Shaenon K. Garrity is a
webcomic
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 ...
creator and
science-fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...
author best known for her webcomics ''
Narbonic
''Narbonic'' is a webcomic written and drawn by Shaenon K. Garrity. The storylines center on the misadventures of the staff of the fictional Narbonic Labs, which is the domain of mad scientist Helen Narbon. The strip started on July 31, 2000, and f ...
'' and ''
Skin Horse''. She collaborated with various artists to write webcomics for the
Modern Tales
Modern Tales was a webcomics subscription service active from 2002 to 2012. Joey Manley was the website's publisher and original editor. The site featured a roster of approximately 30 professional webcomic artists. Shaenon Garrity, one of the si ...
-family of webcomic subscription services in the early 2000s, and write columns for various comics journals. Since 2003, Garrity has done freelance editing for
Viz Media
VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...
on various
manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
translations.
Early life
Garrity was born in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
in 1978. She enjoyed drawing and writing at a young age, and she began drawing comics in high school. As a
youth correspondent, Garrity drew a comic strip for the kids' section of the ''
Cleveland Plain Dealer
''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday.
As of Ma ...
''. She studied
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
at
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
, where she ran a comic strip in the
college newspaper
A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related news, but they may also repor ...
. Once out of college, Garrity worked as a front-desk secretary at
Viz Media
VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...
for three years while simultaneously creating ''Narbonic''.
Webcomics
Shaenon Garrity conceived her daily webcomic ''
Narbonic
''Narbonic'' is a webcomic written and drawn by Shaenon K. Garrity. The storylines center on the misadventures of the staff of the fictional Narbonic Labs, which is the domain of mad scientist Helen Narbon. The strip started on July 31, 2000, and f ...
'' in college, after watching the science-fiction films ''
City of Lost Children'' and ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie'' back-to-back. She began posting her webcomic, about the evil
mad scientist
The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly amb ...
Helen Narbon and her minions, shortly after moving to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in July 2000.
She initially advertised her webcomic to her family, friends, and her old
Usenet
Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was ...
group, and she submitted her website to major
search engines
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...
. She also submitted ''Narbonic'' to the webcomic portal
Keenspot, but it was rejected. Garrity had no plans to profit from her work, but she was curious how far her readership would grow. ''Narbonic'' audience grew slowly during its first year, but shot up significantly in 2001, hitting Garrity with steep
bandwidth
Bandwidth commonly refers to:
* Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range
* Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...
charges.
''Narbonic'' was part of the launch line-up of
Joey Manley
Joey Manley (July 1965 – November 7, 2013) was an American LGBT fiction author, web designer, and webcomics publisher. Manley wrote the successful LGBT novel ''The Death of Donna-May Dean'' in 1992. He moved to San Francisco in 2000 in order t ...
's webcomic subscription website
Modern Tales
Modern Tales was a webcomics subscription service active from 2002 to 2012. Joey Manley was the website's publisher and original editor. The site featured a roster of approximately 30 professional webcomic artists. Shaenon Garrity, one of the si ...
in March 2002, and it remained the most popular feature on the website until she moved it to
Webcomics Nation
Webcomics Nation was a webcomic hosting and automation service launched on July 29, 2005 by Joey Manley. Unlike Manley's previous webcomic sites, Webcomics Nation was based on user-generated content and relied on online advertisement revenue, wh ...
in 2006.
In the following years, Garrity began several webcomics on Manley's subscription services. When the platform
Girlamatic
Girlamatic (sometimes stylized as GirlAMatic or Girl-A-Matic) was a webcomic subscription service
The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product ...
launched, Manley and
Lea Hernandez
Lea Hernandez (born March 11, 1964) is an American comic book and webcomic creator, known primarily for working in a manga-influenced style, and for doing lettering and touch-ups on manga imports. She is the co-creator of '' Killer Princesses'', wr ...
suggested she do a ''Narbonic'' spin-off featuring a child version of the character Mell, one of Helen Narbon's minions. Garrity initially collaborated with artist
Vera Brosgol
Vera Brosgol, also known as the Verabee (born August 2, 1984, in Moscow), is an Eisner Award and Harvey Award winning cartoonist and a graduate in Classical Animation of Sheridan College in Canada. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon. She wor ...
to write the webcomic ''Li'l Mell'' for Girlamatic, and this webcomic later had a rotating roster of artists.
For the platform Graphic Smash, Garrity collaborated with artists Robert Stevenson and
Roger Langridge
Roger Langridge (born 14 February 1967) is a New Zealand comics writer, artist and letterer, currently living in Britain.
Biography
Langridge originally came to public prominence most notably with the ''Judge Dredd Megazine'' series ''The Stra ...
to write ''More Fun'', and, for
Serializer
Serializer.net was a webcomic subscription service and artist collective published by Joey Manley and edited by Tom Hart and Eric Millikin that existed from 2002 to 2013. Designed to showcase artistic alternative webcomics using the unique nat ...
, Garrity worked with
Tom Hart to write ''TrunkTown''. After the launch of Webcomics Nation, Garrity wrote ''Smithson'', drawn by Brian Moore and Roger Langridge. Garrity became content editor for Modern Tales in 2006. She revived the long-form webcomic section of the website and worked on implementing
Project Wonderful
Project Wonderful was an advertising service created by programmer and webcomic author Ryan North in late 2006. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the service supported up thousands of webcomics and blogs with auctioned online advertisement, online ...
