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SwankiVY
From Comixpedia
SwankiVY is the creator of the webcomic Negative One.
[edit] The Comic
Negative One is SwankiVY's realistically-drawn pencil-sketch comic, and it represents her most plentiful (and most high-quality) pencil art. The comic depicts the early history of some characters she created for her novel series, The House That Ivy Built. SwankiVY updates the comic every Friday and has done so since its creation on May 20, 2005. It has yet to miss an update, be late, or be filled in by a substitute.
[edit] The Artist/Writer/Girl
Very relevant information: SwankiVY has no formal art training or writing training (save a college education). She has minimal website-making training (part of a college class in music technology, taken in 1998, was devoted to making a site), but on that is also largely self-taught. She freelances as an editor, which makes for virtually typo-free publications at all times, and though she does read a few other people's webcomics she has few influences, which is why Negative One follows a rather unusual format not usually seen in webcomics.
Somewhat relevant information: SwankiVY has written seven completed novels (the first was completed at age fourteen), currently has three novels in progress, and has one novel she will never finish. Most of them are fantasy or have some fantastical element, but none are the usual "sword and sorcery" type. The House That Ivy Built was begun in 1996 and contains four completed books and two in-progress books ("Book 0" and "Book 5"). Her other serious writing projects are a fantasy novel called Bad Fairy (a Sleeping Beauty retelling), a children's novel called Joint Custody (a boy dealing with the aftermath of his parents' divorce), and Finding Mulligan, her newest book (completed March 2008) about a college girl who lives a separate life in her dreams and ends up falling in love with a dream man (for whom she ultimately decides to search in her waking life). SwankiVY has also written over two dozen short stories as well as the usual essays, rants, poems, and textual detritus. Except for the Web, she is currently unagented and unpublished, and is currenty querying agents for Finding Mulligan. Her website features some of her stories and writing excerpts.
Art-wise, SwankiVY basically taught herself to draw through the process of making Negative One, as evidenced by the comic's increase in art quality from the beginning of the story to the present. She also draws cartoons, even occasionally in manga style. She frequently focuses on drawing people, especially their faces, and does not show as much interest in drawing animals, backgrounds, or scenery. She also usually avoids color media.
Mostly irrelevant information: SwankiVY was born in 1978 in New Jersey, grew up in North Carolina, and moved to Florida in her teen years. She lived in Sarasota, Tampa, and Gainesville at different times, and though she majored in music for part of her college career, she graduated with a B.A. in elementary education and a minor in psychology. She currently resides in Tampa and works as a secretary, doing her writing and other creative projects on the side.
SwankiVY, or Ivy as she is also known, spends lots of time with her friends, and her hobbies include singing, making Web pages, drawing, reading, playing tennis, baking, and (of course) writing. She is an eldest child, a kitchen witch (or practicing eclectic Pagan), a vegetarian, a polyphasic sleeper, a soprano singer, an asexual, and a long-haired blonde who never made it to five feet tall. She likes corn.
