Shout-out: Aron Nels Steinke

DIGESTATE CONTRIBUTOR:

ARON NELS STEINKE!

Portrait of The Artist as a young wolf

Aron Nels Steinke first studied hand-drawn animation before eventually drawing and writing comics and children's books. In 2006 he received a Xeric Grant which propelled him into the self-publishing and cartooning world. Aron has published 5 issues of the autobiographical comics series, Big Plans, and has frequently participated in numerous anthologies including Not My Small Diary and the award winning Papercutter anthology. 

Aron's all-ages graphic novel, Neptune, first published by Sparkplug Comic Books and Tugboat Press, has been translated and published into French and selected as a notable book for this year's BestAmerican Comics, published by Houghton Mifflin. Aron's two early-reader children's books, The Super Crazy Cat Dance and The Super-Duper Dog Park were published by Blue Apple Books. The latter of the two was chosen as a Publisher's Weekly honorable mention for the Best Comics of 2011. Bozo the Teacher, a comic strip based on the author's daily life as an elementary school teacher updates weekly on the author's website, www.aronnelssteinke.com.

Editor's note: I touched on this in the previous post about James Kochalka, but I am a big fan of simplicity in comics. Aron Nels Steinke is very adept at drawing in a style that can appeal to both children and adults. Given his other profession (elementary school teacher), it's not surprising that he is able to tap into the fun & innocence many of us associate with childhood. 

My introduction to Steinke was through his self-published autobiographical comics. I recommend checking out his Big Plans series...very compelling and fun to read!