Maddie Baker
Picture books
Maddie Baker is an illustrator and comic maker living in St. Louis, with an MFA from the Sam Fox School’s Illustration and Visual Culture and BFA in Illustration from Brigham Young University. She loves cannellini beans, Jane Austen, and collecting unwanted scraps to use for art projects, and you can find her five inches deep in cut paper scraps and paint stains. The goal of her work can be summed up by designer Jessica Hische who once said: “There need to be people who show us that the world is a beautiful place worth saving.” Maddie’s work is about the loveliness and humor of everyday life, especially stories about women. Her favorite projects are those with deeply relatable flawed characters, and a healthy dose of playfulness.
What was your favorite book as a child?
When I was very young I loved Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin. I found the farm animals demanding a higher quality of life from their disgruntled farmer to be very entertaining and clever!
What is your favorite food?
Any kind of Thai curry! It’s simply the yummiest combination of spices and flavors and its perfect for a pick me up anytime.
Who or what inspires you the most?
The thing that inspires me the most is when I take 10 minutes to stop and look—really look—at whatever is around me. Whether it is the beauty of world around me, the ingenuity of human invention, or the smile of the person next to me—I always feel like there is such a wealth of good and interesting things to pull from.
What cool travel spots would you most highly recommend?
Redfish Lake near Stanley, Idaho, nestled in the Sawtooth Mountains. It is stunningly gorgeous in the summertime, and holds a lot of nostalgia for me. Also the Johnson Shut Ins in Missouri are amazing. It is a series of cool rock formations with water flowing through, perfect for swimming and exploring.
If someone made a potion to summon you, what would go into the cauldron?
For me it is Thai curry, Enya’s Watermark CD, bright pink paint pigment, the smell of citrus, and freeze dried Milk Duds.
What do you love to do for fun?
I love reading Agatha Christie and Jane Austen out loud with my husband, and thrifting at the St. Louis Goodwill bins. I once found a gorgeous hand dyed area rug in all my favorite colors for $5. That is a dang good feeling.
Creative Process:
I am an idea girl. I love exploring lots of possibilities, visual ideas, and research before settling on a course, and even then—I like to leave room for things to shift and grow throughout a project. I never like to let any one project get too stale, so I try to set myself a new challenge for each to get outside of my habitual patterns, whether that is a new tube of hot pink paint or a specific layout of panels for a graphic novel page. I love the mistakes and happy accidents that occur when I am using analog media. I always find that there is some neat, unexpected outcome that way, and I try to implement that analog feel even when I am working digitally.
Awards and honors:
Young Professionals Scholarship (Society of Illustrators Los Angeles 2026)
Graduate Speaker at Sam Fox School Recognition Ceremony May 2025
Rose O’Neill Award For Distinction In Illustration from Sam Fox
School Society of Illustrators LA Bronze Award
Bill Tara Scholarship (SILA) 2025
Association for Mormon Letters Special Award in Children’s Literature
Published books:
The Book of Mormon Storybook Volumes I and II (self-published and authored by Josh and Sarah Sabey, 2023)
The Bible Storybook: The Old Testament Volumes I and II (self-published and authored by Josh and Sarah Sabey, 2025)
The Bible Storybook: The New Testament Volumes I and II (self-published and authored by Josh and Sarah Sabey, 2026)
Forthcoming books:
Mediums:
Gouache, Paper collage, mixed media, digital
Location:
St. Louis, Missouri
Specialties:
Board books, Book Covers, Graphic novel interior art, Humor, Illustration, Indie comics, Picture books, Slice-of-life, Spot art
Visit Maddie at:
maddiebakermakes.com
Instagram: @maddiebakermakes
Available for School Visits:
I’ve never done one but am totally open to it!
Published Books
Dusty Higgins
Picture books
Dusty Higgins is an award-winning cartoonist and illustrator who began his career working in newspapers as an editorial cartoonist, illustrator, and graphic designer. He’s worked in branding and marketing, as a professor of digital media, and as an animator/director (Star Forest). He fell in love with storytelling at an early age, drawing comics in elementary school, later writing and drawing three different comic strips four days a week for his college newspaper.
Higgins’ debut graphic novel, Pinocchio Vampire Slayer, was a 2010 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens from the Young Adult Library Association. Higgins has a Masters of Fine Arts in Animation from Savannah College of Art and Design, although that’s not nearly as impressive as his homemade pizza, cultivated from years of practice. When he’s not creating or cooking, he enjoys spending time with his wife, two children, two dogs, and a Venus fly trap named Vinny.
