Rick Ross is a writer, artist, filmmaker, and co-author/illustrator of the bestselling graphic novel THE EXPLORERS GUILD (Atria Books, 2015)—co-created with Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Costner—which was a New York Times Bestseller for Print Hardcover Fiction. He has written and drawn numerous comics and holds a BFA from the University of Missouri, where he studied sequential art with Harvey Award-winning cartoonist Frank Stack. He is also an award-winning filmmaker with an MFA in film production from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. He currently serves on the advisory board of the School of Visual Studies at the University of Missouri.