{"id":82,"date":"2023-09-13T15:37:07","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T19:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhcscomicstrips\/?page_id=82"},"modified":"2023-12-12T12:41:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T16:41:49","slug":"jamilah-ganyuma-steenz","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhcscomicstrips\/cartoonists-1980-present\/jamilah-ganyuma-steenz\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamilah Ganyuma — “Steenz”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cartoonist Profile<\/h2>\n

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Steenz Stewart<\/span>. \u201cSteenz.\u201d Odam Lviran, 2023, https:\/\/www.oheysteenz.com\/contact<\/span><\/a>. 17 Sept. 2023.<\/p>\n

Early Life and Career<\/h4>\n

Steenz Stewart (they\/them) is a St. Louis-based cartoonist, professor, and editor. They were born in Detroit, Michigan but moved to St. Louis when they were around 10, where they attended <\/span>Parkway North High Schoo<\/span>l. <\/span>Growing up, they read daily comic strips like <\/span>Cathy<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Calvin and Hobbes<\/span><\/i> in the newspaper (Cavna). They also loved superhero comics, standalone graphic novels, and mangas (Cherry). They attended college for three years studying illustration. Comics was never a potential prospect for Steenz (Dueben). They found comics working as the manager of a comic book store, Star Clipper (Rieck and Thomas). Star Clipper is where they began to realize that black people, more specifically black women, had a space in the comic world (\u201cYoung Local Cartoonist “Steenz” | Living St. Louis”, 01:00 – 01:30). They also worked at a library for some time after Star Clipper. At both these jobs, they published indie comics and began to create a name for themselves in the comic community. This was further cemented when they started at Lion Forge Comics. First, they were social media and community managers but became an associate editor in 2018 (Steenz, 2023)<\/span>. They edited the monthly RPG magazine, Rolled and Told (Babb). Further, the community they found in the comic world also gave them recognition and connections that they attribute to where they are today (Dueben). Working as an editor gave them knowledge of the comic industry. All of this culminated in the success they experience today. Currently, they are the cartoonist for the syndicated newspaper strip <\/span>Heart in the City,<\/span><\/i> an adjunct professor at Webster University, and a freelance editor.<\/span><\/p>\n

While working at the library, they met Ivy Noelle Weir. They created a WebToon with them that eventually was published in 2018: <\/span>Archival Quality<\/span><\/i>. They credit that as the door to the comic world (Rieck and Thomas). <\/span>Archival Quality <\/span><\/i>follows Cel, a librarian who begins a new job as an archivist at a museum after having a mental breakdown. She only works in the middle of the night and quickly releases some strange things occurring in the museum. <\/span>Archival Quality <\/span><\/i>went on to win the 2018 Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in comics (\u201cAbout\u201d). Another one of their fictional works, an anthology they participated in called <\/span>Dead Beats <\/span><\/i>won the 2019 Ringo Award for Best Anthology (\u201cAbout\u201d). Steenz has also created comics revolving around pressing social issues. Collaborating with Aaron Cantu, their comic <\/span>When Innocent Until Proven Guilty Costs $400 a Month\u2014and Your Freedom<\/span><\/i> won the 2021 Media for a Just Society Award (\u201cAbout\u201d). They were published in the anthology <\/span>Mine!: A Celebration of Liberty and Freedom for All Benefiting Planned Parenthood <\/span><\/i>which won the 2018 Ringo Award for Best Anthology (\u201cAbout\u201d). Steenz has written a slew of independently published comics centered around voting rights, comics in libraries, and prominent historical figures. They are currently working on a graphic novel, <\/span>Side Quest<\/span><\/i>, with Sam Sattin (Dueben). It is a graphic novel detailing the history of tabletop RPGs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Heart of the City: <\/em>Steenz’ Syndication<\/h4>\n

Steenz became the third Black femme to become a nationally syndicated cartoonist and the second non-binary black person when they took over <\/span>Heart in the City<\/span><\/i> (Rueda). Mark Tatulli, the original creator of the comic, retired and sold the strip to Andrew McMeel. Editor Shena Wolf approached Steenz to take over the comic. After four weeks of auditions, Steenz was picked to draw for the strip (VanHooker). The comic runs in 50 newspapers and websites across the United States, Canada, and numerous other countries (Milligan). Notably, it replaced the long-running satire comic <\/span>Dilbert<\/span><\/i> in the Washington Post. <\/span>Dilbert<\/span><\/i> was dropped from newspapers across the country after the creator went on a racist tirade against Black people (Turner). Steenz was welcomed by the small community of Black comic writers. They received support emails from Ray Billingsley and Robb Armstrong (VanHooker).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Heart of the City<\/em>: Overview<\/h4>\n

