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Gale Galligan

@galegalligan.bsky.social
5.7K followers 1K following 3.1K posts

🐰 Cartoonist, bunfriend, learnin the drums 📚 BABY-SITTERS CLUB 5-8 🪀FREESTYLE & FRESH START✈️ 🦔 galesaur.com/quick-links 🏳️‍🌈 they/them new book: BSC Super Special! (Sept 2026)

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Maia Kobabe @redgoldsparks.bsky.social · 6h
I'm really proud of this series! Give it a read!
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Helioscope @helioscopepdx.bsky.social · 4h
Yep! An artist we know had a contract with ironclad delivery dates. The publisher ate up a full year of his work time with edits & rewrites, then expected him to draw 120 pages in 30 days or give back his advance.
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 5h
welcome to the future lmao
Screencap from an email:

Dear Gale,
What stayed with me about Baby-sitters on Board! is how seven friends, Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacey, Dawn, Mallory, and Jessi, turn a plane ride to Florida, a cruise to the Bahamas, and a huge amusement park into a vacation that still leaves room for what they like best, baby-sitting. KirkusScreencap from an email:

What stood out to me is how much excitement the story creates from the very beginning.
Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacey, Dawn, Mallory, and Jessi are preparing for a vacation that takes them from a plane ride to Florida, onto an extravagant cruise ship bound for the Bahamas, and finally to a huge amusement park for three days of fun. That combination gives readers several different settings to explore while keeping the familiar personalities and friendships at the center of the experience.
I also love that even with all the vacation excitement, the girls still find time for what they enjoy most of all, baby sitting. That detailScreencap from an email:

The sheer energy of the full club taking on a plane ride to Florida, a Bahamian cruise, and an action-packed amusement park trip makes for such a fun, high-stakes summer adventure.Screencap from an email:

