Abigail Howard (born August 3, 1992) is an American webcomic creator and

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

from

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

. She is the co-founder of indie game studio Black Tabby Games, and created the comics ''Junior Scientist Power Hour,'' ''The Last Halloween,'' and ''The Crossroads At Midnight.''

Biography

Howard was born on August 3, 1992, in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city sits on the Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana), Pearl River and is locate ...

and grew up in

. She attended

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, majoring in

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

with a specialization in

Evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

. She enjoyed learning about life history, but did not enjoy the

math Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

, and

microbiology Microbiology () is the branches of science, scientific study of microorganisms, those being of unicellular organism, unicellular (single-celled), multicellular organism, multicellular (consisting of complex cells), or non-cellular life, acellula ...

classes that were a part of her degree. She describes herself as “a wretched student, all I wanted to do was draw pictures.” She started ''Junior Scientist Power Hour'' in the summer of 2012. With only 27 comics to her name, she entered ''

Strip Search A strip search is a practice of searching a person for weapons or other contraband suspected of being hidden on their body or inside their clothing, and not found by performing a frisk search, but by requiring the person to remove some or al ...

''. Despite placing second, she was able to quit school and become a full-time

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

, as noted in her comic "Screaming Constantly". Howard is married to Tony Arias, with whom she co-founded the indie game studio Black Tabby Games. The couple live in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Works

''Junior Scientist Power Hour''

''Junior Scientist Power Hour'' was a weekly episodic

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

by Howard, usually focusing on topics such as her daily life and parodies of

pop culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, some ...

. From the Facebook page, "it's about her incredibly interesting life with her cat, and sometimes it is also about other things." The panels tend to be hand-drawn black and white; however, there is one notable exception. The band members in the strip “

Tupper Ware Remix Party TWRP ( disemvoweling of ''twerp''), formerly known as Tupper Ware Remix Party, is a Canadian rock band originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Founded in 2007, the band moved to Toronto in 2011 with a change in members and musical direction. The ...

” are brightly colored and subsequent strips featuring them are in color as well. Abby's art style is influenced by that of

Jhonen Vasquez Jhonen C. Vasquez (; born September 1, 1974) is an American cartoonist, animator, and voice actor. He is best known for creating the '' Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' comic book series (alongside its spin-offs '' Squee!'', '' I Feel Sick'', and '' ...

. She was especially influenced by his comic ''

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'' (often abbreviated ''JtHM'') is the first comic book by Jhonen Vasquez. The series tells the story of a young man named Johnny C., Johnny “Nny” C. as he explores the psychological and possibly supernatural forc ...

''. Howard describes herself primarily as a traditional artist, but she does use digital art for coloring panels.

''Strip Search''

Howard was selected as one of the twelve contestants for

Penny Arcade ''Penny Arcade'' is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website ''loonygames.com''. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have establish ...

's webcomic based

reality competition Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

show ''

''. She was the only contestant who competed using traditional media. Howard built up a following, who called themselves “Team Tangent.”

''The Last Halloween''

After competing in ''Strip Search'', Howard created a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

for her next project, ''The Last Halloween''. It was pitched as an episodic

horror-comedy Comedy horror (also called horror comedy) is a literary genre, literary, television genre, television and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as having three types: "black comedy, paro ...

comic, and was

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance, to fund projects "without standard financial ...

within 20 minutes. The Kickstarter raised $126,507 of the $9,000 goal. ''The Last Halloween'' began October 8, 2013 (September 18, 2013 for Kickstarter backers). While the art style is similar to ''Junior Scientist Power Hour'', it features more detailed illustrations, locations, and a continuing story. The comic is influenced by horror films, which Howard is admittedly a fan of. The story follows a young girl named Mona who finds herself tasked with saving the world when billions of monsters suddenly spill into the human world one Halloween night. Howard first conceptualized the story in high school, and pitched it for the finale of ''Strip Search''. Although she lost, she chose to launch a Kickstarter for it anyway, and was successful. She describes her comic as partly being a response to uninspiring horror media, such as bland male power fantasies with uncreative monsters and hollow plots. Howard has the entire story written out in advance; she prefers this method of story-telling, as she can insert

Easter eggs Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are Egg decorating, decorated for the Christian holiday of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are commonly used during the season of Eastertide (Easter ...

and foreshadowing.

