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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
These are the questions I ACTUALLY get asked most. Kids are so nosy...
Q. Which of your siblings is your favorite?
A. Diplomatic answer: I love them equally.
Real answer: My sister Grace.
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Q. Are you married?
A. Yep!
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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 (sorry uncles!) Many of the stories that were adapted to feature Samantha and Jacob actually involved other family members in real life. Things also didn't happen quite in the order the book depicts. I moved a lot of events around chronologically to make the story work.
Also, memory is weird. So I had to use my imagination and my mom to fill in lots of the gaps.
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But most importantly. Everything that Jacob does in the book was 100% true. He really did all that (yep, even that.)
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Q. What's your biggest piece of advice for aspiring comic artists?
A. Don't stress about drawing hands well. Nobody is paying attention to them.
In fact, don't stress about drawing that well at all. If the story if great but the art is good enough, people won't mind.
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Q. How old are you?
A. I was born in 1992, you do the math!
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Q. Do you have any pets?
A. I am a cat person and try to have at least 2 in my house at all times. I name them after my favorite cartoon characters. Currently, I have Alphonse and Princess Bubblegum.
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Q. Do you have any kids?
A. please refer to the answer above.
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Q. What is the hardest part about making comics?
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A. Trying to make money off of it... And shoulder pain. In that order.
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Q. Is there going to be a sequel to A TALE AS TALL AS JACOB? And when will it be out?
A. Yes. And probably by the time you are too old to want to read it...Graphic novels take a long time to make.