What do you love to do for fun?
I grew up waterskiing on the lake with my dad, who did so with his dad, and I happily take my children to the lake to sling them across the water as I continue that tradition.
What cool travel spots would you most highly recommend?
The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Hong Kong is a treasure I’m happy to have been able to visit. The stairway up the mountain to it is lined with a hundreds of uniquely posed golden Buddha statues, and it was an inspiring place to visit.
Available for School Visits:
I enjoy talking with kids and giving them a behind the curtain reveal of what professional artists do, talking about ideation and explaining how artists start with sketches to create a blueprint, and what that work goes through next. Basically explaining to them why that how to draw books starts with circles and squares to make a bear, and how even people like me still do that. I like to bring in examples of work that I’ve done to show how things get made and what they look like in early examples versus and then show them what the final product that they see actually looks like. I’ve done this both with graphic novels as well as animation. I like to end the presentations with a group exercise, usually letting the students help me ideate a character or a short four panel comic, depending on how much time we have.
Visit Dusty at:
Website: https://dustyhiggins.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dusty_higgins
Bluesky: @dustyhiggins.bsky.social
Creative Process:
I once had an older, and wiser, colleague who taught painting describe to me how they would teach students the process of painting using a projected image over time. They began by projecting the image completely out of focus, so that the students would only see blurry shapes. The initial paintings would be abstract forms. But every so often, this professor would tweak the focus, slowly bringing the image into a sharp perspective. Each time, the abstract forms would be rendered to a finer degree, before the students finished their painting. My approach to each project I work on is much the same. I work in digital media, traditional mediums, in motion and static, and even in writing. The method works for all of those mediums, and can even inform a different approach to the medium. Begin simple and broad, then I analyze, refine, and repeat until it’s done.
Awards and honors:
2010 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens, Young Adult Library Services Association
2015 Junior Library Guild Selection, Junior Library Guild
2017 Junior Library Guild Selection, Junior Library Guild
Specialties:
Action-adventure, Animals, Black & white, Board books, Book Covers, Branding, Character design, Coloring, Concept art, Editorial, Fantasy, Graphic novel interior art, Humor, Illustration, Indie comics, Inking, Lettering, Middle Grade, Mystery, Non-fiction, Penciling, Picture books, Sci-fi, Slice-of-life, Spot art, Storyboarding, Typography, Writing, Young Adult
Who or what inspires you the most?
Nature. One of my go-to things to do when I’m feeling uninspired is to grab some gouache and my art travel bag, and find a nice spot for some plein air painting.
Published books:
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer (SLG Publishing, 2009)
Pinocchio Vampire Slayer and the Great Puppet Theater (SLG Publishing, 2010)
Knights of the Living Dead (SLG Publishing 2011)
Turok, Son of Stone Volume 1: Aztlan (Dark Horse 2011)
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer Volume 3: Of Wood and Blood part 1 (SLG Publishing, 2012)
Pinocchio Vampire Slayer of Wood and Blood part 2 (SLG Publishing, 2012)
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer: Complete Edition (Top Shelf Publishing, 2014)
Miles Taylor and the Golden Cape: Attack of the Alien Horde (Simon and Schuster, 2015)
Valkyrie Beer Delivery (Stela Publishing, 2017)
Miles Taylor and the Golden Cape: Rise of the Robot Army (Simon & Schuster, 2017)
Forthcoming books:
Location:
Bryant, AR
Mediums:
digital, ink, watercolor, gouache
Published Books
Anna-Maria Jung
Picture books
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
Royden Lepp
Picture books
Royden Lepp is a Canadian/American author and illustrator best known for his acclaimed graphic novel series Rust, which was optioned by 20th Century Fox. He is also the creator of the middle grade series Jurassic Jeff from Random House Graphic. With a professional background spanning video-game art direction, picture books, storyboarding, and concept art, Lepp’s work combines cinematic storytelling with a warm, character-driven visual style that has earned him Junior Librarian Guild Selections, Canadian Council of the Art grants, and a dedicated readership across age groups.
Royden lives in the Pacific Northwest of the US, where he continues to create new stories across books and visual media. Outside of his illustration and writing work, he enjoys photography and drone videography.
What was your favorite book as a child?
