Issy Manley is a cartoonist and educator living in New Orleans. Issy makes non-fiction comics about labor, climate crisis and capitalism. Her essay comics have been published in The Guardian, The Nib Magazine, The Washington Post and Narratively, among others. Her collection of non-fiction comics about work and unemployment during the pandemic – “No One Wants to Work Anymore” – was published by Antenna Press in 2023. She is the winner of Antenna’s 2021 Open Call, a MICE mini-grant, and was shortlisted for the 2022 Cartoonist Studio Prize. Issy has exhibited at Shortrun, CAKE and MICE comics festivals, and holds an MFA from The Center for Cartoon Studies.

Issy’s residency project is an illustrated, age-appropriate guide on the climate and ecological seasonal changes of sub-tropical Southeast Louisiana for preschool through early elementary-aged children. The final product might take shape as a 12-page picture book, open-ended field workbook, poster, fold-out/ pop-up zine, or a comic that would be printed and distributed for free to local educators/ programs to share with their students (as well as being offered free digitally to a wider audience). As an educator Issy has found few to no resources on our local climate and seasons for young children, and feels that it is important that children get to learn about the climate, weather and how eco-systems are shaped by both in the places that they live.