Author: Geek Smiths

Nidhi Chanani is a freelance illustrator, cartoonist and writer. After completing her undergrad literature degree at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Nidhi pursued a career in non-profits. The desire to draw kept pulling her away and in 2008 she enrolled in art school (only to drop out a year later). In 2009 she began completing one illustration every day of the week. She called this Every Day Love and developed her narrative style and voice with three years of daily practice. Thus began her art career and business.

Nidhi was born in Calcutta and raised in suburban southern California. She creates because it makes her happy – with the hope that it can make others happy, too. In April of 2012 she was honored by the Obama Administration as a Champion of Change.

Her debut graphic novel, Pashmina, was released by First Second Books in fall 2017. It received starred reviews in the School Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and was reviewed in the New York Times. In March of 2019, the film adaptation of Pashmina with Netflix was announced. Gurinder Chadha is set to direct.

In 2018, Jasmine’s New Pet, which she wrote, drew and colored released through Dark Horse Comics. Her bilingual board book, Shubh Raatri Dost/Good Night Friend released in 2019. Her debut picture book, written by Bea Birdsong, I will be fierce, released in April 2019. Her next picture book, Binny’s Diwali, written by Thrity Umrigar, will release September 2020.

She is currently working on a few unannounced projects and her second original graphic novel, Jukebox, with her husband Nick Giordano which is slated for 2021 release. She is an instructor in the Master of Fine Arts, Comics program at the California College of Arts.

Her media appearances include CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 and BBC Radio. Her work has been featured on the Huffington Post, the Women’s March, My Modern Met, Bored Panda and India Times. Nidhi has worked with Disney, ABC, Airbnb, Sony, Microsoft, State Farm Insurance and a variety of other clients. Her non-fiction comics have appeared in the Nib. Everyday Love Art products are sold in retail shops across the country, including the San Francisco International Airport, Books Inc., and Therapy stores.

Nidhi draws and dreams every day with her husband, kid and their attention starved cat in the San Francisco Bay Area.

This is the last post for this year’s Asian Pacific American Heritage month. Which was your favorite? Who did we miss?

Xia Da is a well-known Chinese cartoonist whose work is deeply influenced by traditional Chinese culture, combined with modern anime expressions, exquisite style, rich and beautiful ancient charm, care for human nature, culture and cultural connotations. She is best known for creating the comics Zi Bu Yu and Chang Ge Xing, and five million copies of her works have been sold as of 2018.

Check back tomorrow for another amazing artist!

In 1976 Ma Wing Shing at the age of 15 entered the comic book world, his first published work was in Day Dream by Hei Po publications. But it was not until he worked on Wind and Cloud more commonly known as Storm Riders that he hit an all time high.  But in 1977 Hei Po was closed and Ma found himself working for Golden Comics and his art took a more realalistic tone and even found himself going back to the Academt of fine arts to help improve his skill. 

Upon returning after a years course Ma quit Golden Comics and moved to Ching Po and continued to make many comics; Evil Experiment, Assault 13, Alien, I Wanna be Woman, Small Luk’s Fight at Wudang and the Eve of the Battle, Martial House, Sword and Spear, Destroyer, My Pursuit, Great Stealer 13, Knowing You, Mad Dog, Security Guard, Story of Big-Nose Boy, Hillfire and Five Affairs. to name but a few. 

Ma continued to move companies until 1989 where he began his own company Jonesky Limted and from that format he realsed Storm Riders that has now been adapted into two films and still published to this day. Ma has also hosted numerous art expo’s of his work.

Check back tomorrow for another amazing artist!

Queenie Chan was born in Hong Kong, and migrated to Australia when she was six years old. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems, and her first published work was a 3-volume mystery-horror series called “The Dreaming” for LA-based manga publisher TOKYOPOP. To date, it has been translated into multiple languages.

She has since collaborated on several single-volume graphic novels with best-selling author Dean Koontz, as prequels to his “Odd Thomas” series of novels. After that, she worked on “Small Shen”, the prequel to Kylie Chan’s “White Tiger” Chinese fantasy series, followed by “Fabled Kingdom”, a 3-book fairy-tale inspired fantasy adventure.

Currently, she is working on her next project, a series of non-fiction children’s graphic novels called “Women Who Were Kings”. It will be a collections of biographies about the lives of famous historical queens from all over the world.

Check back tomorrow for another amazing artist!

Rudy Nebres was born in the Philippines where he met some DC editors and eventually moved to U.S. to work for DC on Tales of the Unexpected and other minor titles. Later he found more success at Marvel working on titles like Conan, Kull, Dr. Strange and the over sized black and white comic book Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. Since his early success he has also worked with Neal Adams at Continuity Comics and on the Cross Gen line among others.

Check back tomorrow for another amazing artist!