Author: Jess Smart Smiley


  • Today I’m giving a 2-hour presentation on writing, drawing and making comics at the Salt Lake City Library, from 3-5pm. It’s free to attend and I expect to see you there with your sketchbook and questions! More information is available on the library’s website.

  • I loveย the Writing Snippets podcast. Not just because they’re based in Utah (which they are). Not only because they offer excellent writing tips and advice (which they do). I love them because they are genuinely dedicated to their craft and want to share with others what they have learned and how they are improving. That’s…

  • I’m hoping to get invited as a guest on the Conan O’Brien Show. Crazy, huh? Well, I figured that instead of begging to be a guest and flooding his office with emails, I could draw a picture of him for every episode from now until October, when my graphic novel comes out. That way, I’d…

  • You’ll never believe this, but my dino drawing was chosen to be the new Provo Library Card! How crazy is that?! They’re sending my picture to the printer this Friday and making 10,000 new cards for patrons! It’s great timing, too—my current library card is so faded that you can’t see the numbers or barcode…

  • I had this great idea on Saturday to invite myself as a guest on the Conan O’Brien show to talk about my upcoming graphic novel, Upside Down: A Vampire Tale.ย Great idea, right? Well, I seem to have misplaced his email address, so I had to come up with a way to get in touch with…

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  • THE CRUMMER

    Watch out for the Crummer! He sucks out all of the yellow highlighter markings in your favorite books, he toggles the top of your pants zipper so that it won’t fold down at the top, he sneaks chapstick into your washing machine, and he forces those five strands of hair on your head to go…

  • More drawings from my sketchbook. I’m really having a blast with my Akashiya brush pen! BONUS! JJ wanted a drawing of something with a beard, so here you go:

  • In Utah This Week and Big Shiny Robot were great enough to include me in their list of Five Local Comic Artists to Watch! Isn’t that wild? I know what you’re thinking: are they blind? Have they even seen the junk I put out? Yeah. My thoughts exactly. But somehow they put me on the…

  • The Provo Library announced a contest a month or so ago to design their new library card. I’ve been avoiding contests for a while now (mostly because I get enough rejections as it is), but was nudged by a few friends to make something to submit. Admittedly, I’m a big library nerd and have been…