I’m Lucy Bellwood, a professional Adventure Cartoonist. I use she/her pronouns. I’m happiest when I’m translating the world into infectiously enthusiastic, vulnerable, educational stories for my readers to enjoy. I believe interdependence is the key to creative freedom. (To that end, you can boost my mood considerably by joining the crew of humans who make my work possible on Patreon.)
Currently
I’m deep at work on penciling Seacritters, a graphic novel trilogy about capybara pirates written by Kate Milford. (You can keep an eye on my real-time progress via this spreadsheet.) I’m still looking after my dad, who’s entering his seventh year of living with vascular dementia. I’m largely absent from social media, but I maintain a PO Box because I love mail and want to be able to give my address out with impunity, like this:
🎉 Lucy Bellwood, PO Box 734, Ojai, CA 93024 🎉
Previously…
In 2023
My book 100 Demon Dialogues entered its second printing! I facilitated an experimental card-deck-making container called What She Knows where people are got to know their Wise Selves through a series of guided prompts. I illustrated Serpentine, my second collaboration with poet Tara Shepersky (published by Bored Wolves). I provided album art for my pal Matt the Electrician’s latest record, The Ocean Knocked Me Down.
In 2022
I was blogging and Rambling a lot about values and creative economies and grief and websites. Kept looking after my dad. Completed 250 pages of roughs for Seacritters.
In 2021
My friends Tara and Stefan and I released an illustrated collection of poems called Tell the Turning. I put out a comic about voting rights and restoring the franchise for Oregon Humanities Magazine. I moved back to my hometown to become a caregiver.
In 2020
I launched a friendly confessional voicemail box called The Right Number (now in its second season!). I started blogging a bit more. I signed a deal to draw a trilogy(?!) of graphic novels. I kept up with sharing freeform audio Rambles, which serve as a decent snapshot of where my thinking’s been.
Pre-Pandemic
I’ve always been a big fan of telling the truth—especially about the stuff we’re scared to discuss. I’ve explained what it feels like to be on food stamps while “making it” as an author. I’ve shared exactly how much money I made from going viral, along with annual reports about my income and expenses as an independent creator. I’m also a three-time successful Kickstarter creator, and I want to make sure people can find out exactly how I did it.
The only way we get through this is together.
I’ve released 100 Demon Dialogues, a book all about cohabiting with my petulant (if oddly lovable) Inner Critic. If you’ve ever felt like a fake or a failure, it will absolutely make you feel less alone. I’m also a tall ship sailor, an anachronistic profession that led to my first book, Baggywrinkles: a Lubber’s Guide to Life at Sea. Baggywrinkles is an entertaining, educational series of comics about living and working on an 18th-century replica sailing vessel.
I’ve drawn comics about rafting through the Grand Canyon (twice!), learning to feel strong, crossing the Pacific on an oceanographic research voyage, exploring the feminist undertones of social dance and the dregs of breakup baggage, sailing aboard the last wooden whaling ship in the world, never wanting to make it big in Hollywood, and trying out a sensory deprivation tank for the first time—among many other things. You can browse everything I’ve ever published with ease on the Comics page.
Thanks for stopping by. If you dig my work, consider supporting me on Patreon or subscribing to my sporadic newsletter.
Finally: if you want to trade for a fancy pin through the mail with the mysterious seafaring Boat Gnome, you can do that here.