Randy Duncan has a Ph.D. in Communication from Louisiana State University. He has taught at Henderson State University since 1987. He served as chair of the Communication and Theatre Arts Department for eight years. He is a professor of communication who teaches a variety of courses dealing with rhetoric, including Rhetorical Theory, Communication Criticism, Persuasion, and Comics as Communication. Duncan's research is concerned with how the verbal and visual elements of communication blend, clash and otherwise interact to create meaning. Duncan is co-founder of the Comics Arts Conference, which celebrates its 17^th anniversary in 2009. Dr. Duncan was involved in the founding of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute. He also serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Comic Art.

Matthew J. Smith, Ph.D. teaches courses in media studies at Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH. Smith regularly teaches a course in “Comic Books as Culture” and offers a week-long field study at Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, each summer. He has also presented his scholarship on comics at various communication and popular culture academic conferences and published in the Journal of Popular Culture and Comics and Ideology. In addition to his work in comics art studies, Smith serves as president of the Ohio Communication Association and is co-author of two other communication studies textbooks, Exploring Human Communication and Online Communication: Linking Technology, Identity, and Culture. He has been interviewed by USA Today, Boston Globe, and the CanWest news service, among other media outlets. In 2009, Wittenberg University's Alumni Association recognized him with its Distinguished Teaching Award.