cartoonist Tag

Christina “Steenz” Stewart – Inspiring

 

I nervously met Steenz while walking around the Toronto Comics & Arts Fest and their work is amazing. I believe they identify as both she and they but I’ll use they. Steenz is a comics writer, cartoonist, and editor from St. Louis (My Grandma’s hometown). Not only that but they teach it which is so freaking cool!

Here is their website

And here’s a video of a presentation they made about how writers and artists can collaborate to make better comics. Insightful!!

Dig this? Check out this post about artist Bea Gifted

Black Is Beautiful 2023 – Charles Johnson

 

Charles Johnson was born in 1948 in Evanston IL. At an early age he showed an interest in drawing. He began his career as a cartoonist in high school drawing as a student of Lawrence Lariar. He won two competitions for his work from Columbia Scholastic Press. An adult discouraged him from pursuing art primarily so he went to school for journalism, continuing to draw, and pound the pavement in NY to get gigs. In that time while working for Chicago Tribune he saw a talk by Amiri Baraka and was inspired to do more cartooning about Black history and to reflect the times. He then worked Ebony and Jet magazine publishing cartoon strips and illustrations. 
I picked up his book “All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End” and was inspired by the drawings he’d done in the 70s. But he didn’t stop there. Inspired by a friend he took creative writing and continued his college education earning a doctorate in Philosophy. Johnson would go on to write for papers like the NY Times and the Wall St Journal. But he also began writing novels such as The Middle Passage, King, and Soul Catcher. He became a professor of creative writing at the University of Washington for more than 30 years. He wrote over 20 scripts for TV, he was awarded by the MacArthur Genius Award, Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He’s a buddhist, and is still writing as we speak. 
Sources: The Belief Agency, Wikipedia, oxherdingtale.com
Dig this? Check out my piece about Ruth Carter and Robert Sengstacke Abbott

Inspiring Artist – Lorena Alvarez

 

I came across Lorena Alvarez work with her graphic novel “Nightlights” in 2016. Ever since then I have been eagerly awaiting any new work from the Colombiana. Originally from Bogotá she studied there and here in the states. 

One of the things I love most about her work besides its incredible sense of imagination, is her use of color. It is delicious to look at. Listen to this interview with her on the Children’s Book Podcast.

OK, thats some of her illustration work which is both digital and traditional. You can follow her on IG here. Her portfolio is here, and you can cop her comics Hicotea and Nightlights at most book stores. She’s worked on some other books too, but I don’t know them as well.
If you liked this check out some of the other ladies I’ve shared:
Looking for more inspiration, here’s my last Inspiration Board from August of 2022

Inspiring Artist – Zeke Peña

 

Zeke Peña is an incredible artist working in traditional fine art, and digital illustration. I don’t remember which piece brought me to his work but I love it. The rich colors, the realism and the exaggeration. I love how his work portrays all types of people and how he tells a story through visuals.

Zeke has worked on a bunch of books! Picture books, comics, and middle grade covers. And I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more illustration and some writing coming from him soon. In addition to book work you can tell he really digs working with the community on art projects that puts their stories first.

Here you can see a video presentation where he talks about some of his work.

If you dig his work go check him out at www.zpvisual.com
And the last inspiring artist I shared was Gabby Zapata and Bisa Butler

Tooned In show at CultureStrike

I will have some artwork in this show alongside some great Bay Area artists and CultureStrike collaborators! 
Here’s some info:
T
his exhibit features artwork by Anthony Coz ConoverKayan Cheung-MiawJaime CortezDiego GómezFrancis Mead
Breena Nuñez PeraltaWilliam O. TylerJulio SalgadoRobert Liu-Trujillo, and Jess Wu-o.

When: Friday October 13, 6-9pm
Where: CultureStrike/The Lab, 1330 Broadway, Suite 300, Oakland CA 94612
On Broadway, between 13th & 14th Streets, directly above 12th St. downtown Oakland BART.

Light refreshments and drinks will be available. 
A parking garage is available on 13th St and Franklin until 8pm. Street parking is scarce but sometimes available.
The venue is wheelchair accessible. Gender-neutral ADA accessible restrooms are on the same floor as the event.
Our Stories, Our Visions, celebrating the art of cartoons, illustration, and comic books by artists of color! 

Cartooning, especially in popular culture, effectively reaches a range of audiences, old and young alike! But limited representation of rich cultural identities and diverse experiences in animated cartoons, books, comic books, editorials, and beyond can feel alienating to many of our communities.

In curating this exhibit, CultureStrike showcases the compelling work of cartoonists of color, queer cartoonists, and womxn cartoonists highlighting these invisibilized and marginalized communities. ‘Tooned In celebrates cartoonists of color across various intersecting identities and their artwork, spanning themes of migration, feminism, gender, queerness, legacy, and more.