Anna-Maria Jung
Licensing comics & art
I am a passionate Austrian illustrator with a quirky and sometimes dark sense of humor. I’ve been creating whimsical and endearing characters ever since I could hold a pencil, which naturally led me to explore graphic novels.
After earning a Master’s degree in Multi Media Art in Austria in 2007 (which included an internship at Bill Plympton Studios) and a Master of Arts in Illustration from FIT in New York in 2011, I began producing hundreds of charming and nerdy designs for the licensing market. My work also extends to illustrating children’s books for renowned publishers such as Macmillan, Workman Publishing, and Epic!
Comedy plays a central role in my art—especially when it comes to blending silly, innocent moments with a darker sense of humor. I’m fascinated by how the world can be both wonderful and terrifying at once, and how life itself is often just plain weird. I also have a special love for odd science topics, from gross bodily functions to parasitic lifeforms and beyond.
What cool travel spots would you most highly recommend?
Japan, anywhere! I have never been in a country that puts so much efford into the functionality and the design of things. And there are so many wonderful character designs everywhere!
Why is your humor so silly, but also dark?
Sometimes I wonder the same, and one thought I have is that in Austria, I grew up with quite “dark” children’s media. For example, a lot of Japanese/German animation productions featured themes such as death, suffering, and violence — for example, Alfred J. Kwak, produced in the late ’80s, had a cute duck experience terrible loss and other serious adult themes.
In addition, Austrian cartoonists I liked, such as Deix and Harderer, drew their subjects in a very unflattering light. Later in life, I was very influenced by the late ’90s Cartoon Network era and Monty Python. I have a lot of love for silly and dark humor.
Awards and honors:
Fulbright Scholarship, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) New York, 2009 – 2011: Master of Arts
Society of Illustrators, New York – Illustrators 54
Selected for inclusion in the annual exhibition and publication, 2012.
Star Trek: 50 Artists. 50 Years
Featured in this international traveling exhibition celebrating the franchise’s 50th anniversary, 2016.
Creative Process:
For most projects, everything starts with doodles in my sketchbook, maybe with a few research photos next to me. This always happens with analog materials, sometimes in a café. The doodle helps me nail down composition, idea, and mood.
The doodle works as a perfect underlay for the upcoming sketch phase. Usually, it takes me a couple of sketches — between one and five — to reach a stage that I consider ready for clean line art. To improve the sketch, I scan it in, mirror it in Photoshop, print it out at low opacity, and draw over it again multiple times. Sometimes a sketch feels like a “Quasimodo” in its first stage and slowly transforms into something presentable with each pass.
Something I learned is to keep making passes until the sketch works 100% (or at least 90%) — then I scan it and do the line art and color digitally in Photoshop. There, I work with many, many layers and very methodically. This means that I have a lot of easy control over the character’s position, color changes, etc.
This is all for finished client artwork — in my sketchbook, I go wild with watercolors, markers, and colored pencils.
Mediums:
Pencil on paper, digital, mixed media
Specialties:
Location:
Graz, Austria
Published books:
Redshirts: Star Trek’s Little Book of Doom (Insight Editions, 2016) – Illustrations
The Most Dangerous Book: Archery (Workman Publishing, 2017) – Illustrations
Turn This Book Into a Beehive (Workman Publishing, 2017) – Illustrations
TinkerActive Workbooks (Odd Dot / Macmillan, 2018-2020) – Covers & Character Designs
Creepy Cafetorium Vol. 1–3 (Epic!, 2019-2022) – Illustrations & one story concept
Disgustology: The Science of Gross (Odd Dot / Macmillan, 2025) – Concept & Illustrations
Turn This Book Into a Birdfeeder (Workman Publishing, 2025) – Illustrations
Forthcoming books:
Visit Anna-Maria at:
Webseite: https://www.annamariajung.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artofannamariajung/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artofannamariajung
Substack: https://annamariajung.substack.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-maria-jung-3780a320a/
Published Books
Rae Crawford
Licensing comics & art
Rae Crawford is an illustrator, author, and comic artist from the most mysterious regions of the Chicagoland suburbs. She is the creator of the webcomic, ‘I’m Broken, Send Help.’ Rae is an illustrator and author by night and a book designer for Scholastic by day. She loves cartoons, comics, puns, cooking and working on fan zines. Rae currently lives in the Chicagoland suburbs with her partner, her iPad, and a few assorted stuffed animals and plants. (Please let her draw food and nature for you!)
