Sam Benc 🐟
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nonvieta.bsky.social
Sam Benc 🐟
@nonvieta.bsky.social
2K followers 450 following 2.1K posts
Cartoonist. Adult Teenage Dirtbag 🌱 Friend of shrimp 🦐
She/her 🏳️‍🌈
Philadelphia

Making a GN, LAST SHIP TO MARS (Henry Holt, 2026)
💌 Samantha.benc@gmail.com
Rep'd by @draper-claire.bsky.social
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nonvieta.bsky.social
We took Bean to a friend's house for the first time and he was VERY compelled by their cat....
Black chihuahua in a pink harness staring wold eyed at a tortoiseshell cat resting on a cat tree
October 27, 2025 at 4:58 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
And for me, right now, that looks a lot like what is described in this article, specifically this part. This is the question, and this is the answer. And it felt so good to read someone else saying it. To want it.
Should creators depicting climate change in their works, be it anime, live-action films or art, bear in mind their works might affect the audience’s climate attitudes? Should they care at all about their works’ climate messaging? “As a climate change education researcher, I really want to advocate to these creators that their ... works are super influential in shaping how people feel, think and act toward one topic (like) climate change,” he says. While understanding that many creators don’t want to be seen as preachy, Tang says he wants to advocate to everyone involved in films and other art forms to “participate in mainstreaming these issues.”
October 27, 2025 at 1:07 AM
nonvieta.bsky.social
These are unique, incredible, complex animals that are highly evolved to their environment and thus extremely sensitive to even minimal changes, and without even the ability to leave places that are harming them.
The state of coral reefs is so bleak, in fact, that a large, international team of scientists recently announced that these ecosystems worldwide have surpassed a climate tipping point, beyond which they can no longer survive. That means that unless wealthy economies stop burning fossil fuels, it’s unlikely that Florida will ever be able to bring back abundant colonies of elkhorn and staghorn corals, even with aggressive restoration efforts. Indeed, many of the corals that died in the 2023 heat wave were planted on the reef by conservation groups. Even if the world’s top polluters slashed their emissions immediately — which, at the moment, appears anathema to US energy policy — coral reefs would still face dramatic losses. The ocean is already far too hot. Restoring the life-supporting benefits that reefs once provided in places like Florida now requires advanced technology to breed heat-tolerant corals, while also tackling other threats like overfishing and pollution. “We need to do something to throw corals a lifeline,” Cunning told me. “We can’t just stop and say, ‘Oh, the federal government isn’t doing what we’d like to see happen on this front, so we’re just going to give up.’ We can’t stop. We have to keep trying.”
October 24, 2025 at 4:29 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
somewhere soon
A dilapidated looking stone building against a clouded, greenish sky amidst a field of golden grass.
October 23, 2025 at 9:53 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
This person they’re always describing? The Idea Guy. The person who has NO ability to make a film, book or game, but somehow has all the requisite knowledge and experience with the medium to generate an exceptional idea? That person does not exist.
“The fact of that you will be able to have an entire piece of software created just by explaining your idea is going to be incredible for humans getting great new stuff,” Altman said on the comedian Theo Von’s podcast this summer. “Because right now, I think there’s a lot more good ideas than people who know how to make them. And if AI can do that for us, we’re really good at coming up with creative ideas.”
October 21, 2025 at 10:15 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
you got them big dreams, you wanna get out of here
Digitally color drawing of Franklin, from my graphic novel Last Ship to Mars wearing an outfit that's loosely inspired by Andy Warhol's cool traveling outfit
October 18, 2025 at 5:54 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
Repost with your favorite Halloween costume

My girlfriend is obsessed with my first Halloween costume, and I don’t know what I like more about it: the weird grasping hand (waiting for candy) or whatever my mom thought she was doing with that make up
Old photograph of me dressed as a clown at 3 years old with unsettling white face make up
October 15, 2025 at 2:42 AM
nonvieta.bsky.social
Happy #porfolioday ! I'm Sam, a queer Philly based cartoonist making comics and character design/visual development with a focus on sci-fi and environmentalism. I love drawing girls, robots and messy, detailed worlds.

I'm especially looking to line up some short comics!

