Eleanor McCutcheon Davis (born January 16, 1983) is an American cartoonist and illustrator.

Early life

Eleanor Davis was raised in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

by comic-enthusiast parents who exposed her to stories like ''Little Lulu'', ''Krazy Kat'', ''Little Nemo'', and the ''Kinder Kids''. She attended Kino School, an alternative K-12 school in Tucson. In high school, she began drawing seriously and self-published her own comic. She studied sequential art at the

Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Uni ...

in Georgia.

Career

Davis has self-published many comics, including ''The Beast Mother''. Davis's work has also been included in five issues of

Fantagraphics Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint. History Founding Fantagraphics was founde ...

' anthology '' MOME'' as well as Houghton Mifflin's ''Best American Comics'' in 2008. Her easy-reader book, ''Stinky'', was published in 2008 by

Françoise Mouly Françoise Mouly (; born 24 October 1955) is a Paris-born New York-based designer, editor, and publisher. She is best known as co-founder, co-editor, and publisher of the comics and graphics magazine '' Raw'' (1980–1991), as the publisher of ...

's Toon Books and won an ALA Geisel Honor Award, a Booklist's Notable Children's Books Award, and the Bank Street College of Education's Best Children's Books of the Year in 2009 as well as the Association for Library Service to Children's Graphic Novels Reading List award in 2014. ''The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook'', published by Bloomsbury Children's in 2009, was a collaborative book created with husband Drew Weing, who inked Davis' illustrations. In 2009, she won the Eisner's Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award and was named one of ''Print'' magazine's New Visual Artists. In 2013, her short story ''In Our Eden'' received a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators. In August 2014,

published Davis' first collection of stories ''How to Be Happy''. '' Slate'' described the collection: "a mix of evocative, geometric watercolors and fluid pen-and-ink cartoons, ''How to Be Happy'' tells stories of sad people, lonely people, strong people, confident people, all trying to find a tiny bit of happiness in life." Upon publication, comics critic Richard Bruton described Davis as "without question, a major young creator." Her 2017 graphic novel ''You & a Bike & a Road'', published by Koyama Press, won the

Ignatz Award The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping ...

for Outstanding Anthology or Collection. In March 2018, Fantagraphics published ''Why Art?'', a graphic novel in which Davis examines the concept of art. Her most recent graphic novel, ''The Hard Tomorrow'', published by Drawn and Quarterly, was released in October 2019. Davis has taught comic book storytelling summer classes at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

."Comic Book Camp A: Beginning & Intermediate"

. Retrieved September 16, 2014.

Personal life

Davis lives and works in

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

, with fellow cartoonist and husband Drew Weing.Vigneault, François (2014)
"Scout Books Artist Profile: Eleanor Davis".
2014.

Selected works

* ''Stinky''. Toon Books. (2008) * ''The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook.'' (2009) Bloomsbury. . * ''How to Be Happy.'' Fantagraphics. (2014) . * ''You & a Bike & a Road.'' Koyama Press. (2017) . * ''Why Art?'' Fantagraphics. (2018) . *''The Hard Tomorrow''. Drawn and Quarterly. (2019) .

References

External links

* *
"Talking Comics with Tim: Eleanor Davis on How to Be Happy" (June 30, 2014)
by Tim O'Shea, Comic Book Resources (CBR.org, archived 2015-09-05) {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Eleanor 1983 births Living people American women cartoonists American women illustrators Alternative cartoonists American female comics artists Female comics writers American cartoonists 21st-century American women