Noelle Stevenson began drawing Nimona as a webcomic when she was a MICA student. The project became her senior thesis–and then it really started to take off.
Nimona was released in book format by HarperCollins in May; it quickly hit the New York Times bestseller list for young adult fiction. In June, 20th Century Fox acquired the film rights. And now it’s been named as one of the ten finalists for the 2015 National Book Award for young people’s literature.
Stevenson, who moved to Los Angeles after graduating from MICA, has also launched a number of awesome projects poking fun at traditional comics’ habit of either ignoring or sexualizing female characters. I’m a big fan of the Hawkeye Initiative, in which artists draw male comics characters in the ludicrously sexual poses that are common for female comics characters.
Stevenson is currently a writer for Marvel comics and on the writing team for Disney’s animated series Wander Over Yonder. Congrats to her!
