Grace Ellis
{{Short description|American journalist, comic, and television writer}}
{{Infobox comics creator
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| birth_name = Grace Ellis
| birth_place = Sandusky, Ohio
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| notable works = Lumberjanes, Moonstruck, Bravest Warriors, Flung Out of Space
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| website = {{URL|https://www.ohheygraceellis.com/}}
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Grace Ellis is an American journalist, comics and television writer. She won the Eisner Award for Best New Series and Best Publication for Teens in 2015 for Lumberjanes{{Cite web |last=Wheeler |first=Andrew |date=2015-07-11 |title=27th Eisner Awards: Full List of Winners |url=https://comicsalliance.com/eisner-winners-2015/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=ComicsAlliance |language=en}} and Best Reality-Based Work in 2023 for Flung Out of Space and was nominated for Best Writer.{{Cite web |last=McMillan |first=Graeme |date=2023-07-22 |title=And the winners of the 2023 Eisner Awards are... |url=https://www.thepopverse.com/eisner-awards-comic-award-will-industry-2023-nominees-winners-graphic-novel-ogn-novels-comics-book-books |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=Popverse |language=en}}
Career
After college, Ellis worked for Autostraddle{{Cite web |title=Intern Grace |url=https://www.autostraddle.com/author/graaace/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=Autostraddle |language=en-US}} where, during an annual sleepaway camp the site hosted, she met Shannon Watters, who was a writer and editor at Boom! Studios. Watters recommended that they make a comic together and they came up with the idea for Lumberjanes. The first issue of Lumberjanes was the first comic Ellis had ever written.{{Cite news |date=August 3, 2018 |title=Grace Ellis: The Frederator Interview |url=https://frederator-studios.frederator.com/post/176597798672/grace-ellis-the-frederator-interview |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20181231150207/http://frederator-studios.frederator.com:80/post/176597798672/grace-ellis-the-frederator-interview |archive-date=2018-12-31 |access-date=2025-01-05 |work=The Frederator Studios Tumblr |language=en}} Lumberjanes would go on to win the 2016 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic{{Cite web |last=Yehl |first=Joshua |date=2016-04-03 |title=Lumberjanes Wins 2016 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2016/04/03/lumberjanes-wins-2016-glaad-media-award-for-outstanding-comic |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=IGN |language=en}} and to be nominated several more times.{{Cite web |last=Nordyke |first=Kimberly |date=2018-05-05 |title=GLAAD Media Awards: 'Call Me by Your Name' Wins Best Film |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/glaad-media-awards-complete-list-winners-2018-1078487/outstanding-comic-book-5/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US}}
In 2017, she began working on Moonstruck, a romantic comedy set in a world with mythological creatures, alongside artists Shae Beagle and Kate Leth.{{Cite web |last=Mey |date=2017-07-04 |title=Drawn to Comics: Talking to Grace Ellis About Queer Fantasy Coffee Shop AU Comic Moonstruck! |url=https://www.autostraddle.com/drawn-to-comics-talking-to-grace-ellis-about-queer-fantasy-coffee-shop-au-comic-moonstruck-385288/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=Autostraddle |language=en-US}} The comic started as a class project in the Columbus College of Art & Design, where the professor, Laurenn McCubbin, assigned student artists to work with professional writers. After Shae was placed with Ellis, McCubbin liked their story so much, she helped pitch it to Image Comics.{{Cite magazine |last=Holub |first=Christian |title='Lumberjanes' Writer Presents Beautiful, Diverse Fantasy World with New Comic 'Moonstruck' |url=https://ew.com/books/2017/07/18/moonstruck-comic-lumberjanes-writer/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |language=en}} It was listed by Entertainment Weekly as one of "10 LGBTQ comics to read this Pride Month."{{Cite magazine |last1=Serrao |first1=Nivea |last2=Holub |first2=Christian |date=June 21, 2017 |title=From 'Iceman' to 'Jughead,' Here Are 10 LGBTQ Comics to Read This Pride Month |url=https://ew.com/books/2017/06/21/lgbtq-comics-pride-month/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |language=en}}
