Shaenon K. Garrity
Encyclopedia
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
s writer and artist, best known as the creator of Narbonic
Narbonic
Narbonic is a webcomic written and drawn by Shaenon K. Garrity. The storylines center on the misadventures of the staff of Narbonic Labs, which is the domain of mad scientist Helen Narbon. The strip started on July 31, 2000 and finished on December 31, 2006. On January 1, 2007, Garrity launched the...
. She is one of the most prominent cartoonists in the Modern Tales
Modern Tales
Modern Tales is a webcomics site launched on March 2, 2002 by Joey Manley, the Modern Tales publisher, and approximately 30 professional cartoonists, such as Dorothy Gambrell, author of the popular webcomic Cat and Girl and James Kochalka, the award-winning creator of Fancy Froglin...
network of commercial webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
sites, and became the site's editor on August 1, 2006. In addition to writing and drawing Narbonic, she writes (and often draws) spinoff series Li'l Mell and Sergio for Girlamatic
Girlamatic
Girlamatic, published by Joey Manley, is a member of the Modern Tales family of subscription-based webcomics anthology sites. Girlamatic publishes comics with a particular appeal for young adult women. The site launched on March 31, 2003 with...
, wrote Smithson (drawn by Brian Moore, Robert T. Stevenson and Roger Langridge
Roger Langridge
Roger Langridge is a New Zealand-born comics writer/artist/letterer, currently living in Britain.-Biography:Langridge originally came to public prominence most notably with the Judge Dredd Megazine series The Straitjacket Fits , a surreal, hallucinatory, convention-bending strip set in an insane...
) for Webcomics Nation
Webcomics Nation
Webcomics Nation is a webcomic hosting and automation service launched on July 29, 2005 by Joey Manley, publisher of the subscription webcomic site Modern Tales. It is a service designed for online cartoonists. Webcomics Nation is not a spinoff of Modern Tales like Graphic Smash, serializer, and...
and is currently working on the comic Skin Horse
Skin Horse
Skin Horse is a webcomic written by Shaenon K. Garrity and Jeffrey Channing Wells, and drawn by Garrity. The storylines center around the misadventures of the staff of a little-known government agency working on "Project Skin Horse". The strip started on December 31, 2007 and updates every day of...
which she illustrates and co-authors with Jeffrey Channing Wells. In October 2007, she began a column called "All the Comics in the World" for comiXology.com
Career
She created the webcomicWebcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
Smithson, with art by Robert Stevenson, Brian Moore, and Roger Langridge
Roger Langridge
Roger Langridge is a New Zealand-born comics writer/artist/letterer, currently living in Britain.-Biography:Langridge originally came to public prominence most notably with the Judge Dredd Megazine series The Straitjacket Fits , a surreal, hallucinatory, convention-bending strip set in an insane...
. The strip was first called More Fun and premiered in September 2003 as one of the original strips on the subscription-based site Graphic Smash. The strip, which makes some use of infinite canvas
Infinite canvas
The infinite canvas is the idea that the size of a digital comics page is theoretically infinite, and that online comics are therefore not limited by conventional page sizes. An artist could conceivably display a complete comics story of indefinite length on a single "page"...
techniques, follows the exploits of the self-appointed campus superhero, Chamucka Man, and several students who attend Smithson College.
In 2005, More Fun moved to Webcomics Nation
Webcomics Nation
Webcomics Nation is a webcomic hosting and automation service launched on July 29, 2005 by Joey Manley, publisher of the subscription webcomic site Modern Tales. It is a service designed for online cartoonists. Webcomics Nation is not a spinoff of Modern Tales like Graphic Smash, serializer, and...
under the new name Smithson. It is currently suspended.
She works for Viz Media
VIZ Media
VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, is an anime, manga, and Japanese entertainment company. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media LLC, which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and...
as an editor and volunteers at the Cartoon Art Museum. She has also written for Marvel Comics, including their 2005-2007 Marvel Holiday Specials.
In 2005, Garrity won the Outstanding Writing award, and was also nominated for Outstanding Comedic Comic, from the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards, She was also named co-Lulu of the Year by the Friends of Lulu
Friends of Lulu
Friends of Lulu was a non-profit, national charitable organization in the United States, founded in 1994 to promote readership of comic books by women and the participation of women in the comic book industry...
, sharing the award with the Flight
Flight (comic)
Flight is a comics anthology series edited by Kazu Kibuishi, showcasing young and innovative artists and writers. According to Volume One's Afterword by "Scott McCloud's Brain", the average age of its contributors was 24 years, although Volume Two features one or two older contributors. Image...
anthology.
Personal life
Garrity lives in Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, with her husband, artist and Cartoon Art Museum
Cartoon Art Museum
The Cartoon Art Museum 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...
curator Andrew Farago. Garrity has contributed to the magazine Otaku USA
Otaku USA
Otaku USA is a bimonthly magazine, published by Sovereign Media, which covers various elements of the "otaku" lifestyle from an American perspective...
and reviewed manga for Jason Thompson
Jason Thompson (writer)
Jason Thompson is a manga critic, journalist, writer and comics artist.-Life and career:...
's Manga: The Complete Guide
Manga: The Complete Guide
Manga: The Complete Guide is a 2007 encyclopedia written by Jason Thompson and published by Del Rey which provides basic details and short reviews of over 1000 Japanese manga titles that have been translated and released in English in North America...
.