Bianca Xunise is an American cartoonist, illustrator, and self-described "
goth
Goth or Goths may refer to:
* Goths, a Germanic people
Arts and entertainment
* Gothic rock or goth, a style of rock music
* Goth subculture, developed by fans of gothic rock
* ''Goth'' (2003 film), an American horror film
* ''Goth'' (2008 f ...
Xunise was born in Chicago to artistic parents; her mother was a
fashion design
Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is influenced by diverse cultures and different trends and has varied over time and place. "A fashion design ...
fashion blog
Fashion blogs are blogs that cover the fashion industry, clothing, and lifestyle related topics.
Definition
A fashion blog can cover many topics, such as specific items of clothing and accessories, beauty tips, trends in various apparel mark ...
ger, but quit "because they didn't want to indict
George Zimmerman
George Michael Zimmerman (born October 5, 1983) is an American man who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American, in Sanford, Florida, on February 26, 2012. On July 13, 2013, he was acquitted of second-degree murder in '' F ...
in the
Trayvon Martin
Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was killing of Trayvon Martin, fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic an ...
case and after that I realized I idn'tcare what I'm wearing anymore."
Career
Xunise's influences include Finnish artist
Tove Jansson
Tove Marika Jansson (; 9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. Brought up by artistic parents, Jansson studied art from 1930 to 1938 in Helsinki, Stockholm, ...
, Austrian children's book illustrator
Ludwig Bemelmans
Ludwig Bemelmans (April 27, 1898 – October 1, 1962) was an Austrian and American writer and illustrator of children's books and adult novels. He is known best for the ''Madeline'' picture books. Six were published, the first in 1939.
Early li ...
, and Japanese manga artist Naoko Takeuchi. She credits her professional start in comics to online community for women
Hello Giggles
HelloGiggles.com is an entertainment and lifestyle website launched in May 2011. It has not been updated since 2023 but is still live. It was founded by actress/musician Zooey Deschanel, TV producer Sophia Rivka Rossi and writer Molly McAleer. T ...
, which gave her a column in 2015. Xunise had been featured in
the Nib
''The Nib'' was an American online daily comics publication focused on political cartoons, Comics journalism, graphic journalism, essays and memoir about current affairs. Founded by cartoonist Matt Bors in September 2013, ''The Nib'' was an ind ...
and
Shondaland
Shondaland (stylized as ShondaLand from 2005 to 2016 and shondaland thereafter) is an American television production company founded by television writer and producer Shonda Rhimes. She founded it to be one of the production companies of her fir ...
when
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product License, licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, columnist, newspape ...
asked her to create a
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar. In 2018 she won the
Ignatz Award
The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a ...
for "Promising New Talent" for her self-published "Say Her Name", which deals with the anxiety of being black in America.
In 2020, she became the second Black woman contributing to a nationally syndicated strip, when she became one of the '' Six Chix''. She was preceded in this distinction by Barbara Brandon-Croft, whose daily strip ''Where I'm Coming From'' was nationally syndicated from 1991 to 2005. With her '' Six Chix'' debut, Xunise also became the first Black nonbinary cartoonist to be nationally syndicated.