All of the Dr Seuss books were so wild and delightful when I was young. There were a few X-Men and Spiderman series that had a pretty big impact on my taste in sequential stories.
Who or what inspires you the most?
Music moves me the most. I create playlists for my projects that get me into the mindset, draw out the emotions I need to connect with the characters and ensure I strike the right tone. Sometimes it’s just one song that defines a whole book for me.
Mediums:
My primary medium is Digital.
Specialties:
Action-adventure, Animals, Board books, Book Covers, Character design, Concept art, Editorial, Fantasy, Graphic novel interior art, Humor, Illustration, Indie comics, Manga, Middle Grade, Mystery, Non-fiction, Penciling, Picture books, Sci-fi, Slice-of-life, Spot art, Storyboarding, Writing, Young Adult
Location:
Bothell, WA
Creative Process:
I have a lot of different approaches depending on the type of project, whether it’s writing or illustrating, but I always like to have something visual to go with my work. I like to work very loose and rough before finalizing. I like to create a clear and defined vision for a project so anyone involved can see where it’s going. I like creating something new and fresh but all of my work is inspired by my experiences in life. I work digitally almost exclusively for the sake of speed and efficiency.
Awards and honors:
Junior Librarians Guild Selections for each Jurassic Jeff Volume
Available for School Visits:
If Royden is scheduled to visit your school, you can expect him to address any grade from K-6 for 35-45 minutes talking about visual literacy, art as a career, visual storytelling, and the power of drawing. He will do live drawing on a tablet connected to a screen and engage in an interactive lesson on the key elements of storytelling. Facility and audio/visual requirements are a large TV or projector with an hdmi or usb-c port, and a microphone depending on audience size. Audience cap of 20 kids with one other adult present for crowd control, larger assemblies permitted with larger support. High school level portfolio reviews are also an option.
Published books:
David, Volume 1: Shepherd’s Song (Alias, 2006)
Barnabas Goes Swimming (Harper Collins, 2008)
Barnabas Helps a Friend (Harper Collins, 2008)
God Loves You, Barnabas (Harper Collins, 2008)
Happy Birthday, Barnabas (Harper Collins, 2008)
How to Draw Big Bad Bible Guys (Harper Collins, 2009)
How to Draw Big Bad Bible Beasts (Harper Collins, 2009)
Rust Vol. 1: Visitor in the Field (BOOM! Studios / Archaia, 2011)
Rust Vol. 2: Secrets of the Cell (BOOM! Studios / Archaia, 2012)
Rust Vol. 3: Death of the Rocket Boy (BOOM! Studios / Archaia, 2014)
Rust: The Boy Soldier (prequel) (Archaia, 2016)
Rust Vol. 4: Soul in the Machine (BOOM! Studios / Archaia, 2018)
Jurassic Jeff: Space Invader (Jurassic Jeff Book 1) (Random House Graphic, 2023)
Jurassic Jeff: Race to Warp Speed (Jurassic Jeff Book 2) (Random House Graphic, 2024)
Forthcoming books:
Jurassic Jeff: Phone Home (Jurassic Jeff Book 3) (Random House Graphic, 2026)
The Cedars (Random House Graphic, Fall 2027)
Visit Royden at:
Published Books
Sarah Cathcart Anderson
Picture books
Sarah Cathcart Anderson is an artist, writer and creative director living in the Pacific Northwest. She has spent many years collaborating with big and small brands, ad agencies and non-profits. Sarah is a graduate of Stanford University, with a theater major, and an alum and former instructor in the Art Center College of Design’s Advertising program. As an illustrator she works both digitally and in ink, pencil and watercolor, creating work that explores the magic and absurdity of the everyday world. When she’s not telling stories and making art, Sarah spends her time detangling her son’s wildly long hair, hanging with her dogs, and eating amazing food cooked by her husband, Food Network personality and Today Show regular Mark Anderson of The Grill Dads. Her family is thrilled she does so little cooking herself.
What was your favorite book as a child?
I loved so many! One of them was definitely Alexander and the Magic Mouse. The illustrations and characters were so vivid for me, and I loved the idea of being trapped in a rambling house reading sea stories and drinking tea with talking animals while a storm raged outside for 30 days and 30 nights. I still do.
Who or what inspires you the most?
My kiddo. He’s brilliant and wild and completely unique. He inspires me every day.
