Pulsing biceps. Gritted teeth. Bloody blades. There’s more to comics than its most angst-y and bloodthirsty aspects. Fans found that out when Skottie Young made his star turn with his work on the Marvel Oz books and his recent tour de force of covers. Proving there’s a place for all-ages illustration in superhero comics, another artist is entering that fray: Agnes Garbowska.
Agnes Garbowska is a frequent face at comic conventions across North America, as well as online with a number of webcomics over the years like Imagination Station, Waking Up Abbey and You, Me and Zombie. Garbowska also illustrated a series of children’s books called Yogurt the Ogre that is worth tracking down if you have kids. The Poland-born artist has been chipping away at the superhero mainstream with shorts in Marvel’s Girl Comics and Spider-Man 25th Anniversary Special, but she’s currently working on a project that could give her the popularity those never did. Garbowska is currently working on a new comic strip titled Peach and the Isle of Monsters with Teen Titans’ Franco as part of the “Aw Year Comics!” project Franco and Art Balthazar kickstartered earlier this year.
Agnes’ work has the short-statured cuteness the evokes the Japanese “Super Deformed” style, but the Canadian-based artist has made it her own with a playful and intense awareness of the quirks of American superhero fiction. Like the aforementioned Skottie Young, she may not be drawing the next Marvel or DC event book but when the right publisher finds the right project to use her talents, she could be a real player in comics.
Agnes is great, I’ve picked up a few commissions from her at Fanexpo and Montreal Con over the years
She is really professional and great to work with. I commissioned some stuff from her too. Sent the reference pics to her email and had some really cute watercolor pieces in a few hours.
Images here if you can see them:
My son and my dog (Batdog and Ethan)
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An extra Cat-ptain America
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Love how Green Lantern is making a surfboard for Aquaman in the Justice League painting!
Also: Doop!
I love Agnes. I got an awesome Captain Marvel & Spider-Woman commission from her last year at FanExpo.
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I would totally buy a Man-Thing book if Marvel hired her to draw one, so adorable.
Agnes did a sweet sketch for me of Molly from Runaways.
Really cute stuff! Love to see an ‘All-Ages’ book by her if she gets a shot.
Or I see a ‘Strange Tales’ type of anthology work for her if Marvel/DC does one again.
Agnes is great… wonderful at conventions and appearances, and her art is wonderful. She did a Superman for me on my Justice League jam piece last year at FanExpo
She’s so awesome, my gf and I love her work plus she’s with Francis Manapul so they are one of the coolest couple in the industry.