Name Jillian Tamaki | Awards Caldecott Medal | |
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Books This One Summer, Skim, Gilded Lilies, Indoor Voice, SuperMutant Magic Academy |
Artist behind the covers jillian tamaki
Jillian Tamaki (born 1980) is a Canadian American illustrator and comics artist known for her work in The New York Times and The New Yorker and for the graphic novels Skim and This One Summer, written by her cousin Mariko Tamaki.
Contents
- Artist behind the covers jillian tamaki
- Mariko tamaki and jillian tamaki on this one summer 2015 l a times festival of books
- Early life
- Career
- Wins
- Nominations
- References

Mariko tamaki and jillian tamaki on this one summer 2015 l a times festival of books
Early life

Tamaki was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and grew up in Calgary, Alberta. She graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2003. After graduating art school, she worked at the video game company BioWare and later taught illustration at the New York City School of Visual Arts.
Career

Gilded Lilies (2006) is Tamaki's first published book and is a collection of Tamaki's illustrations and comic strips. The first part of the book comprises a carefully selected assemblage of paintings, personal drawings, illustrations and comics. The second part consists of a wordless graphic narrative titled The Tapemines, which tells the story of two children in a surreal landscape featuring "forests of cassette tape".

Skim (2008) is a critically acclaimed graphic novel illustrated by Jillian and written by her cousin Mariko Tamaki. It tells the story of a young high-school girl and touches on themes of friendship, suicide, sexuality, and identity.
Tamaki became the centre of controversy when Mariko Tamaki alone was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award for Skim. The comics community and others circulated an open letter to the Awards Committee that argued for Tamaki as a co-nominee, which was signed by notable comics artists such as Lynda Barry, Dan Clowes, and Julie Doucet.
Indoor Voice (2010) collects Tamaki's drawings, illustrations and comic strips and is part of publisher Drawn and Quarterly's Petit Livre series. The majority of the book is printed in black and white, but it also features some colour illustrations. Indoor Voice was released to mixed reviews.
"Now & then & when" (2008), a drawing with ink and graphite, was purchased by the Library of Congress in 2011. Within a two-panel horizontal, she depicted herself as a central, monumental figure, flanked by smaller full length figures of herself from infancy to adulthood on the left, from middle age to elderly on the right. Tamaki's variation on the theme with figures in bathing suits, related vignettes and speech balloons, presents an updated counterpart to the demure figures and texts of artistic precedents.
This One Summer (2014) by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki is a graphic novel that centres on the experiences of close friends Rose and Windy, who are on the cusp of adolescence, during a summer holiday. This One Summer won a 2014 Ignatz Award, the 2015 Printz Honor and Caldecott Honor awards, and the 2015 Eisner Award.
SuperMutant Magic Academy (2015), published by Drawn and Quarterly, is a collection of Jillian Tamaki's web comics from 2010 to 2014. Previously, these comics won an Ignatz Award in 2012 for Outstanding Online Comic.