MEET THE TEAM
Bryce Gold
Executive Director, BODEGA
Bryce Gold is an editor, publisher, educator and organizer publishing the gold standard of comics, artist books, and literary zines. He founded Pyrite Press, an award-winning Brooklyn-based comics and zine micropress in 2015. Crimes, the Pyrite Press graphic novella with comics writer/illustrator K. Wroten, won the MoCCA Award of Excellence in 2019. He has worked in mainstream comics publishing with over a decade of comics publishing experience, including Operations Manager for Tiny Onion, an independent production house for comics, Head of New Talent at DSTLRY Media, Head of Comics at Kickstarter, Head of Content at comiXology, overseeing the comiXology Originals line, and an educator at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
Courtney Menard is an illustrator, printmaker, and sequential art storyteller. She is the Print Production and Design Director for Tiny Onion, an independent production house for comics, and previously worked as Production Director at Z2 Comics. She co-curated the 2019 Comic Arts Brooklyn Festival with Desert Island in Brooklyn, NY. She lives with her husband, small son, cat, and dog in Buffalo, NY.
Courtney Menard
Director, Brooklyn Expo of Comics
Christina Lee
Communications Manager,
Brooklyn Expo of Comics
Christina Lee is an illustrator, educator, and organizer based in Brooklyn, NY by way of San Jose, CA and Pittsburgh, PA. She loves building engagement and activating the communities she joins: from 2015-2019, she organized the Pittsburgh Zine Fair, and in 2018, co-founded Pullproof, a community screenprinting studio based in Pittsburgh. She currently teaches in the Illustration undergraduate department at FIT, and is a contributor of The Comics Journal.
Paloma Hernando
Outreach Manager,
Brooklyn Expo of Comics
Paloma Hernando is a literary agent focusing on graphic novels and illustrated books. She joined Ayesha Pande Literary in the fall of 2024, and previously was an agent with Einstein Literary Management. Coming from a background of independent comics and the DIY scene, she looks forward to celebrating Brooklyn comics and the people who make them.
Gabe Fowler
Programming Coordinator,
Brooklyn Expo of Comics
Gabe Fowler is a curator, educator, and comics historian. In 2008, he founded Desert Island Comics in Brooklyn, NY, and has been the central heartbeat of indie comics in Brooklyn ever since. He also publishes Smoke Signal, an Eisner-nominated comics tabloid. In 2014, Smoke Signal was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Anthology. RESIST!, a special issue of Smoke Signal guest edited by Françoise Mouly, was distributed nationally at the Women's March in 2017. In 2025, he was nominated for his second Eisner Award for Rescue Party: A Graphic Anthology of COVID Lockdown. Desert Island also hosts a variety of special events, such as author signings and lectures. He lives and works in Brooklyn.