Nina Matsumoto

Nina Matsumoto is a Japanese-Canadian comic book artist and writer, also known as "space coyote", and most known for creating the comic book series Yōkaiden for Del Rey Manga. She created the webcomic Saturnalia, and has worked as a penciller on Simpsons Comics and The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko's Story graphic novel.^[1]

Biography

Rise to fame

Matsumoto first came to the attention of the comic industry through her widely distributed artwork Simpsonzu, a manga stylized parody artwork of The Simpsons cast.^[2] After the image was picked up by digg,^[3] it became one of the most popular deviations ever submitted to DeviantArt ^[4] and caught the attention of Bongo Comics as well as editor Dallas Middaugh of Del Rey Manga and even that of "The Simpsons" creator, Matt Groening.^[5][6] Middaugh read Matsumoto's long-running webcomic Saturnalia and then invited her to submit a proposal which became the graphic novel Yōkaiden.^[7]

School

Matsumoto attended the full-time animation program at VanArts she said, "My heart was set on doing comics, but since I couldn't find a full-time program for comic book art, I took the full-time animation program at VanArts instead. Though my goal was not necessarily animation, I still learned valuable lessons about character design and layout, and the life drawing course was most helpful of all." of her time there on the school's testimonials on their website.

Bibliography

Comics

• Saturnalia, 11 chapters, 2002, artist & writer, webcomic

• Simpsons Comics:
  • Simpsons Comics #131, July 2007, penciller, Too Crazy Juvenile Prankster: Bartomu!, Bongo Comics
  • Bart Simpson #38, October 2007 penciller, Milhouse's Guide to Keeping it Cool, Bongo Comics
  • Bart Simpson #39, December 2007, penciller, Window of Opportunity, Bongo Comics
  • Simpsons Comics Bongo Comics Free-For-All, May 2008, penciller, Too Crazy Juvenile Prankster: Bartomu!, Bongo Comics
  • Bart Simpson #42, June 2008, penciller, Ponce Upon a Time, Bongo Comics
  • Treehouse of Horror #14, October 2008, penciller, Murder He Wrote, Bongo Comics (A parody of Death Note)
  • Simpsons Comics Winter Wingding #5, November 2010, penciller, Bongo Comics
  • Bart Simpson #57, December 2010, penciller, Bongo Comics

• Yōkaiden:
  • Yōkaiden volume #1, 2008, artist & writer, graphic novel, Del Rey Manga, ISBN 0-345-50327-9
  • Yōkaiden volume #2, 2009, artist & writer, graphic novel, Del Rey Manga, ISBN 0-345-50329-5

• The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko's Story, 2010, artist, graphic novel, Del Rey Manga, ISBN 0-345-51854-3

Awards

• 2004: Won "Outstanding Science Fiction Comic", Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards, for Saturnalia
• 2009: Won "Best Short Story", Eisner Award, for Treehouse of Horror #14, Murder He Wrote, Bongo Comics

Notes

External links

• Official site
• DeviantArt gallery
• LiveJournal blog
• Twitter feed