Alex Graudins
@toonyballoony.bsky.social
she/they, hermit cartoonist
-creator of graphic memoir Improve
-artist for Science Comics: The Brain and History Comics: The Great Chicago Fire
🎨 toonyart.com
Rep'd by Charlie Olsen @ Inkwell Management
-creator of graphic memoir Improve
-artist for Science Comics: The Brain and History Comics: The Great Chicago Fire
🎨 toonyart.com
Rep'd by Charlie Olsen @ Inkwell Management
I have so much shit to draw before the holidays but my brain is too fried from the sickies to do anything, being forced to rest STINKS
December 18, 2025 at 2:28 AM
I have so much shit to draw before the holidays but my brain is too fried from the sickies to do anything, being forced to rest STINKS
a better look at the zine now that MICE is over! 🎨✨
December 10, 2025 at 1:18 AM
a better look at the zine now that MICE is over! 🎨✨
I was lucky enough to attend a few MICE panels this year! I love listening to cartoonists talk about their work 😊 🎨✨
![Two photos of sketchbook pages combined into one due to the continuing subject matter. Rough sketches of panelists Aatmaja Pandya, Adam Syzm, Laura Terry, and Ned Wolfe, often holding microphones and sitting in plush swivel chairs, with various speech bubble quotes. (Apologies for the poor likenesses, you can tell I was still waking up during this morning panel…)
Text and quotes read:
12/7/15 MICE PRO[FESSIONAL] PRACTICES PANEL, “Different Paths to the Industry”
Ned: “I made a name for myself in doing a very niche thing.” “Making comics = making it in comics”
Adam: “Self-publishing is a beautiful thing. Don’t feel rushed to be published.” “The audience you find online doesn’t equate to the audience you sell to at shows.” “Make the thing you wanna make and show them the finished product. It’s there. Take it or leave it.” “Do it for your own sake.”
Laura: “Figure out what your voice is and find your home for it.” “I have two co-working days”
Aatmaja: “Get a retail job and put all your effort into your passion project.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xrnqnd2p74amhqozq2fagcs4/bafkreidirswdpcxqbjbjrrwe6izddv5yquik5om4avt2km3jibynh3gu3i@jpeg)
![A photo of a sketchbook spread with various sketches of ND Stevenson—mostly from the back, bc my view was obstructed by the podium—and interviewer Brigid Alverson, both often drawn holding mics. Speech bubble quotes include:
1. “[During pandemic, after She-Ra, I was] struggling to find my voice again…so I went back to my first love. (Scarlet Morning.)”
2. B: “What was it like cracking it open again?” ND: “I was like, ‘If it’s bad I’ll cry…’”
3. “Prose is more a contract with the reader. It was a total reprogramming. So many new dimensions I haven’t worked with before.”
4. “I tried to use text in a visual way whenever I could.”
5. Comics [unlike movies] became more, ‘What does a line hold?’ A small mark can say so much.”
6. “[Like Viola] I was interested in the adults around me. Like, “Where are you going? Is it to get…a divorce?!” (sfx: HA HA HA)
7. ND: “It would be five years until I could put [being trans] into words…but I could see myself working it out on the page before then, in comics.” B: “It’s how you process things.”
8. “How do we try to write down our histories and make sure they don’t die out?”
9. “I didn’t think I was a writer until comics. I tricked myself into writing by thinking I was only drawing pictures.” “The quickest way to kill your passion is to write like someone else, or the good you in your head.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xrnqnd2p74amhqozq2fagcs4/bafkreid6m6zjvsktk3xycmngprtwjpak7fy76mxl3sgxzzk7to74eiwcs4@jpeg)
December 8, 2025 at 5:12 AM
I was lucky enough to attend a few MICE panels this year! I love listening to cartoonists talk about their work 😊 🎨✨
the Youtube Music recap this year was so ugly and felt so inaccurate that I made my own zine version out of spite in just 2 days, lol
December 6, 2025 at 2:26 AM
the Youtube Music recap this year was so ugly and felt so inaccurate that I made my own zine version out of spite in just 2 days, lol
If you're at MICE this weekend, I'll have copies of the Bone Squad art book at table 51, alongside other incredible work from the Spin Rack Comics Collective! 😁 Come see the proof I've still been drawing, I'm just slow on the comics front, haha
December 5, 2025 at 7:52 PM
If you're at MICE this weekend, I'll have copies of the Bone Squad art book at table 51, alongside other incredible work from the Spin Rack Comics Collective! 😁 Come see the proof I've still been drawing, I'm just slow on the comics front, haha
aggressively sending all the good vibes until the universe gives my buddy a break
November 26, 2025 at 5:51 AM
aggressively sending all the good vibes until the universe gives my buddy a break
before this post I asked my sister to help choose a photo and she handed my phone back after speedily making this edit 😭😂
October 27, 2025 at 3:24 AM
before this post I asked my sister to help choose a photo and she handed my phone back after speedily making this edit 😭😂
happy to announce I’ve continued my schtick of dressing as ace attorney characters for weddings bc formal wear is a mystery to me
October 27, 2025 at 3:00 AM
happy to announce I’ve continued my schtick of dressing as ace attorney characters for weddings bc formal wear is a mystery to me
this costume immediately fell apart and no one recognized it but all that matters is I love any excuse to dress up 🎭
October 26, 2025 at 12:47 AM
this costume immediately fell apart and no one recognized it but all that matters is I love any excuse to dress up 🎭
my pal Martin gifted me a knockoff Labubu, along with a necklace of the Crest of Courage, so he cleverly dubbed it “Lafufumon.” I’m not subscribed to the toy craze but it was super sweet and I couldn‘t resist drawing the little guy once Digimon was involved.
