Douglas Holgate is a freelance illustrator and comic artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Predominately illustrating children’s fiction, he is best known for his work on several series including Brian Anderson’s The Adventures of Commander Zack Proton (2006 – 2007), Steve Cotler’s Cheesie Mack (2012 – 2014) and The Last Kids On Earth (2015 – 2016), writen by The New York Times bestselling author, Max Brallier. In 2012, Holgate won an Illustrator Australia Award for ‘Best Unpublished Series’ and in 2016 recieved a Bronze Ledger Award for his self-published comic Maralinga (2015).
Holgate studied Illustration at The University of Newcastle, Australia. For over a decade, he has illustrated books for international publisher including HarperCollins, Random House, Penguin, Hachette and Simon And Schuster. In addition to the series mentioned above, Holgate has illustrated Jeffrey Scott Savage’s Case File 13 (2012 – 2014), Tim Carvell’s Planet Tad (2012, 2014) and three Dr Karl Kruszelnicki books.
On top of his illustrated book, Holgate has an impressive list of comic work. He contributed to the Kazu Kibuishi’s Flight and Explorer anthologies. He penciled for The Amazing Joy Buzzards (Image Comics), Red Sonja (Dynamite Comics) and The Regular Show (BOOM! Comics)
Since 2014, Holgate has frequently collaborated with critically acclaimed comics writer, Jen Breach. Starting with Maralinga, a post-apocalyptic tale of one girl’s desperate journey to find sanctuary and a mythical inland sea. The comic won a 2014 Australian Society of Authors’ Children’s Picture Book Illustrators’ Initiative grant and a 2014 Arts Victoria project grant. The duo followed this with When is a Door Not a Door?, a short story for Explorer: The Hidden Doors, and in 2015 released the picture book Something’s Amiss at the Zoo. Holgate and Breach are currently working on an all-ages graphic novel, Clem Hetherington and the Ironwood Race. It is the first book in a series, due out from Scholastic Graphix in 2017.
Holgate is also the artist for Wires and Nerve, the debut graphic novel by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Marissa Meyer. It will extend the world of the ‘Lunar Chronicles’ and is due out from Feiwel & Friends in January 2017.
To see more of Douglas Holgate’s work, head over to his website, DeviantArt, Instagram and Twitter.
