Few writers/editors influenced Marvel more than Mark Gruenwald (1953-1996). Famed for pioneering work on Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and his magnum opus Squadron Supreme, he also wrote a hundred-plus-issue run of Captain America; multiple Marvel Two-in-One sagas; and several miniseries, including Contest of Champions, the first of Marvel’s multi-hero sagas. He explored the Marvel Universe’s ancient history in a series of What If? backup stories he also penciled.

A professional comic book artist since the late 1980s, Kieron Dwyer also works in film, television, books and advertising. He co-created the Swing Town animated series, taught at the Academy of Art College, produced storyboards for film and TV projects such as Batman Beyond and had his drawings prominently featured in the motion picture Sky High. Dwyer’s many Marvel credits include a long run penciling Captain America, shorter stints on Avengers and Thing and work on other titles such as Avengers Spotlight, Classic X-Men, Deadpool/GLI: Summer Fun Spectacular, Solo Avengers and X-Factor. In addition to DC projects such as Action Comics and Batman, Dwyer has co-created indie comics Night Mary, Remains, Last of the Independents and Sea of Red.

His place in Marvel history assured when he helped introduce Deathlok in the pages of Astonishing Tales, Rich Buckler also penciled several storylines in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man — along with runs on Jungle Action’s Black Panther, Fantastic Four, Thor and other monthly titles, as well as Roy Thomas’s miniseries Saga of the Sub-Mariner and Saga of the Original Human Torch. Buckler’s 1970s DC work includes Lois Lane, Secret Society of Super-Villains and World’s Finest, as well as the groundbreaking Superman vs. Shazam. During the 1980s, he and Thomas collaborated on All-Star Squadron. He worked in the barbarian and horror genres for both Marvel and DC, illustrated Archie’s Mighty Crusaders, and contributed to black-and-white magazines for both Marvel and Warren Publishing. He was editor of the short-lived Solson Publications and wrote two books on comic-book art.

Al Milgrom, A.K.A. “Editori-Al,” is renowned as writer, editor, penciler and inker — and held most of those positions on Spectacular Spider-Man. He also contributed to SSM’s sibling Amazing Spider-Man. He penciled West Coast Avengers for four years and inked X-Factor for eight. His artwork has also appeared in Avengers, Captain America, Thor and most X-titles, including the classic Kitty Pryde and Wolverine. As editor, he oversaw Marvel’s Epic imprint and the sixty-issue run of Marvel Fanfare, where his satirical self-portraits made his face as recognizable as any super hero’s mask. At DC, he co-created Firestorm the Nuclear Man with Gerry Conway.