As with James, who has really done an amazing job in first first six weeks at Panel Patter, I first encountered Maia's reviews on Tumblr, and while, also like James, they were very short, I was impressed with her keen eye for detail and ability to write succinctly in a limited number of words and tell the reader whether or not a comic might be worth their time.
I write 3-5 pellet reviews of 125 words for Newsarama on a regular basis, and I know how difficult it is to do a small review well. Maia does them extremely well, and I'm eager to read her contributions to Panel Patter, where she can take those skills and use them to expand her thoughts into a larger space.
Maia is very busy, as you'll see below from her bio, and will contribute (like Scott and Whit) as often as her time allows. She is especially eager to take on some all-ages comics for us, an area that I haven't had as much time to focus on as I'd like. You are going to love how well she is able to describe the craft involved in the comics she reviews, using her own abilities to express the work involved better than a layman like me can manage.
Here's Maia' bio:
Maia Kobabe attends California College of the Arts in San Francisco, where she is working towards her MFA in Comics, as part of the college's first class for that major, and is scheduled to graduate in 2015. Maia is interested in everything to do with books- reading them, writing them, illustrating them, hand binding, self-publishing, book reviews, shelving books, etc. She's worked in libraries for the past 10 years because "I love being around books." Maia has an undergraduate degree from Dominican University of California, a BFA in Studio Art and a minor in Art History. She is currently (slowly) writing and illustrating an all ages medieval fantasy adventure comic called "The Thief's Tale" which started as a webcomic and has turned into her Master's Thesis. You can read the first two chapters online here: http://thiefs-tale.smackjeeves.com/.Please give Maia a warm welcome to the Panel Patter team, and look for her first review later today!
