Robyn Smith (cartoonist)

Last updated
Robyn Smith
NationalityJamaican
Notable work Nubia: Real One , Wash Day Diaries
Awards Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics

Robyn Brooke Smith is a Jamaican writer and cartoonist based in the United States. She is the author of The Saddest, Angriest, Black Girl in Town and the illustrator of Wash Day, Nubia: Real One , and Wash Day Diaries , for which she received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics.

Contents

Early life and education

Smith was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. She aspired to become a cartoonist from childhood, inspired in part by her father, a portrait artist and her mother, a makeup artist. [1] She also enjoyed reading Archie Digest , which she considers a key influence on her work. [2] [1] Smith's family immigrated to the Bronx when she was 16, after she graduated high school. [1]

Smith received her bachelor's degree from Hampshire College and received her master of fine arts degree from the Center for Cartoon Studies. [3] [4]

Career

During her graduate program at the Center for Cartoon Studies she developed her debut comic book The Saddest Angriest Black Girl In Town (2016) as a mini-thesis project, a memoir about "her experience being one of the only Black people in a rural Vermont town and how that time affected her mental health and her grasp of how Blackness is viewed in the world." [4] The book was named to the 2016 Best Short Form Comics list by The Comics Journal . After going out of print, it was reprinted in 2021 by Black Josei Press. [4] Smith also published comics on CollegeHumor. [1]

Jamila Rowser approached Smith to illustrate Wash Day, a comic about a hair care ritual for Black women, published in 2018 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. [5] [1] It won a 2019 DiNKy Award for Best Floppy Comic. [3] She also illustrated the follow-up graphic novel Wash Day Diaries , for which she and writer Jamila Rowser received the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics. [6] [7]

Smith illustrated Nubia: Real One (2021), a DC comic written by L.L. McKinney.

Works

Illustration

Accolades

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colleen Doran</span> American writer-artist and cartoonist

Colleen Doran is an American writer-artist and cartoonist. She illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines, including the autobiographical graphic novel of Marvel Comics editor and writer Stan Lee entitled Amazing Fantastic Incredible Stan Lee, which became a New York Times bestseller. She adapted and did the art for the short story "Troll Bridge" by Neil Gaiman, which also became a New York Times bestseller. Her books have received Eisner, Harvey, Bram Stoker, and International Horror Guild Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Doucet</span> Canadian comic artist and writer

Julie Doucet is a Canadian underground cartoonist and artist, best known for her autobiographical works such as Dirty Plotte and My New York Diary. Her work is concerned with such topics as "sex, violence, menstruation and male/female issues."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoebe Gloeckner</span> American artist

Phoebe Louise Adams Gloeckner, is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raina Telgemeier</span> American cartoonist, illustrator, and writer

Raina Diane Telgemeier is an American cartoonist. Her works include the autobiographical webcomic Smile, which was published as a full-color middle grade graphic novel in February 2010, and the follow-up Sisters and the fiction graphic novel Drama, all of which have been on The New York Times Best Seller lists. She has also written and illustrated the graphic novels Ghosts and Guts as well as four graphic novels adapted from The Baby-Sitters Club stories by Ann M. Martin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faith Erin Hicks</span> Canadian cartoonist

Faith Erin Hicks is a Canadian cartoonist and animator living in Vancouver, British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nubia (character)</span> Fictional character in DC Comics

Nubia is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics publications and related media, commonly as an ally of Wonder Woman. Historically, she is DC Comics' first Black woman superhero. Introduced in 1973 as Wonder Woman's long-lost fraternal twin, Nubia has since been presented variously as DC Comics' continuities have shifted and evolved. At turns, she has been portrayed as both a parallel-universe version of Wonder Woman and as an inheritor of the Wonder Woman mantle in a future timeline. Her Modern Era depiction is as a non-sibling Amazon contemporary of Wonder Woman, and as the successor to Wonder Woman's mother Hippolyta as queen of the Amazon nation of Themyscira. Created by Robert Kanigher and Don Heck, Nubia debuted in 1973's Wonder Woman #204 and appeared intermittently throughout Wonder Woman's Bronze Age adventures. After DC Comics rebooted its continuity in 1985, Wonder Woman and her supporting characters were re-imagined. Though originally absent from this revised mythos, the character was reintroduced as "Nu'Bia" in 1999 by Doselle Young and Brian Denham in Wonder Woman Annual #8.

