On Jan. 21, when millions marched through the streets of small towns and major cities across the U.S. a day after the inauguration of Donald J. Trump, 58,000 copies of RESIST!, distributed by a small army of volunteers, marched with them.
The free 40-page newspaper, organized by Desert Island Comics owner Gabe Fowler and edited by Françoise Mouly (art editor of The New Yorker) and her daughter, writer Nadja Spiegelman, was the result of an open call for political comics and graphics that captured “women’s voices” in response to the election.
Fourteen-year-old Oakland 8th-grader Quinn Nelson was one of over 1,000 artists who submitted work — and the youngest to have her drawing printed in the collection. Not bad for her second political cartoon ever. But then her first, a heart-wrenching drawing of two girls — one born in the U.S., the other in Syria — won The New York Times’ 2016 editorial cartoon contest.
Nelson’s highly successful venture into the world of political cartooning is a recent endeavor, but drawing is not. She takes two art electives at school and works at her bedroom table almost every day, using color markers and watercolor on paper to draw Harry Potter and anime characters — and most recently, the cast of The Breakfast Club.
