Robyn Brooke Smith is a Jamaican writer and cartoonist based in the United States. She is the author of The Saddest, Angriest, Black Girl in Town and the illustrator of Wash Day, Nubia: Real One, and Wash Day Diaries, for which she received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics.
Early life and education
Smith was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. She aspired to become a cartoonist from childhood, inspired in part by her father, a portrait artist and her mother, a makeup artist.[1] She also enjoyed reading Archie Digest, which she considers a key influence on her work.[2][1] Smith's family immigrated to the Bronx when she was 16, after she graduated high school.[1]
Smith received her bachelor's degree from Hampshire College and received her master of fine arts degree from the Center for Cartoon Studies.[3][4]
Career
During her graduate program at the Center for Cartoon Studies she developed her debut comic book The Saddest Angriest Black Girl In Town (2016) as a mini-thesis project, a memoir about "her experience being one of the only Black people in a rural Vermont town and how that time affected her mental health and her grasp of how Blackness is viewed in the world."[4] The book was named to the 2016 Best Short Form Comics list by The Comics Journal. After going out of print, it was reprinted in 2021 by Black Josei Press.[4] Smith also published comics on CollegeHumor.[1]
Jamila Rowser approached Smith to illustrate Wash Day, a comic about a hair care ritual for Black women, published in 2018 after a successful Kickstarter campaign.[5][1] It won a 2019 DiNKy Award for Best Floppy Comic.[3] She also illustrated the follow-up graphic novel Wash Day Diaries, for which she and writer Jamila Rowser received the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics.[6][7]
Smith illustrated Nubia: Real One (2021), a DC comic written by L.L. McKinney.
Works
Illustration
- 2016 – The Saddest Angriest Black Girl In Town, writer and illustrator
- 2018 – Wash Day, written by Jamila Rowser, Black Josei Press Template:ISBN
- 2021 – Nubia: Real One, written by L.L. McKinney, DC Comics Template:ISBN
- 2022 – Wash Day Diaries, written by Jamila Rowser, Chronicle Books Template:ISBN
Accolades
- 2016 – Best Short Form Comics, The Comics Journal (for The Saddest Angriest Black Girl In Town)[1]
- 2021 – Emerging Talent Award, Cartoon Crossroads Columbus[8]
- 2023 – Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics (for Wash Day Diaries)[7]