

His work on notable comics characters includes Uncanny X-Men, Black Panther and the Heroes Reborn version of Iron Man for Marvel; DC's Darkstars; and Wildstorm's WildC.A.T.s. Stroman recently returned to the pages of X-Factor, re-teaming with author Peter David for a well-received story arc.n