Christina "Steenz" Stewart is an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

and editor known for illustrating ''Archival Quality'' and currently authoring and illustrating the 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 ...

'' Heart of the City''. They were born September 29, 1990, in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, and currently resides in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. Upon taking over ''Heart of the City'' from

Mark Tatulli Mark Tatulli is an American cartoonist, writer, animator and television producer, known for his strips '' Liō'' and '' Heart of the City'' and for his work on the cable reality television series ''Trading Spaces'' and ''A Wedding Story'', for whic ...

in May 2020, they became the second nationally syndicated black nonbinary cartoonist, preceded in this distinction by

Bianca Xunise Bianca Xunise is an American cartoonist, illustrator, and self-described " goth of color". Her work is nationally syndicated through the ''Six Chix'' comic strip collaborative. Early life Xunise was born in Chicago to artistic parents; her moth ...

only a month prior.

Early life

Growing up in St. Louis, Steenz was a fan of comics and cartoons that later influenced their work, including ''

Calvin and Hobbes ''Calvin and Hobbes'' is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", ''Calvin and Hobbes'' has enjoyed ...

'', ''

Cathy ''Cathy'' is an American gag-a-day comic strip, drawn by Cathy Guisewite from 1976 until 2010. The comic follows Cathy, a woman who struggles through the "four basic guilt groups" of life—food, love, family, and work. The strip gently pokes ...

'', ''

Curtis Curtis or Curtiss is a common English given name and surname of Anglo-Norman origin from the Old French ''curteis'' ( Modern French ''courtois'') which derived from the Spanish Cortés (of which Cortez is a variation) and the Portuguese and Ga ...

'', '' Recess'', ''

Hey Arnold! ''Hey Arnold!'' is an American animated comedy television series created by Craig Bartlett. It originally aired on Nickelodeon from October 7, 1996, to June 8, 2004. The show centers on fourth grader Arnold Shortman, who lives with his grandpare ...

'', and '' Doug''. They attended

Maryville University Maryville University of St. Louis is a private university in Town and Country, Missouri. It was originally founded on April 6, 1872 by the Society of the Sacred Heart and offers more than 90 degrees at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral l ...

and studied studio art with a focus on illustration. They left as a junior and worked as a librarian and a comic book shop manager at the Eisner-winning Star Clipper Comics in St. Louis until its closing in 2015. While managing the comic book shop they decided to make comics, but didn't pursue them as a career until being exposed to Brittany Williams' work on a ''

Samurai Jack ''Samurai Jack'' is an American animated action-adventure television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. Tartakovsky conceived ''Samurai Jack'' after finishing his wor ...

'' comic: "The second I saw illiams'name on he comic… I was like, ‘Wait a second; she's a black woman, she's making comics — I can do that too,’ and finally it kind of clicked for me too."

Career

Following Star Clipper's closing in 2015, Steenz went on to work as an editor at

Lion Forge Comics Lion Forge Comics was an American comic book publisher founded in 2011 by David Steward II and Carl Reed, with headquarters formerly located in St. Louis, Missouri. The company has a strong focus on culturally diverse creators and stories. In 20 ...

, where they worked on the first 12 issues of the comics and tabletop gaming magazine ''Rolled and Told'' until 2019. Steenz contributed the short comic "The Update" along with letterer Melanie Ujimori to editor Taneka Stotts' Eisner- and

Ignatz Ignatz is a masculine given name. Notable people with the given name * Ignatz Bubis (1927–1999), German Jewish leader and chairman of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland from 1992 to 1999 * Ignatz Leo Nascher (1863–1944), Austrian-born, ...

-winning ''Elements: Fire'', and has also appeared in the anthologies ''Mine!'', and ''Dead Beats''. Their first major publication was ''Archival Quality,'' which they co-created with writer Ivy Noelle Weir. It was published by

Oni Press Oni Press is an American independent comic book and graphic novel publisher based in Portland, Oregon. In 2019, it became an imprint label following the company's merger with Lion Forge Comics. The merged company, Oni–Lion Forge Publishing Grou ...

in 2018. Steenz took over writing and illustrating ''Heart of the City'' for Mark Tatulli. Their first strip syndicated via

Andrews McMeel Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (formerly Andrews, McMeel and Parker (1975–1986) and Andrews and McMeel (1986–1997)) is a company that publishes books, calendars, and related toys. It is a part of Andrews McMeel Universal (which comprises AM ...

appeared on May 24, 2020. On May 12, 2020, it was announced that Steenz would be illustrating and co-creating a graphic novel about the history of tabletop RPGs alongside writer Samuel Sattin; the book is estimated for a 2023 release date. In July 2022, Steenz alleged on social media that Oni Press wasn't paying creators their royalties. '' The Beat'' reported that "Steenz is the artist on the award winning ''OGN Archival Quality'', published by Oni back in 2018. Several Oni creators responded to her tweets with their own complaints". Oni Press did not respond to ''

Bleeding Cool Bleeding Cool is an Internet news site, focusing on comics, television, film, board games, and video games. Owned by Avatar Press, it was launched by Rich Johnston on March 27, 2009. Avatar Press also publishes an associated magazine, ''Bleeding ...

'''s request for comment.

Selected works

''Archival Quality'' (2018) – Cel Walden starts a new job as an archivist at the Logan Museum. As she struggles with depression and anxiety, she dreams about a ghostly woman. As she learns more about the ghost who haunts her dreams, she learns more about herself and the other employees of the Logan Museum. ''Heart of the City'' (2020–) – The comic is about Heart Lamarr, a middle-school student who lives in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Stories focus on Heart's relations with her friends and family, as well as her school life and experiences with popular culture. Steenz took over the strip after original creator Mark Tatulli stopped making it.

Recognition and awards

''Elements: Fire, A Comic Anthology by Creators of Color'' won the 2018

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...

for Best Anthology and the 2017 Ignatz Award for Best Anthology. The anthology contains work by Steenz. In February 2019, Steenz and Ivy Noelle Weir were named winners of the 5th Annual Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics for ''Archival Quality''. The book was also selected as a

Junior Library Guild Junior Library Guild, formerly the Junior Literary Guild, is a commercial book club devoted to juvenile literature. It was created in 1929 as one of the enterprises of the Literary Guild, an adult book club created in 1927 by Samuel W. Craig and H ...

Gold Standard publication in 2018.

Bibliography

* ''Mine: A Planned Parenthood Benefit Anthology,'' ComicMix, 2017 * ''Archival Quality'' (with Ivy Noelle Weir), Oni Press, 2018 *''Rolled & Told'' issues #1-#12 (Editor), 2018, 2019 *''Dead Beats, A Wave Blue World Anthology,'' 2019 *''Heart of the City'', Andrews McMeel Syndication, 2020

Self-published

* ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Muscle Maker Fan Comic'', Gumroad, 2019 * ''Receiving Transmissions'', Gumroad, 2019