Our very heartfelt thanks to our editor, David Cashion. His thoughtful advice helped improve this manuscript immensely and his gentle nudging helped keep the process on track. Thanks also to managing editors Lauren Hougen and David Blatty, and to designer Darilyn Carnes, who did such a fantastic job transforming our vision into a book—we couldn’t be happier. And thank you as well to agent Sally Harding.
Huge thanks also go to Adam Mills, whose tireless assistance on conducting interviews and acquiring images was absolutely essential to the book, as well as to the infinitely patient Ann VanderMeer, who took time out of her own busy schedule to provide a great deal of administrative and organizational support. And, thank you as well to S. J. Chambers, whose initial brainstorming and research helped launch the project.
Many, many people contributed their talents to this book, and we are deeply grateful to them all. Many contributors went above and beyond, working under short deadlines, offering even more than we had asked, and coming up with fantastic ideas of their own. For example, Thomas Willeford, who swooped in to save the day with the fantastic mecha-penguin featured in Chapter One. We’re also immensely grateful to Jess Nevins, John Coulthart, and Jake von Slatt, along with William Francis, Adrian Van Allen, and Matt Lorenz. Furthermore, this book would not exist without the wonderful contributions of James MacIntyre, Toni Green, Catherine Cheek, Ramona Szczerba, Molly Crabapple, Katherine Gleason, Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum, Megan Maude, Richard Preston, Jeremy Zerfoss, Ivica Stevanovic, Irene Gallo, Matthew Cheney, Diana M. Pho, Eric Farber, and Nancy High-tower. And, additional thanks go to Jason Heller, Will Hindmarch, and Carrie Vaughn.
Finally, an extremely sincere thank-you to everyone who agreed to be interviewed for this manual and granted permission for us to reprint images of their work. Your creativity and expertise are the cornerstone of this book.