KJ Murphey- Publisher
KJ MURPHEY is an American comic book artist, writer, and publisher. He graduated from Paier College of Art and was a student of NYC illustrator Timothy O’Brien and studied under Silver Age artist Frank McLaughlin. Upon graduation he did work for Blue Comet Press, Sonalysts Studios, and Big Puddle Productions. In the fall of 2000, he founded the Comicbook Artists Guild which led to several of his original stories being published in CAG Anthologies 1-7, ICONIC 1-2, and Worlds Beyond. Murphey began a new publishing company in the Spring of 2009, Guild Works Publications (GWP), with the help of his friend and business partner Hector Rodriguez. The company published HELLSBLOOD, WORST CASE SCENARIO: OUTBREAK, and BEST SHOTS. Murphey is currently working on his newest project TORN: A Weindigo Curse due out later this year.
Hector E. Rodriguez - Art Director
Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Hector’s family moved to NYC where he spent his early childhood years and from the city’s news stands he started his journey into comic books and art. He was drawing from as early as kindergarten and when his mother moved them to Holyoke, Massachusetts in the summer of ’78, his love of art and comics followed. His teenage years were spent drawing everything and anything having to do with comic books and graffiti while attending Holyoke High School. Unable to go to college, he took up sign shop at Westover Job Corps, working in the field for many years. His love for comic books soon resurfaced and he was at it again, self taught for the most part. It wasn’t until he met Ven Yann in the 90′s that he started getting really serious about creating his own comic book. Learning what he could from Ven, the two found a Connecticut based group called the Comicbook Artists Guild, where he met Keith Murphey, the co-founder of the guild. Working as a team, Murphey and Hector started a partnership which helped both creators’ talents grow and together they produced various projects. Starting with short stories for Guild Works Productions’ book Psychosis 1 and 2. Hector then moved on to do a kid’s book called Mandie Pandie for Sam Vera’s Crazee Comics and eventually completed his own book, Hell’s Blood, where the story opens with a shot of Holyoke City Hall.
Hector lives in Western Massachusetts with his beautiful wife and gorgeous daughter.
Chris Buchner - Editor
Originally starting out as an artist/writer, Chris graduated to strictly writing due to a decreasing amount of free time and the discovery he was just better at it. Though he had been making comics of some kind for most of his life, his first foray into comics came in 2005 when he joined the staff of the Spider-Man fan site Spiderfan as a reviewer. Colleague Robert J. Sodaro then introduced him to the Comicbook Artists Guild in 2006, a national networking organization that brings creators of all levels together.
Chris’ first publication break came with CAG’s 7th anthology issue. Then-president Keith J. Murphey approached Chris about finishing off the origin of the group’s mascot, Commander CAG, as well as adapting a story he submitted to fit a character Murphey co-created for an earlier issue.
In 2007, Chris joined the online blog dedicated to books, Estella’s Revenge, as their comic writer and reviewer. He also joined with 215ink and did advanced reviews for several indy comics, as well as weekly reviews of the week’s new releases.
In 2008, Chris’ first editorial credit came into play when he was invited by Phil Clark to be part of Iconic, CAG’s all-ages anthology focusing on historic and public domain characters. Chris also ended up writing a unifying Grandpa bumper story conceived with Murphey for the book. Sodaro helped Chris fulfill a life-long dream of working for Marvel by recommending him for writing duties on Marvel’s new Official Index series; on which several Spiderfan staffers also worked. Chris was asked to audition to be the replacement writing on Guild Works Productions’ Hell’s Blood series by creator Hector Rodriguez. He ended up co-writing the second issue with Liam Webb due to both their submissions being coincidentally similar.
In 2009, Chris became the publication coordinator for CAG and proceeded to head up the next issue of Iconic, their first prose anthology Worlds Beyond, and the return of their regular anthology series with a new name and format. Chris was also made editor-in-chief of the reorganized GWP, now called Guild Works Publications, and is helping to oversee their pin-up book Best Shots, their zombie anthology Worst Case Scenario: Outbreak, and Hell’s Blood, of which he will also continue to write.
Byrne Negron- Lead Concept Artist
Byrne Negron is the artist of Hell’s Blood issue 2, Runes of Gallidon, and Eight. His newest book REALM: EDGE OF OBLIVION made its debut at NYCC 2013. Byrne drew and colored the pages for the first issue. He lives in Hebron, Ct. with his wife and child.