Colleen Coover (born July 14, 1969) is a comic book artist and author based in Portland, Oregon and is known for creating the lesbian-themed erotic comic book Small Favors from Eros Comix, illustrator of the comic book limited series Banana Sunday from Oni Press, and for illustrating several short stories in X-Men: First Class from Marvel Comics.

Early life

Coover was born in Iowa on July 14, 1969. She is bisexual. Coover met writer Paul Tobin at a drama class, and would go on to meet again at a local comic book store she regularly frequented. Coover and Tobin were married August 25, 2007. Coover grew up reading comics. She dropped out of art school and says that she is entirely self-taught as a comic book artist. She began drawing comics after meeting her husband. She credits the Hernandez brothers, Milton Caniff, Wendy Pini, Seth's Palookaville, Peter Arno, Dan DeCarlo, Curt Swan, and Neal Adams as artistic influences.

Career

Coover has contributed comic work to Out magazine and has done illustration and cover design for various publications, including On Our Backs, Girlfriends, Curve, Kitchen Sink, and Nickelodeon Magazine; and for publishers including Buckle Down Publishing, Alyson Books, Cleis Press, and Dark Horse Comics. Her first major comics project was Small Favors, a sex-positive, woman-friendly adult comic published from 2000-2003. She illustrated the graphic novels Gingerbread Girl (2011) and Banana Sunday (2006), both written by Paul Tobin. Since 2012 she has illustrated the digital comic Bandette, also written by Paul Tobin. Bandette was nominated for four Eisner Awards, and won the award for Best Digital/Webcomic in 2016. She won the Eisner Award again in 2017 for Best Digital Comic with Bandette. Coover is a member of Periscope Studio and the Comic Art Collective. Coover participated in the panels: "Prism Queer Press Grant Portfolio Review", "Love is in the Air: LGBT Romance Comics", and "Women of Marvel" at the San Diego Comic Convention 2009. She is the author of the 2012 short story "Home Port."

Comics

Books