Where do you go for inspiration?
Nothing beats my own life and experiences. I often find myself drawing upon people and events from my life to inspire my work. In fact, My Day With Dad and My Day With Mom were drawn from special memories I had from growing up with my parents.
Animation is another one of my biggest inspirations. There are too many projects dear to my heart to name them all, but I always pull out the artbooks from Pixar, Wolfwalkers, Over the Garden Wall, and Steven Universe, or watch Princess Mononoke for the millionth time to prepare for a project.
I’m also inspired by my favorite things to draw. Whether it’s food, nature, patterns, and animals, I seize any opportunity to incorporate them into my art. When you’re drawing something you love, it’s hard not to be inspired!
What is your favorite food?
“There is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life that can’t be improved with pizza.” – Daria
I have lived in both Chicago and New York, so pizza has always been a big part of my life. Before you can tell me New York pizza is better, you need to have tried tavern style Chicago pizza first. Deep-dish is a different thing entirely. My current favorite topping combos are double sausage, onion, bacon, and pepperoni with hot honey. Fruit does not belong on pizza. Looking at you, pineapples. Vito & Nick’s Pizzeria (Chicago, IL) and Little Pops (Naperville, IL) both have the best thin-crust pizza I’ve ever tasted, but I have a lot of love for Crosta (Brooklyn, NY). While my preference is thin-crust, I don’t sleep on the deep dish from Pequod’s (Chicago, IL). No fast food pizza please. Please query me for additional pizza-related opinions, quotes, and recommendations.
Art Process:
Before any project, I rip a tag off a mattress, do the hokey pokey in reverse, and pet a corgi for good luck and vibes. After that, while every project is a little different, there are certain fundamentals that are consistent. I will do a kick-off call where expectations are discussed. From there, I plan, brainstorm, and outline. This is the longest part of the process because it’s the foundation. I’ll surround myself with inspiring books, my laptop, iPad, sketchbook, and notepad because I never know where my ideas will be best articulated.
Once I have my ideas out of my head, I will do digital rough sketching in Procreate. For a client, there will be a couple of passes of the sketches on my end so they are refined for critique. I like my sketches to be a close reflection of the final product. Once sketches are approved, the next step for me is refined pencils then ink. Coloring is the second longest part of the process as the palette is very important to me to get right. Upon approval of the color, the files will be delivered to the client based on their specifications.
Location:
Chicago, IL
Zines and Projects:
Cactus Juice Zine – Avatar: the Last Airbender Charity Zine (2020)
Terror Time Zine – Horror Theme (2020)
Art of Change Artbook (2020)
Banished – TV Pitch (2020)
Connect the Dots – Buzzfeed Unsolved Zine (2021)
Elements Zine – Avatar: the Last Airbender Zine (2021)
Wicked X Lovely – Villianess Zine (2022)
Alias Zine – Batman Zine (2022)
Visit Rae at:
WEBSITE: http://raecrawford.com
INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/itsraecrawford
COMIC INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/imbrokencomics
Available for School Visits:
Yes. I’ve done school visits about my artist journey, publishing career, and readings of my books. For younger kids, the themes of the book I’m presenting are explored and discussed. This often includes a reading and Q&A. For teens and college level, the discussion is more geared toward career. This is often accompanied by me doing portfolio reviews. Please reach out to Janna for more details.
Mediums:
Digital (Procreate)
Specialties:
Board books, Comedy, Comics & Graphic Novels, Hand-drawn typography, Illustration, Licensing comics & art, Picture books, Portraits, Writing
Published books:
Good Nights Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Inspired Young Changemakers (Rebel Girls, 2022)
Rebel Girls Animal Allies: 25 Tales of Women Working with Wildlife (Rebel Girls, 2023)
My Day With Dad (Holiday House, 2023)
My Day With Mom (Holiday House, 2024)
Published Books