💌 Samantha.benc@gmail.com
Sketches of a robot girl and some various robotic arm design explorations Three characters in summer wear A page from my graphic novel, Last Ship to Mars A page from my graphic novel, Last Ship to Mars
October 14, 2025 at 8:02 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
i'll bend the rules for you
Digital sketch of a young woman with a short brown bob wearing a dark buttoned shirt, long striped skirt and clunky boots. She has a futuristic prosthetic arm.
October 10, 2025 at 4:26 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
Am I the only one who has pieces that linger for over a year in your files that you just kind of pick at between other stuff?
WIP of Zal from Last Ship to Mars, staring blankly, holding sketched wires
October 6, 2025 at 5:52 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
They apparantly do a “haunted” version of the tour in October and I cannot imagine it being most haunted than it already is
Old looking hand painted sign with black eyed child reading YOU MUST BE AS TALL AS ME TO RIDE THE COASTER Photo of some kind of moustached life sized doll or mannequin dressed in an antiquated velvet coat peering from within a dark recess below an exit sign Photo of a 12 foot tall tin soldier statue (among numerous more reasonable sized statues) that has significant rust and grime steaks down the front of it Photo of a clouded warehouse window backing shelves lined with dozens and dozens of dolls
October 6, 2025 at 2:29 AM
nonvieta.bsky.social
Went to a very normal place this week. The American Treasure Musuem, owned and curated by an anonymous benefactor referred to only as “The Collector”.
Photo of a hodgepodge collection of mascots, animatronics, dolls and neon signage. Center most is a strangely tall animatronic Mickey Mouse (?) Photo of neonsigns in a warehouse reading TERIYAKI MADNESS KAMIYA ASIAN BISTRO KMART Photo of a ventriloquist dummy riding a Donald Duck statue. Very bad Photo of a menagerie of carousel and rocking horses, Christmas animatronics and a Winnie the Pooh stuff animal, all lit in eerie green light.
October 6, 2025 at 2:22 AM
nonvieta.bsky.social
The extinction portion of the exhibit at the new Edelman Fossil Park & Museum is NOT fucking around.
Sign at Edelman Fossil Park & Museum reading: HOW ISOLATED ARE WE? VERY. If our sun was the size of a grapefruit, Earth would be the size of a grain of sand 50 feet away. The closest star, Proxima Centauri, would be like a grapefruit, 2,500 miles away in San Francisco. It’s an insurmountable distance. THERE IS NO PLANET B.
October 4, 2025 at 2:17 AM
nonvieta.bsky.social
Happy birthday to @keezyyoung.bsky.social !! I finished reading Hello Sunshine today, a book I’ve had for weeks but took at a leisurely pace. I often blow through comics super fast but sometimes you have a book that invites you into its pages and you want to savor your time with it. This is one.
A hardcover edition of Hello Sunshine by Keezy Young accompanied by my dog Finnegan chewing something. He won’t be left unattended with the book after what he did to Saint Catherine.
October 3, 2025 at 2:37 AM
nonvieta.bsky.social
Shut ’er down.
Cropped paragraph about what happens during a government shutdown with “ICE agents go without pay” highlighted
October 1, 2025 at 5:11 AM
nonvieta.bsky.social
Knights of Guinevere was so aggressively exactly my thing that I HAD to Draw Her...
Two versions of the character Guinevere from the indie animated Glitch show Knights of Guinevere, the complete one holding the broken within wires and body parts surrounding them.
September 26, 2025 at 1:09 AM
nonvieta.bsky.social
Quote with your queer characters.

Last Ship to Mars is a story about a lesbian, her messy friendship with her middle-aged gay professor and the bisexual android they find in the woods. ✨
Colored comic panel from Last Ship to Mars with Mara (left) and Zal (right) sitting in a tropical feeling forest. Zal: "I saw this amazing aquarium at a party once. It was full of the most gorgeous fish you've ever seen. I think most of them were cloned, but still..." Mara: "I can't even imagine someone having an aquarium, these days." Drawing of Mara wearing a pale grey jacket and pants over an olive green shirt with a red belt. She's smiling and tucking her hair behind her ear. Panel from Last Ship to Mars. Franklin, a blonde man in his 40s wearing glasses is mid sip, drinking from a reddish coffee mug. Franklin: "Ah, well. Yes. But it's tricky. I haven't actually spoken to anyone who's left. There's no public communication back to earth." Zal, Franklin and Mara is fresh summer fits. Franklin is drinking an iced coffee. Franklin: "Okay, time to get the $&@# off this planet..."
September 24, 2025 at 6:50 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
Got mine yesterday! I haven’t read it yet because I want a nice free afternoon to really enjoy it, but it looks GORGEOUS. It’s also like, comically heavy
Photograph of Keezy Young’s Hello Sunshine on a table with my hand for scale and a coffee cup
September 20, 2025 at 10:11 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
One from the archives. People should pay me to draw robots and robots only. And girls.
Digitally drawn and colored image of the robots (Deborahbot 5000 and Eric ) from the movie The Mitchells versus the Machines
September 19, 2025 at 7:31 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
My copy of Hello Sunshine by @keezyyoung.bsky.social is apparently at the book store and it sounds like they took a little sneak peak!
Screen shot of an email reading: “Your order of Hello Sunshine is here (and it looks SO pretty)! It is paid in full. You can pick your order up any time we are open. Thanks so much for thinking of us! “
September 18, 2025 at 12:07 AM
nonvieta.bsky.social
No big deal I just gave my toy destroying dog a repurposed Peppa Pig squeaky toy thinking at least no one would mourn her when he rips it up in 30 seconds but no...he loves her.
Finnegan the Pomeranian snuggled up with his Peppa Pig squeaky toy
September 17, 2025 at 7:18 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
New bagel shop opened in my neighborhood and not only do they have (YUMMY) vegan schmear, their mascot is VERY cute 10/10
Coffee cup with an illustration of an anthropomorphic bagel guy holding a coffee cup with an anthropomorphic bagel guy holding a coffee cup with a
September 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
I like these panels
Two colored comic panels from my graphic novel Last Ship to Mars First panel: a young woman with braided hair and a white tank top smiling nervously "No, yeah, obviously that's fine. You go ahead and I'll just..." Second panel: the same as the first but her smile is gone and the panel is expanded down to show a young boy with a big smile with a missing tooth and a yellow striped shirt looking up at her. "...talk to this little boy." "Hi fish lady!"
September 16, 2025 at 10:02 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
I'm scared to update procreate until I back everything up but it's been here for hourssss. I wouldn't mind if it ever gave me an estimate on time but it doesn't so I'm in limbo, unsure if it's just slow or genuinely stuck
Screen shot of my ipad backup screen at less than a quarter completed with no time estimate
September 16, 2025 at 9:55 PM
nonvieta.bsky.social
Yeah I COULD make interesting and dynamic panels, sure. But then what would I do with my favorite kind of panel: cramming a whole bunch of close ups super close together over and over
Black and white digitally inked in-progress series of panels from my graphic novel Last Ship to Mars with Two characters arguing about whether they should care or despair about the environmental collapse of the earth
September 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM