Melanie Gillman
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Cartoonist
Notable works
As the Crow Flies
AwardsSociety of Illustrators gold medal
www.melaniegillman.com

Melanie Gillman is an American queer non-binary cartoonist, illustrator, and lecturer, specializing in LGBTQ comics for Young Adult readers, including the webcomic As the Crow Flies.[1][2] Their comics have been published by Boom! Studios,[3] Iron Circus Comics, Lion Forge Comics, Slate,[4] VICE,[5] Prism Comics, Northwest Press, and The Nib.[6]

Education

Gillman received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Master of Fine Arts from the Center for Cartoon Studies.[7]

Career

Teaching

Gillman began teaching Professional Practices at the California College of the Arts (CCA) in 2015, and was later appointed Senior Lecturer in Comics.[8] They teach courses at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and the Art Students' League of Denver and have been a writing fellow with the Tulsa Artist Fellowship program since 2017.[9]

Publications

Gillman's first graphic novel Smbitten – about lesbians, swing-dancing, fancy hats, and vampires – was produced as part of their Masters thesis at the Center for Cartoon Studies.[10]

In 2012 they began As the Crow Flies,[11] a webcomic about a 13-year-old African American queer girl who finds herself at an all-white Christian backpacking camp. The first volume of As the Crow Flies was funded through Kickstarter.[12] The Amelia Bloomer Project named it as one of their 2019 top 10 books for readers from birth to age 18.[13] As the Crow Flies received the Stonewall Book Award Honor in 2018,[14] was also nominated for the "Best Digital/Webcomic" Eisner Award in 2014[15] and the "Outstanding Comic" Ignatz Award in 2016.[16] The Society of Illustrators awarded Gillman a gold medal for it.[17]

Gillman was co-editor with Kori Michele Handwerker and a contributor to The Other Side,[18] an anthology of 19 queer paranormal romance comics published in 2016. In 2016, they began writing an ongoing Steven Universe comics series for Boom! Studios.[3]

Under Lerner Publishing Group, Gillman published Stage Dreams in 2019.[19] The story centers around a female Latinx outlaw and a runaway trans woman in New Mexico during the Civil War.[20] Citing their interest in historical fiction and the lack of queer representation in such stories, Gillman aimed to create a story which depicted queer history prior to the Civil Rights movement.[19]

In 2019, Gillman received the opportunity to create a compilation of queer fairy tales from Random House Graphic after the success of a series of queer fairy-tale comics Gillman published online garnered widespread popularity. [21] The opportunity led to the publication of Other Ever Afters in 2022. [22] Gillman noted following a Western European fairytale format of storytelling to reinterpret old stories in a more modern point of view. [23] Gillman's intent behind the stories of Other Ever Afters was to provoke readers into thinking about how women and girls are treated within traditional tales and stories. [23]

Personal life

Gillman lives in Columbus, Ohio. Gillman is non-binary and uses the gender-neutral pronouns they and their.[22]

Bibliography

Books

As the Crow Flies (2017)

Care Bears Volume 1: Rainbow River Rescue (2016)

The Other Side: An Anthology of Queer Paranormal Romance (2016)

Steven Universe #1 (2017)

Steven Universe #2 (2017)

Steven Universe #3 (2017)

Steven Universe #4 (2017)

Steven Universe #8 (2017)

Steven Universe: Warp Tour (2017)

Steven Universe: Punching Up (2018)

Stage Dreams (2019)

Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales (2022)

References

  1. ↑ "Drawn to Comics: As The Crow Flies Helps You Relive Your Awkward Camp Memories". Autostraddle. 2013-11-14. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  2. ↑ "The Empowered (Not Defeated) Queeroes of Melanie Gillman". Out Front Magazine. September 7, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Boom Launches 'Steven Universe' Ongoing By Gilman and Farina". Comics Alliance. 22 November 2016. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  4. ↑ Sturm, James (2013-10-22). "Radiant". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  5. ↑ "The Best Walk - VICE". Vice. 7 July 2013. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  6. ↑ Gillman, Melanie. "Witch Camp". The Nib. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  7. ↑ "Melanie Gillman". California College of the Arts. Retrieved March 2, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Melanie Gillman | California College of the Arts". www.cca.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  9. ↑ "Tulsa Artist Fellowship announces 2017 Cohort". The Edmond Sun. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  10. ↑ "Smbitten". Gumroad. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  11. ↑ "Growing Up Queer: Should You Be Reading 'As the Crow Flies'?". Comics Alliance. Archived from the original on 2016-01-25. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  12. ↑ "As the Crow Flies: Volume One!". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  13. ↑ Yorio, Kara (March 2019). "Amelia Bloomer Project's Top 10 of 2019". School Library Journal. 65: 20 – via EBSCOhost.
  14. ↑ admin (2009-09-09). "Stonewall Book Awards List". Round Tables. Retrieved 2021-05-10.
  15. ↑ "2014 Eisner Award Nominees Announced". Comic Vine. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  16. ↑ Cavna, Michael; Cavna, Michael (2016-09-18). "Small Press Expo: Here are your 2016 Ignatz Award winners, including new talent Tillie Walden". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  17. ↑ "Comic and Cartoon Art Annual Short Form and Digital Media | Society of Illustrators". www.societyillustrators.org. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  18. ↑ "About". othersideanthology.com. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  19. 1 2 Figa, Alenka (2016-12-01). "Melanie Gillman's Stage Dreams: A Story of Queer Romance and Espionage!". WWAC. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  20. ↑ Stage Dreams.
  21. ↑ Knight, Rosie (2022-10-04). "Other Ever Afters makes fairy tales subversive, kinder, and a whole lot queerer". Polygon. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  22. 1 2 "As the Crow Flies - About". www.melaniegillman.com. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
  23. 1 2 Lauer, Emily (2022-09-20). "INTERVIEW: Melanie Gillman Chats About Craving Queer Community in Other Ever Afters". WWAC. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
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