User:Elid 389/Elizabeth Watasin

Elizabeth Watasin is an American writer, illustrator, digital artists, and publisher. Throughout her career, she was involved in several animation jobs, such as James Baxter Animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Duncan Studio, Deluxe Entertainment Service Group, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and TONIC DNA. She is well-known for her zine, The Adventures of A-Girl.

Early Life
Elizabeth Watasin’s interest in comics began around the age of ten years old. This is when she read an X-Man Comic that inspired her to make comics of her own. She started creating her own comic strips in high school and from there developed into comic books. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration at the California College of the Arts in 1989.

Career
In 1990, Elizabeth Watasin began working at Walt Disney Feature Animation where she helped produce several feature films (Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King, Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan, Fantasia 2000, Emperor’s New Groove, Treasure Planet) as a Key Assistant Animator.

Elizabeth Watasin self-publishing her first zine, The Adventures of A-Girl (the "A" stands for "Asexual"), during the small-press explosion days and later got published in Sara Dyer’s Action Girl Comics. Elizabeth Watasin created Action Girl’s ally, a fellow high-school student named Flying Girl, Ginnie Exupery, who is also Action Girl’s best friend and confident. Action Girl was originally created to showcase the talent of women working as comic-book writers and artists and ended up receiving a fanbase comprised of different genders, having been embraced by men as well as other women.

In Action Girl Comics #13, Elizabeth Watasin debuted her character Magical Witch Girl Bunny, whom later she later continued writing about in her own comic series Charm School. Charm School is a series of comic books that currently has nine issues, with a tenth coming soon. This work features queer women such as Bunny herself, her vampire girlfriend Dean, and a dark faerie named Fairer Than.

Elizabeth Watasin furthered her career by transitioning to long novels after she injured her hands and struggled to continue making comics. This led to her self-publication of several novels, including her Penny Dreads series, The Dark Victorian series, The Elle Black Penny Dreads series, her Darquepunk novels, and her Darquepunk Nuit pieces. This is in addition to her Charm School novella series, self-published with its comic book counterparts.

In the vast majority of Elizabeth Watasin’s work, she demonstrates multiple instances of queer representation, many of which feature sapphic characters and relationships. As an openly lesbian creator, she has been and continues to be a role model for queer creatives, particularly queer women, and continues to provide several works of sapphic art in a variety of genres and mediums.

She is regularly recognized in the queer zine community, and her works are highly recommended.

Now, Elizabeth Watasin is currently beginning to animate The Adventures of A-Girl, which she is continuing to document on her social media platforms.

Awards
Throughout her career, Elizabeth Watasin has won several acclaims for her work, including the 1997 Kimberly Yale Award for Best New Talent nominee for Adventures of A-Girl and Action Girl Comics, the 2001 Lulu Award nominee for Charm School, the 2002 Gaylactic Spectrum Award nominee for Charm School #4, and Best Lesbian Fantasy and Fantasy Romance in the 2015 Rainbow Awards. She was also a Finalist in the 2016 Goldie Awards for her novels Medusa in the Paranormal/Horror Category and her Novella Charm School in the YA Category.

Personal Life
Elizabeth Watasin remains active on social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. This is in addition to the blog on her website, A-Girl Studio.

Personal

 * “Elizabeth Watasin - Owner - A-Girl Studio | Linkedin.” LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethwatasin .
 * Watasin, Elizabeth S. “Elizabeth Watasin Makes Books .” A-Girl Studio, Http://a-Girlstudio.com/Wp-Content/Uploads/2015/03/Header_risen-300x169.Jpg, 23 Jan. 2010, http://a-girlstudio.com/elizabeths-blog/page/66/ .

Interviews

 * “A Moment in the Mind of Author and Illustrator Elizabeth Watasin.” SCIFI.radio, 10 May 2016, https://scifi.radio/2014/07/26/a-moment-in-the-mind-of-author-and-illustrator-elizabeth-watasin/ .
 * Camp, Wendy Van. “Author Interview: Elizabeth Watasin.” No Wasted Ink, 8 Feb. 2014, https://nowastedink.com/2014/03/26/author-interview-elizabeth-watasin/ .
 * Dean, Ray. “Ray Dean Interviews Author Elizabeth Watasin.” STEAMED!, 24 Jan. 2013, https://ageofsteam.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/ray-dean-interviews-author-elizabeth-watasin/ .
 * The "In" Show, director. An "IN"Terview With....Elizabeth Watasin. YouTube, 2 Jan. 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oZA9nx3PVY . Accessed 9 Oct. 2022.

Mentions

 * Zan Christensen. “Out in Comics 2000.” Issuu, 16 Dec. 2008, https://issuu.com/zanseattle/docs/oic2000 .  
 * Zan Christensen. “Out in Comics 2002.” Issuu, 16 Dec. 2008, https://issuu.com/zanseattle/docs/oic2002 .  
 * Zan Christensen. “Prism Comics: Your LGBT Guide to Comics 2003.” Issuu, 16 Dec. 2008, https://issuu.com/zanseattle/docs/prismcomics2003 .
 * Queer Zine Explosion. http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/media/print/queerzine.explosion/new.html

Action Girl

 * Action Girl Online, https://web.archive.org/web/20060612200052/http://www.houseoffun.com/action/ .