Gale Galligan (they/them)
“When you read a graphic novel, watch an animated film, or look at a painting, you only see the finished product. You don’t get to see the scribbles that those stories were born out of or the mistakes that happened along the way. Drawing becomes intimidating, inaccessible, something for other people. I make it my mission to break that wall down. I want kids to go home feeling excited to *make* things, because their voices are special and important.”
Biography
Gale Galligan is a bestselling middle grade cartoonist and shrimp chip enthusiast. They are the creator of four Baby-Sitters Club graphic novel adaptations, as well as two original graphic novels which they both wrote and illustrated: Freestyle and Fresh Start.
Gale was born in Florida, spent their elementary school years in Bangkok, Thailand and Frankfurt, Germany, and then moved to northern Virginia for middle and high school, where they were distressed to learn that Americans measure things in “inches” and “feet.” Gale has documented this harrowing transition in the semi-autobiographical graphic novel Fresh Start, which was a National Indie Bestseller as well as a USA Today bestseller — and, most importantly, made Gale’s mom tear up a little on page 239.
Outside of their book work, Gale has also written for IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog, illustrated covers for NCTE’s Voices From The Middle publication, and contributed several cartoons to Culture: A Cheese Magazine.
Gale enjoys knitting, drumming, and spending time with their zoo: Artemis (🐱), Kiwi, Lime, Pear, and Apple (🐸), and Penny (🐰), as well as Patrick the husband and Robin the child. Gale is a founding member of the Comics Advocacy Group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit which is dedicated to making careers in comics more accessible and sustainable. They live in Pearl River, New York.
Gallery
Book Gale
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