Weaned on the images of Kirby and Steranko in comics and Hammet and Himes in prose, Gary Phillips was born under a bad sign and only through writing does he hope to get out from under. He is editor of the bestselling anthology Orange County Noir, co-edited with Jervey Tervalon the acclaimed Cocaine Chronicles, and Booklist said of his novel Warlord of Willow Ridge, "Phillips is a veteran crime novelist who creates a plausible post-apocalyptic scenario in which the safety of middle-class America can dissolve in a moment. Exciting, violent, and entertaining." His graphic novel, The Rinse, about a money launderer, was optioned for television. He has short stories upcoming in the anthologies Asian Pulp and Jewish Noir.