Who: Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Website: Tiny Kitten Teeth

So much in the world these days is about the quickest way to crank out the next item, so we can move onto the next biggerbetterfastermore thing. Becky and Frank are no Luddites with their fantastic Tiny Kitten Teeth web comic, but they may be the only people out there painstakingly hand-painting each installment in gouache (as opposed to the more common digitally-scrawled-stick-figures-with-snarky-captions.) These paintings are gorgeous! And it’s no accident that they remind me of the old Little Golden Books we’ve been collecting for my daughter, with art by Gustaf Tenggren, Alice and Martin Provensen, and Mary Blair.

I had the great fortune of meeting Becky and Frank at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this year. Despite falling ill due to their ridiculous comic tour schedule to promote their web comic and their fantastic Tigerbuttah book (printed and bound by the same folks who make the Little Golden Books – surprise!), they were out celebrating into the wee hours with the rest of us. Great people making great art! I can’t wait to see them again at the next conference I go to… I’m pretty sure they will be at all of them.