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Abby Howard

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Abby Howard
Born
Abigail Howard

(1992-08-03)August 3, 1992(age 32)
Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
Occupation(s)Comics creator,video game developer
Years active2019–present
SpouseTony Arias
Websiteblacktabbygames.com abbyhowardart.myportfolio.com

Abigail Howard(born August 3, 1992) is an American webcomic creator andvideo game developerfromCharlotte, North Carolina.She is the co-founder of indie game studio Black Tabby Games, and created the comicsJunior Scientist Power Hour,The Last Halloween,andThe Crossroads At Midnight.

Biography

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Howard was born on August 3, 1992, inJackson, Mississippiand grew up inCharlotte, North Carolina.She attendedMcGill UniversityinMontreal,majoring inBiologywith a specialization inEvolution.She enjoyed learning aboutlife history,but did not enjoy themath,chemistry,andmicrobiologyclasses that were a part of her degree. She describes herself as “a wretched student, all I wanted to do was draw pictures.”[1]She startedJunior Scientist Power Hourin the summer of 2012. With only 27 comics to her name, she enteredStrip Search.Despite placing second, she was able to quit school and become a full-timecartoonist,as noted in her comic "Screaming Constantly".[2]Howard is married to Tony Arias, with whom she co-founded the indie game studio Black Tabby Games. The couple live inToronto.

Works

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Junior Scientist Power Hour

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Junior Scientist Power Hourwas a weeklyepisodicwebcomicby Howard, usually focusing on topics such as her daily life and parodies ofpop culture.From the Facebook page, "it's about her incredibly interesting life with her cat, and sometimes it is also about other things."[3]The panels tend to be hand-drawn black and white; however, there is one notable exception. The band members in the strip “Tupper Ware Remix Party”[4]are brightly colored and subsequent strips featuring them are in color as well. Abby's art style is influenced by that ofJhonen Vasquez.She was especially influenced by his comicJohnny the Homicidal Maniac.[5]Howard describes herself primarily as a traditional artist, but she does use digital art for coloring panels.[5]

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Howard was selected as one of the twelve contestants forPenny Arcade's webcomic basedreality competitionshowStrip Search.[6][7]She was the only contestant who competed using traditional media. Howard built up a following, who called themselves “Team Tangent.”[5]

The Last Halloween

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After competing inStrip Search,Howard created aKickstarterfor her next project,The Last Halloween.[8]It was pitched as an episodichorror-comedycomic, and wascrowdfundedwithin 20 minutes.[9]The Kickstarter raised $126,507 of the $9,000 goal.[10]

The Last Halloweenbegan October 8, 2013 (September 18, 2013 for Kickstarter backers). While the art style is similar toJunior Scientist Power Hour,it features more detailed illustrations, locations, and a continuing story. The comic is influenced by horror films, which Howard is admittedly a fan of.[5]

The story follows a young girl named Mona who finds herself tasked with saving the world when billions of monsters suddenly spill into the human world one Halloween night. Howard first conceptualized the story in high school, and pitched it for the finale ofStrip Search.Although she lost, she chose to launch a Kickstarter for it anyway, and was successful. She describes her comic as partly being a response to uninspiring horror media, such as bland male power fantasies with uncreative monsters and hollow plots. Howard has the entire story written out in advance; she prefers this method of story-telling, as she can insertEaster eggsand foreshadowing.[11]

Scarlet Hollow

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In 2019, Howard and her boyfriend (later husband) Tony Arias co-founded Black Tabby Games, anindie gamestudio responsible for episodic horrorvisual novelScarlet Hollow.[12]The first episode ofScarlet Hollowreleased in September 2020,[13]the second released in June 2021,[14]the third released in March 2022.[15]

Scarlet Hollowfollows a customizable protagonist as they meet their estranged family for the first time in the titular town. Visiting for their aunt's funeral, they find themselves caught between reconciling with their cousin, Tabitha, and solving a supernatural mystery tied to the town's past.[16]

After releasing its first episode,Scarlet Hollowwent on to a successful Kickstarter, where the game hit its initial funding goal in the first day.[17]Following the Kickstarter, Scarlet Hollow was also a finalist in the AT&T Unlocked Games awards, where it received both the runner-up and audience choice prizes.[18]

The game has also received critical praise, with John Walker ofKotakudescribing it as "one of the best narrative games [he's] played."[16]

Slay the Princess

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In 2022, Black Tabby Games announced their second game, entitledSlay the Princess.LikeScarlet Hollow,it is a horror-based visual novel, and follows a nameless protagonist ordered by an unseen narrator to kill the princess imprisoned within the woods.[19]

Black Tabby Games released a demo of the game forSteam Next Fest.They were present atPAX East2023, where they debuted an extended demo.[20]The full game launched on October the 23rd of that year.

