Eben Burgoon (born 1979) is an American-born writer best known for the webcomic series '' Eben 07: Covert Custodian'' and ''B-Squad: Soldiers of Misfortune''. He is currently working on his independent series ''Tiny Wizards'' with artist Dean Beattie.

Biography

Eben Burgoon was raised in

San Luis Obispo ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

county and attended

San Luis Obispo High School San Luis Obispo High School, also referred to as "San Luis High" and "SLO High", is an American public high school in San Luis Obispo, California. It is the only non-Continuation high school, continuation public high school within the city. The ...

, which was lightly lampooned in his comic work with Eben 07. He attended college at

California State University, Chico California State University, Chico (Chico State) is a public university in Chico, California. It was founded in 1887 as one of about 180 "normal schools" founded by state governments in the 19th century to train teachers for the rapidly growing ...

. He studied

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

and minored in creative writing. He currently lives in

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

, California.

Impact

Burgoon has worked with non-profits, arts organizations, comic book conventions, and educational spaces to promote the joy of creating comics and educate writers of all ages. He created a comics education program that yielded two books by partnering with a small non-profit in Sacramento. Students at a primary school in Sacramento learned the basics of comic books and writing before developing a pitch that ultimately led to working with comic artists in the Sacramento region. Additionally, his educational workshops have been featured at the

Crocker Art Museum The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Western United States, located in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1885, the museum holds one of the premier collections of Californian art. The collection includes American works dating f ...

, regional libraries, and comic book conventions. Since 2013, Burgoon co-organizes a comic-convention themed arts night, Crocker-Con, at the

which draws about 1000 people annually. In 2019, Burgoon accepted an invitation to the

Sharjah International Book Fair Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) is a major annual literary and publishing event held in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. As one of the world's largest book fairs, it hosted 2,033 exhibitors from 109 countries in 2023 and featured a broad ...

to conduct cartooning and comic book workshops for youth in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. He has also been a comics & arts educator and guest speaker at

Maker Faire Maker Faire is a convention of do it yourself (DIY) enthusiasts established by '' Make'' magazine in 2006. Participants come from a wide variety of interests, such as robotics, 3D printing, computers, arts and crafts, and hacker culture. Hist ...

's in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, and China.

Inspirations

Much of his writing work follows a theme of parody of pop culture and approaching the subject with mashups or unusual angle. In many interviews, Eben Burgoon discusses influences on his work. Among them are pop-entertainment like James Bond, Venture Brothers., as well as writers like

Dan Harmon Daniel James Harmon (born January 3, 1973) is an American television writer and producer. He is best known as the creator and producer of the NBC sitcom ''Community (TV series), Community'' (2009–2015), creator and host of the comedy podcast ' ...

, Ian Fleming, and

Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the ...

Comic book bibliography

Eben07: Covert Custodian 2007–2013 Independent webcomic series. Premise follows janitors tasked with cleaning the mess left by super-spies like

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

. Illustrated by D.Bethel. * Operation: Goofinger, 2007 * Operation: Clean the Cleaners, 2007 * For the Love of Russia, Brainfood Comics, 2009 * Operation Mongoose, 2009 * Operation: 3-Ring Bound #1, Brainfood Comics, 2010 * Operation: 3-Ring Bound #2, Brainfood Comics, 2010 * Operation: 3-Ring Bound #3, 2011 * Operation: 3-Ring Bound #4, 2012 * Operation: 3-Ring Bound #5, unreleased in print B-Squad: Soldiers of Misfortune 2012-Current Independent comic book series. Premise follows a misfit squad of mercenaries, during each adventure one main character is killed; selected randomly by author using a six-sided die. Each adventure is illustrated by a different artist or artistic team. Comic series inspired a beer, B-Squad Blonde Ale, brewed by New Helvetia Brewing Company in Sacramento. B-Squad was picked up for development by Starburns Industries Press, a division of Starburns Industries, which rereleased the first issue as an exclusive for Comic Con International. * Issue One, 2014, Kickstarter, illustrated by Lauren Monardo. *Issue One, 2019, SBI Press, illustrated by Lauren Gramprey. * Issue Two, 2014, Kickstarter, illustrated by Jon Williams and Claudia Palescandolo. * Volume One, Kickstarter, 2015 * Volume Two, Kickstarter, 2016 Tiny Wizards 2019-Current Independent

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

series. Illustrated by UK-based artist Dean Beattie, Tiny Wizards is a fantasy-humor graphic novel series following the surviving wizards from a dying fantasy kingdom that transported themselves into the modern day Earth. However, the wizards seem to have miscalculated their spells and arrived about the size of an action figure and only inhabit fast food restaurants. The debut story was released in the summer of 2021 amid the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and debuted by Burgoon and Beattie at Thought Bubble Festival, one of the UK's largest comic book conventions. At the end of 2021, Tiny Wizards was named as a Top 20 Small Press Comic by Pipedream Comics.

References

External links

Eben Burgoon's website

B-Squad's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burgoon, Eben American webcomic creators American comics writers Comic book publishers (people) 1979 births Living people