Mediums:
watercolor, ink, pencil, digital
Specialties:
Creative Process:
For me, everything starts with some kind of narrative spark: sometimes it begins with an image, sometimes with words, sometimes with an emotion or experience I’m trying to articulate. Then I grab whatever is nearest—scraps of paper, my notes app, an actual sketchbook (if I’m lucky)—and start scribbling. If I’m starting with words, my next step is to get to my computer and expand on the thought, trying to find the form in the narrative. If I’m starting with a visual, I draw some rough sketches on paper or on my tablet and get to know the new idea a bit. Either way, my next move is to really nail down the manuscript and then draw a loose storyboard so I can see how the story moves and breathes. Then I’ll play around with character design and choose a key moment to explore visually in more depth. I try obvious stuff, weird stuff, go down tangents, and then get to work drawing a more refined version on paper. I usually rough in with a light pencil, then come back with watercolor, then colored pencil, and then scan it into my tablet and noodle around with it in Procreate. At that point I’ll probably bounce back and forth between paper and tablet. Whether I’m writing or illustrating, a really important part of my creative process is to stop at different points and step away—when I come back with fresh eyes, I always find I bring something new to the work.
Location:
Boise, ID
Published books:
Forthcoming books:
Awards and honors:
Available for School Visits:
Visit Sarah at:
Rajiv Eipe
Picture books
Rajiv Eipe makes picture books, comics, and short animation films. He collaborates frequently with the writer C. G. Salamander, and some of the series they’ve worked on together are the Maithili and the Minotaur graphic novels, the Lost Creatures Picture Books, and the Nisha Small middle grade novels. In 2020, he was awarded the Parag Big Little Book Award for illustration for his contribution to children’s literature in India. He lives in Bangalore, India, with his family consisting of two cats, one dog, and one (other) human. He likes to doodle in his sketchbook, drink more coffee than he should, maintain an untidy workspace, and gaze into vacant space at regular intervals.
What was your favorite book as a child?
Mr. Clumsy by Roger Hargreaves. And a bunch of comics—Funny World, Detective Moochwala, and Gardhab Das, in a children’s magazine called Target, published in India in the 80s and 90s. I wasn’t a very good reader as a child, and images were a way into books for me. Looking back, it’s pretty incredible that a green blob with a yellow circle for a nose and a few strands of hair sprouting out of the top of his head and from under his nose can so vividly represent a character that you feel for and laugh along with.
What do you love to do for fun?
I love the outdoors and live in a city with a temperate climate and lots of great short hikes. I’m also an amateur birder, and will find time a couple of days a week to grab a pair of binocs and walk around a park or city forest near home (while silently muttering curses at people who wear bright colours and talk loudly inside a forest).
Awards and honors:
The Big Little Book Award for Illustration 2020 by the Parag Initiative of Tata Trusts for contribution to Children’s Literature in India
Binod Kanoria Early Readers Award 2024 for Hello Sun
Mehlli Gobhai Award for Illustration 2022 for Chitty: A Dog and her Forest Farm
Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Picture Book Illustration Award 2022 for Dugga
Binod Kanoria Illustration Award 2022 for Dugga
The Hindu Young World Good Books Award for Illustration 2019 for Ammachi’s Amazing Machines
Creative Process:
Making rough drawings in sketchbooks or on loose sheets of paper is a way of thinking for me—my small brain can hold only so much. So every project or idea generally starts like this, with sketchy pencil drawings, whether I’m collaborating with a writer and responding to a manuscript, or working alone. I love the character design process and spend lots of time doodling many variations of a design till I find what feels like a good fit. I find it somewhat difficult and constricting to draw directly on a computer, so it’s usually pencil on (cheap) paper, but i often add colours digitally, especially on projects with short timelines. I’ve noticed that as images move towards completion, they lose some of the energy of initial sketches, so i’ve been making an effort to retain some of the freeness and looseness of rough drawings. I’m generally ‘drawn’ to silliness in stories and characters, and try and find inspiration for drawings from the sights and sounds of my immediate surroundings.