.
Garrity concluded ''Narbonic'' on December 31, 2006,
and Garrity began a commentated "director's cut" of the webcomic online a few years later. During ''Narbonic'' run, Garrity was contacted by ''Narbonic'' reader Jeffrey Wells, who was writing a story that shared some elements with Garrity's webcomic. In 2008, Garrity and Wells launched the daily webcomic ''
Skin Horse''.
Telling the story of a top secret government agency that handles non-humans as armed social workers, ''Skin Horse'' was the most popular webcomic on Webcomics Nation until it was moved to its own website and
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 ...
. The first volumes of ''Skin Horse'' were published by a
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
artist group, the Couscous Comics collective.
By 2018, seven volumes of ''Skin Horse'' had been released in print.
In 2010, Garrity brought back ''Li'l Mell'' with a new storyline, this time collaborating with artist
Cameron Nielson.
Other work
Garrity began volunteering at the
Cartoon Art Museum
The Cartoon Art Museum (CAM) is a California art museum that specializes in the art of comics and cartoons. It is the only museum in the Western United States dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of all forms of cartoon art. The permanent ...
in 2000, and she continued to work there throughout her webcomic career. Shortly after being laid off by Viz Media in 2003, Garrity began doing freelance editing work for the company. She edited ''
One Piece
''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' since July 1997, with its individual chapte ...
'', ''
YuYu Hakusho
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. The series tells the story of List of YuYu Hakusho characters#Yusuke Urameshi, Yusuke Urameshi, a Juvenile delinquency, teenage delinquent who is struck and killed ...
'', ''
Ultimate Muscle
is a Japanese manga series created by the duo Yoshinori Nakai and Takashi Shimada, known as Yudetamago. It follows Suguru Kinniku, a superhero who must win a wrestling tournament to retain the title of prince of Planet Kinniku. N ...
'', ''
Knights of the Zodiac'', and ''
Tenchi Muyo
is a Japanese anime, light novel and manga franchise. The original series began with a six-episode OVA called created by Masaki Kajishima and directed by Hiroki Hayashi, and released in Japan on September 25, 1992. The series was relea ...
'' for the English-language ''
Shonen Jump'' magazine, and wrote reviews for ''
Animerica
''Animerica'' was a monthly magazine published by Viz Media
VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ ...
'' magazine.
Garrity wrote for
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
in the mid-2000s, writing the 2005–2007
Marvel Holiday Specials. She was a regular contributor for ''Sequential Tart'', ''
The Comics Journal
''The Comics Journal'', often abbreviated ''TCJ'', is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing re ...
'',
''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'', and ''
Anime News Network
Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...
''.
Handling the localization of ''
Case Closed
''Case Closed'', also known as , is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' since January 1994, with its ch ...
'', Garrity became responsible for official translations of the names of new characters. Garrity intended to write the book ''CLAMP in America'' in 2011, a volume which was intended to cover the history of the popular four-member manga creation team
CLAMP. However, this release was cancelled due to
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
issues.
Garrity wrote short
science-fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...
stories in ''
Strange Horizons
''Strange Horizons'' is an online speculative fiction magazine. It also features speculative poetry and nonfiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables.
History and profile
It was launched in September 2000, and ...
'', ''
Lightspeed'', and ''
Machine of Death
''Machine of Death'' is a 2010 collection of science fiction short stories edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki. The stories featured in ''Machine of Death'' were submitted by various writers since early 2007 and all focus on a ...
''. In 2013, Garrity contributed to
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known ...
' ''
CBLDF Presents Manga: Introduction, Challenges, and Best Practices''.
Personal life
Garrity is married to artist and
Cartoon Art Museum
The Cartoon Art Museum (CAM) is a California art museum that specializes in the art of comics and cartoons. It is the only museum in the Western United States dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of all forms of cartoon art. The permanent ...
curator
Andrew Farago
Andrew Farago is the curator of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, author, chairman of the Northern California chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, and husband of webcomics author and illustrator Shaenon K. Garrity.
Farago began hi ...
, and they moved to
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
in 2009. The two had a son in 2014.
Awards
Garrity won the 2005
Friends of Lulu
Friends of Lulu was a non-profit, national charitable organization in the United States, which operated from 1994–2011 to promote readership of comic books by women and the participation of women in the comic book industry.
Membership was op ...
"Lulu of the Year" award, alongside
Kazu Kibuishi
Kazuhiro "Kazu" Kibuishi (born April 8, 1978) is a Japanese-born American graphic novel author and illustrator. He is best known for being the creator and editor of the comic anthology ''Flight'' and for creating the webcomic ''Copper''. He is al ...
. In 2005, Garrity's ''Narbonic'' won in the "Outstanding Writing" category of the
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 ...
. During her spotlight panel at the 2022 Comic-Con International, Garrity received the Inkpot Award for Achievement in Comic Arts.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrity, Shaenon K.
1978 births
Living people
Anime and manga critics
American webcomic creators
American female comics artists
Female comics writers
Place of birth missing (living people)
Web Cartoonists' Choice Award winners
Vassar College alumni
Inkpot Award winners