Industry legend Chris Claremont is best known for his epic sixteen-year run on Uncanny X-Men. Claremont’s focus on the themes of prejudice and tolerance struck at the hearts of comics fans, and he built an unparalleled following during the next three decades. Under his pen, the X-Men franchise spawned a vast array of spin-offs, many of them written by Claremont himself. His other credits include Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Power Man and Spider-Woman. Claremont has returned to the X-Men universe in New Exiles, GeNext, X-Men Forever, Chaos War: X-Men and Nightcrawler.

Journalist, editor, filmmaker and more, Ann Nocenti has a long history in comics, both as a writer and editor. As an editor at Marvel, she oversaw such titles as New Mutants and Uncanny X-Men. As a writer, she has worked for both Marvel (Longshot, Spectacular Spider-Man, Wolverine) and DC (Batman, Kid Eternity), but is probably best known for her groundbreaking run with John Romita Jr. on Daredevil.

After achieving industry acclaim for DC’s award-winning “Manhunter” feature in Detective Comics, Walter Simonson moved to Marvel where he introduced multiple characters and concepts from both myth and outer space during his revered run scripting and penciling Thor. He collaborated with his wife, Louise, on both X-Factor and Wildstorm’s World of Warcraft, later returning to Marvel to illustrate Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers.

Since his beginnings with Ann Nocenti in Longshot (which earned him a Russ Manning Award), Arthur Adams has most often displayed his distinctive and detail-intensive art in miniseries or one-shots (including several Uncanny X-Men Annuals) — along with brief but memorable stints on Fantastic Four, X-Factor and other titles. He co-created “Jonni Future” for Alan Moore’s Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales, and Dark Horse Comics has published his creator-owned Monkeyman and O’Brien. Renowned for cover art at Marvel, DC and elsewhere, Adams has also illustrated trading cards, posters and shirts, among other products; his art can be found in toy design, film advertisements and a series of X-Men-themed Campbell Soup labels. Jeph Loeb’s Hulk series featured a string of issues in which Adams provided interior art.