Location:
Bangalore, India
Mediums:
Pencil, Inks, crayons, colour pencils, mixed media, digital
Specialties:
Published books:
Dugga (Pratham Books, 2021)
Maithili and the Minotaur: Web of Woe (Puffin India, 2021)
Nisha Small: The Knot of Gold (Duckbill PRH 2022)
Maithili and the Minotaur: Forest of Forgotten Fears (Puffin India, 2022)
Hello Sun (Pratham Books, 2022)
How to Reach Mars and Other (Im)Possible Things (Puffin India, 2023)
When Fairyland Lost Its Magic (Harper Collins Children India, 2023)
Ajay of Agumbe and the Signal Snake (Pratham Books, 2024)
Nisha Small: The Strand of Silver (Duckbill PRH 2024)
Maithili and the Minotaur: Dolls of Despair (Puffin India, 2024)
The Pangolin Protectors (Pratham Books, 2025)
Song of the Asunam (Harper Collins Children India, 2025)
Forthcoming books:
Prabir’s New Flute (Duckbill PRH 2025)
Maithili and the Minotaur: Isle of Insanity (Puffin India, 2026)
Aalais like the Hills (Harper Collins Children India, 2026)
Available for School Visits:
No
Visit Rajiv at:
Published Books
C. G. Salamander
Picture books
C. G. Salamander is a writer and graphic novelist who splits his time between Chennai, India and Groot-Ammers, The Netherlands. Working alongside co-creator Rajiv Eipe, he’s one half of the Maithili and the Minotaur series, the Lost Creatures Picture Book series, and the Nisha Small middle-grade novels. In addition to writing, he spends his time taking long walks in the Dutch countryside, gardening, or tinkering with recipes that don’t need tinkering. He also likes to cycle, travel the world, and was once bitten by a sea-turtle.
What was your favorite book as a child?
Tin Tin! Comics were hard to find in India in the 90s, but when I got my hands on my first Tin Tin, something clicked. I can still picture that Lama spitting on Captain Haddock, as well as hear his alliterating curses. Everything from the thin pencils, the pastel colors, the pages packed with panels, and the comic relief. It was masterful. I didn’t know it at the time, but it’d introduced me to my favourite literary format.
What cool travel spots would you most highly recommend?
I have a list! Vilnius in Lithuania is a woefully underrated city. There’s this secret beach called Vruja that I stumbled across in the Dalmatian coast (Croatia) – the water is VERY cold but hands down the prettiest coast I’ve visited. The Armenian church in Chennai because it’s an oasis of calm surrounded by chaos (I once worked as a tour guide and this is where I would take overstimulated tourists). Kampung Baru in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia – to see defiant (village) houses surrounded by skyscrapers (make sure you have the Nasi Lemak at Wanjo). The Molenlanden (translates to windmill land) it’s where I call home and it’s beautiful. The Gothenburg peninsular in Sweden, the South Island in New Zealand, Pittsburgh! I’m plagued by the thought of how short life is, in terms of the number of places I won’t get to see.
Available for School Visits:
In my presentations, I teach students how to convincingly build large fantastical worlds — drawing from myth, folktales and urban lore that’s indigenous to their geographies.
Creative Process:
I’m constantly bombarded with ideas, so it’s important not to note them down, no matter how interesting they may seem. I just let them slosh around in my mind, and if they’re truly memorable, I’ll start obsessing over them. What follows is a fair amount of research, and once that’s done, the characters, arc, plot, and title usually reveal themselves. Then it’s off to getting the first draft out, either in my notebook or on my computer. If I’m visited by a colossal thought—one with multiple arcs and a fair amount of world-building—I take my time and break it down to make it manageable. With our graphic novel series Maithili and the Minotaur (co-created with Rajiv Eipe), we split one big idea into three manageable arcs across seven books. When it comes to world-building, I’m always tempted to create a One Piece (Eiichiro Oda) sized world. But I find it more manageable to take a Discworld (Terry Pratchett) esque approach, where one big world serves as the backdrop for many stories. Makaras to Manticores: Around India in 100 Mythical Creatures (Hachette, 2023) catalogues mythical beings; The Lost Creatures picture book series (HarperCollins, 2025) gives each catalogued creature its own book; and finally, Maithili and the Minotaur (PRH, 2021–present) uses these creatures as part of the world-building. Ultimately, it all boils down to obsession. I can’t write if I’m not consumed by an idea. which is why, with commissions, the first thing I do is induce obsession through a lot of research.
