Stephen Collins is an illustrator and cartoonist from Penge, southeast London. His work has appeared in many publications worldwide. He has been a full-time freelance illustrator since 2004.
In 2008 his career diverged into making comics when he began contributing a monthly strip to Prospect magazine. In 2010 he won the Observer/Jonathan Cape Graphic Short Story prize, and in 2010 he began contributing a long-running comic for Guardian Weekend magazine. In 2013 Jonathan Cape published his debut graphic novel The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil, which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book Of The Year award and an Eisner Award. His collection of strips Some Comics was published by Jonathan Cape in October 2014.
He is the illustrator of the Baby Frank series of children’s books – Baby’s First Bank Heist (Bloomsbury, 2018), Baby’s First Jailbreak (2019) and Baby’s First Train Robbery (2021), as well as The Dinosaur Awards (2021), published by Frances Lincoln Books.
He is currently working on his second graphic novel, Susan Wogan’s Journey To The Stars, which will be published by Faber and Faber. He lives with his wife and three young children in Hertfordshire.
The most up-to-date news about Stephen’s work can be found on his Instagram. He is also on Twitter.
2015: Nominated for Eisner award, Best Writer/Artist
2015: Nominated for Eisner award, Best Graphic Album (for The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil)
2014: Joint Gran Guinigi award for Best Graphic Novel (for La Gigantesca Barba Malvagia)
2013: 9th Art Award (for The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil)
2013: Shortlisted for Waterstones Book Of The Year (for The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil)
2013: Shortlisted for British Comic Award, Best Book (for The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil)
2012: AOI Images 2012 Gold Award for editorial illustration
2010: Jonathan Cape/Observer Graphic Short Story Prize
2008: The Society for News Design Award of Excellence for Feature Design
2008: Cartoon Arts Trust Best Strip Cartoonist
BBC News – Guardian – It’s Nice That – Forbidden Planet – Guardian Review – Creative Review – NPR – AV Club
Limited edition archival-quality prints are available to order through the shop.
Original artworks are also available for purchase. Please email to enquire.
The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil is available at all good bookshops – the US edition is available through Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Indiebound and Powell’s.
All international editions of Beard are available through Amazon (UK, US, ES, IT, DE, FR).
In the UK I’d love it if you bought Gigantic Beard through the local bookshop network Hive, or Foyles, or the Guardian Bookshop, or the fantastic Gosh Comics or Forbidden Planet. These are all great shops, and way cheaper than you think.
Some Comics By Stephen Collins is available through all good (and some bad) bookshops. Gosh Comics in London, Forbidden Planet London, Foyles (who do free UK delivery), Guardian Bookshop or the shop-local independent bookshop network Hive (seriously, you should give this site a go!). Or of course there’s always Amazon.
Disney, The Guardian, Google, BBC, Pimm’s, Deutsche Bank, Coutts Bank, Jonathan Cape/Random House, Tatler, Bloomsbury UK, Creative Review, Wired, L’Express, GQ, The Times, La Repubblica, Stolichnaya, FHM, Prospect, The Independent, Radio Times, Evening Standard, Open University (and many more)