readers it was written for. I was especially drawn to the premise: Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacey, Dawn, Mallory, and Jessi going on the best vacation ever, with a plane ride to Florida, a cruise to the Bahamas on an extravagant ship, and three days of fun at a huge amusement park. The BSC has a million adventures, of course, and they still have time for what they like best of all, baby-sitting. With your combined talents as New York
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 5h
my current plan for Drawing Prompt Month is: play with ink, make fanart for books I want people to read!!!! A lot of grownups don't know what's going on in early reader/middle grade (understandably so), but the holidays are coming, it's almost your niece's birthday, I wanna draw, everyone wins.
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 5h
Mr. Wolf's Class (@mrwolfcomics.bsky.social) is a frequent reread here! It's a kind, funny, and very thoughtfully grounded slice-of-life series about a group of fourth-graders. I have a soft spot for ensemble stories and this one is SO special. Also, the nature spreads are killer. 🍂 #booktober
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 7h
All of this!! And especially 📢INCLUDE TIME FOR EDITS📢 edits are two-pronged: (1) you will wait to receive notes at several stages of the process. could be weeks! could be months! talk with editor so you understand THEIR turnaround (2) once you have notes, you will need time to edit 🙂‍↕️
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Nilah "Nine Jobs" Magruder @nilahmagruder.com · 9h
I also learned you can't always count on your agent to go to bat for you. Agents that lack experience in illustration and comics will not see the red flags. It's in an artist's best interests to document their workflow so they can understand it and protect it fiercely.
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Nilah "Nine Jobs" Magruder @nilahmagruder.com · 9h
She's yelling about graphic novels again. I wrote a blog post about how to track work hours and do the math to build better work schedules. This speaks to graphic novelists specifically but it's good info for any freelancer!
nilahmagruder.com
Graphic Novel Math
How comic artists can track work hours to manage time and build better graphic novel production schedules.
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Anime News Network @animenewsnetwork.com · 04/10/2026
Banned Book Week includes manga, too. Here's Coop Bicknell's discussion with librarians last year about the swath of titles targeted by interest groups.
animenewsnetwork.com
Manga in The Crosshairs: The State of Manga Bans in 2025
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Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A donation to us will help us further professionalize this work, and ensure that this organization can keep living even once our original founders (including me!) step back. The goal here is long term health and efficacy. www.authorsagainstbookbans.com/donate/
authorsagainstbookbans.com
Donate - Authors Against Book Bans
Thank you for donating to Authors Against Book Bans. Your donation directly supports the freedom to read by powering our work with our partner organizations, bringing the author muscle to the fight to...
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Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
It is the start of Banned Books Week and as such it's an EXCELLLLENT moment to donate to @authorsabb.bsky.social. We are laser focused on tbe single issue of fighting book bans. It's hard work, and we've done it with all volunteers for about 3 years-- and now we finally have a program manager.
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Dani Yuan 🔜 LBX @dagger6.art · 03/10/2026
FurAffinity (a furry focused online art gallery) is looking for funding after refusing to comply with advertiser demands. And oh boy are some of those advertiser demands are pretty ridiculous.
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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 02/10/2026
its time to admit it: CLAMP are ten million times more prophetic than hideo kojima
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Cheryl Lynn Eaton @cheryllynneaton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
ATTENTION COMIC NERDS!
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
body: i’m grow little hairs to protect you me: ok sick, thanks body: what if one go inside tho me: what body: one hair turn around me: please don’ body: HAIR GO IN
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Aw, gosh. Found a rogue timelapse from Freestyle! If I remember right, this was a test page. I had inked my previous books traditionally and wanted to save myself some scanning time, but knew I'd need to find a digital process that still felt natural (and didn't fling me into Detail Hell).
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Question from someone four editions out of date: is the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook still worth recommending?
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Kerstin Hall @kerstinhall.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Radiant Star is on special, let’s go!
kobo.com
Radiant Star ebook by Ann Leckie - Rakuten Kobo
Read "Radiant Star" by Ann Leckie available from Rakuten Kobo. Space opera's sharpest mind returns to the world of the Imperial Radch in this brilliant standalone from award-winning a...
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Authors Against Book Bans @authorsabb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
So many different people, groups, and organizations have come together to push back against the attack on the freedom to read, including students themselves. Read more about what students in Florida are doing here:
theguardian.com
No more book bans: how Florida students are pushing rightwingers out of school boards
Local communities are fighting back against the influence of conservative groups like Moms for Liberty in education
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
happy “ohhhhh NOOOOOOO” season to everyone looking at the next three months on a school calendar!!!
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Tiffany Babb 🔜 NYCC @explodingarrow.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I am SO THRILLED to announce the AMAZING lineup of writers that will be featured in The Comics Courier Issue 5. This issue is gonna be 🔥 www.kickstarter.com/projects/tif...
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
how the fuck are you writing a whole essay about the trajectory of media jobs over the last six years without mentioning covid ONCE
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merr-itt came from outer space @merrittk.com · 30/09/2026
we fucked up bigtime when the internet slipped from the utopian promise of being able to connect with ANYone into the hellscape of being connected to EVERYone
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
oh help theonion.com/political-ca...
theonion.com
Political Cartoonist Not Sure How To Convey That Large Sack In Senator’s Hand Is Full Of Money
CHICAGO—Admitting that he has completely run out of ideas at this point, local political cartoonist Lawrence Cleary told reporters Monday that he is unsure how to convey that a large sack being clutch...
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
bless you, /r/animorphs, you absolutely did
Screencap of a Reddit post titled "I found an Animorphs reference in one of the Babysitters Club graphic novels"

A panel from BSC #7, Boy-Crazy Stacey, in which Stacey looks at a display of custom airbrushed shirts. One shirt says "Tobias ♥ Rachel".

Stacey eyes the shirts. Mary Anne crosses her arms over her head in a "NO" gesture.

