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About
Hi there! My name is Samantha and I'm a midwestern comic artist, visual storyteller and children's media enthusiast.
My debut middle grade graphic novel, A TALE AS TALL AS JACOB, was published by Andrews McMeel in 2021.
I graduated from the University of Missouri with a BFA in drawing and earned a Master's of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University.
I worked as a children's librarian for 5 years before pursuing bookmaking fulltime. I am currently working on a JACOB sequel that will hopefully be announced soon!
FAQs
Here are some frequently asked question I get at school visits from kids and educators:
Q. What is your favorite food or snack
A. I love SNACKS. Candy, chips + dip, fruits, veggies! I can pretty much snack all day and not eat a full meal.
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Q. Which of your siblings is your favorite?
A. Kids like to ask this one. My diplomatic answer: "I love them all equally." My real answer: "My sister Grace."
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Q. What works inspire your own books?
A. So many random things! Art-wise, I love Ghibli movies, the illustrations of Dan Santat, Calvin and Hobbes comics and Steven Universe. Although I don't know if any of my work looks like those, I just admire them bunches. I also love the absurd humor and "gross-ups" of SpongeBob. I get a lot of my humor from some of my favorite movies like Megamind, Napoleon Dynamite and The Emperor's New Groove. I love the storytelling structures of Avatar the Last Airbender and Coraline. I get a LOT of inspiration from movies and cartoons. I should read more books.
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Q. Did the events in A TALE AS TALL AS JACOB really happen?
A. Yes...and no. Every big event that happened in the book actually happened at some point, but not necessarily in that order or with those people. I have a VERY big family and had to leave a lot of people out, so many stories were adopted to feature Samantha and Jacob that actually involved other family members IRL. Things also didn't happen exactly in the order the book depicts. I moved a lot of events around chronologically to make the story work. And even if you have a good memory of your childhood, you still have to use your imagination to fill in lots of the gaps! So yes, sort of!
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Q. What's your biggest piece of advice for aspiring comic artists?
A. For kids: Don't compare your art to adult art! No grownup could draw like a grownup when they were a kid. We all start out being bad at it at some point, the key is to keep drawing for fun!
A. For adults: If you're making books for kids, don't stress so much about making the most beautiful perfect panels and layouts. Kids need simpler visuals just like they need simpler text when reading. Focus more on the flow of the story and making it easy to find a reading path through the bubbles and panels.
A. For everyone: Don't stress about drawing good hands. You can get away with vague shapes most of the time. Nobody is paying attention to them.
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