Anders Nilsen
Anders Nilsen (born 1973) is an American cartoonist who lives in Los Angeles, California.
Anders Nilsen
David Shankbone · CC BY 3.0
- Birth Name
- Anders Brekhus Nilsen
- Born
- 1973
- Nationality
- American
- Occupation
- comics artist · comics writer · illustrator
- Honours
- Xeric Award · Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize · Guggenheim Fellowship
- Languages
- English
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Anders Nilsen (born 1973) is an American cartoonist who lives in Los Angeles, California.
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wikidata · Q2846118
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Birth Name — Anders Brekhus Nilsen • Born — 1973 • Nationality — American • Cartoonist — y • Notable Works — Big Questions Don't Go Where I Can't Follow Dogs and Water • Website — http: www.andersbrekhusnilsen.com
Biography
Biography
Nilsen graduated with an art degree from the University of New Mexico in 1996. He moved to Chicago in 1999 to get a Master of Fine Arts in painting, but dropped out after one year. Nilsen's comics have appeared in the anthologies Kramers Ergot and Mome. His graphic novel Dogs and Water won an Ignatz Award in 2005. An excerpt from Dogs and Water was featured in the inaugural 2006 edition of the Best American Comics anthology, and the book was expanded and reissued in hardcover in 2007. In 2007, Nilsen won an Ignatz Award for his graphic memoir, Don't Go Where I Can't Follow, in 2012, he won an Ignatz Award for Big Questions, a collected edition of his comic book series and two more Ignatz Awards in 2025 for Outstanding Artist and Outstanding Comic for Tongues Supplement #1. Nilsen is co-founder of Autoptic, a bi-annual festival of independent comics and art culture that takes place in Minneapolis. He is also one of the organizers of comics residency Pierre Feuille Ciseaux at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. Nilsen has been regularly holding lectures and workshops at various organizations, including Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Forecast program in Berlin, Center for the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, Center for Cartoon Studies, and Stanford University.
Selected works
Selected works
• Dogs and Water, Drawn & Quarterly, October 2004, • Monologues for the Coming Plague, Fantagraphics, 2006, • Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow, Drawn & Quarterly, 2006 (reissued 2012), • The End, Fantagraphics, Coconino Press, January 2007, • Monologues for Calculating the Destiny of Black Holes, Fantagraphics, January 2009, • Big Questions, Drawn & Quarterly, June 2011, • Rage of Poseidon, Drawn & Quarterly, October 2013, • God and the Devil at War in the Garden, May 2015, Self Published • Poetry is Useless, Drawn & Quarterly, September 2015, • A Walk in Eden, Drawn & Quarterly, October 2016, • In Your Next Life You Will Be Together With All of Your Friends, No Miracles Press, March 2021, • Tongues, Volume 1, Pantheon, March 2025, • Every Day Is Today, No Miracles Press, January 2026,
Interviews
Interviews
• 'Anders Nilsen Interview' in 'Lines and Marks' • 'Anders Nilsen: drawing through grief' in The Guardian • 'Massive, Eccentric, Ambitious: Anders Nilsen' in Publishers Weekly • 'Dead Birds, Big Questions' in The Comics Journal • 'An interview with Anders Nilsen' in The Nashville Review • 'We meet the maker of one of the best comic books ever, Anders Nilsen' in It's Nice That • 'Anders Nilsen: The Interview' on Metabunker • Anders Brekhus Nilsen interview on Barbarus
Notable Reviews
Notable Reviews
• 'A Stunning, Hallucinatory Retelling of Greek Myth' in "The New York Times' • 'Anders Nilsen’s ‘Tongues’ and the Nature of God' in Pop Matters • 'Tongues, Vol 1' in The Comics Journal • 'Fate, Feathers, and Death' in ""The New York Times""

Author photo for Anders Brekhus Nilsen
Todd Baxter
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1973
Anders Nilsen born at New Hampshire.
2012
Don't go where I can't follow / by Anders Nilsen., dated 2012, held by Wellcome Collection.
Awards
• 2001: Xeric Award for The Ballad of the Two-Headed Boy • 2005: Ignatz Award for Dogs and Water • 2007: Ignatz Award for Don't Go Where I Can't Follow • 2012: Ignatz Award for Big Questions • 2012: Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize for Big Questions • 2025: Ignatz Award (2) for Tongues Supplement #1 • 2026: Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction.
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Nilsen, Anders. "Afterword," Big Questions, or Asomatognosia (Drawn & Quarterly, June 2011), p. 589.
- 2.Kramers Ergot #6 page at publisher's website
- 3.www.fantagraphics.com. Fantagraphics: Mome page at publisher's website.
- 4.MacDonald, Heidi. Syndicated Comics. The Beat. 2025-09-15.
- 5.www.autoptic.org. Autoptic homepage.
- 6.Anders Nilsen. www.pierrefeuilleciseaux.com.
- 7.Exposition Pierre Feuille Ciseaux #6 - Festival de la Bande Dessinée. www.bdangouleme.com.
- 8.www.pierrefeuilleciseaux.com. Pierre Feuille Ciseaux.
- 9.Verstappen, Nicolas. “Adjacent Panels” part 1/2; parallel Comics Open Studios led by Belgian cartoonist Ephameron and American cartoonist Anders Nilsen, with students in Communication Design, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. 2018-06-10.
- 10.Open call and leading mentors for fourth edition - Announcements - Art & Education. www.artandeducation.net.
- 11.Anders Nilsen – Forecast. forecast-platform.com.
- 12.Anders Nilsen UW-Madison Center for the Humanities. humanities.wisc.edu.
- 13.You searched for anders nilsen. The Center for Cartoon Studies.
- 14.Calendar, Stanford Event. Rage of Poseidon: Finding New Meanings in Old Stories (Anders Nilsen). events.stanford.edu.
- 15.Anders Nilsen at Stanford: Graphic Narrative Project. Drawn & Quarterly. 2014-01-21.
- 16.Announcing the 2026 Guggenheim Fellows. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. April 14, 2026.
- 17.2026 Guggenheim Fellowships Go to Sonya Clark, John Miller, and American Artist. ArtNews.com.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q2846118: Anders NilsenWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Anders Nilsen received Xeric Award, Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize and Guggenheim Fellowship.
Recognition and collections
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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