Stacey: I could --
Mary Anne: No. Nope. Definitely not.
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iasmin omar ata | delta 🌟 @deltahead.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
i am so beyond thrilled to launch my new webcomic: PRAYERS TO THE FUTURE! it's a muslim-themed post-apocalyptic adventure about coming together to breathe life into a struggling world. the first update is now live at prayerstothefuture.com - the comic is free to read + updates every monday. ENJOY 🧿
an illustration for the launch of my (iasmin omar ata) new webcomic PRAYERS TO THE FUTURE. the main character, irfan, poses with an obsidian sword. the rest of the comics cast (a mystery for now!) is depicted in various shapes behind her. the title of the comic is written outside of a circle behind irfan, with "by iasmin omar ata" written on the underside of the circle. within the circle, a post-apocalyptic desert is shown, with a tall obisidan obelisk at the center and a giant crystal floating atop it.
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
reading Assorted Crisis Events right before bed was a mistake
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Ru Xu @ruemxu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Status Royale Final Volume! In December! 🥳
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
DoorDash spent $1.4M trying to stop Zohran Mamdani from becoming mayor. This week's historic $131.5M enforcement action against DoorDash for underpaying NYC delivery workers shows why. Yet another reminder that the only thing that can beat organized money is organized people.
theintercept.com
DoorDash Spent $1.4 Million Trying to Stop Mamdani From Becoming Mayor. Now We Know Why.
In a wage-theft settlement, DoorDash now has to pay its workers around 100 times what it spent trying to beat Zohran Mam
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
update, travel sketches, & reading notes! here's a favorite sketchbook spread 🎨 www.patreon.com/galesaur/pos...
Sketches in green ink from Upshot Coffee HiFi, the STL Art Museum, and Ivy Cafe. 

Coffee notes: A friendly space with a mean cold brew. Great place to get comfy and enjoy whatever records are spinning.

Note under a sketch of a dog: Waking up early is worth it sometimes!!
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
PATREON DESKTOP DIDN'T USED TO LET ME UPLOAD MULTIPLE IMAGES AT ONCE BUT NOW IT IS OFFERING A RARE AND FERVENT THANK YOU FOR QUALITY OF LIFE UPGRADE
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Diskette Press @ PCX 38 @diskettepress.com · 28/09/2026
Come one, come all, for a Center for Book Arts Detroit and Diskette Press open house the evening before A2CAF! Come see the amazing community space and behind the scenes where your favorite Diskette comics and zines are made from start to finish.
Flyer for Diskette Press & Center for Book Arts Detroit open house. October 2nd from 6-9pm. it features Robin gesturing to a book press with the caption “okay, now get in”
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Small Press Expo @smallpressexpo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Did you know that SPX has a YouTube channel? Every 2026 panel was recorded and archived for you all to enjoy. Check out all kinds of great panels with topics ranging from “Portraits From Spain” to “Rethinking US History” and so much more! All of that and more awaits you!
youtube.com
SmallPressExpo
The Small Press Expo (SPX) is a registered 501(c)(3) that was created in 1994 to promote artists and publishers who produce independent comics.SPX hosts an annual festival that provides a forum for ar...
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Lucy Bellwood @lubellwoo.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fresh Start is one of my favorite books from the past few years. Fantastic to see this recognition including the entire team who made it happen. Getting to work with Karen on Seacritters was a total dream, and I can't imagine our book any other way.
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Katherine Lam @ LBX 431 @katherinelam.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
badly done and very brief little guide about contrast when thinking about composition! this is really just the tip of the iceberg, but it is something i think about a lot! if you take one thing from this, its that composition is ALL about relationships between the elements. (1/2)
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A Tea Walks Home Alone at Night @teaberryblue.net · 25/09/2026
I am dyslexic. Contrary to popular belief, I am not a bad reader. I am a very good reader. However, I am also a very slow reader. By the time I was in high school, I could not finish a lot of my reading assignments by the deadlines. Graphic novel adaptations saved me.
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Dan Nott @dan-nott.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I've been doing some reading mentorship with a 3rd grader and have also found that graphic novels are uniquely great for reading outloud together. It's fun and easy to switch off characters and narration.
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Nilah "Nine Jobs" Magruder @nilahmagruder.com · 25/09/2026
Everything Gale says in this thread, but I'm highlighting the visual literacy part bcuz we as a society don't put enough emphasis on visual communication. We treat reading and language as only a matter of alphabet, not images. Children need both. Dismissing the role of art doesn't help literacy.
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Oh boy. Okay. I am going to respond earnestly and genuinely, because I totally understand why this would seem like a contrary concept! Many librarians, educators, and guardians want to encourage their kids to read more, but don't see how graphic novels might help. Let's talk about it!
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Cathy G. Johnson🏴 @cathygjohn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
If you're an undergraduate student or someone with a bachelor's interested in a comics MFA, I am doing a very rare online portfolio review day tomorrow with Boston University! Sign up here: nationalportfolioday.org/schedule/onl...
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西村ツチカ @tsuchika.com · 24/09/2026
エフェクター
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shmeric 🐌🐌 @ FLASHBACK XX79 🤖🛼 @shmuffalo.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It's repugnant: Companies want to undercut contractors so bad because they're the easiest people to undercut, even though contractors are already often in poverty. But they can't strongarm Microsoft and Adobe and Lakeside and Monotype to lower their costs and license fees, so contractors suffer.
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shmeric 🐌🐌 @ FLASHBACK XX79 🤖🛼 @shmuffalo.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
When my former employer was getting into the vertical comics market pre-AI, our bizdev folks were convinced they could make comics cheaply and quickly because overseas w*btoon studios were selling them snake oil and a lot of exploited underpaid labor. It's all the same garbage.
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fresh Start would not be the same without Karen's gorgeous colors!!! I'm so glad that @libcomix.bsky.social is using this opportunity to shine a light on how people make comics.
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I have notes. (1) Why dress up a PR release as an interview? Why take any of this at face value when there’s so much to dig into? (2) Related: “WHY AREN’T THERE MORE GRAPHIC NOVELS FOR MIDDLE SCHOOLERS” should immediately disqualify you from conducting any kind of comics-related “interview.”
Screencap from “Novvel.co Produces Graphic Novel Adaptations with AI Assistance” by Ed Nawotka for Publishers Weekly, accessed 9/23/2026. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/101260-novvel-co-pioneers-producing-graphic-novels-with-ai-assistance.html


