Maggie Umber paints, prints, and programs graphic novels and zines. She's published four graphic novels — Chrysanthemum Under the Waves, Sound of Snow Falling, Time Capsule, 270°. Her work has been widely anthologized. Chrysanthemum Under the Waves was nominated for a 2024 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel and excerpted in the Ignatz Award Nominated anthology Rust Belt Review vol.6. ↓
Contact
- ☞ Email ✍ paintedmags [at] proton [dot] me
- ☞ Patreon 📖 patreon.com/maggieumber
- ☞ Bluesky @maggieumber.bsky.social
- ☞ Instagram @maggieumber
- ☞ RSS feed 📰
Press
- ✔ Simons, Dean, The 2025 Ignatz Award Nominees Have Arrived, Comics Beat, August 14, 2025
- ✔ The END PRESS, ed., Interview with Maggie Umber, The END TIMES Newsletter, Issue 2, July 19, 2025
- ✔ Grapes, Plastic, Interview with Maggie Umber, conducted by Lily Thu Fierro and Generoso Fierro, Canon, July 3, 2025
- ✔ Diaz, Chris Anthony, A2CAF '24 Photo Report, The Comics Journal, June 6, 2025
- ✔ HWA, ed., The 2024 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot, Horror Writers Association, February 23, 2025
- ✔ Comics Advocacy Group, ed., CAG Mini-Grant #2 Awardees Announced, Comics Advocacy Group, February 19, 2025
- ✔ HWA, ed., The 2024 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot Announced, Horror Writers Association, January 22, 2025
- ✔ Lawson, Dud, Von Haynes, Eric, Interviews with CPG Members recorded during the 6th annual CPG Publishers Fair, Halftone Radio Supershow on Lumpen Radio, November 13, 2024
- ✔ Hickey, Nora, Ketcham, Amaris, An Interview with Maggie Umber, Autobiographix, October 16, 2024
- ✔ C., Ryan, Insert Name 2024, Ryan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse, August 20, 2024
- ✔ Samarov, Dmitry, A talk with artist/writer Maggie Umber about her nearly-wordless book, Chrysanthemum Under the Waves, hu u no podcast, August 10, 2024
- ✔ Yamaguchi, Jeffrey, The Oscar Speech in the Mirror for Authors: Reading at a Packed House, Book Publishing Brick By Brick, January 26, 2024
- ✔ Kaiti, ed., New Horror Comics for Spring You Won't Want to Miss, Dark Side of the Library Podcast, March 31, 2023
Reviews
- ✔ Bobiy, Mikaela, BOOK REVIEW: Chrysanthemum Under the Waves, Monstrum, July 9, 2025
- ✔ Turner, Lydia, Chrysanthemum Under the Waves – Maggie Umber Provides a Darkly Layered, Haunting Insight into Her Psyche Across Nine Vignettes, Broken Frontier, May 20, 2025
- ✔ Boichel, Bill, Review: Chrysanthemum Under the Waves, The Copacetic Comics Company, March 18, 2025
- ✔ Turner, Edwin, Maggie Umber’s Chrysanthemum Under the Waves blends horror, surrealism, and poetic fragmentation into a haunting vision of the uncanny, Biblioklept, March 13, 2025
- ✔ C., Ryan, Comic Review : DEATH SPARK #2, Edited By Thomas Campbell (Comics Blogger, 2024), Ryan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse, February 3, 2025
- ✔ Clough, Rob, 45 Days Of CCS, #43: Rust Belt Review 6, High-Low, January 12, 2025
- ✔ Baynes, Brian, Review: Chrysanthemum Under the Waves, Bubbles, December 21, 2024
- ✔ Buck, Brendan Tynan, The Demon Lover: A Review of Chrysanthemum Under the Waves by Maggie Umber, Newcity Lit, December 16, 2024
- ✔ Kirby, Rob, Goodreads review of CUTW by Rob Kirby, editor of The Shirley Jackson Project, Goodreads, November 30, 2024
- ✔ Staff, BookLife, Chrysanthemum Under the Waves, Publishers Weekly, November 28, 2024
- ✔ C., Ryan, Book Review : CHRYSANTHEMUM UNDER THE WAVES By Maggie Umber (Self-Published, 2024), Ryan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse, November 20, 2024
- ✔ Ray, Rick, Rick Ray's Reviews: Chrysanthemum Under the Waves, Goodreads, November 20, 2024
- ✔ Pierce, Leonard, Review: Chrysanthemum Under the Waves, The Comics Journal, November 19, 2024
- ✔ Ingebrigtsen, Lars, Comics Daze #119, Random Thoughts, September 17, 2024
- ✔ Schaafsma, Dave, Goodreads review of CUTW by Dave Schaafsma, Professor and Director of English Education at University of Illinois Chicago, Goodreads, September 17, 2024
- ✔ Samarov, Dmitry, Review: Chrysanthemum Under the Waves, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, August 13, 2024
- ✔ THE END PRESS, ed., Sound of Snow Falling by Maggie Umber, THE END TIMES NEWSLETTER, issue one: summer, 2024
- ✔ Campbell, Thomas, WE ARE HUNGRY by Maggie Umber, Self Published, Comics Blogger #7, November/ December, 2023
- ✔ Copacetic Comics, ed., Now #8: Eric Reynolds, E. S. Glenn + 5 more, Copacetic Comics, March 24, 2020