In 2018, she began writing for Bravest Warriors, where she would write three episodes of its fourth season. In 2020, she and artist Brittney Williams published the middle-grade graphic novel Lois Lane and the Friendship Challenge through DC Comics.{{Cite web |last=Ellis |first=Grace |date=2020-08-18 |title=Author Grace Ellis on iconic journalist Lois Lane |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/author-grace-ellis-on-iconic-journalist-lois-lane |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=SYFY |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Calamia |first=Kat |date=2020-08-11 |title=The secret origin of Lois Lane explored in Friendship Challenge |url=https://www.gamesradar.com/the-secret-origin-of-lois-lane-explored-in-friendship-challenge/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=GamesRadar |language=en}}
In 2022, her first graphic novel, Flung Out of Space, was published by Abrams Books' new imprint Surley Books, a graphic novel line dedicated to queer creators and curated by Mariko Tamaki.{{Cite web |last=Horne |first=Karame |date=2021-07-01 |title=Indie Comics Spotlight: Surely Books founder Mariko Tamaki is tired of diversity panels |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/surely-books-mariko-tamaki-indie-comics-lgbt-diversity |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=SYFY |language=en-US}} With artist Hannah Templer, the comic looks at the life of Patricia Highsmith and her struggles as a "self-loathing lesbian" writer in the 1940s.{{Cite web |last=Frank-Collins |first=Joy |title=Grace Ellis' "Flung Out of Space" Centers Noir Crime Novelist as Unlikely Protagonist |url=https://www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifestyle/around-town/2022/05/03/grace-ellis-flung-out-of-space-patricia-highsmith/9627445002/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=Columbus Monthly |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Hogan |first=Heather |date=2022-04-25 |title="Flung Out of Space" Grapples With Patricia Highsmith's Misanthropic Lesbian Life |url=https://www.autostraddle.com/flung-out-of-space-review/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=Autostraddle |language=en-US}} Per Ellis, "I want to dig into narratives that we haven't seen before. There's a certain way we talk about influential women and LGBTQ people like they're saints or rebellious in just the right ways, but the truth is more interesting."{{Cite web |last=Rude |first=Mey |date=March 24, 2022 |title=Patricia Highsmith Is 'Flung Out of Space' in Graphic Novel Biography |url=https://www.advocate.com/exclusives/2022/3/24/patricia-highsmith-flung-out-space-graphic-novel-biography |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=Advocate |language=en}} In addition to winning the Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work, it was also on the New York Times's list of 100 Notable Books of 2022.{{Cite news |last=Staff |first=The New York Times Books |date=2022-11-22 |title=100 Notable Books of 2022 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/22/books/notable-books.html |access-date=2025-01-05 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}
In 2023, her next middle-grade graphic novel from DC Comics, Diana and the Hero's Journey, was published with artist Penelope Rivera Gaylord.{{Cite web |last=Simmons |first=Nathan |date=2023-10-17 |title=Diana and the Hero's Journey review |url=https://aiptcomics.com/2023/10/17/diana-and-the-heros-journey-review/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=AiPT |language=en-us}}
Personal life
Originally from Sandusky, Ellis currently lives in Columbus, Ohio and went to Ohio State for theater and journalism. She is a lesbian.{{Cite web |last=Kennedy |first=Dakotah |date=2023-08-10 |title=Queering the Panel: How an Ohio creative is changing the world through her comics |url=https://thebuckeyeflame.com/2023/08/10/grace-ellis/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=The Buckeye Flame |language=en-US}}
Bibliography
=Boom! Studios=
- Lumberjanes #1-8 (2014)
=Image Comics=
- Moonstruck #1-6 (2017-2018)
- Moonstruck: Some Enchanted Evening (2019)
- Moonstruck: Troubled Waters (2020)
=DC Comics=
- Diana and the Hero's Journey OGN (2023)
- Harley Quinn vol. 4 #34, short story "Harley's Big Exit" (2024)
- Harley Quinn vol. 4 #40, short story "Harley Quinn and the Scales of Justice" (2024)
- Lois Lane and the Friendship Challenge OGN (2020)
- Poison Ivy #25, short story "Mushroom Hunters" (2024)
- Titans: Beast World Tour: Gotham #1, short story "Wild Harleys I have Known" (2024)
- Truth & Justice #5 (2021)
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.ohheygraceellis.com/ Official site]
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Category:LGBTQ comics creators
Category:American LGBTQ screenwriters
Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people
Category:21st-century people from Ohio
Category:LGBTQ people from Ohio