<i>Skim</i> (comics) Canadian graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki

Skim is a Canadian graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and drawn by Jillian Tamaki. Set in 1993, in a Toronto Catholic girls high school, it is about an outsider girl called Skim.

Comics studies is an academic field that focuses on comics and sequential art. Although comics and graphic novels have been generally dismissed as less relevant pop culture texts, scholars in fields such as semiotics, aesthetics, sociology, composition studies and cultural studies are now re-considering comics and graphic novels as complex texts deserving of serious scholarly study.

Comics has developed specialized terminology. Some several attempts have been made to formalize and define the terminology of comics by authors such as Will Eisner, Scott McCloud, R. C. Harvey and Dylan Horrocks. Much of the terminology in English is under dispute, so this page will list and describe the most common terms used in comics.

<i>My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness</i> Japanese autobiographical manga series

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness or The Private Report on My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is an autobiographical josei manga by Kabi Nagata. It was originally published by Nagata on the art website Pixiv. It was later published as a single print volume by East Press in June 2016 in Japanese, and by Seven Seas Entertainment in June 2017 in English, with this version winning the Harvey Award for Best Manga of 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emil Ferris</span> American writer, cartoonist, and designer

Emil Ferris is an American writer, cartoonist, and designer. Ferris debuted in publishing with her 2017 graphic novel My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. The novel tells a coming-of-age story of Karen Reyes, a girl growing in 1960s Chicago, and is written and drawn in the form of the character's notebook. The graphic novel was praised as a "masterpiece" and one of the best comics by a new author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tillie Walden</span> American cartoonist and author

Tillie Walden is an American cartoonist who has published five graphic novels and a webcomic. Walden won the 2018 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work for her graphic novel Spinning, making her one of the youngest Eisner Award winners ever. She was named Vermont's Cartoonist Laureate for the years 2023 - 2026.

DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults, formerly known as DC Ink, is an imprint of American comic book publisher DC Comics consisting of original one-shots, graphic novels and reprints of books previously published under other imprints. The imprint intends to present traditional DC Universe characters for young adult readers. The first title of the DC Ink imprint, Mera: Tidebreaker, was published on February 2, 2019 and Batman: Nightwalker was the last title to be published under DC Ink. Wonder Woman: Warbringer, the first title of DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults, was published on January 10, 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cartoon Crossroads Columbus</span> Comics festival

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) is an annual, free, four-day celebration of cartooning and graphic novels held in Columbus, Ohio. Venues for the festival include Ohio State University's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Hale Hall, and the Wexner Center for the Arts; and downtown Columbus' Columbus Metropolitan Library, the Columbus Museum of Art, and the Columbus College of Art and Design.

Jamila Rowser is an American writer and publisher. She created the blog Girl Gone Geek (2010–2016), which was devoted to "nerd culture" topics like cosplay, video games, and anime. Rowser founded Black Josei Press as a publishing platform for Black and Brown women comic writers. Her graphic novel Wash Day Diaries (2022) won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics.

<i>Nubia: Real One</i> 2021 young adult graphic novel written by L.L. McKinney and illustrated by Robyn Smith

Nubia: Real One is a 2021 young adult graphic novel written by L.L. McKinney and illustrated by Robyn Smith. It centers Nubia, Wonder Woman's twin sister. The book is a coming-of-age story that follows Nubia's attempts to keep her friends safe while keeping her superhuman abilities a secret. Nubia: Real One was released on February 23, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumerian Comics</span> American comic book publisher

Sumerian Comics is an American comic book publisher based in Los Angeles, California. The company was founded in 2020 by Nathan Yocum and Ryan Swanson as Behemoth Comics. The comic division sells over half a million (500,000+) comics yearly, reached 8th in total market share in 2021, and has worked on titles with Ubisoft, Netflix, among others. Their titles are currently distributed globally by Simon & Schuster & Diamond Comic Distributors. As of 2022, the company is owned by Sumerian Records and was subsequently renamed as Sumerian Comics in July 2022.

"Trial of the Amazons" is a seven issue crossover event from DC Comics written by Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Jordie Bellaire, Vita Ayala and Joelle Jones. The story details a civil war between the Amazons, and has Wonder Woman crossing the path with Nubia, Yara Flor, Cassie Sandsmark, Donna Troy, Hippolyta, and Artemis of Bana-Mighdall. The event received positive reviews, although the ending received criticism for it being rushed.

Wash Day Diaries is a young adult graphic novel written by Jamila Rowser and illustrated by Robyn Smith that follows four young Black women in New York. The book was published by Chronicle Books in 2022.

References