Brian Biggs (born March 9, 1968, in

Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

) is a children's book author and illustrator. He has been published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

and

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, among others, and has illustrated two Little Golden Books.

Early work

Brian Biggs got his start as a cartoonist for the ''

North Texas Daily ''North Texas Daily'', also known as NT Daily, is the student newspaper of the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, published daily on the web and every Thursday in print. The paper focuses on six main categories: News, Arts & Life, Po ...

'', the school newspaper of the

North Texas State University The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...

. His comic, ''Roommates'', ran until his transfer to Parsons. Then, in the 1990s, Biggs began to draw comic books, often as a part of the 90's

underground comix Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

scene. Notable works from this period include ''Frederick and Eloise'' (1999), published by

Fantagraphics Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and (formerly) the Erotic comics, erotic Eros Comix imprint. They have managed sev ...

, and ''Dear Julia'' (1996–97), published by

Black Eye Productions Black Eye Books (formerly called Black Eye Productions) is a small but influential Canadian comic book publishing company founded by Michel Vrana. Under the auspices of Vrana, Black Eye was known as a publisher of artfully designed alternative com ...

. ''Dear Julia'' was later made into a short film directed by Isaac E. Gozin.

Children's books

Brian Biggs later began to illustrate for small projects, and eventually illustrated a children's book series, ''Shredderman'', written by Wendelin Van Draanen in 2004-05, which was turned into the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

TV film '' Shredderman Rules''. The success of Shredderman led him to do more books, such as the ''Roscoe Riley Rules'' book series and ''Brownie & Pearl'', written by Cynthia Rylant. He became known for his distinctive style, with thick, rough outlines and his bright digital coloring. He has recently written and illustrated his own book series, titled ''Everything Goes'', and is currently the illustrator of Jon Scieszka's book series ''Frank Einstein''. In 2016, the first books of his ''Tinyville Town'' series will be published.

Personal life

In 1987, Brian Biggs attended

, later transferring to the

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

. He moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in 1993. He has lived and worked in Philadelphia since 1999.

Books

*''Dear Julia'', 1996 (Graphic Novel)

, *''Frederick & Eloise: A Love Story'' 1997 (Graphic Novel)

, *''Un Mode de Transport'', 2004 (Book rench Éditions du Rouergue, *''Shredderman'' series, written by Wendelin Van Draanen—2004-2006 (Children's Novel)

Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...

, , , , *''Goofball Malone'' series, written by Stephen Mooser (Children's Book)

Grosset & Dunlap Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898. The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of Penguin Random House through its subsidiary Penguin Group. In recent years, through the P ...

, , *''One Beastly Beast: Two Aliens, Three Inventors, Four Fantastic Tales'' written by

Garth Nix Garth Richard Nix (born 19 July 1963) is an Australian writer who specialises in children's and young adult fantasy novels, notably the ''The Old Kingdom, Old Kingdom'', ''The Seventh Tower, Seventh Tower'' and ''The Keys to the Kingdom, Keys t ...

—2007 (Children's Short Story Collection)

, *''Camp Out!: The Ultimate Kids' Guide'' written by Lynn Brunelle—2007 (Children's Guidebook)

Workman Publishing Workman Publishing Company, Inc., is an American Publishing companies, publisher of Tradebook, trade books founded by Peter Workman. The company consists of Imprint (trade name), imprints Workman, Workman Children's, Workman Calendars, Artisan ...

, *''Beastly Rhymes to Read After Dark'' written by Judy Sierra—2008 (Children's Poems) Knopf, * *''Everything Goes: Blue Bus, Red Balloon: A Book of Colors'', HarperCollins, 2013, * *''Everything Goes: By Sea'', HarperCollins, 2013,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biggs, Brian Living people Writers from Little Rock, Arkansas 1968 births American children's writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers American children's book illustrators Artists from Little Rock, Arkansas 20th-century American male artists 21st-century American male artists Parsons School of Design alumni