Brian is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word meaning "high" or "noble". For example the element bre means "hill"; which could be transferred to mean "eminence" or "exalted one". The name is quite popular in Ireland, on account of Brian Boru, a 10th century king of Ireland. The name was also quite popular in East Anglia during the Middle Ages. This is because the name was introduced to England by Bretons following the Norman Conquest. Bretons also settled in Ireland along with the Normans in the 12th century, and 'their' name was mingled with the 'Irish' version. Also, in the north-west of England, the 'Irish' name was introduced by Scandinavian settlers from Ireland. Within the Gaelic speaking areas of Scotland, the name was at first only used by professional families of Irish origin. It was the fourth most popular male name in the United Kingdom in 1934, but a sharp decline followed over the remainder of the 20th century and by 1994 it had fallen out of the top 100.

Francis Manapul is a Filipino-Canadian comic book artist.

Manapul is known for his work on Witchblade and The Necromancer for Top Cow, working on the former for three years, off and on, returning for the tenth anniversary issue in 2005.

He provided covers for various titles, most notably for some G.I. Joe comics from Devil's Due Publishing.

In 2007, he signed an exclusive contract to work with DC Comics.^{[dead link]}

He also served as a guest judge in the fourth week round of Comic Book Idol, third season, sponsored by the Comic Book Resources.

In 2008 Francis became the artist for DC's Legion of Superheroes with Jim Shooter as the writer. Francis co-created the character Gazelle with Shooter before leaving the title.

In 2009, he was named to be the artist in DC's new Flash series written by Geoff Johns which stars [Flash (Barry Allen)|[Barry Allen]] in the lead role.

He was also one of the TV presenters on Beast Legends from Yap films, which currently airs Wednesday nights at 10pm EST on History Television Canada. Its premiere in the US was on September 9, Thursday at 10pm EST on SyFy.

Kyle Higgins (born June 12, 1985) is an American comic book writer and film director. He is best known for his work on the Batman franchise at DC Comics.

After writing and directing his college thesis film titled The League, about the superhero labor union of 1960's Chicago, Higgins spent a year writing for Marvel Comics before authoring the back-up features for the 2010 editions of Detective Comics Annual and Batman Annual. The stories introduced the controversial character Nightrunner, who he co-created with David Hine. Higgins is currently co-writing Batman: Gates of Gotham with Scott Snyder, a four issue Squadron Supreme (Supreme Power) mini-series, and will be helming both the Nightwing and Deathstroke relaunches in the Fall.