''Scarlet Hollow''

In 2019, Howard and her boyfriend (later husband) Tony Arias co-founded Black Tabby Games, an

indie game An indie video game or indie game (short for independent video game) is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A ...

studio responsible for episodic horror

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

Scarlet Hollow ''Scarlet Hollow'' is an episodic visual novel developed and published by Black Tabby Games. It entered early access on June 11, 2021 for Linux, MacOS, and Microsoft Windows systems. As of 2025, four episodes have been released out of a planned ...

''. The first episode of ''Scarlet Hollow'' released in September 2020, the second released in June 2021, the third released in March 2022. ''Scarlet Hollow'' follows a customizable protagonist as they meet their estranged family for the first time in the titular town. Visiting for their aunt's funeral, they find themselves caught between reconciling with their cousin, Tabitha, and solving a supernatural mystery tied to the town's past. After releasing its first episode, ''Scarlet Hollow'' went on to a successful Kickstarter, where the game hit its initial funding goal in the first day. Following the Kickstarter, Scarlet Hollow was also a finalist in the AT&T Unlocked Games awards, where it received both the runner-up and audience choice prizes. The game has also received critical praise, with John Walker of

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

describing it as "one of the best narrative games

e's is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and drawn by Satoru Yuiga. It was originally serialized in '' Monthly GFantasy'' from 1997 through 2005, and later published in 16 ''tankōbon'' volumes by Square Enix from March 18, 2003, to Febr ...

played."

''Slay the Princess''

In 2022, Black Tabby Games announced their second game, entitled ''

Slay the Princess ''Slay the Princess'' is a 2023 horror adventure game developed and published by Black Tabby Games for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. It was released on October 23, 2023. The game is conceptually a twist on the damsel-in-distres ...

''. Like ''Scarlet Hollow'', it is a horror-based visual novel, and follows a nameless protagonist ordered by an unseen narrator to kill the princess imprisoned within the woods. Black Tabby Games released a demo of the game for

Steam Next Fest Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

. They were present at

PAX East PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, and Melbourne. Previously, it was also held in San Anton ...

2023, where they debuted an extended demo. The full game launched on October the 23rd of that year.

Other

Howard created the 2016 comic ''The Portrait of Sal Pullman'' with writer Lonnie Nadler. She wrote and illustrated the graphic novel ''Dinosaur Empire!'', a volume in the Earth Before Us series from

Abrams Books Abrams, formerly Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (HNA), is an American publisher of art and illustrated books, children's books, and stationery. The enterprise is a subsidiary of the French publisher Média-Participations. Run by president and CEO Mar ...

, published August 1, 2017. Howard co-hosted horror podcast ''Scared Yet?'' with cartoonist

Kris Straub Kristofer Straub (born January 17, 1979) is an American web cartoonist, performer, and content creator. His key web comic projects include ''Checkerboard Nightmare'', ''Starslip'', ''Chainsawsuit'', ''Broodhollow'', and ''F Chords''. Other notabl ...

in 2016 from July to December. Lasting 6 episodes, Straub and Howard discussed horror storytelling, writing advice, personal favorite horror stories, as well as personal experiences with writing horror.

Awards

, - , 2013 , ''The Last Halloween'' , Ghastly Awards: Best Webcomic , , , - , 2019 , ''Ocean Renegades! (Earth Before Us #2): Journey through the Paleozoic Era'' , EGL Awards: Best in Middle-Grade Graphic Literature (Non-Fiction) , , , - , 2020 , ''Unhealthy'' , Cartoonist Studio Prize: Best Web Comic , , , - , 2020 , ''Scarlet Hollow'' , AT&T Unlocked Games: Runner Up , , , - , 2020 , ''Scarlet Hollow'' , AT&T Unlocked Games: Gamers' Choice , , , - , 2021 , ''The Crossroads at Midnight'' , 2021 Ignatz Awards: Outstanding Collection , ,

References

External links

''Junior Scientist Power Hour''

''The Last Halloween''

''The Portrait of Sal Pullman''

''Scarlet Hollow''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Abby 1992 births American children's writers American emigrants to Canada American female comics artists American horror writers American webcomic creators Artists from Charlotte, North Carolina Artists from Jackson, Mississippi American female comics writers American horror artists Indie game developers Living people McGill University Faculty of Science alumni American video game artists American video game writers American women horror writers Writers from Charlotte, North Carolina Writers from Jackson, Mississippi