Specialties:
Location:
Groot-Ammers, South Holland, Netherlands
Published books:
Maithili and the Minotaur: Web of Woe (Penguin, 2021)
Maithili and the Minotaur: Forest of Forgotten Fears (Penguin, 2022)
Nisha Small: The Knot of Gold (Duckbill Books PRH, 2022)
From Makaras to Manticores: Around India in 100 Beasts (Hachette, 2023)
Nisha Small: The Strand of Silver (Duckbill Books PRH, 2024)
Maithili and the Minotaur: Dolls of Despair (Penguin, 2024)
Tara’s Elephant 2nd Editon (Scholastic, 2025)
Song of the Asunam (Harper Collins, 2025)
Tiny Tale: Frank Goes to the Market 2nd Edition (Scholastic, 2025)
Tiny Tale: Amal Rides the Rails (Scholastic, 2025)
Astray in the Sundarbans (Room to Read, 2025)
Forthcoming books:
Maithili and the Minotaur: Isle of Insanity (Penguin, 2026)
Tiny Tale: Ajay’s Surprise (Scholastic, 2026)
Aalais Like the Hills (Harper Collins, 2026)
Awards and honors:
Bangalore Literature Prize (Children’s Fiction) – 2022
Parag Honour List – 2024
Visit C. G. at:
Published Books
Jade Vaughan
Picture books
Howdy, I’m Jade! I’m a comic bookworm currently based in Virginia. You can often find me lost in a library or forest somewhere. For the past few years I have worked multiple part time jobs (the hustle is real y’all) and as the creative director for Kids Comics Unite, a team passionate about fostering community and providing opportunities for kids-ya comic creators.
My fascination with storytelling is rooted from multicultural experiences I had growing up as a traveling military brat, a love for magical girls, and a deep appreciation for worlds you can sink yourself into to go on good ol’ fashion adventures. In my free time I enjoy baking, spilling tea with friends, and dreaming of one day owning a mango tree.
What is your favorite food?
Mangos! In fact, my content is rated M for Mangos. They’re amazing, 12/10.
What inspired you to make comics??
I didn’t think I could make comics for a long time, because I thought they were mostly stories of superheroes in the west or manga in the east. It wasn’t until I found Jen Wang’s Prince and the Dressmaker misplaced on a shelf at a Barnes & Noble, that I realized graphic novels were a thing in the U.S and GASP what — exploring topics like crossdressing in a positive way??
This was during a time when I was figuring out my own queerness, and it was genuinely life changing. It made me realize that creating these kinds of comics was something I absolutely could do!
Mediums:
I primarily use digital, however I have experience with watercolor, ink, and graphite. I would love to use analog tools for early reader comics, picture books, or illustration assignments.
Creative Process:
I usually approach characters first, followed by their world, and what medium (story length & type of art tool) best suits it. I try to grasp a very specific scene in my mind, and everything goes towards getting to that scene! How I get there is part of the fun.
As for coming up with ideas and getting inspired – I like to go on walks, research locations, or sit at a park or forest. They all add to the creative soup. I also like to stick large pieces of paper on the wall and write/tape stuff on it. It’s good to have a tangible vision board to go back to.
Location:
Virginia, US
Awards and honors:
Visit Jade at:
Published books:
Forthcoming books:
Specialties:
Action-adventure, Black & white, Book Covers, Branding, Character design, Coloring, Concept art, Fantasy, Graphic novel interior art, Humor, Illustration, Indie comics, Inking, Lettering, Manga, Middle Grade, Non-fiction, Penciling, Picture books, Slice-of-life, Spot art, Storyboarding, Young Adult
Available for School Visits:
I have not yet presented at a library or school but would love to! I’d happily give presentations on how to make four panel comics, my process making a book or zine, or even give an entire monologue on an ode to the mango while wearing a mango costume.
Coco Ouwerkerk
Picture books
Coco Ouwerkerk (1992, known online as Colourbee) is a comic artist/animator, born and raised in Arnhem (Netherlands). Studied two years at ArtEZ Comic Design and three years at HKU 2D animation and obtained her HBO diploma there.
She has published “Small Press” comic books since 2016, including: Colourbee in de Pocket, L.O.C.O, The Meeting, together with two friends the manga Oyasumi. In 2023 there was a successful kickstarter for a small press along with 4 others with 18+ comic shorts called Sticky Pages.
Her debut album, Acception #Losers, was released in December 2017 by Uitgeverij Syndikaat.
This album was nominated for “Youth Album of the Year” in 2018. Since January 2019, Acception has been published together with WEBTOON as a digital comic, which can be read for free in English, French, and Spanish on the WEBTOON app. With more than 900k followers, Acception is Coco’s greatest success yet. You can now read 6 seasons on WEBTOON and there will be more to come. In the Netherlands, Volume 1: #Losers, and Volume 2: #Friendship, are now available as Dutch comic albums. In 2025, volume 1 and 2 will also be released in the USA by Publisher WEBTOON UNCROLLED. Volume 3 and more will appear at a later date in both Dutch and English.
