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Pia Guerra

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Pia Guerra
Pia Guerra at the Vancouver Comicon, March 2006
BornPia Jasmin Guerra
Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.
NationalityCanadian
Area(s)Artist, pencils
Notable works
Y: The Last Man series
AwardsEisner Award, Harvey Award, Joe Shuster Award
http://www.hellkitty.com

Pia Jasmin Guerra is an American-born Canadian comic book artist and editorial cartoonist, best known for her work as co-creator and lead penciller on the Vertigo title Y: The Last Man.[1] She has worked in the comics industry since the 1990s, and has also contributed to Doctor Who: The Forgotten, along with DC and Marvel comics.[2][3] Guerra regularly does cartoons for The New Yorker, MAD Magazine and The Nib. She is the author of the Image Comics editorial cartoon book, Me The People.

Early life

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Guerra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to a Finnish mother and Chilean father.[4] At the age of 10, Guerra's cousin visited from Queens and introduced her to comics by leaving his issue of The Uncanny X-Men #129 on a coffee table in her house. After reading the comic, Guerra continued to read comics thereafter. As a self-taught artist, Guerra was always interested in art, but she planned to pursue other careers, such as medicine.[5]

In high school, Guerra attended comic conventions and began to consider pursuing a career in comics. As her plans shifted, Guerra made the decision to forgo secondary education and instead focus on pursuing a career in comics.[5]

Career

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During her early career, Guerra did voice over work and worked on many different video games and video game manuals. In 1998, Guerra created storyboards for Boeing Employee's Credit Union and Microsoft Studios.[2] Before creating Y: The Last Man, Guerra contacted Brian K. Vaughan, and they arranged to meet in San Diego.[5]

Guerra's first major project was the Vertigo title Y: The Last Man, which she co-created with Brian Vaughan and pencilled for.[2] Guerra has worked on various independent titles since the mid-1990s, though Y: The Last Man is known as her "big break" in the comics industry.[6]

In 2005, Guerra worked as a penciller on Marvel's Spider-Man: Unlimited.[2] In the late 2000s, Guerra contributed to a Doctor Who comic entitled Doctor Who: The Forgotten (published by IDW Publishing and written by UK writer Tony Lee),[7] and to a Torchwood series (for Torchwood Magazine) written by Gareth David-Lloyd. She has co-written two issues of Simpsons Comics for Bongo Comics with Ian Boothby.[2]

From 2013 to 2015, she worked on five comic book covers, including a variant cover for Black Canary.[2]

In the late 2010s, Guerra turned to editorial cartooning. She has done cartoons for the online page The Nib, The Washington Post and The New Yorker.[8] Following the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, she posted a widely shared cartoon on Twitter depicting school staffer Aaron Feis, who had died protecting students, being led in the afterlife to a hero's welcome from those who had been killed. Guerra told The Washington Post that the cartoon was a direct response to her feelings of helplessness in the face of yet another mass shooting.[9][10]

In April 2022, Guerra was reported among the contributors to Operation USA's benefit anthology book, Comics for Ukraine: Sunflower Seeds, a project spearheaded by IDW Publishing Special Projects Editor Scott Dunbier, whose profits would be donated to relief efforts for Ukrainian refugees resulting from the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[11]

Guerra was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in the category Illustrated Reporting and Commentary in 2023

Personal life

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Guerra currently resides in Vancouver, Canada, and is married to writer and comedian Ian Boothby, with whom she does cartoons for Go Comics, Instagram and the New Yorker.[12] Since February 2021, they have collaborated on the daily, one panel comic Mannequin on the Moon.[13]

Bibliography

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Awards

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Nominations

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Notes

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  1. ^ Singh, Arune (September 20, 2002). "Vertigo's 'Last (Wo)Man' Standing: Pia Guerra Talks About Hit Series 'Y'". CBR.com.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Pia's Resume". Hellkitty Studios. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  3. ^ "Spider-Man Unlimited (2004 - 2006) | Comic Books | Comics | Marvel.com". marvel.com. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  4. ^ Ferreras, Jesse. "How a B.C. cartoonist sketched an enduring memorial to Florida school shooting victims", Global News, February 24, 2018. Accessed August 26, 2018. "Guerra, a Vancouver resident, was born in Hoboken, N.J., the daughter of a musician from Chile and a mother from Finland."
  5. ^ a b c d "Sequential Tart: Pia Guerra: Y: The Last Monkey". Sequential Tart. July 2003.
  6. ^ "Pia and the Last Man Standing". Comicon. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  7. ^ Minnick, Remy (August 22, 2008). Pia Guerra talks "Doctor Who: The Forgotten". CBR.com.
  8. ^ "Pia Guerra". The Nib. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  9. ^ Schmidt, Samantha (February 20, 2018). "This single cartoon about school shootings is breaking people's hearts". The Washington Post.
  10. ^ Hassler, Chelsea Adelaine (February 22, 2018). "The 1 Cartoon About School Shootings Every American Needs to See". PopSugar.
  11. ^ Kit, Borys (April 20, 2022). "Comic Book Creators Team for Ukraine Relief Effort Anthology 'Sunflower Seed'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on April 20, 2022. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  12. ^ "Interview: Pia Guerra". The Outhouse. October 31, 2006.
  13. ^ "About Mannequin on the Moon". Go Comics. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  14. ^ "Spider-Man Unlimited (2004) #10 | Comics | Marvel.com". marvel.com. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  15. ^ "Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #13 | Bongo Comics". www.bongocomics.com. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  16. ^ "Elephantmen #64 | Releases | Image Comics". imagecomics.com. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  17. ^ "BLACK CANARY #4". DC. 2015-06-15. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  18. ^ "2006 Nominees and Winners". Joe Shuster Awards. 30 December 2008. Retrieved 2011-12-28.
  19. ^ "2008 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award and Other Award Winners". Comic-Con 2008. San Diego Comic-Con International. Archived from the original on 2010-12-03. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
  20. ^ "2003 Harvey Award Winners". The Harvey Awards. Archived from the original on 8 November 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  21. ^ "Le Prix du Festival International de la Bande Dessinée Angoulême". www.hahnlibrary.net. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  22. ^ "2009 Hugo Award Nominations". thehugoawards.com. 2009-03-20. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
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