Gavin Aung Than — Melbourne, Australia

What mistake or trap should a young artist/designer avoid when working on sequential art? “Probably thinking too big and trying to produce an epic graphic novel as their first project. Cartooning is a craft that takes years to become competent at. I recommend mastering the basic skills of clear story-telling in short, five-10-page comics before trying to produce the next From Hell or Maus.”

The cartoonist and creator behind Zen Pencils, a cartoon blog that takes inspirational quotes and adapts them into comics, Gavin Aung Than launched the blog in 2012, since then it has been named “one of the best 100 websites” in 2013 by PCMag and has been published in two book collections.