Mara Aum

Mara Aum was born in Venezuela, South America but grew up primarily in the Chicago-land area living an unconventional life with unconventional family. She was encouraged to tell stories and draw at an early age creating a near clinically insane overactive imagination and a near manic need to draw that would make Van Gogh proud. She discovered comics and manga in her early teens finding it the perfect union of her two all consuming passions. She even went so far as to mortgage her soul to student loan devils so she could major in Sequential Art at Savannah College of Art & Design, where her "I'll sleep when I'm dead" attitude paid off in her Summa Cum Laude degree.

Mara met Mo and Nina in her sojourn through junior college before she went off to the big bad SCAD. Finding in them the same kind of insanity that has plagued her all her life, it was instant kismet. So much so that their endless hours of story crafting and creating was like gasoline to the already raging fire of her blazing imagination, leading to the inevitable creation of Elysium Underground years later.

Mara's previous work ranges from writing to drawing to inking to toning to coloring. Her work can be seen in Dark Moon Diary, Adventures in Ai Land, Sea Princess Azuri, and a slew of other titles that would make this a very long list. Her most current published work can be seen in super sexy Silky Pink, part of TOKYOPOP’s Pilot Program at www.tokyopop.com.

Mara is living in the American Southwest where she draws and writes, continuously feeding her pathological workaholic addiction until the inevitable family intervention in five or ten years.

Nina Darguzis

Nina Darguzis was born and grew up with her family in Chicago-land. Though this sounds like she ran around in denim scrap clothing at some whimsical city themed amusement park, it was a fairly normal experience. She was encouraged to follow her dreams, since neither of her parents claimed they even knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. Nina discovered that she liked to escape by reading, writing, and engaging in other visual arts.

While in the honor's program at Joliet Junior College: Nina, Mo, and Mara completed the circuit of evil and formed the trio of Hamlet-esque witches that is now known as LAD. Legend has it, while most parents worried about drunken keggers, these girls' parents worried that they would spend weeks of time chatting and coming up with crazy stories instead.

In junior college Nina played with majors in fiction writing, journalism, and advertising; but after working at a small costume shop for a number of years, Nina decided she wanted to make monsters instead. So two very understanding parents, a cross-country move, and a soul consuming student loan later, Nina graduated from the Make-Up Designory as a Master Makeup Artist.

Nina's work ranges from body painter for Leonard Nimoy's photography books,  wig builder for Lily Tomlin's stage show, worked as a Special FX artist on Adult Swim's Tim & Eric Awesome Show & has been the Key Makeup Artist for Fangoria's Screamography TV series. She has also appeared on Fangoria TV and the History Channel's Modern Marvels. 

Nina is living in Los Angeles, California where she writes, blogs, and continues to work her makeup magick, while continuing to hold the whispered myth among her employers that she did in fact run away and join the circus as a small child only to emerge with seriously strange set of skills.