Ellie Gerken

Ellie Gerken is a queer cartoonist, illustrator, middle child, and cat owner from the most boring city in Western Washington. They received their BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2024 and have since entrenched themselves in the independent comics publishing scene in Chicago and beyond.

In their work, interpersonal and intrapersonal dramas are their bread and butter. They enjoy creating stylistically simple and specifically detailed impressions of the world for their characters to dance in and play around with their feelings. On occasion, they play a character in their own work and bring this same energy. Ellie takes great joy in being highly candid and vulnerable in their work, always desiring to say the quiet part out loud and explore the things we choose not to say and why.

In the classroom, Ellie values play and exploration above all else. They seek to create a space in which experimentation need not be encouraged because it is in the air. Students stepping into their classroom are already artists in their own right, and Ellie only wants to improve their toolkits to make their world a little bigger when they step out.