Dana Claire Simpson is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

Phoebe and her Unicorn ''Phoebe and Her Unicorn'' is a daily children's comic strip by American cartoonist Dana Simpson. Originally called ''Heavenly Nostrils'', the strip debuted as a webcomic on April 22, 2012, in Universal Uclick's GoComics website. It was later la ...

'', as well as the long-running webcomic Ozy and Millie. Other works created by Simpson include the political commentary cartoon ''I Drew This'' and the alternate reality drama comic ''Raine Dog''.

Biography

Simpson was born in

Pullman, Washington Pullman () is the largest city in Whitman County, located in southeastern Washington within the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. The population was 29,799 at the 2010 census, and estimated to be 34,506 in 2019. Originally founded as Thr ...

, and then lived in the Seattle area for most of her life. She is a graduate of

The Evergreen State College The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a p ...

. Simpson considered herself an artist from an early age, drawing comic strips as young as five years old as part of making her own homemade newspaper. As she grew up, she began drawing inspiration from ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...

'', ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

'' and '' Pogo''. In her 20s, she came out as

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

. She currently lives in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...

Career

''Ozy and Millie''

The webcomic ''

Ozy and Millie ''Ozy and Millie'' is a daily comic strip that ran from 1998 to 2008, created by Dana Simpson (originally published under D.C. Simpson). It follows the adventures of assorted anthropomorphized animals, centering on Ozy and Millie, two young fo ...

'', Simpson's first published comic strip (published under ''D.C. Simpson''), began running regularly in 1998 while she was attending Washington State University as a graduate student. The strip centered on Ozy (an Arctic fox) and Millie (a red fox) as they and their friends dealt with everyday

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

issues and more surreal situations. For her work on ''Ozy and Millie'', Simpson was a finalist for the 1998

Scripps-Howard The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...

Foundation Charles M. Schulz College Cartoonist Award. The comic went on to win the 1999 College Media Advisers award for Best Strip Cartoon and the 2002

Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards The Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards (WCCA) were annual awards in which established webcartoonists nominated and selected outstanding webcomics. The awards were held between 2001 and 2008, were mentioned in a ''The New York Times'' column on webcom ...

for Best Anthropomorphic Comic. It also won the Ursa Major Award for both "Best Anthropomorphic Other Work" for 2002 and for "Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip" for 2006 and 2007. Simpson continued the strip for ten years while attempting to seek syndication for the title, but could not secure any deal. The final regular strip was published on December 23, 2008.

''I Drew This''

Simpson's second published comic strip, ''I Drew This'', was concerned mainly about politics, from a

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

perspective. It is semi-autobiographical, in that one of the main characters is the author (the other is Joe, the Liberal Eagle) and its focus is often the author's own musings. ''I Drew This'' began life in the Washington State University ''Daily Evergreen'' in January 2004, while Simpson was attending graduate school. Like ''Ozy and Millie'', this comic is part of the webcomics portal Keenspot, beginning November 2006. Material from ''I Drew This'' was included in '' Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists''. The May 16, 2005 edition, "Teaching Gravity", featured the first reference to the theory of

intelligent falling Intelligent falling (IF) is a parody of the intelligent design (ID) movement. It is a deliberately pseudoscientific supernatural explanation of the effects of gravity. The joke originated on Usenet, and has appeared in several online parodies. An a ...

. ''insert title here'' and ''I Drew This'' (a complete collection of the strips) are both available for purchase on

Lulu Lulu may refer to: Companies * LuLu, an early automobile manufacturer * Lulu.com, an online e-books and print self-publishing platform, distributor, and retailer * Lulu Hypermarket, a retail chain in Asia * Lululemon Athletica or simply Lulu, a C ...

''Phoebe and Her Unicorn''

Simpson's most popular work commenced in 2012 as a

web comic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

and continues, as of December 2022, as a daily

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

Other work

On January 16, 2009, Simpson posted the first page of ''Raine Dog'', a

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

which follows an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

dog living among humans with other recently liberated house dogs. The most recent update was in January 2010. Simpson abandoned the project "for the foreseeable future". Simpson announced that she is writing and illustrating a book about her transition, targeted for middle-school students, titled ''Only You're Different''. She also illustrated a picture book, ''I'm Not a Girl'', written by Maddox Lyons, a 12-year-old transgender boy.

Awards

Foundation Charles M. Schulz College Cartoonist Award, 1998: named finalist for ''

'' * College Media Advisers, 1999: Best Strip Cartoon for ''

'' *

Washington State Book Award The Washington State Book Awards is a literary awards program presented annually in recognition of notable books written by Washington authors in the previous year. The program was established in 1967 as the Governor's Writers Awards. Each year, u ...

, Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award, 2015: Books for middle readers (ages 9 to 12) for ''Phoebe and Her Unicorn: A Heavenly Nostrils Chronicle'' *

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, also known as the Pacific Northwest Book Award (PNBA), is an annual award presented by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association to recognize "excellence in writing" from the American Pacifi ...

for ''Unicorn on a Roll''

References

External links

danasimpson.com
*
Phoebe and Her Unicorn
' on

GoComics GoComics is a website launched in 2005 by the digital entertainment provider Uclick. It was originally created as a distribution portal for comic strips on mobile phones, but in 2006, the site was redesigned and expanded to include online strips ...

*
Ozy and Millie
'
also on GoComics

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Dana Claire American comic strip cartoonists American female comics artists American webcomic creators Furry fandom people American LGBT artists LGBT comics creators LGBT people from Washington (state) Living people 1977 births People from Pullman, Washington People from Auburn, Washington Evergreen State College alumni Transgender artists Transgender women writers American transgender writers Washington State University alumni 21st-century American LGBT people