What do you love to do for fun?
Watching anime, reading comics, big fan of Nintendo games and playing TCG like Pokemon/Digimon/Yu-gi-oh.
Making Japanese snacks like onigiri and takoyaki.
Staying in and playing games with my boyfriend or going for a walk in the woods or city together.
Do something with friends. Drawing, watching movies, playing video games.
Who or what inspires you the most, and why?
Animals and nature inspire me a lot. A lot of fashion elements in Acception can be traced back to something animal or nature related. These things inspired my favorite shows like Pokemon, which uses animals as inspiration. Or Bluey, which uses every breed of dog. Or Myths, which uses reptiles to imagine dragons, etc. I love fantasy animals based on what we see around us. It makes you feel more one with nature if you see art inspired by it. It’s something we are all familiar with.
Awards and honors:
Nominated for youth comic of the year 2018 (Netherlands)
Location:
Mediums:
Creative Process:
Art Process for personal comic projects:
I make clear character designs. Colouring moodboard. Design the overall style. Write a finished story with clear genre for the target audience. With a somewhat open middle to be able to change stuff for the better if needed. But the beginning/middle/end is there. I thumbnail the pages. While making the pages I sometimes see better ways to illustrate the story and change small parts for better storytelling. I mostly work digital but for short comics I work with watercolor, copic markers, ink, pencils. When my comic is finished I print it and sell it on markets and online. I’ll make sure to promote my comic before it’s finished.
Art Process for assignments:
I first want to call or in real life meeting with my project partners/client to make a clear plan. I also would like to set up either an app or group discord to contact for quick questions if needed. If the assignment is only for a few illustration or a small project I’ll handle that with emails and calls. I will let the client know the steps I take and ask what steps they want to see from me. I always show sketches and ideas first. Then the finished black and white and lastly the colored version. Every round I want feedback if needed so that there is no confusion in the project. And we don’t have to do changes in the end.
Specialties:
Action-adventure, Advertising, Animals, Black & white, Board books, Book Covers, Branding, Character design, Coloring, Concept art, Drama, Fantasy, Graphic novel interior art, Humor, Illustration, Indie comics, Inking, Manga, Middle Grade, Moving storyboard, Non-fiction, Penciling, Picture books, Romance, Sci-fi, Slice-of-life, Storyboarding, Toy design, Writing, Young Adult
Visit Coco at:
Colourbee.co (still working on the website, nothing to see yet)
Instagram: Colourbee4 https://www.instagram.com/colourbee4/
WEBTOON creator profile: https://www.webtoons.com/p/community/en/u/colourbee
Forthcoming books:
Published books:
Acception Volume 1 & 2 (DUTCH) (Syndikaat, 2017)
Acception Volume 1: Losers (ENGLISH) (Webtoons Unscrolled, 2025)
Acception Volume 2: Friendship (ENGLISH) (Webtoons Unscrolled)
Available for School Visits:
I have visited highschools for presentations about how I got to becoming a Webtoon artist.
I visit my old art school once a year to teach a comic project for a week. And also do presentations on how to start a webcomic.
I have been asked to do some art-related workshops, from coloring for kids to making your own button to model art workshops. Or presentations about my work to comic-related events. Been on 2 different panels, one at Dutch Comic Con and one in Rotterdam Comic Con.
I’m not really open to do them much because I’m really busy with my Webtoon work so sometimes I have to say no. But once every few months is fine. I like to be around people so I try my best to make time.
Published Books
Nico and Candy Robertson
Picture books
Hi, we’re Nico and Candy Robertson, a husband-and-wife creative duo who have been making things together since 2000, when we first met in high school art class. We are graphic, toy, and garden designers originally from New Zealand and Hong Kong, but now living on a thickly forested hill near Ballarat, Australia.
Our toy designs have been stocked everywhere from one-star-rated eBay sellers to fancy museums like MoMA, NYC. Over the years, we’ve had work featured alongside some pretty famous brands, but we’re most proud of being on wedding and birthday cakes. Oh, and read as someone’s favourite book. That is just incredible!
We are the creators of Noferin, Pecanpals, Jibibuts, Roobee Roo, and Archie & Reddie.
What was your favorite book as a child?
