Art/Ink/Paint: Lily Mountjoy

Lily Mountjoy was born in Alexandria, Virginia and grew up in Hopewell. At the age of nine, she saw “Battle of the Planets” and Star Blazers” and fell in love. Particularly enjoying the drawing styles of Queen Starsha and the Yamato’s goddess characters, Lily began drawing. And drawing. And drawing.  <>

By the late 80’s she had mountains of sketches in her attic. (Though BotP and Star Blazers started her desire for drawing, her style is more reminiscent of Leiji Matsumoto, whose art she adores.) It was about this time that she and Steve Bennett met and became good friends. 

Lily graduated from the Virginia School for Deaf (Staunton, VA) in 1988 and in the 1990s started work with the US Postal Service, where she has worked for over 13 years. Married and with two children, Lily draws in her free time whenever possible. In addition to being the artist/inker/colorist for Celeste The Pirate, Lily also inks for Angel of St. Thomas. Lily will be doing the art for the character Francis in the web comic. She also maintains her own site with some of her art.

Peter W. Prellwitz is the IT Director for a precious metals refining company located in Philadelphia. Pete has been writing stories, plays and skits since the fifth grade.

Born in Arizona, Pete has lived in Wisconsin, California, Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, where he now lives with his wife, Bethlynne, and five sons. In addition to writing, Pete enjoys history, backpacking, and languages.

Horizons, his second novel but first published, was chosen by Hugo award winning Mike Resnick as the winner the 2003 Draco Award for Best Science Fiction. Horizons was a finalist for the 2005 Eppie Award for Best Science Fiction, as was another of Pete's novels, The Science of Magic. In 2005, Pete’s books, Shards: Book One and Shards: Book Two were finalists for the 2006 Eppie Award for Best Science Fiction. (Pete is getting the Susan Lucci complex, and hopes to win an Eppie before 2022.)

Since 2004, Double Dragon Publishing has published nine of Pete's novels and will publish another six or seven in 2008 and 2009. Among his published titles is the novel The Angel of St. Thomas vs. The Galactic Good Guys, which is was released in May, 2006. Like previous novels, The Angel of St. Thomas was also a finalist for an Eppie in 2007. (And, like previous novels - *sigh* - it didn't win. That's now five for five.) Unlike his other novels, AoST occurs outside the Shards Universe.

Though relatively new to the published author world, Pete is quickly becoming a popular guest at numerous science fiction conventions up and down the East Coast.

Steve and Pete met through anime conventions they attend. Pete was an unofficial silent partner for Steve’s Studio Ironcat. When the business closed in 2004, they decided to form an artist/writer team and begin exploring possible projects. This includes this web-comic and is based on characters in Pete’s novel,  The Angel of St. Thomas novel..

Contact Pete
Pete's Personal site: http://ShardsUniverse.net

Stephen Robert Bennett IV was born *&#@?! years ago at Tachikawa Air Force Base in Japan. Being an Army brat, Steve moved all over the place in his younger days, He spent his early years in Alaska and Colorado, and lived for almost eight years in Germany during elementary and junior high. The family moved back to Japan when Steve was in his teens, and while he was there he was lucky enough to land a job with Studio Aoehyma, and work under the great Japanese animator, Noboru Furusei (New Dominion Tank Police, Lupin III, etc.) During his time at Studio Aoehyma, Steve learned quite a bit about anime, and worked on such titles as Cat's Eye, the Urusei Yatsura TV Series and Only You, as well as others.

But finally, the family moved back to the States and settled in Virginia. Steve finished up high school, took some college courses, and ended up working at a bunch of different jobs. He worked at King's Dominion amusement park (where he met his future wife Nikki), and he also worked in a Japanese restaurant, a video store, and ended up working in construction.

About the time Steve and Nikki tied the knot (1994), Steve attended his first anime convention as a guest--Katsucon 1-- and finally remembered his true calling. He started up Studio Ironcat, a Japanese manga publisher, in 1997 and quit his construction job. Ironcat ran until 2004. Although Steve enjoyed his time with Ironcat, the job kept him too busy to focus on his own art. With the close of Ironcat, Steve was finally free to create his own comics, and get back into the artistic side of the industry. Today, Steve is busier than ever at conventions, has two web comics on-line (Shakespeare Rodeo and Life With Steve) and is finally letting his creative juices flow! (Sadly - and happily - Steve has put his two strips on hiatus so he can focus on The Angel of St. Thomas)

Steve has been to numerous anime conventions over the years (too many to mention here!) and has also lent his talents to other venues, such as Loyola University in Louisiana, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Iowa Gallery of Art.

Contact Steve
Steve's personal site: http://SteveBennettArt.com

Steven Banks Adamick was born in Washington, D.C. back in the ‘60’s. Raised as a D.O.D brat in Arlington, He discovered his talent when his Father handed him a pile of paper and colored pencils at age 7 to keep him entertained for the day. Well, things snow-balled from there, and soon a drawing pad and pencils were a carry-along standard for Steve.

During School at Gunston J.H., Steve worked on a school newspaper comic called “1776 & 1/2 “... and soon began to create his own comic entitled Arlington Daze. This, along with a pile of requests for Greeting Cards , the work load had created his first art studio, Kutting Edgz Designs. Everything was still hand-drawn , so production was slow till he got his first computer and printer system to go on a mass production after graduating high school. Steve still continued his art career during his enlistment with the U.S. Army. During that time it was a lot of tattoo designing and some cards for family members during the holidays. Soon after, he began to expand his work custom designing tattoos for Flat’s Tattooing in Connecticut.

After relocating back to Virginia, Steve began to set up shop in his home for what is now Studio Kattooed. Soon after that he was introduced to Steve Bennett IV during an Anime Cell Painting Class. Their friendship hit it off and they've been best buds since 1995. He has remained a steadfast pal since the Ironcat days and is still close. Steve got involved with anime back when Astro Boy and Kimba were first being broadcasted, and soon followed Speed Racer, leading up to Star Blazers. His first purchased anime film was Battle Angel (Gunnm), and became a die-hard fan of the Manga, Thus being knighted “BattleAngel Steve” by “Unca” Steve Bennett IV, the legacy began.

“BattleAngel” now resides in Arlington, Va. currently working on Angel of St.Thomas as the Ink&Paint specialist. He is the father of two, Lori and Andrew, and enjoys motorcycling on his off time. Steve gives special thanks to his parent’s, Franc and Marjorie, as well as Friends and Family who helped him along the way.... Cheers.

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