Ursula Vernon

Ursula Vernon (born 1978) is a professional artist who lives in North Carolina. She uses both traditional and digital media, with most of her art going through several stages of planning both on paper and computer.

She produced an online comic Digger, which features a wombat, dead gods, white peacocks, and other misfits and ne'er-do-wells. The comic, which ended in 2011, is available in its entirety online at diggercomic.com and compiled print versions are available from Sofawolf Press.

It Made Sense at the Time: Selected Sketches by Ursula Vernon, part of Sofawolf's Artistic Visions series, was published in November 2004.

She wrote Black Dogs, a two-volume fantasy novel series published by Sofawolf Press. Black Dogs Part One: The House of Diamond has interior art by Chris Goodwin and the first edition was published in 2007 with cover art by Ursula and second edition was published in January 2011 with cover art by Talenshi (to match cover of part two). Black Dogs Part Two: The Mountain of Iron was first published in January 2011 with art (cover and interior) by Talenshi.

Her first children's book, Nurk, the strange surprising adventures of a (somewhat) brave shrew was published in May 2008.

Dragonbreath, the first book in her new series for young readers, was released in June 2009. Dragonbreath mixes comics and traditional writing. The Dragonbreath series consists of seven books as of February 2012: Dragonbreath, Dragonbreath: Attack of the Ninja Frogs, Dragonbreath: Curse of the Were-wiener, Dragonbreath: Lair of the Bat Monster, Dragonbreath : No Such Thing as Ghosts, Dragonbreath : Revenge of the Horned Bunnies, and Dragonbreath: When Fairies Go Bad. Ursula is under contract for a total of eleven Dragonbreath books.

Ursula's work uses a range of styles, sometimes realistic, sometimes humorous and cute. One of her recurring themes is Gearworld, a world that juxtaposes the organic and the inorganic. Gearworld is a recurring theme in the work of Ursula Vernon. It is typified by eroded concrete, iron, gears, and the melding of organic and inorganic - Steam pipe tree, for instance, or fish that live in glass tubes bolted to the walls. Gearworld is vast and changeable - the normal rules of the world do not apply consistently, or in some cases at all. It is inhabited by a range of peoples, some fantastic, others mundane, all of whom remain to be explored.

Ursula has created a LiveJournal that is ostensibly the translated journals of Eland, an anthropomorphic antelope who, with the help of his assistant Heinrich (a bear and a chef) and their pack mule, intends to explore this world.

Ursula's cover for Best in Show won the Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration in 2003. She was nominated for the 2006 Eisner Awards in the category Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition for her work on Digger. Digger won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story.

She has been a guest of honor at Midwest FurFest twice (2004 and 2009), Further Confusion 2010 and 2013, and Eurofurence 20 (2014).

Ursula is a regular vendor and attendee at Anthrocon.

Did you know? Ursula is the creator of the Biting Pear of Salamanca, a work which became an internet meme in the form of the "LOL WUT" pear.

Podcasting
In 2011, Ursula and her partner Kevin began hosting the podcast Kevin and Ursula Eat Cheap. Each week they review a range of pre-packaged foods and then rate them. Archives and updates to the show are available at http://kuec.libsyn.com or through iTunes and Miro.