Awards
- ✔ 2025 Outstanding Anthology Nominee, Ignatz Awards, Small Press Expo
- ✔ 2025 The 2024 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot, Horror Writers Association
- ✔ 2025 CAG Mini-Grant #2 Awardees Announced, Comics Advocacy Group
- ✔ 2024 Jamie Coville's Combined Best Comics & Graphic Novels of 2024, Jamie Coville
- ✔ 2024 Four Color Apocalypse 2024 Year In Review : Top 10 Collected Editions - Contemporary, Ryan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse
- ✔ 2024 Andrew White: The best comics of 2024, as chosen by TCJ contributors, The Comics Journal
- ✔ 2024 Leonard Pierce: The best comics of 2024, as chosen by TCJ contributors, The Comics Journal
- ✔ 2024 Hagai Palevsky: The best comics of 2024, as chosen by TCJ contributors, The Comics Journal
- ✔ 2024 Chris Mautner: The best comics of 2024, as chosen by TCJ contributors, The Comics Journal
- ✔ 2024 Alex Dueben: The best comics of 2024, as chosen by TCJ contributors, The Comics Journal
- ✔ 2024 Lars Ingebrigtsen: The best comics of 2024, Random Thoughts
- ✔ 2024 Comics Blogger #11 Best of 2024, Comics Blogger
- ✔ 2024 Best Comics of 2024, Rick Ray on Goodreads
- ✔ 2023 Kristy Valenti's Top 10 List of 2023, The Comics Journal Yearbook, Best of 2023, The Comics Journal
- ✔ 2018 Comics I Enjoyed Reading in 2018, nijomu
Readings and Panels
- ✔ Touch Grass Read Zine CZF Reading Fundraiser at Skunk Cabbage Books, Chicago, IL, 2025
- ✔ CUTW Launch at Tangible Books, 2024
- ✔ The Sounds of Silence: Spotlight on Maggie Umber in conversation with OSU comics scholar Jared Gardner, CXC, Columbus, OH, 2024
- ✔ ZINE NOT DEAD #21, 2023
Exhibitions
- ✔ 2024 Marathon Art Show, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, Seattle, WA
- ✔ 2024 Drawing Worlds: The art of comics and beyond, A2AC, Ann Arbor, MI
- ✔ 2023 Corrupted Frames Ninth Digital Gallery, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, IL
Workshops
- ✔ SAW Friday Night Comics Workshop, 2025
- ✔ artist Zoom talk for Lale Westvind's Print Class at Parsons School of Design, New York, NY, 2024
Touring
2024: The Less is More Zine Tour
- ✔ 4/27 Madison Print & Resist Zine Fest, Madison, WI
- ✔ 6/14-7/7 Drawing Worlds: The art of comics and beyond, A2AC (The Ann Arbor Art Center), Ann Arbor, MI
- ✔ 6/15 ZND Fest (Zine Not Dead Fest: A Comics and Small Press Fair), Chicago, IL
- ✔ 6/30 oddball market, the Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
- ✔ 8/17 Autoptic Festival, Minneapolis, MN
- ✔ 8/18 INZF (Insert Name Zine Fest), Minneapolis, MN
- ✔ 8/24-25 CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo), Chicago, IL
- ✔ 9/8 ZINEmercado Zine Fest, Chicago, IL
- ✔ 9/14-15 The Urban Birding Festival, Chicago, IL
- ✔ 9/26-29 CXC (Cartoon Crossroads Columbus), Columbus, OH
- ✔ 10/5 A2CAF: SIP (Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival: Small + Indie Press), Ann Arbor, MI
- ✔ 10/6 MILK Fest (Milwaukee Independent Local Comics Fest), WI
- ✔ 10/12 Chicago Printers Guild Publishers Fair, Chicago, IL
- ✔ 10/25 Chrysanthemum Under the Waves Book Release Party, Tangible Books, Chicago, IL
- ✔ 10/26 SLICE (St. Louis Independent Comics Expo), St. Louis, MO
- ✔ 11/1 Marathon Art Show, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, Seattle, WA
- ✔ 11/2 Short Run Comix Festival, Seattle, WA
- ✔ 11/15-17 Staple + Stitch Art Book and Print Fair, Chicago, IL
2023: My Mostly Midwest Zine Tour
- ✔ 4/8 ICE CREAM (Iowa City Expo for Comics and Real Eclectic Alternative Media), Iowa City, IA
- ✔ 4/22 Madison Print & Resist Zine Fest, Madison, WI
- ✔ 5/20 CZF (Chicago Zine Fest), Chicago, IL
- ✔ 6/3-6/4 CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo), Chicago, IL
- ✔ 6/23-6/26 The Zine Pavilion at ALA (American Library Association), Chicago, IL
- ✔ 8/12 INZF (Insert Name Zine Fest), Minneapolis, MN
- ✔ 8/27 ZINEmercado, Chicago, IL
- ✔ 9/9 Zinecinnati, Cincinnati, OH
- ✔ 9/10 MILK Comic Fest (Milwaukee Indie Local Comic Fest), Milwaukee, WI
- ✔ 9/16-9/17 CABF (Cincinnati Art Book Fair), Covington, KY
- ✔ 10/6 ZINE NOT DEAD #21 hosted by Chicago Printers Guild, Co-prosperity, Chicago, IL
- ✔ 10/7 Chicago Printer Guild PAPER JAM, screening The Schizophrenic Dialogues Short Film with Corrupted Frames: A Digital Gallery, Co-prosperity, Chicago, IL
- ✔ 10/7 Lafayette Comic-Con, Lafayette, IN
- ✔ 10/14 Rain Taxi's Twin Cities Book Festival, St. Paul, MN
- ✔ 10/21 Chicago Printer Guilds PAPER JAM Publishers Fair, Co-prosperity, Chicago, IL