Illustration. Graphic Novels. Design. Storytelling.
Kris Dresen
Kris Dresen
Because every picture has a story.
I've been telling stories with pictures for as long as I can remember.
When I was a kid, every report I wrote for school somehow ended up with an illustration. I wasn't trying to become an artist—I just couldn't imagine telling a story without drawing it. While other kids filled notebooks with words, I filled the margins with characters, little scenes, and ideas waiting to become something bigger.
That hasn't changed.
Since beginning my professional comics career in 1993, I've spent more than three decades helping stories find their way into the world. Sometimes that has meant illustrating original stories. Sometimes it's meant designing children's books, art directing publishing programs, developing characters, storyboarding animation, or creating graphic novels.
The job has changed over the years.
The purpose never has.
I've been fortunate to spend my career working with wonderful publishers, talented authors and editors, and some of the world's most beloved children's brands, helping shape books and publishing programs for Disney, Nickelodeon, Sesame Street, and many others. Along the way, I've designed hundreds of books and products, always asking the same question:
How can I help tell this story?
When I'm creating my own work, that question becomes even more personal. My comics have earned an Eisner Award nomination and a Xeric Foundation Grant, and my artwork appears in the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics. My latest graphic novel, Punk Like Me, written by JD Glass and published by Street Noise Books, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Foreword Reviews and was selected for exhibition at the American Library Association Annual Conference.
I don't really separate children's books, comics, illustration, design, or graphic novels.
To me, they're all storytelling.
Every project begins with the same hope: that somewhere, someone will turn the page, smile, laugh, feel understood, or discover a character they'll carry with them long after the story ends.
I'm still the kid who couldn't hand in a book report without drawing a picture.
The only difference is now people ask me to do it.
Clients include: Scholastic Books, SourceBooks, National Science Teachers Association, Recycled Paper Greetings, University of Illinois at Chicago,
Institute for Mathematics and Science Education, Sunbird Books,
StreetNoise Books.
Institute for Mathematics and Science Education, Sunbird Books,
StreetNoise Books.
kris@dresenglass.com