Nimona | |
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Author(s) | ND Stevenson |
Current status/schedule | Concluded |
Publisher(s) | HarperCollins (2015 print edition) |
Genre(s) | Action-adventure Science fantasy Comedy drama Thriller |
Nimona is a science fantasy graphic novel by American cartoonist ND Stevenson. The story follows the title character, a shapeshifter who joins the disgraced knight Ballister Blackheart in his plans to destroy the over-controlling Institute. Blackheart's intent to operate under his code of ethics contrasts him with the impulsive Nimona.
Stevenson began working on Nimona while attending the Maryland Institute College of Art, revisiting a character he had created in high school. Stevenson published Nimona as a webcomic from 2012 through 2014, initially through Tumblr, developing the story and the art style as time progressed. The finished work ultimately doubled as his senior thesis. After an agent reached out to Stevenson, HarperCollins released Nimona in print form in 2015. It has been translated into at least 16 other languages and adapted into an audiobook.
Nimona's accolades include an Eisner Award, a Cybils Award, and a Cartoonist Studio Prize. Reviews and academic analyses have highlighted themes of queerness and fluidity of identity and how they oppose and subvert traditional controlling institutions and exclusionary systems.
An animated film of the same name[1] was released on Netflix on June 30, 2023, to critical success and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards, but lost to The Boy and the Heron.