Ladies Making Comics

Black History Month ProFile “Friday”*

Traci Todd is the Senior Editor of VizKids, the children’s imprint of Viz Media manga publishing.

Todd graduated from Northwestern University in 1995 with a degree in communications. She went to work as a content writer for Jellyvision, the software company behind the award-winning “You Don’t Know Jack” and the licensed “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” CD-ROM games, to which Todd contributed. She worked for both Oprah.com and Harpo Productions, Inc. writing materials based on the content and themes of the Oprah Winfrey Show, including an eLearning initiative.

Much of her work has been in an educational vein aimed at a wide range of ages, including researching and scripting an online Cognitive Psychology course and producing multi-curricular interactive LeapFrog books for children aged 4-7. She also developed and co-taught a course on “The Art and Innovation of the Children’s Book” for California College of the Arts during the Spring 2008 semester.

She has worked as a children’s book editor for McGraw-Hill, Heinemann Publishing, and Chronicle Books before going to work for Viz Media in 2008. At Viz, she spearheaded efforts to expand beyond translated Japanese material, including manga based on the Nickelodeon Voltron Force show and the Mr. Men and Little Miss series. They also licensed the original Italian Winx Club comics in conjunction with the cartoon’s broadcast on Nickelodeon.

(*yes, this is a day late because being a grown up sucks and I couldn’t brain after work yesterday)