🎨✨
🎨✨
October 13, 2025 at 5:20 PM
my pal Martin gifted me a knockoff Labubu, along with a necklace of the Crest of Courage, so he cleverly dubbed it “Lafufumon.” I’m not subscribed to the toy craze but it was super sweet and I couldn‘t resist drawing the little guy once Digimon was involved.
🎨✨
🎨✨
experimented with some possible Jenny Sexbabe redesigns, just for funsies—you never forget your first (D&D character) ❤️
🎨✨
🎨✨
October 12, 2025 at 11:34 PM
experimented with some possible Jenny Sexbabe redesigns, just for funsies—you never forget your first (D&D character) ❤️
🎨✨
🎨✨
rewatching The Weekenders counts as having weekend friend plans, right?
…right? 🥲
🎨✨
…right? 🥲
🎨✨
September 7, 2025 at 2:09 AM
rewatching The Weekenders counts as having weekend friend plans, right?
…right? 🥲
🎨✨
…right? 🥲
🎨✨
Back at the Ocean State Renaissance Faire this weekend doing caricatures like last year! I’ll also be peddling my usual wares and debuting a new 72-page Bone Squad art book ☠️❤️
I’ll be in the New Lobby Friday Aug 22 during the 7-10pm 21+ event and in the Streetside Market area (A5) Sat-Sun 11AM-5PM.
I’ll be in the New Lobby Friday Aug 22 during the 7-10pm 21+ event and in the Streetside Market area (A5) Sat-Sun 11AM-5PM.
August 20, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Back at the Ocean State Renaissance Faire this weekend doing caricatures like last year! I’ll also be peddling my usual wares and debuting a new 72-page Bone Squad art book ☠️❤️
I’ll be in the New Lobby Friday Aug 22 during the 7-10pm 21+ event and in the Streetside Market area (A5) Sat-Sun 11AM-5PM.
I’ll be in the New Lobby Friday Aug 22 during the 7-10pm 21+ event and in the Streetside Market area (A5) Sat-Sun 11AM-5PM.
I had the pleasure of seeing a developmental performance of Ink and Paint, a musical about the women who worked at Disney in the 40s, and I’m really rooting for its future! I wanna be able to yell about this show with other artists (who I easily imagine listening to the album while working) ❤️
August 17, 2025 at 2:35 AM
I had the pleasure of seeing a developmental performance of Ink and Paint, a musical about the women who worked at Disney in the 40s, and I’m really rooting for its future! I wanna be able to yell about this show with other artists (who I easily imagine listening to the album while working) ❤️
another reason to love the library: sometimes you find little gifts in the form of forgotten makeshift bookmarks 😭💖
August 2, 2025 at 4:36 PM
another reason to love the library: sometimes you find little gifts in the form of forgotten makeshift bookmarks 😭💖
Accidentally wrote this like bizarre dialogue from an NPC but yknow what, it fits. Happy almost-10-years, Undertale!
July 26, 2025 at 4:30 AM
Accidentally wrote this like bizarre dialogue from an NPC but yknow what, it fits. Happy almost-10-years, Undertale!
back on my “reading One Piece from the beginning” train and oh no…Chopper’s intro arc is hitting especially hard…
July 25, 2025 at 6:58 PM
back on my “reading One Piece from the beginning” train and oh no…Chopper’s intro arc is hitting especially hard…
my literal reaction to opening hitting play was “PATRICK STUMP?!”
I don’t even go here and I’m feeling targeted
I don’t even go here and I’m feeling targeted
July 24, 2025 at 10:34 PM
my literal reaction to opening hitting play was “PATRICK STUMP?!”
I don’t even go here and I’m feeling targeted
I don’t even go here and I’m feeling targeted
in honor of non-binary day here's a Noname doodle from 2020 that made me go "wait, they may be on to something…" 🤔🪨
July 15, 2025 at 4:39 AM
in honor of non-binary day here's a Noname doodle from 2020 that made me go "wait, they may be on to something…" 🤔🪨
I guess while this is popping off…did ya'll know I drew a whole graphic memoir about improv and reference Whose Line within the first few pages? 🎭
July 14, 2025 at 1:11 AM
I guess while this is popping off…did ya'll know I drew a whole graphic memoir about improv and reference Whose Line within the first few pages? 🎭
had the big brain realization that you could just whip up a whole D&D cast/NPC list from Whose Line prompts alone
July 12, 2025 at 11:04 PM
had the big brain realization that you could just whip up a whole D&D cast/NPC list from Whose Line prompts alone
the fourth is over, let the real celebration begin
July 5, 2025 at 3:29 PM
the fourth is over, let the real celebration begin
been 3 years since I updated my icon so tonight’s “stop doomscrolling” activity was drawing up a new self-portrait
July 4, 2025 at 6:24 AM
been 3 years since I updated my icon so tonight’s “stop doomscrolling” activity was drawing up a new self-portrait
In a time where the LGBTQ+ community, especially trans folk, are under threat and being stripped of rights, I acknowledge how lucky I am to have this opportunity. But still, I wanna revel in the queer joy. And then fight like hell for my friends. 💖 (4/4)
June 30, 2025 at 5:58 PM
In a time where the LGBTQ+ community, especially trans folk, are under threat and being stripped of rights, I acknowledge how lucky I am to have this opportunity. But still, I wanna revel in the queer joy. And then fight like hell for my friends. 💖 (4/4)
Post-op thoughts cont’d (3/4)
June 30, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Post-op thoughts cont’d (3/4)