On this day, April 13, 2009, the world’s longest webcomic, Homestuck, officially begins. Written, drawn, and animated by Andrew Hussie, Homestuck is a complex construct of a hypertext fiction built on serialized visual storytelling.

On this day, April 12, 1973, writer and comic book illustrator J. Scott Campbell was born in East Tawas, Michigan.  At the age of 15, Campbell entered and won the “Invent the Ultimate Video Game” contest run by Nintendo. Since then he is the artist and co-creator of Danger Girl and Gen.

On this day, April 11, 1941, illustrator Peter Caras was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Following advice from Norman Rockwell, Caras studied at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and at the Art Students League in New York. He has created of 1,700 book cover illustrations during his career.

On this day, April 10, 1890, Mary (Marsh) Buff was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mary Marsh studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and at the Cincinnati Art Academy. After her marriage to Conrad Buff they collaborated writing and illustrating children’s books and winning Newbery Medal honours for three of their collaborative efforts.

On this day, April 9, 1976, Margaret (Hedda Johnosn) Brundage died. After studying at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, she began drawing designs for the local fashion industry. In the early 1930s Brundage began creating cover illustrations for the pulps. She typically signed her work M. Brundage as she was a woman working in what

On this day, April 8, 1920, children’s book author and illustrator Ruth Chew was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After studying at the Corcoran School of Art, Chew went on to produce over 30 children’s books most of which were juvenile fantasy typically centered around witches and magic.

On this day, April 7, 2007, cartoonist Johnny Hart died in Nineveh, New York. Hart’s first published work was in Stars and Stripes done when he was enlisted in the U. S. Air Force.  In 1957 Hart created the cartoon B. C. and later was the co-creator of The Wizard of Id with Brant Parker.

On this day, April 6, 1926, illustrator Gil Kane was born in Riga, Latvia. His family emigrated to the U. S. in 1929. Kane went to Manhattan’s School of Industrial Art, and in his senior year he went to work for MLJ Comics. Kane also worked for Marvel Comics. He served in the Pacific in the

On this day, April 5, 2005, illustrator Dalia (aka, Dale) Messick died in Sonoma County, California. Messick studied briefly at the Ray Commercial Art School in Chicago and began working for a Chicago greeting card company. Messick worked on and/or created a variety of comic strips. In 1940 she created her most famous comic strip and

On this day, April 4, 1918, illustrator Joyce Ballantyne was born in Norfolk, Nebraska. Ballantyne studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and at the American Academy of Art. Her earliest work was painting Rand McNally maps. In the mid-40s, Ballantyne began painting pin-ups for Brown & Bigelow calendar company. In addition