H.G. WELLS: H.G. Wells (21 September 1866 - 13 August 1946) was a storied English author prolific in many genres. He wrote dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, satire, biography, and autobiography. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often referred to as the father of science fiction.
During his own lifetime, however, he was most prominent as a forward-looking, even prophetic social critic who devoted his literary talents to the development of a progressive vision on a global scale. A futurist, he wrote a number of utopian works and foresaw the advent of airplanes, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television and something resembling the internet. His science fiction imagined time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering. Brian Aldiss referred to Wells as the Shakespeare of science fiction". His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.
He was also from an early date an outspoken socialist, often (but not always, as at the beginning of the First World War) sympathising with pacifist views. His later works became increasingly political, and he wrote little science fiction, while he sometimes indicated on official documents that his profession was that of journalist. Novels like Kipps and The History of Mr. Polly, which describe lower-middle-class life, led to the suggestion that he was a worthy successor to Charles Dickens, but Wells described a range of social strata and even attempted, in Tono-Bungay (1909), a diagnosis of English society as a whole.
BILL SIENKIEWICZ: Bill Sienkiewicz (pronounced sin-KEV-itch) is an Eisner-winning, Emmy-nominated artist best known for revamping the style of comic and graphic novel illustration from 1980 onward, most notably with Marvel Comics' Elektra: Assassin and his acclaimed graphic novel Stray Toasters, earning him an international reputation and cult status across media industries.
Sienkiewicz, born Boleslav Felix Robert Sienkiewicz, is descended from the Nobel Prize-winning Polish novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz. He grew up in rural New Jersey, taught himself anatomy to better his sketches and worked construction to put himself through the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts in Newark, New Jersey.
He created groundbreaking movie promotional art for The Dark Knight, The Grinch, Unforgiven and the hit video game Resident Evil.
His work has graced the National Museum of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; galleries in Paris, Barcelona and Tuscany; Spain's famed La Semana Negra (The Black Week) Festival; advertising campaigns for Nike, MTV and Nissan; posters for The Green Mile and 2006 Winter Olympics; and magazines such as Entertainment Weekly and Spin.
Books include Jimi Hendrix, Voodoo Child: The Illustrated Legend of Jimi Hendrix and Santa: My Life & Times (An Illustrated Autobiography). CD covers include The Very Beast of Dio, Bruce Cockburn's The Charity Of Night, The RZA's Bobby Digital In Stereo, EPMD's Business As Usual and Sold Out: A Threevening With Kevin Smith. With longtime friend and mentor Neal Adams, Sienkiewicz also designed multimedia stage productions for Roger Waters' 2006 Dark Side of the Moon tour.
A classically-trained painter, Sienkiewicz's renderings incorporate abstract and expressionist influences and any combination of oil painting, acrylics, watercolor, mixed-media, collage and mimeograph -- previously unheard of in comics. His work has garnered numerous accolades -- most notably a 2004 Eisner Award for DC Comics' The Sandman: Endless Nights, and 1995 and 1996 Emmy Award nominations for production and character design on the PBS children's TV series Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego? Elektra: Assassin swept the top comic illustration awards in the U.S., Europe and Italy, respectively, with a 1987 Kirby Award, 1986 Yellow Kid Award, and 1986 Gran Guigiri Award.
GUILLERMO DEL TORO: Guillermo del Toro (born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican film director, screenwriter, producer, and novelist. In his filmmaking career, del Toro has shifted between Spanish-language dark fantasy pieces, such as the gothic horror films The Devil's Backbone (2001) and Pan's Labyrinth (2006), and more mainstream American action films, such as the vampire superhero action film Blade II (2002), the supernatural superhero film Hellboy (2004), its sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), and the science fiction monster film Pacific Rim (2013).
His 2017 fantasy film The Shape of Water received critical acclaim and won a Golden Lion at the 74th Venice International Film Festival as well as the Academy Award for Best Picture. Del Toro also received an Academy Award for Best Director for the film, as well as the Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, Critics' Choice Award, and Directors Guild of America Award.
Del Toro's work is characterised by a strong connection to fairy tales and horror, with an effort to infuse visual or poetic beauty. He has had a lifelong fascination with monsters, which he considers symbols of great power.
Del Toro is known for his use of insectile and religious imagery, the themes of Catholicism and celebrating imperfection, underworld and clockwork motifs, practical special effects, dominant amber lighting, and his frequent collaborations with actors Ron Perlman and Doug Jones.
