15 Canadian comic book creators you should know

Here are 15 Canadian comic book creators you should know, from indie comic creators to Marvel writers.

Ho Che Anderson

Ho Che Anderson is the Toronto, Ont.-based author of numerous graphic novels, including the Martin Luther King biographyKing and the horror thriller Sand & Fury. His 2018 book, Godhead, is a gritty sci-fi graphic novel about how society reacts after a powerful corporation creates a device to communicate with God.

• Toronto comic creator Ho Che Anderson shows us his favourite books at The Beguiling

Ryan North

Ryan North is a comics creator from Toronto, Ont. He rose to popularity with the webcomic Dinosaur Comics, featuring a neurotic, wordy T-Rex. North's comics forAdventure Time, Jughead and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, havereceived three Eisner Awards. He has also written two "choose-your-own-path" books, To Be Or Not To Be and Romeo and/or Juliet, parodying Shakespeare's famous tragedies. His latest book is How to Invent Everything, a guide on how to rebuild modern civilization for lost time travellers.

• Ryan North explains why stories are really 'empathy machines'

Chip Zdarsky

Chip Zdarsky is a comic book writer and illustrator born in Edmonton and based in Toronto. The creator with a quirky sense of humour has worked on books such as the award-winning Sex Criminals, Kaptara, Jughead, Howard the Duck,Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man and Daredevil.

• Chip Zdarsky on the life of a comic book writer and why everyone loves Spider-Man

Fiona Staples

Calgary-based comic book artist Fiona Staples is the artist behind Sagaand isthe person who was tasked with turning iconic redhead Archie Andrews into an object of desire when Riverdale was launched as a remake of the old Archie Comics. Staples is also the award-winning illustrator of books likeDV8: Gods and Monsters and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

• Calgary's Micaela Dawn and Fiona Staples are part of a rising generation of new comic stars

Mariko Tamaki

Toronto-born artist and writer Mariko Tamaki has written for both Marvel (X-23) and DC Comics (Supergirl). Tamakiwrote the graphic novels Skim and This One Summer, which were illustrated by her cousin Jillian Tamaki. Skim received the Doug Wright Award for best graphic novel, the Ignatz Award and the Joe Schuster Award. This One Summer won the Eisner Award for best graphic album: new in 2015. Both books were shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature text. Tamaki is also the author of the YA novels (you) Set Me on Fire and Saving Montgomery Sole.

• Mariko Tamaki on when she realized she would never be a respectable citizen

Faith Erin Hicks

Faith Erin Hicks is an Eisner Award-winning comics creator known for books like The Adventures of Superhero Girl and Friends with Boys. The final instalment of her acclaimed Nameless City trilogy, The Divided Earth,featuresthe two misfit friends, Rat and Kai, in a tale that wraps up the popular middle-grade fantasy graphic novel series. In 2019, she released her first YA novel,Comics Will Break Your Heart, about a young girl named Miriam from small-town Nova Scotia, whose grandfather was the co-creator of a hit comic series.

• Faith Erin Hicks on comic industry woes and off the cuff writing

Seth

Gregory Gallant, known professionally as Seth, is a cartoonist who hails from Guelph, Ont. He hashas contributed to publications like The New Yorker and New York Times Magazine and twice won the Doug Wright Award for best book. His latest work, Clyde Fans, illustrates the quiet desperation of two brothers struggling to keep their family's increasingly irrelevant business afloat.The artist has a large cult following for his 1990s comic book series Palookaville and his retro drawing style.

• Seth: 7 books that shaped my life

Kate Beaton

Kate Beaton is a cartoonist from Nova Scotia who launched her career by publishing the strip Hark! A Vagrant online. The sassy historical webcomic gained a following of 500,000 monthly visitors and was eventually turned into a bestselling book. Beaton's success continued with the comic book Step Aside, Pops!which landed on the New York Times bestseller list and garnered Beaton the 2016 Eisner Award for best humour publication. Beatonhas also published two children's books, King Baby and The Princess and the Pony.

• 100 writers in Canada you need to know

Johnnie Christmas

Vancouver-basedwriter and artist Johnnie Christmas is the creator of comicslike Firebug, Sheltered and Pisces. He is the illustrator of Angel Catbird, a graphic novel serieswritten by novelist MargaretAtwood about acat/bird/human superhero. He most recently worked on the Alien 3 comic book series.

• Johnnie Christmas brings Margaret Atwood's cat/bird/human vision to life

Aminder Dhaliwal

Aminder Dhaliwal is a Canadian cartoonist and animatorfrom Brampton, Ont.Dhaliwal's webcomicWoman World has a devoted audience of over 150,000 readers. Woman Worldskewers perceived notions of femininity and contemporary cultural icons.In 2018, she published the Instagram comic as a book.

• Aminder Dhaliwal aims to make feminism approachable in Woman World

Jim Zub

Jim Zub is a Toronto-basedcomic book creator who has written the comicsSkullkickers,Wayward,Dungeons and Dragons and for the Marvel Comic booksSpider-Man, Iron-Man,Thunderbolts, Uncanny Avengers and Champions. He recently helped create the character Snowguard,Marvel Comics' new Inuk superhero fromNunavut.

• Meet Snowguard: Marvel Comics' new Inuk teen superhero

Jeff Lemire

Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestsellingcomics creatorwhose booksincludes Roughneck, Essex County, The Underwater Welderand Gord Downie's Secret Path. He has also worked on Justice League and Green Arrow for DC Comics and HawkeyeandExtraordinary X-Menfor Marvel. In 2017, he won the Eisner Awardfor Black Hammer in the best new series category.Essex County, an emotional story about a rural community in southwestern Ontario, was defended by Sara Quin on Canada Readsin 2011.

• What Jeff Lemire and Special Agent Dale Cooper would talk about over coffee

Nalo Hopkinson

Nalo Hopkinson is an award-winning speculative fiction author who made her comic writing debut in 2018, creating a Sandman spinoff called House of Whispers with illustrator Domo Stanton forDC Comics. She's known best for the classic dystopian tale Brown Girl in the Ring, which won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest and was defended on Canada Reads in 2008 by Jemeni. Her other works of fiction include Sister Mine, Midnight Robber, The Chaos, The New Moon's Arms and Skin Folk.

• The books and writers that changed Nalo Hopkinson's life

Bryan Lee O'Malley

Bryan Lee O'Malley's career in comics took off after publishing Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, the first in a Toronto-centric series about an indie music-loving nerd who must defeat his girlfriend Ramona's seven evil exes. The bestselling books later became a film starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Brie Larson. O'Malley followed up this success with the acclaimed graphic novel Secondsand now works on a series called Snot Girl with Leslie Hung.

• Bryan LeeO'Malleynominated for Joe Shuster comic book awards

Meredith Finch

Based in LaSalle, Ont., Meredith Finch has made a name for herself in the comic book world as a writerfor several comics, includingDC Comics' Wonder Woman series. Her 2017 creator-owned comic Rose is a fantasy series that combines her love of mythology with modern issues.

• LaSalle, Ont.'s Meredith Finch brings authentic female voices to comic books