Comics Kingdom | Six Chix by Bannerman, Xunise, Konar, Lawton, Patrinos & Piro

Bannerman, Xunise, Konar, Lawton, Patrinos & Piro

About

Six Chix is a unique daily comic strip. It is created by six women cartoonists who each draw a day of the week and then rotate the Sunday strips. Isabella Bannerman draws Mondays; Bianca Xunise draws Tuesdays; Susan Camilleri Konar draws Wednesdays; Mary Lawton draws Thursdays; Maritsa Patrinos draws Fridays; and Stephanie Piro draws Saturdays. Each cartoonist writes and draws with her own style and perspective. On any week, you might find gags about the economy, technology, zombies, pirates or health —and the main characters will be female and funny.

Six Chix was the brainchild of the late Jay Kennedy who, in 2000 when Six Chix was launched, was the editor-in-chief of King Features. He made it his mission to be on the lookout for new cartoonists and to try and bring more women creators and readers to the comics. Six Chix helped him achieve these goals. In 2014, Six Chix was honored to receive a nomination for Best Newspaper Comic Strip of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society.

Authors

Isabella Bannerman

Isabella Bannerman has been the Monday artist for “Six Chix” since 2000. Her artwork has appeared in newspapers, magazines, comic books and textbooks. A collection of her cartoons, “Pacifists in Bomber Jackets” was published by Laugh Lines Press in 1998, and another collection “Cartoons for Caregivers” was printed in 2013.
Isabella has won awards from The Newswomen’s Club of New York, The Union of Concerned Scientists, and in 2014 she won a Silver Reuben award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip from the National Cartoonists Society.
Visit isabellabannerman.com for more of her work and the latest news on her.

Bianca Xunise

Bianca Xunise is an illustrator and cartoonist based out of Chicago, Illinois. Her work primarily focuses on the plight and daily struggles of a young black feminist weirdo in modern society. Her story-telling has the tender and relatable slice of life gaze featured in her monthly column at Shondaland. Her writing is also capable of a more complex nuanced driven narrative of mental health awareness or police brutality that have garnered her an Ignatz Award for Promising New Talent. Bianca’s has been featured by a diverse group of clients including Vogue, Ford, Essence, NYLON, The Washington Post, The BBC, and The Nib.
She is also a contributor to the book How We Fight Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance along with Ta-Nehisi Coates, Tarana Burk, and Harry Belafonte.
Bianca continues to be highlighted as a special guest for organizations like Small Press Expo, CAKE Chicago, The Society of Illustrators, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and has done live readings for Meanwhile, Chicago Zine Fest and at the historic Bluestockings Bookstore in New York’s Lower East Side.
In her downtime she also enjoys collaborating with Riot Fest and creating comics with some of her favorite bands including Blondie and Bauhaus. Fans of her writings continue rave at her “honesty” and “whimsy” that overall create powerful stories. When she’s not doodling away Bianca is usually somewhere dreaming of the mothman, while listening to The Damned.

Susan Camilleri Konar

Susan Camilleri Konar (Wednesdays): Susan Camilleri Konar's cartoons have appeared in many publications, including Harvard Business Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest, Narrative, Barron’s Prospect (UK), Business Law, and various newspapers. She also writes gags for syndicated and freelance cartoonists. In addition to cartooning, Susan has created illustrations for clients such as Squirrel Systems, Scholastic, and the University of British Columbia. Susan is a member of The National Cartoonists Society and the Federation of Canadian Artists.

Visit susancam.ca for more on her work and latest news.

Mary Lawton

Mary Lawton (Thursdays): Since 1983 Mary Lawton's cartoons have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including The New Yorker, Reader's Digest, The Utne Reader, Ms., The San Francisco Chronicle, The Realist, Funny Times, and Narrative.

Mary illustrated The Bette’s Diner Pancake Handbook, The Hip Mama Survival Guide and, most recently, Lone Stars: Outsider Art In Texas. Her cartoons have been exhibited in Boston, Berkeley, and at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.

She is also an accomplished portrait painter and has shown her paintings in Bill's Junk Gallery in Houston.

A native New Yorker, she has lived in Texas with her husband and two sons for 23 years.

Maritsa Patrinos

Maritsa Patrinos (Friday) joins the Six Chix after working on staff at Buzzfeed. She graduated from Pratt in New York and now lives in Brooklyn.

Stephanie Piro

Stephanie Piro (Saturdays): Besides her work for Six Chix, Stephanie Piro also draws and writes Fair Game, a single panel that appears on her website and in newspapers. Her cartoons have been published all over the place, including magazines, books, many cartoon collections, greeting cards and calendars. She is the author of My Cat Loves Me Naked, Men! Ha! and Caffeinated Cartoons, and has also illustrated several books.

Stephanie also designs gift items for her company, Strip T’s, and her CafePress Shop which includes a line of t-shirts and other fun things for women, book lovers, musicians and cat lovers. In her spare time (ha!), she works in a library and gardens. You can see more of her work at: www.stephaniepiro.com and http://stephanie-piro.blogspot.com/.

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