Aśka (pronounced ‘Ash-ka’), she/they, is a Perth based, award-winning cartoonist, energetic visual storyteller, an ex-quantum physicist, and a big fan of the little doovalacky above the ‘s’ in her name.
A hugely engaging and popular presenter, Aśka is passionate about comics and visual literacy education.
Their latest physics-meets-road-trip YA graphic novel, The Friendship Paradox (Allen & Unwin), uses visual language to explore what it’s like to navigate the world and find your place in it when you’re … different.
Alongside a catalogue of self-published comics, Aśka has traditionally published more than a dozen books and graphic novels, including the Stonewall Award Notable YA graphic novel Stars in Their Eyes (US edition), which was also a CBCA Notable Book and nominated for the Comics Arts Awards of Australia (AU edition).
Their other books have been shortlisted for a range of awards, and they are also the recipient of several government arts grants, prizes, and the May Gibbs Fellowship.
Aśka has been a judge for the CBCA Make Your Own Storybook Competition for six years; is an organising committee member for the Perth Comic Arts Festival; contributes regularly to The School Magazine; volunteered as Illustrator Co-ordinator for the WA branch of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for four years; single-handedly ran an animation festival; held a solo art exhibition about numbers in nature; and has been featured in an ABC TV documentary.
When she’s not creating, Aśka travels across Australia teaching comics-as-literacy to enthusiastic audiences of all ages. Sometimes, she sleeps.