Nate Creekmore
Nate Creekmore is the award-winning cartoonist behind "Maintaining," a playful, visual exploration of what it's like to be young, inquisitive and multi-racial.
Creekmore landed a coveted print syndication contract for "Maintaining" at age 22, signing a development contract with Universal Press Syndicate in 2004. In Spring 2007, the comic strip launches in newspapers across the country.
A Nashville resident, Creekmore was accumulating accolades even in college. He was named best college cartoonist by the Associated Collegiate Press in 2005 and twice received the Charles M. Schulz award from the Scripps Howard Foundation as part of the National Journalism Awards in 2003 and 2004.
"Maintaining" was originally published in The Babbler, Creekmore's college newspaper at Lipscomb University in Nashville where he earned a B.A. in graphic design. The strip follows Marcus, a biracial high school student, whose every-day life experience is relevant, reflective and slightly absurd. The comic strip looks at the oddities of life through Marcus' eyes.
For story development, Creekmore uses his own experiences as a biracial man (his father is black/his mother is white) and real life situations and conversations that occur among his friends.
The Nashville Tennessean featured Creekmore in an article that read: "With dry and sometimes sly wit, he has dealt with everything from stereotypes and interracial dating (when Marcus shows up for dinner with his white girlfriend's parents, they serve him watermelon and fried chicken) to evolution and racial slurs. The strip made waves on campus when it debuted in the school paper, The Babbler. Some called him racist. Some called him enlightened. Either way, he kept them wondering what his characters would say next."
Creekmore was born on Oct. 14, 1982, in Omaha, Neb. His father was in the Air Force which caused his family to move to eight different states as well as overseas in Germany and Turkey. His stay-at-home mom made time to introduce Creekmore and his four sisters to the arts and literature, and to value the wealth of knowledge in their local library.
It was at the library that he discovered his influences from cartoon collections of the New Yorker and Winsor McKay, creator of the early 1900s strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland." Some of Creekmore's more current influences include Bill Watterson, Aaron McGruder, and Frank Cho. "Everything I know about cartooning I learned from reading the comic collections of other cartoonists," he said.
Creekmore is constantly drawing. Most of the sketches on his personal website, www.creekification.com, were done just for fun and practice. When not drawing, Creekmore enjoys Kung Fu movies, as well as music from the Roots, Mos Def, Lauryn Hill, and Radiohead, among others.
