Darian Barnes (Co-Creator National Triumph League, Gunmetal Sky, Mr. Hood)
Born in Philadelphia and raised in Toms River, New Jersey, Darian attended Toms River North High School before accepting a full scholarship to Rutgers University. He later transferred to Hampton University, where he majored in Political Science. In 2002, he achieved Free Agent status in the National Football League and had his first tryout with the New York Giants. He soon found a home on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers roster, and won a Super Bowl ring his very first year in the league. Darian is a six-year veteran of the league, having played Fullback for the Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, and New York Jets. He is currently on the roster of the Buffalo Bills.

Darian’s love for writing stems back to his early childhood, when he was strongly influenced by D.C.’s Batman, Marvel’s Punisher, and Greek Mythology. When he is not writing or playing football, he enjoys the work of Steven King and Dan Brown.

Joshua Goldfond (Co-Creator National Triumph League, Gunmetal Sky, Mr. Hood)
Josh attended Rutgers College, where he befriended Darian Barnes over several hundred games of Goldeneye of the N64. He was the co-author of Amnesia Interactive Novel, a web-based story which ran from 1996-1997 which was honored as a “Microsoft Site of the Day.” He has worked as a freelance story editor and has also written a number of plays and shortfilms. Among them was Gutterball, which was created in collaboration with members of New York City’s “Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre.” His most recent short, A Through M, was produced in 2005 by the American Film Institute and was screened at several film festivals.

Josh’s influence include Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Hayao Miyazaki, Jorge Luis Borges, David Simon, Barbara Kesel, and George R.R. Martin. He lives and works in New York City, where he does not play football.

Wendy Reizer (Writer)
Wendy Reizer is an award-winning copywriter and marketing-communications specialist. Wendy spent several years working as a director of public relations and marketing for a healthcare system, when she decided that she’d rather be the person on the other side of the desk—the one that gets hired to create the creative instead of the one that does the hiring.

Since that fateful decision, she’s worked on projects for numerous advertising agencies and corporations from a variety of industries, including sports and entertainment.

Wendy graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans with a B.A. in English Literature. She lives on the Jersey Shore in Manasquan with her daughter and two dogs. Curious by nature, she’s passionate about learning new things and uncovering the “whys” and “hows” of just about everything. Her interests include music, movies, yoga, fitness, psychology, the arts, and reading lots of books. She’s currently working on a memoir that wants to be a novel.  

Jeffrey Visgaitis (Artist, Writer, Co-Creator Violet Dawn)
Jeffrey is an artist and writer who has always had a deep love for fantasy and science fiction. As a child, he spent every waking hour drawing and creating characters and environments from his own stories and adventures. When his sister received Dungeons & Dragons as a Christmas present in the early 80s, he became even more enamored with fantasy and eventually decided to pursue art as a career.

Jeffrey graduated from a local community college with an A.S. in computer graphics and animation. In 2000, he and several of his closest friends founded the Inner Circle, a small publishing company. The Inner Circle’s acclaimed Violet Dawn product line has been nominated for several awards and was excerpted for a year’s best collection. Jeffrey continues to perfect Violet Dawn and add to the wealth of material that has been amassing for more than 10 years.

His influences include Frank Frazetta, Larry Elmore, Todd Lockwood, Robert E. Howard, R. A. Salvatore, Frank Herbert, and countless others.

Jeffrey lives near the Poconos in Northeast Pennsylvania with his wife and two daughters.

Chris Garcia (Colorist)
Chris Garcia has been coloring comics for the past 10 years. He started his career in La Jolla, California working at Wildstorm. Since then, he’s worked for numerous companies, including DC Comics, Marvel Comics, DarkHorse Comics, Image Comics, Penny Farthing Press, Crossgen Comics, and Dynamite Comics.

Chris lives and works in Tampa, Florida. When Chris isn’t coloring, he enjoys playing basketball, mountain biking with his wife, designing t-shirts, and napping. His fandom belongs to the Chargers and the Spurs and, musically speaking, to Radiohead. Chris’s motto: “Life is good and God is good.”

Barbara Kesel (Editor)
Barbara has been in the comic book industry for nearly 25 years since the day she was tapped by comics legend and then DC managing editor Dick Giordano to write a Batgirl back-up story for DC Comics’ Detective Comics. A theater major specializing in playwriting and directing, Barbara’s skills translated nicely into the melodramatic realm of comics. Since then she has written scripts for just about every major comic company. The series Hawk & Dove (DC) and Meridian (CrossGen) are special favorites. 

Her professional editorial life in comics began at DC Comics (1984-1989), where she worked on a range of DC titles including The New Teen Titans, Tailgunner Jo, and the Eisner-award-winning Watchmen, and developed the DC/TSR line of RPG-inspired comics. She then moved on to Dark Horse Comics (1991-1994), where, as managing editor, she edited licensed comics from Star Wars to Aliens, and creator-owned comics from Hellboy to Body Bags.
 
A chance meeting at Comic-Con International in San Diego brought her to Oldsmar, Florida to help start up CrossGeneration Comics (1999-2004). In her role as Head Writer, Barbara helped shape the entire CrossGen Universe, creating or overseeing each title. Her CrossGen writing credits include: Meridian, Sigil, The First, Solus, Crossgen Chronicles, and the coffee-table tome Crossgen Illustrated. Her drama background also came into play at CrossGen: she voice-directed the beta version of the vocal track for CG’s Comics on the Web online comics, and she scripted the Bridges Education CD-ROM prototype. As CG’s Hollywood liaison, she helped with the transformation of CrossGen’s properties into film, television, gaming, and interactive markets.

Post-CrossGen, Barbara is back to her freelance ways, scripting and editing a variety of projects from comics to web site copy to books for young adults. Legends of the Dark Crystal: The Garthim Wars, an original manga story based on the Henson Company’s Dark Crystal universe, is currently available from Tokyopop. The White Knight: Line of Avalon is a future title for Actionopolis. Rogue Angel: Teller of Tall Tales is currently out in comics form from IDW. The first properties created for The Pack are in development (www.the-pack.biz) featuring concepts written, edited or developed by Barbara. Barbara’s own website can be found at: www.barbararandallkesel.com