Rolling the Dice and Betting On Yourself, Get to Know Steenz
“I always tell people to lean towards the things you care about, because everything you do is a stepping stone to where you’re going to be for the rest of your life. You just have to be aware that you don’t have to step on every stone to get there.“
- Steenz Stewart
Based out of St. Louis, Steenz Stewart is the lead cartoonist for the syndicated comic strip Heart of the City and co-creator of the graphic novel Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games. Throughout their career they have had many roles in the world of comics: Illustrator, Editor, Professor, and Mentor.
Their journey in storytelling is not based on luck, but a testament of their skill meeting opportunities discovered and most importantly, created.
Like many comic book fans, Steenz’s connection to comics started with DC Comics programs from the late 90s/early 2000s. Shows like Batman the Animated Series and series influenced by the late Dwayne McDuffie such as Static Shock and Justice League were critical to the then aspiring artist.
Despite being a fan of comic book characters, reading comics didn’t become part of Steenz’s life until later on. “I moved around a lot as a kid, but in high school I utilized my local library and that got me started on reading comics. Soon I started exploring comic shops and a whole world opened up to me,” said Steenz.
Art has always been a part of Steenz’s identity and this influenced them to pursue a degree in art. However, their time spent working at a comic shop sparked a drive to branch out and pursue art more seriously on their own—a move that would present unique opportunities.
Steenz’s career started with a local comic book shop but they would later start working at a library. Because of their deep connection to comics and inherent love of community, they connected with local creatives through the various programs they coordinated like mini comic cons. Additionally, they began to work with a group called Ink and Drink Comics and Steenz’s work was part of the anthology produced by the group.
These various connections to the comic book world made Steenz the ideal candidate for a community management role with publisher Lion Forge. However, in addition to connecting with the community, Steenz never lost that drive to create.
“I was doing community management and social media with Lion Forge, but I had stayed in contact with a friend named Ivy Noelle Weir. We decided to try to put together a webcomic where she wrote and I drew because we didn’t really have any other shit to do,” joked Steenz.
It was at this time Oni Press had opened submissions to creators without requiring an agent and Steenz opted to take a risk. “They had about 600 submissions, chose eight stories, and one of them was ours. Our web comic Archival Quality was going to be a graphic novel!” Steenz said.
Archival Quality would go on to win the 5th Annual Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics—a nice connection to a creator who influenced Steenz’s creative journey.
“In my experience the best way to learn how to make comics is just by doing it. The entryway into creating comics is kind of opaque and the only way I really made my way through is by forcing my way,” said Steenz.
Steenz’s keen eye for stories presented a new opportunity to switch from the creative side of comics to editorial. ”I wanted to make sure doors were open for people who may not have that kind of accessibility. Editorial allowed me to help put money into people’s hands by working directly with them to get their stories out.”
One of the first projects Steenz worked on was a magazine called Rolled and Told, an outlet focused on tabletop roleplaying games. “We made Dungeons and Dragons accessible. I had tried playing D&D but didn’t like it because I had to go through three books worth of stuff just to start playing. I figured we needed a way to make it so people actually would want to play. [D&D] Stories can be incredibly diverse.”
Despite the success of Rolled and Told, Lion Forge would be forced to have personnel changes due to a merger resulting in Steenz looking for new opportunities. By chance, a contact from Ink & Drink would reach out to Steenz to teach Cartooning 101 because of their wealth of experience.
“I always tell people to lean towards the things you care about, because everything you do is a stepping stone to where you’re going to be for the rest of your life. You just have to be aware that you don’t have to step on every stone to get there.”
Fast forward to 2019 and during a discussion with creator Sam Sattin, Steenz opted to work on a non-fiction graphic novel focused on tabletop roleplaying games. Their title, Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games would be released in October 2024. “Sam and I were able to talk about our connection to tabletop gaming while also creating a nonfiction resource and the reception has been very good. I took the comic to New York Comic Con and it sold out,” Steenz said,
“I really love nonfiction and looked forward to an opportunity to show how tabletop roleplaying games are more than D&D. Roleplaying has been around as long as humanity has been around,” said Steenz.
“Roleplaying is deeper than gaming and people can use it for a lot of different reasons. For example, it can help with social skills—there are camps for kids with autism that help them learn how to interact with others. And in everyday life, we flip a coin for all sorts of things so it’s not that different from rolling a dice. The book delves into history and behavioral therapy uses of roleplaying.”
In addition to their work on Side Quest, Steenz has taken over the syndicated comic strip Heart of City, a series about a girl named Heart who lives in Philadelphia. Their influence has breathed new life into the 20+ year old series and has provided much needed authentic representation to the cast of characters.
While Steenz’s schedule is full of projects they lead, that connection to community has never gone away. Their organization Comics University is celebrating its 10th annniversazry this year, and this program has provided free education for aspiring creators and leveraged the wealth of knowledge from Steenz’s career.
How Steenz finds the time for their numerous projects is beyond impressive, but the comic book community is certainly all the better for it.
Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games is now available through major bookstores or can be ordered through your local comic shop. For more on Steenz, be sure to follow them on Instagram and Bluesky or visit their site http://oheysteenz.com. This interview was edited for clarity.
More on Steenz:
Steenz is a St. Louis based cartoonist, editor, and professor. They're the cartoonist on the new graphic novel Side Quest: A Visual History of TTRPGs, the syndicated comic strip ‘Heart Of The City’, the co-creator of Dwayne McDuffie Award-winning Graphic Novel 'Archival Quality', and is the co-creator of the Standard Comic Script. Steenz currently teaches at Webster University and SVA while editing titles from independent publishers and creators. They’re also Board President of SLICE (The St. Louis Independent Comics Expo).