15 Canadian Comic Creators You Should Know About
Here are 15 Canadian comic creators you should know, from freelance comic book creators to Marvel writers.
Ho Che Anderson is the Toronto, Ontario-based author of numerous graphic novels, including the biography of Martin Luther King. King and the horror thriller Sand & Fury. His 2018 book, Divinity, is a gritty sci-fi graphic novel about how society reacts after a powerful corporation creates a device to communicate with God.
Ryan North is a comic book creator from Toronto, Ontario. He became popular with the webcomic Dinosaur Comics, featuring a neurotic and wordy T-Rex. North’s comics for Adventure Time, Jughead and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, received three Eisner Awards. He has also written two “choose your own path” books, To be or not to be and Romeo and/or Juliet, parodying Shakespeare’s famous tragedies. His latest book is How to invent everything, a guide on how to rebuild modern civilization for lost time travelers.
Chip Zdarsky is an Edmonton-born, Toronto-based comic book writer and illustrator. The creator with a quirky sense of humor has worked on books such as the award-winning Sex Criminals, Kaptara, Jughead, Howard the Duck, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man and Daredevil.
Calgary comic book artist Fiona Staples is the artist behind Saga and is the person who was tasked with turning the iconic redhead Archie Andrews into an object of desire when Riverdale launched as a remake of the old Archie Comics. Staples is also the award-winning illustrator of books like DV8: Gods and Monsters and THUNDER Agents.
Toronto-based artist and writer Mariko Tamaki has written for Marvel (X-23) and DC Comics (Supergirl). Tamaki wrote the graphic novels Browse and This summerwhich were illustrated by his cousin Jillian Tamaki. Browse received the Doug Wright Award for Best Graphic Novel, the Ignatz Award, and the Joe Schuster Award. This summer won the Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: New 2015. Both books were shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature — Text. Tamaki is also the author of the YA novels (you) set me on fire and Save Montgomery Sole.
Faith Erin Hicks is an Eisner Award-winning comic book creator known for books like The Adventures of Superhero Girl and Friends with boys. The last episode of his famous Nameless City trilogy, The Divided Earth, features the two misfit friends, Rat and Kai, in a tale that concludes the popular mid-level fantasy graphic novel series. In 2019 she published her first YA novel, VSomics will break your heartabout a young girl named Miriam from small town Nova Scotia, whose grandfather was the co-creator of a successful comic book series.
Gregory Gallant, known professionally as Seth, is a cartoonist from Guelph, Ontario. He has contributed to publications such as The New Yorker and New York Times Magazine and twice won the Doug Wright Best Book Award. His latest work, Clyde fans, depicts the quiet desperation of two brothers struggling to keep the increasingly irrelevant family business afloat. The artist has a big cult following for his 1990s comic book series Palookaville and his retro drawing style.
Kate Beaton is a cartoonist from Nova Scotia who launched her career by publishing the comic Listen ! A vagrant in line. The sassy historical webcomic drew 500,000 monthly visitors and was eventually turned into a bestselling book. Beaton’s success continued with the comic Step aside, Pops! which landed on the New York Times bestseller list and won Beaton the 2016 Eisner Award for Best Humorous Publication. Beaton has also published two children’s books, baby king and The Princess and the Pony.
Vancouver writer and artist Johnnie Christmas is the creator of comic books like Pyromaniac, Sheltered and Pisces. He is the illustrator of Angel Catbird, a graphic novel series written by novelist Margaret Atwood about a cat/bird/human superhero. He recently worked on the Alien 3 comic series.
Aminder Dhaliwal is a Canadian cartoonist and animator from Brampton, Ontario. Dhaliwal’s webcomic woman’s world has a dedicated following of over 150,000 readers. woman’s world skewers perceived notions of femininity and contemporary cultural icons. In 2018, she released the Instagram comic as a book.
Jim Zub is a Toronto-based comic book creator who wrote the Skullkickers, Wayward, Dungeons and Dragons comics and for the Marvel Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Thunderbolts, Uncanny Avengers and Champions comics. He recently helped create the character Snowguard, Marvel Comics’ new Inuit superhero from Nunavut.
Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling comic book creator whose books include Thug, Essex County, The underwater welder and Gord Downie secret path. He also worked on Justice League and Green Arrow for DC Comics and Hawkeye and Extraordinary X-Men for Marvel. In 2017 he won the Eisner Prize for black hammer in the best new series category. Essex County, a moving story about a rural community in southwestern Ontario, was championed by Sara Quin on Canada reads in 2011.
Nalo Hopkinson is an award-winning speculative fiction writer who made her comic book writing debut in 2018, creating a Sandman spin-off called House of Whispers with illustrator Domo Stanton for DC Comics. She is best known for the classic dystopian tale Brunette girl in the ringwhich won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest and was defended on Canada reads in 2008 by Jemeni. His other works of fiction include Sister Mine, midnight thief, Chaos, The arms of the New Moon and skin folklore.
Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic book career took off after publication The precious little life of Scott Pilgrim, the first in a Toronto-centric series about an indie music nerd who must defeat his girlfriend Ramona’s seven evil exes. The bestselling books later became a movie starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Brie Larson. O’Malley followed that success with the acclaimed graphic novel seconds and is now working on a series called Snot Girl with Leslie Hung.
Based in LaSalle, Ontario, Meredith Finch has made a name for herself in the comic book world as the author of several comic books, including DC Comics’ Wonder Woman series. His 2017 comic, Rose, is a fantasy series that combines his love of mythology with modern issues.
