Johnny Sampson

Johnny Sampson (he/him) is an award-winning cartoonist, illustrator, and educator. He has been freelancing since 2002, drawing storyboards for film and TV, comics for Action Bronson and "Weird" Al Yankovic, painting album covers for The King Khan and BBQ Show, designing and screen printing gig posters for all kinds of bands, and most recently taking over writing and artist duties for Al Jaffee's iconic MAD Fold-In for MAD Magazine (yes, it's still in print). He is a proud member of the National Cartoonists Society, for which he currently serves as the National Representative and the Chicago Chapter Chair.

Education: BFA, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Awards: 2024 Divisional Reuben Award Nominee - Best in Magazine Illustration, 2023. Publications: MAD Magazine, Chronicle Books, Abrams Books, HarperCollins Books, New York Times, The Stranger, Reader, VICE. Exhibitions: 2024 What, Me Worry? The Art & Humor of MAD Magazine at Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA; 2024 Post-it Show #20 at GR2 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; 2023 Post-it Show #19 at GR2 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; 2022 Post-it Show #18 at GR2 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Articles/Interviews: Chicago Reader; Lambiek Comiclopedia; The Saturday Evening Post; WAMC's The Roundtable; Chicago Tonight

My approach for teaching comics is to equip students with a solid foundation of best practices for the format and foster a critical eye for their own work as well as others'. While there are concepts and methods that I teach the class as a whole, I feel that with comics especially, there is so much variety in execution and format, that the best way for me to support my students is to meet each at their own level and give them my best advice and encouragement to help them discover and develop their singular comics voice.