Eleanor Davis

Eleanor McCutcheon Davis (born January 16, 1983) is an American cartoonist and illustrator who creates comic works and other art for both adolescent and adult audiences.

Eleanor Davis was raised in Tucson, Arizona by comic enthusiast parents who exposed her to stories and styles such as Little Lulu, Krazy Kat, Little Nemo and the Kinder Kids. She attended Kino School from elementary school until she graduated from high school. It wasn't until high school, when she was introduced to the zine/minicomics world of alternative comics by classmates, that she started to draw comics seriously. In high school she began to self-publish her own comic and soon after decided to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia to study sequential art. Davis's work began to get noticed for her original handmade die-cuts and coloring but was further helped by her diligent production of minicomics, attending comic conventions, and online presence.

Mostly a self-publisher, Davis has produced many comics on her own, including The Beast Mother. Outside of her self-published comics, Davis's work has been included in five issues of Fantagraphics' anthology MOME as well as Houghton Mifflin's Best American Comics in 2008.

Her easy-reader book, Stinky, was published in 2008 by Françoise Mouly's Toon Books. The book won her an ALA Geisel Honor Award in 2009. The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook, published by Bloomsbury Children's in 2009, was a collaborative book created with husband Drew Weing, who did the inking to Eleanor's illustrations for the book. In 2009, she won the Eisner's Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award and was named one of Print magazine's New Visual Artists. In 2013, her short story In Our Eden received a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators.

In August 2014, Fantagraphics published Davis' first collection of stories How to Be Happy. Slate described the collection as "a mix of evocative, geometric watercolors and fluid pen-and-ink cartoons, How to Be Happy tells stories of sad people, lonely people, strong people, confident people, all trying to find a tiny bit of happiness in life." Upon the publication of How to Be Happy, comics critic Richard Bruton described Davis as "without question, a major young creator."

Davis teaches comic book storytelling classes at the University of Georgia.

Davis currently lives and works in Athens, Georgia, with fellow cartoonist and husband, Drew Weing.

• Stinky. Toon Books. (2008) ISBN 0979923840
• The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook. (2009) Bloomsbury. ISBN 1599903962.
• How to Be Happy. Fantagraphics. (2014) ISBN 1606997408.