Bianca Xunise
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Bianca Xunise is an American cartoonist, illustrator, and self-described "
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of color". Her work is nationally syndicated through the '' Six Chix'' comic strip collaborative.


Early life

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 ...
er. Her family has Creole roots. She started as a
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.


References


External links


Official website

"Say Her Name"
- on Southsideweekly.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Xunise, Bianca Living people American comic strip cartoonists 21st-century American illustrators Artists from Chicago 21st-century American women artists American female comics artists American people of Creole descent Ignatz Award winners University of Illinois Chicago alumni DePaul University faculty Year of birth missing (living people) American women illustrators African-American comics artists African-American comics writers African-American illustrators American women comic strip cartoonists American women academics 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American artists Non-binary comics writers American women bloggers American humorists American women humorists American satirists American women satirists American satirical comics artists American satirical comics writers