We came together around the question of how to make reading exciting again in a world of declining attention spans. We spent a lot of time talking to teachers and parents, and looked at literacy data, which shows the biggest drop in reading tends to happen right around the grade level when kids are also getting their first phones, typically middle school.

We landed on the hypothesis that a graphic novel is the ideal format to bring people back to reading, not just reluctant readers.

[Question] Why isn't there more graphic-novel content already, if the format works so well?

[Answer] Production is expensive and slow. The average production cost of a graphic novel runs somewhere between $20,000 and $50,000, and it typically takes 12 to 18 months. Most small publishers and authors don't have that kind of capital to spend on a bet, and even large publishers that do have it have to be very selective about what they commit it to.

[Question] Walk me through what the platform actually does.

[Answer] You put in a manuscript. The system spends time studying the story, including the thesis, the background, the protagonist, and the emotional beats that pay off for a reader, and produces a storyboard that gets you to roughly 60-70% of a finished product.

Then an editor, the author, and an illustrator go in and shape that further, because a purely Al-generated output tends to lack soul and be generic. This is not a self-driving car. It's more like handing a Ferrari to someone who already knows how to drive.
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Tiffany Babb 🔜 NYCC @explodingarrow.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
do this today! do not delay!
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Matthew Noe @noethematt.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I am begging people to think about things before they propose them. If you really care about student literacy, how about we start with reinstating the requirement for staffed libraries in every school? We have students struggling with core skills. And y'all want to throw the slop products at them.
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Thomas @thomasrothlisberg.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Omega's design is sick, until you are the one tasked with drawing him doing anything beyond standing idle at eye level.
from the 2022 IDW Sonic the Hedgehog Annual - 'Weapons'from the 2022 IDW Sonic the Hedgehog Annual - 'Weapons'
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Tony Cliff @tangocharlie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This week's massive, public / *FREE* Production Diary includes: - why does trad. comics printing separate line art files from colour? - I MUST share this tutorial from @rivkahlafille.bsky.social , - a wonderful coincidence, - and Transformers versus nostalgia. 👉 www.patreon.com/tonycliff/po...
patreon.com
Line-Art Process Notes, Strange Coincidences, and Transformers | Tony Cliff
Hmmm there's a lot this week, so I've split it up into this public post and another post for Secret Readers, with all the fresh new inked pa
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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
come ON
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