Neither of us grew up in houses filled with books. And whilst Nico at least has fond memories of teachers reading stories at school, young Candy had nothing more than study-aids. Poor little Candy. In fact, it wasn’t until years later, when Nico read Roald Dahl’s BFG aloud, that Candy realised how spellbinding books could be. So it’s only been in our adult lives that we’ve truly discovered the magical world of children’s books.
Nico’s favourite books are: Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A.Milne and E.H.Shepherd, Le Petit Nicolas by René Goscinnny and Jean Jacques Sempé, Maison Ikkoku by Rumiko Takahashi, and Yotsuba by Kiyohiko Azuma.
Candy’s favourite books are: Moomin by Tove Jansson, Richard Scarry’s books, Miffy by Dick Bruna, and Dr Slump by Akira Toriyama.
What is your favorite food?
Certain brands of Australian milk. When we travel, that’s the only thing we truly miss. It’s sweet and creamy and just oh so good!
(We’re big fans of all food, but if we had to choose one cuisine, it would be Japanese.)
Who or what inspires you the most, and why?
The legacy of work left by Tove Jansson (Moomin). It’s a body of work that is both foreign yet familiar, strange yet soothing, quiet yet loud. It speaks to an inner voice that one didn’t know existed, and it lingers long after viewing. Story and characters aside, Tove’s work is populated by a strong design sense that has enabled her family to continue developing her world long after her passing; a rare gift that enables her characters to find new audiences and rekindle long-forgotten relationships with old readers. We just love that.
Awards and honors:
ARCHIE & REDDIE – I REALLY DIG PIZZA! 2022 Junior Library Guild selection
What do you love to do for fun?
Make things together. We love gardening, hiking, getting lost in forests, painting, cooking, designing, anything really. We just love making things and enjoy the process of seeing something evolve from nothing. The concept of “retirement” is completely foreign to us. How can you ever stop making things?!
Creative Process:
We work very closely together on all of our projects. Sometimes things start as an image or a visual feeling, like a certain expression, colour, or an experience that needs capturing. Other times it’s a certain joke, hook, or character flaw that we’d like to explore more.
To start, Nico distracts Candy with an important task, then he sits by himself in a dark corner somewhere and writes as many treatments of an idea as he can. If he’s on a roll, he’ll sketch some ideas to go with the notes. Once Candy has rejected all the nonsensical ideas, we get to work fleshing out the ones that do work. We write and draw together, scribbling a tree’s-worth of paper and HB pencils, until critical-mass is reached and we split into our main strengths: Nico on words, Candy on art.
After that, we become gardeners, watching unexpected things grow from unexpected places. Candy always sketches everything out with pencil on paper first. They’re pretty tiny at this stage, but all the details are there. Sometimes Candy will interpret something in a completely unexpected (but better) way. So we rewrite. Then we rewrite again. We redraw. Then redraw again. Once we’re happy with the overall flow, Candy digitally inks the sketches, sets up the colour palette, and then lets Nico fill in the blanks.
Eventually we end up with something worth sharing. So we send it to someone we trust, get their feedback, and the whole process starts all over again.
Location:
Visit Nico and Candy at:
What cool travel spots would you most highly recommend?
Kiso Valley in Japan. Beautiful views, historic villages, incredible walks, wonderful food, amazing details to notice (like little mosses and fungi growing on path markers), friendly locals trying to sell you moldy sweet potato, and abundant onsen. It really is the most magical place.
Forthcoming books:
Published books:
ARCHIE & REDDIE series of 4 books (Razorbill/PRH USA and HarperCollins ANZ, 2021)
ROOBEE ROO series of 21 books (Hachette ANZ, First 5 books published in 2023)
Mediums:
Specialties:
Action-adventure, Advertising, Animals, Black & white, Board books, Book Covers, Branding, Character design, Coloring, Concept art, Editorial, Game Design, Graphic novel interior art, Humor, Illustration, Indie comics, Inking, Manga, Middle Grade, Non-fiction, Packaging, Penciling, Picture books, Slice-of-life, Spot art, Writing
Available for School Visits:
We love working with people, particularly young children. Whilst our current IRL visits are confined to Australia, we more than make up for this through our creative and enthusiastic virtual presentations. We enjoy turning our readings into theatrical plays, making full-use of music, animation, and hands-on props and sets. We get a kick out of designing special activities for audiences to participate in and are always keen to connect with readers in new ways.
Published Books
