Molly Ostertag


Molly Knox Ostertag is an American cartoonist and writer, known for her webcomic Strong Female Protagonist, her middle grade graphic novel series, and for her work on the series Tales of the Night Watchman.

Early life and education

Ostertag grew up in upstate New York. She attended Bard College and studied illustration and cartooning at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where she graduated in 2014.

Career

Comics

As a comics artist, Ostertag has been drawing the superhero webcomic Strong Female Protagonist written by Brennan Lee Mulligan since 2012, and created the art for the fantasy comic Shattered Warrior written by Sharon Shinn. Her first published work came in 2013 and 2014 when she drew two issues of Tales of the Night Watchman for So What? Press, "The Night Collector" and "It Came from the Gowanus Canal". The latter remains one of the series' best-selling issues.
In 2017, Graphix published The Witch Boy, the first graphic novel written and drawn by Ostertag. It is the coming-of-age story of a young boy, Aster, who is intent on becoming a witch in a community where boys are expected to become shapeshifters. Fox Animation acquired the film rights, and a sequel, The Hidden Witch, was published in 2018. The third book in the series, The Midwinter Witch, was published in Nov 2019. Other works of Ostertag's include the erotic comic Alleycat and the comic How the Best Hunter in the Village Met Her Death, for which she received the 2018 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Story.
Paste described Ostertag's character design as "deft and varied, with a thick, dark line that resembles that of Faith Erin Hicks", noting that she "mostly uses her figures' eyes and their body language to convey emotions." A profile by SVA described her work as "consistently featur diverse casts of characters—multiracial, of differing gender expressions, sexual orientations, and abilities—whose adventures intertwine social justice and superheroes, peer pressure and magical powers", and noted that her "presiding interest lies in queer content in young adult work".

Animation

In animation, Ostertag has been working since 2014 as a designer for Star vs. the Forces of Evil and as a writer for The Owl House and ThunderCats Roar.

Personal life

Ostertag married fellow cartoonist Noelle Stevenson in September 2019.