THE LONGER VERSION 

(Written in third person, for easy cutting and pasting into introductions and articles!)

Ben’s first solo graphic novels, 2010’s Zita the Spacegirl and its two sequels, were New York Times bestsellers. His subsequent graphic novel Trilogy, Mighty Jack, is a modern fantasy loosely based on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack’s story ties into the Zita the Spacegirl universe to create a fantasy world of grander scope.  

Ben’s picture books include Julia’s House for Lost Creatures and its two sequels, and 2016’s Nobody Likes a Goblin, a traditional dungeon quest turned on its head. 

His graphic novel Little Robot, geared particularly for early readers, won an Eisner Award in 2016. Little Robot tells the tale of a complex friendship between a young mechanical genius and a lost robot. 

Ben’s gently spooky dungeon-delving graphic novel Things in the Basement, was announced by  Publisher’s Weekly as “a fantastical, dreamily atmospheric katabasis.” Milo’s journey into below the basement, in search of his baby sister’s sock, is also a journey through millennia of art history and human creativity. 

With Reynard’s Tale, Ben created a short illustrated folktale for adults featuring a new version of the trickster fox from Medieval European folklore. In this slender volume, intricate pen and ink illustrations evoking classic woodcuts adorn simple poetic prose.  

In 2024 Ben embarked on a circumnavigation of the earth, in the tradition of Nellie Bly, Elizabeth Bisland, and Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg. He traveled eastward for 55 days, with minimal air travel, crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, Caspian, and Yellow Seas, and journeying through twelve countries until he returned, on foot, to his house from the other direction. This journey formed the basis for his upcoming adult graphic novel Home Bound, which will release in 2026. 

Ben has given presentations about art, adventure and creative practice across the United States and in half a dozen other countries. His Three Secrets to Visual Storytelling is a quick course in the ways that words and pictures work together in communication—with material that scales from grade school to grad school. Ben also presents on developing a creative practice with his Lessons from Leonardo and speaks about the role of travel and pilgrimage in creativity with Round Earther. 

He received his undergraduate degree in history in 2000, and very briefly studied classical drawing and painting techniques at the Cecil Studios in Florence, where he cemented an undying love for both Renaissance history and for the smell of linseed oil.  

Ben’s artistic heroes and influences include Jim Henson, Tove Jansson, Shel Silverstein, Maurice Sendak, Bill Watterson, Neil Gaiman, Brian Froud, John Singer Sargent, Gustav Klimpt, Patrick Leigh Fermor, and Virginia Woolf. But greatest of all, for Ben, is Leonardo da Vinci, the great exemplar of the curiosity-driven life. If Ben is acting shy or socially awkward, just ask him about Leonardo. 

With his background in gymnastics and various circus skills, including stilt-walking, fire-breathing, juggling, and unicycling, Ben enjoys being up and about every bit as much as he loves sitting at the drawing board. He is an avid archer and has developed a handful of trick arrows. 

Ben lives, works, and practices archery in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, and he is always happy in a canoe.