about Corey Marie

Hello, I'm Corey Marie.

I'm a nerdy creative blogger/artist who is more than a little obsessed with music. I’m 29 years old and I work out of my home studio in Richmond, Virginia. I’m an illustrator and I’ve drawn, written and published comics since 1999.

Wavy hurrrr

I dye my hair blue. I thrive on patterns and formulas.  I love comic books, web design, video games, road trips, thrift stores and old books.  I'm a bit awkward and sometimes anti-social, but I throw a hell of a party.  I also like old cartoons, sewing, baking, and photography.  I keep busy.  I drink too much wine and talk a bit too loudly.  I have a small but tight-knit group of friends whom I would do anything for.  I'm often misunderstood.  I have adult A.D.D. but wasn't diagnosed until I was 25.  Since then I've read all I can about how the brain works, and personally, I believe the word "disorder" is a misnomer.

HunkJonah bologna

I’m married to another awesome illustrator & music nerd, Tod.  We have a 3-year old son named Jonah, a.k.a. “the Thunder Lizard” and two cats, a maine coon named Rocky Raccoon and a tuxedo named Eleanor Rigby.  

The Rock StarMeow Heads

I am an introvert but I’m not shy.  I’m a Libra and I’m constantly in search of information, beauty and fairness.  I love to read, both novels and non-fiction; I typically spend at least an hour a day on Wikipedia.

xoArt Journal Paper Stash


Background

As a teenager, I read Sassy Magazine, made zines, played D&D, traded mix tapes and wrote poems and drew pictures in countless composition books instead of studying.  I stayed after class to talk to my teacher about George Orwell’s 1984.  (It’s still my favorite book!)  I was that girl who played acoustic guitar and wore army shirts and thrifted clogs.  I played tuba/sousaphone and loved marching band. (We were really awesome and had an incredible director and won all sorts of state championships & got all kinds of awards.)  I hung out on message boards and taught myself html.  I started making web sites in 1996.  Since my high school didn't offer any classes on web design, I took independent study periods my junior and senior years to teach myself more. (Read more about how I got started with web design here!)

In college, I started dying my hair and going to punk shows and thrift stores.  I hung out at Denny’s and in mosh pits and wore lots and lots of band tee shirts.  I made a lot more mix tapes and a lot more zines.  I hung out at a comic shop and started reading comic books and graphic novels.  I started attending, and then tabling at comic book conventions.  I started learning CSS and PHP and building more complex web sites.


Comics & Illustration

I studied typography and graphic design, as well as humorous illustration in college, but never got a formal degree.  I drew caricatures at Sea World San Diego and Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.  My husband and I ran a small indie-press comic book publishing company called Young American Comics for several years and spent a lot of time around the country at various comic book conventions.

Isaac, Kate, Garrett and CharlieSL1cover_preview

I started self-publishing web comics series in 1999, and put out four series: Sit and Spin (1999-2000), Common Grounds (Keenspot Entertainment, 2000-2001), Life’s So Rad! (Keenspot Entertainment 2002-2003) and Scene Language (Young American Comics, 2007-).  Scene Language has also been drawn as a print series.

[ You can read more about my comics on Comixpedia. ]
[ Read all posts on coreymarie♥com about comics & illustration ]

DIY Life

Last Scooter Ride (For a While)Last Scooter Ride (For a While)

In 2008, my husband and I were in an accident while riding his restored vintage Vespa, and I fractured my right elbow in several places.  I put a daily comics schedule on hold for a while and started focusing more on illustration and blogging.  I wrote and illustrated a weekly column/blog for the now defunct alternative newspaper Brick Weekly about the DIY Life, The Hipster’s Guide to Conquering Domestica.

Published!Summer Cocktail Party

After my son was born in 2008, I started focusing on hand-made crafts as a part-time job that I could do while my son napped.   I opened an Etsy Shop and sold at local art & craft shows as well as First Friday Art Shows in the Richmond area.   I started out selling paintings, screen-prints and other one-of-a-kind items, most of which featured my original illustrations.  As my business continued to grow, I started focusing on making items with recycled, found or re-claimed supplies, and began producing hand-bound recycled art journals, which quickly became my shop's flagship product.  In June of 2011, I opened PAPERCUTS handmade as a stand-alone web store.  

Some day, I'd love to own my own boutique which will serve as a retail shop (focusing on hand-made and locally made products) an art gallery and a teaching space.  In the meantime, I work out of my home studio.

[ Read all posts on coreymarie♥com about PAPERCUTS handmade ]
[ Read all posts on coreymarie♥com about Diy Life ]