Cathy G. Johnson is an award-winning cartoonist, printmaker, and educator residing on occupied Narragansett land in Providence, Rhode Island. Her comics delve into the complicated worlds of young people, exploring the hardships and joys of adolescence. She holds a masters degree in art education from the Rhode Island School of Design. She received the 2014 Ignatz Award for Promising New Talent.
Past works include the graphic novels Jeremiah (One Percent Press, 2015), Gorgeous (Koyama Press, 2016), and The Breakaways (First Second Books, 2019). The Breakaways won the 2019 Dorry Award for Book of the Year in Children’s/YA. Cathy has also published numerous smaller works; her comic Black Hole Heart (self-published, 2020) won the 2020 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Minicomic.
Cathy regularly exhibits at comic book conventions, holds speaking engagements, and enjoys being a visiting author at libraries and schools.
Portfolio: www.cathygjohn.net
CV: www.cathygjohn.net/curriculum-vitae
Twitter: @cathygjohn
Education: www.comicarted.com
Subsidiary rights:
Unless specified below, for France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Brazil: agence@lorafountain.com.
For all other inquiries: jen@linnanliterary.com.
BLACK HOLE HEART
(2020)
2020 Ignatz Award winner
2020 MICE Mini-Grant winner
A horror story of female friendship for readers teen + older.
THE BREAKAWAYS
(First Second Books, March 2019)
2019 Dorry Award winner, Children’s/YA
Quiet, sensitive Faith starts middle school already worrying about how she will fit in. To her surprise, Amanda, a popular eighth grader, convinces her to join the school soccer team, the Bloodhounds. Having never played soccer in her life, Faith ends up on the C team, a ragtag group that’s way better at drama than at teamwork. Although they are awful at soccer, Faith and her teammates soon form a bond both on and off the soccer field that challenges their notions of loyalty, identity, friendship, and unity.
The Breakaways is a portrait of friendship in its many forms, and a raw and beautifully honest look into the lives of a diverse and defiantly independent group of kids learning to make room for themselves in the world.
GORGEOUS
(Koyama Press, May 2016)
Sophie has tried to stay out of trouble, but tonight trouble has found her. On a lonely stretch of highway under a star-studded sky, she meets anarchist punks in a crack-up of metal and emotion that proves sometimes the freedom of youth causes damage along the way.
(Rating: mature.)
JEREMIAH
(One Percent Press, September 2015)
Jeremiah is the foreboding story of a teenager whose struggle with self-discovery may bring on the end of his world. A watercolor and ink graphic novel spanning 160 pages, Jeremiah explores the conflict between the physical and the inexplicable, asking questions about faith, adolescence and sexuality.
(Rating: mature.)
THANK GOD, I AM IN LOVE (Ley Lines)
(Czap Books/Grindstone Comics, May 2015)