Norman M. Klein is a cultural critic and historian. Much of his work deals with cities, media and political history. He is also known for his comic scholarly fiction. Among his most influential works are The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory; The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects; Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-1986 (media novel); Freud in Coney Island and Other Tales; 7 Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon; and THE IMAGINARY 20TH CENTURY (produced as a double object: a media archive and a print novel with essays). He is a professor of Critical Studies at California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.

Margo Bistis is a cultural historian and curator. Her essays on philosophical modernism, caricature and urban culture have appeared in scholarly journals and anthologies. She is co-author of THE IMAGINARY 20TH CENTURY (produced as a double object: a media archive and a print novel with essays). She teaches in the Humanities & Sciences Department at ArtCenter College of Design.