Other

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Howard created the 2016 comicThe Portrait of Sal Pullmanwith writer Lonnie Nadler.[21]She wrote and illustrated the graphic novelDinosaur Empire!,a volume in the Earth Before Us series fromAbrams Books,published August 1, 2017.[22][23]

Howard co-hosted horror podcastScared Yet?with cartoonistKris Straubin 2016 from July to December. Lasting 6 episodes, Straub and Howard discussed horror storytelling, writing advice, personal favorite horror stories, as well as personal experiences with writing horror.[24]

Awards

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Year Nominated work Category Result Notes
2013 The Last Halloween Ghastly Awards: Best Webcomic Won [25]
2019 Ocean Renegades! (Earth Before Us #2): Journey through the Paleozoic Era EGL Awards: Best in Middle-Grade Graphic Literature (Non-Fiction) Nominated [26]
2020 Unhealthy Cartoonist Studio Prize: Best Web Comic Nominated [27]
2020 Scarlet Hollow AT&T Unlocked Games: Runner Up Won [28]
2020 Scarlet Hollow AT&T Unlocked Games: Gamers' Choice Won [28]
2021 The Crossroads at Midnight 2021 Ignatz Awards: Outstanding Collection Won [29]

References

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  1. ^"zEXqpXk".i.imgur.com.RetrievedJanuary 25,2014.
  2. ^"Screaming Constantly - Junior Scientist Power Hour".jspowerhour.com.RetrievedJanuary 25,2014.
  3. ^"Junior Scientist Power Hour | Facebook".facebook.com.RetrievedJanuary 25,2014.
  4. ^"Tupper Ware Remix Party - Junior Scientist Power Hour".
  5. ^abcd"TTYL Podcast #16 – Abby Howard!".That Thing You Like.July 1, 2013.RetrievedJanuary 25,2014.
  6. ^Faguy, Steve (July 12, 2013)."Web comic artist Abby Howard is" a natural at humour "".Montreal Gazette.
  7. ^Harrison, Leah (April 29, 2013)."Charlotte cartoonist Abby Howard competes for comic strip career".The Charlotte Observer.Archived fromthe originalon June 17, 2013.
  8. ^"Abby Howard kickstarts comics career".CBC.June 27, 2013.
  9. ^"Strip Search - The Last Halloween Kickstarter".penny-arcade.com.RetrievedJanuary 25,2014.
  10. ^"2013: The Last Halloween by Abigail Howard — Kickstarter".kickstarter.com.RetrievedJanuary 25,2014.
  11. ^Morris, Steve (May 18, 2016)."Abby Howard Invites Her Readers to 'The Last Halloween'".ComicsAlliance.
  12. ^Walrath, Rowan."After scaling back OrganizeTogether, Tony Arias and partner Abby Howard launch video game studio".Bostinno.The Business Journals.RetrievedOctober 9,2021.
  13. ^O'Connor, Quinton (September 26, 2020)."Horror-Themed Visual Novel Scarlet Hollow Now Available".RPG Fan.RetrievedOctober 9,2021.
  14. ^Hannon, Melissa (May 10, 2021)."Horror Adventure Game 'Scarlet Hollow Ep. 2 Hits Steam June 11th".Horror Geek Life.RetrievedOctober 9,2021.
  15. ^""Scarlet Hollow Episode 3 Release Date" - Games Press ".www.gamespress.com.RetrievedApril 26,2022.
  16. ^abWalker, John (July 9, 2021)."This Horror Game Has One Of The Best Narratives In Years".Kotaku.RetrievedOctober 9,2021.
  17. ^Daro, Catherine (October 5, 2020)."Scarlet Hollow – Kickstarter Campaign Successful, Moving Onto Stretch Goals".Gamespace.RetrievedOctober 9,2021.
  18. ^"Gwen Frey of Chump Squad, and Creator of Game" Lab Rat, "Announced as Winner of AT&T Unlocked Games".AT&T.RetrievedOctober 9,2021.
  19. ^Van Allen, Eric (July 25, 2022)."Slay the Princess is a horror game about a very scary princess coming next year".Destructoid.Archivedfrom the original on December 25, 2022.RetrievedJanuary 19,2023.
  20. ^Hoops, Jessica (March 4, 2023)."Slay the Princess Is a Fascinating Execution of a Simple Concept: Will You Kill a Princess?".The Escapist.Archivedfrom the original on March 4, 2023.RetrievedMarch 4,2023.
  21. ^Morris, Steve (January 15, 2016)."Weekender: Jewel Kats, Yifan Ling, 'Portrait of Sal Pullman'".ComicsAlliance.
  22. ^"Children's Book Review: Dinosaur Empire! by Abby Howard. Amulet, $15.99 (128p) ISBN 978-1-4197-2306-3".Publishers Weekly.June 5, 2017.
  23. ^Dinosaur Empire! (Earth Before Us #1) (Hardcover).ISBN9781419723063.RetrievedJune 19,2017.{{cite book}}:|website=ignored (help)
  24. ^"Scared Yet? - The Podcast".Archived fromthe originalon August 16, 2019.RetrievedAugust 16,2019.
  25. ^"The 2013 Ghastly Award Winners Announced!".Bloody Disgusting.January 31, 2014.Archivedfrom the original on April 25, 2021.RetrievedApril 25,2021.
  26. ^"POP CULTURE CLASSROOM ANNOUNCES CATEGORY FINALISTS FOR THE 2019 EXCELLENCE IN GRAPHIC LITERATURE AWARDS".Pop Culture Classroom.Archivedfrom the original on September 21, 2020.RetrievedApril 25,2021.
  27. ^"Announcing the Winners of the Eighth Cartoonist Studio Prize".Slate Magazine.May 12, 2020.Archivedfrom the original on May 13, 2020.RetrievedApril 25,2021.
  28. ^ab"Gwen Frey of Chump Squad, and Creator of Game" Lab Rat, "Announced as Winner of AT&T Unlocked Games".AT&T.Archivedfrom the original on December 5, 2020.RetrievedApril 25,2021.
  29. ^Chiu-Tabet, Christopher (September 19, 2021)."2021 Ignatz Awards Winners Announced".Multiversity Comics.RetrievedOctober 9,2021.
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