The comic followed Heart, a young girl living in New York with a flair for the dramatics. In Steenz’s rendition, they aged Heart to middle school and introduced a slather of new, diverse characters but continued to stay true to some of the main themes of the Tatulli introduced (Pfau) (Babb). Steenz published <\/span>Heart Takes the Stage<\/span><\/i> in 2022 which follows Heart and her friends on navigating middle school. In that novel, Steenz introduces their first new character, Charlotte, a black girl who quickly becomes Heart\u2019s best friend. They took inspiration from novels they read as a child, such as <\/span>Goosebumps<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Baby-Sitters Club<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Fear Street <\/span><\/i>and the comics they read, like <\/span>Zips<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Jumpstart<\/span><\/i> when writing <\/span>Heart in the City.<\/span><\/i> When reading them, they felt like \u201cthere was always something more for you to go back to,\u201d and wanted readers to feel the same about <\/span>Heart in the City<\/span><\/i> (Jones). <\/span>Steenz takes special care to make <\/span>Heart of the City<\/span><\/i> relatable to an eleven-year-old, but still enjoyable for all ages (Dueben). They also moved away from Tatulli\u2019s gag strips and focused on making it a story. They want readers to be able to grow with Heart and view them as actual characters (Dueben).<\/span><\/p>\n

Heart of the City:\u00a0<\/em>Comic Strip Profile<\/h4>\n

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Steenz. Heart of the City<\/span>. September 5, 2013. https:\/\/www.gocomics.com\/heartofthecity\/2023\/09\/05<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Heart, the girl in the purple dress, is known for her love of drama, which can be assumed through her wanting to go through the VIP entrance while everyone else waits in line. However, Heart is not the main focus on the comic strips, only really being centered in the third panel. The other panels feature her diverse set of friends. One thing Steenz emphasizes in her lessons is visibility\u2013specifically wanting to show others like them they too exist in media and in comic spaces (Rieck and Thomas) (Rueda). This goal shines through in the first panel, where every character is drawn with a different skin tone and hair style. Further, Steenz also portrays a Black hijabi, Lee, who has two lines of dialogue and is the center for the second and third panel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mr. Slice, Kruttika Susarla<\/a><\/p>\n

Later Career<\/h4>\n

One of Steenz\u2019s main values in their work is inclusion and representation. Outside of <\/span>Heart of the City<\/span><\/i>, they make an effort to accomplish this through their other projects. They teach cartooning at Webster University. Their course, a precursor for the comic book-making class, not only teaches their students about the fundamentals of cartooning but also the logistical stuff of their future careers. This includes copyright law and how to file their own taxes (Cherry). Further, alongside Camilla Zhang, they created a Standard Comic Script (SCS) which is available for free on their<\/span> website<\/span><\/a>. The SCS is a template that aims to standardize the comic-making process. While doing freelance editing jobs, Steenz realized every script they read was different. This, alongside the goal of legitimizing the industry through standardization, birthed the SCS (Knight). Both Steenz and Zhang want to “demystify the comics industry, make life easier for professionals, and open doors for new creators” (Steenz and Zhang). Steenz further helps new creators through the St. Louis Independent Comics Expo (SLICE) as president of the expo. Slice is a revamp of a previous convention that was forced into hiatus by the Pandemic. While both conventions highlight independent artists and small press, SLICE focuses on comics (Green). SLICE is free to the public and \u201cprovides resources to authors and creators in the form of training, networking opportunities, and through the annual indie-print showcase that is our namesake (\u201cAbout | SLICE\u201d).\u201d Slice hosts events throughout the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Wikidata Profile<\/h2>\n

First Wikidata link<\/a><\/p>\n

Second Wikidata Link<\/a><\/p>\n

Steenz has two wikidata profiles, both with little information. The first wikidata profile only has 5 pieces of information of them and labels them as an American Cartoonist. For their occupation, it says they are a comics artist, cartoonist, and writer. For sex and gender, it says female even though Steenz identifies as non-binary.<\/p>\n

The second wikidata profile is more detailed. They are labeled as an author on this one. It lists their full name, Christina Stewart, along with their pen name Steenz. The sex and gender still says female. Their race is African-American and the country of citizenship is the United States. However, this page says nothing about their occupation. In all, both the wikidata pages tell nothing of who Steenz is outside of the most basic generalities which can be found on an ID. Even then, it is not entirely accurate in regards to gender.<\/p>\n

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TimelineJS: Steenz<\/h2>\n