Renée French
Renée French (born 1963) is an American comics writer and illustrator and, under the pen name Rainy Dohaney, a children's book author, and exhibiting artist. Her work is characterized by her "obsessive-looking and highly unsettling visual style."
Also recorded as Renee French · Rainy Dohaney
Renée French

Guillaume Paumier · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Renée French
- Born
- 1963
- Occupation
- comics writer and illustrator
- Spouse
- Rob Pike
- Nationality
- United States.
- Languages
- English.
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Documentary summary
Renée French (born 1963) is an American comics writer and illustrator and, under the pen name Rainy Dohaney, a children's book author, and exhibiting artist. Her work is characterized by her "obsessive-looking and highly unsettling visual style."
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wikidata · Q7313837 · wikipedia · Renée French
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Renée French • Pen Name — Rainy Dohaney • Born — 1963 • Occupation — comics writer and illustrator • Spouse — Rob Pike • Website — http: instagram.com/reneefrench/
Mascots
Mascots
• Illustration — Mascot for the Go programming language French drew both the mascot of the Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating system ("Glenda", aka "the Plan 9 Bunny"), and the gopher mascot for the Go programming language.
Personal life
Personal life
French grew up in New Jersey, and was always drawing as a child. French is married to Rob Pike, one of the creators of Plan 9 from Bell Labs, and of the Go programming language at Google. They split their time between the United States and Australia.
Select comics works
Select comics works
• Hagelbarger and That Nightmare Goat (Yam Books), 2013. • Barry's Best Buddy (Toon Books) 2013 • Bjornstrand (PictureBox) September 2012 • Baby Bjornstrand (Koyama Press) September 2014 • H Day (PictureBox) 2010 • Micrographica (Top Shelf Productions) 2007 • The Ticking (Top Shelf Productions) 2006 • Marbles in my Underpants (Oni Press) • The Soap Lady (Top Shelf Productions) • The Adventures of Rheumy Peepers & Chunky Highlights (Oni Press) • Grit Bath (Fantagraphics) • Edison Steelhead's Lost Portfolio: Exploratory Studies of Girls and Rabbits (Sparkplug Books) June 2007.
Books
Books
Her work includes H Day (Picturebox), The Soap Lady (inspired by the display in the Mütter Museum) (Top Shelf Productions), The Ticking (Top Shelf Productions), and Micrographica (Top Shelf Productions), Edison Steelhead's Lost Portfolio: Exploratory Studies of Girls and Rabbits (Sparkplug Books), and Marbles in My Underpants (Oni Press). She also has a weekly strip The Taint in the New York Press. Her serialized comic Baby Bjornstrand appears on the Study Group Comic Books website. The New York Times said her graphic novels "split the difference between adorable and horrifically gross"; writing about "Baby Bjornstrand", they called it "equal parts Daffy Duck and Samuel Beckett, and all quirky Renée French". French has a serialized illustrated story in the Fantagraphics Books quarterly Mome called "Almost Sound". She is also the author of the comic book for children, Barry's Best Buddy, released by Toon Books in 2013.
Children's books (as Rainy Dohaney)
Children's books (as Rainy Dohaney)
• My Best Sweet Potato (Atheneum Books) 2006 • Tinka (Atheneum Books) 2005
Artistic influences
As a child, French found a book plate of Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights and was enchanted by it. In regards to the influence, French stated "I don't know how many hours I stared at it under the covers, but I'd memorised each little scene within the paintings and thought about them all the time. That world was so real to me." French suffers from migraines, which she uses to her creative advantage, as detailed in an interview with WOW x WOW. Her book, H Day, is "an attempt to show what it's like to have a migraine, from the outside and the inside." According to French, "most of the portraits with things exploding out of the face or the skin warping around the head, are based on the migraines."
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Renée French”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q7313837: Renée French
General reference · Wikidata
Awards
In 2003, French was nominated for the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Artist for her contribution to the Alternative Comics anthology Rosetta. In 2007, French was nominated for a number of comics industry awards — including for best artist nods from the Eisner, Ignatz, and Harvey Awards — for the graphic novel The Ticking. French won the Inkpot Award at the 2007 San Diego Comic Con.
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.Renée French The Comics Journal. www.tcj.com. 14 March 2012.
- 2."Baby Bjornstrand" on Study Group Comics Books
- 3.Wolk, Douglas. Stuff Nightmares Are Made Of. The New York Times. October 29, 2010.
- 4.Jennings, Dana. Summer Reveries, Frame by Frame. The New York Times. July 23, 2015.
- 5.Barry's Best Buddy. Publishers Weekly.
- 6.Renee French - Artist Interview - WOW x WOW. WOW X WOW. 2015-07-27.
- 7."The Go Gopher", Rob Pike and Andrew Gerrand, 24 March 2014, golang.org
- 8.Shankland, Stephen. Google hopes Go will give a browser boost. CNET. November 12, 2009.
- 9.2003 Ignatz Award Nominees Announced. Diamond Comic Distributors. 2003.
- 10.2007 Eisner Awards: 2007 Master Nominations List
- 11.SPX Announces Ignatz Nominees. Newsarama. 2006-09-14.
- 12.2007 Harvey Awards Nominees. HarveyAwards.org.
- 13.Inkpot Award. Comic-Con International: San Diego. 2012-12-06.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
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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