Originating through Arizona Opera’s OnPitch Business Challenge, created in association with ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the W. P. Carey School of Business, Carmen: The Graphic Novel is the passion project of author Alek Shrader, a tenor and director, who is best known for his appearance in THE AUDITION, a documentary about the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. For his first graphic novel, Shrader collaborated with the New York Times bestselling illustrator P. Craig Russell, who is renowned both for his graphic novel adaptations of Neil Gaiman’s novels, and his acclaimed adaptations of opera, including Mozart's The Magic Flute, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and Wagner's Ring cycle. For Carmen: The Graphic Novel, P. Craig Russell provides the layouts, which are finished, illustrated, and colored by Aneke, who has drawn comics for DC Comics, Marvel, Dynamite, and 2000AD, and lettered by Hassan Otsmana-Elhaou.