Tillie Walden

marlene lopez

(Walden, Tillie) Tillie Walden is a cartoonist and illustrator from Austin, Texas. Born in 1996, she is a recent graduate from the Center for Cartoon Studies, a comics school in Vermont. Over the course of her time at CCS she published three books with the London based Avery Hill Publishing. She has already received an Eisner Award nomination and two Ignatz Awards. Her first full-length graphic memoir Spinning (First Second), captures what it’s like to come of age, come out, and come to terms with leaving behind everything you used to know. For ten years, figure skating was Tillie Walden’s life. Skating was a central piece of her identity, her safe haven from the stress of school, bullies, and family. But as she switched schools, got into art, and fell in love with her first girlfriend, she began to question how the close-minded world of figure skating fit in with the rest of her life. The more Tillie thought about it, the more Tillie realized she’d outgrown her passion―and she finally needed to find her own voice.