On November 10th Hamlin’s Lower School welcomed creative comic illustrator, Dana Simpson. Ms. Simpson draws the syndicated comic strip, Phoebe and Her Unicorn, which appears in 200 newspapers nationally.

Ms. Simpson shared her passion for drawing by telling Hamlin students about various facets of her life as an artist. She spoke about the first comic that she drew at the age of 5 and her early love of the Peanuts comic strip. She looked at what Charles Schulz did and said to herself, “Someone does that as a job; someday I can do that.” She went on to draw a comic for her middle school newspaper that few found funny, but she stuck with it and later earned accolades for her internet comic strip,  Ozy and MIllie.

Perhaps the highlight of Ms. Simpson’s visit was when she read her comic illustrations from the big screen in McKinney. Hamlin students were mesmerized as they watched the creator of their beloved books reading with expression and flare. As she presented, Ms. Simpson emphasized the importance of having prominent female characters in her work. During the question and answer period, one person wanted advice for girls aspiring to create comic strips. Ms. Simpson stated, “Never stop, don’t quit, eventually I found a way to make it work, and you can too.”

Below is a short video of Dana Simpson speaking about her work:

To learn more about Dana Simpson, please visit: http://danasimpson.com/