Stephen R. Bissette, Vermont’s new Cartoonist Laureate, draws from Waterbury-Duxbury roots
May 26, 2026 | By Sarah Andrews | CorrespondentTitled 'Tending the Nest,' this joint illustration by Stephen Bissette and Tillie Walden, depicts the passing of the laurels from Walden (left), accompanied by a small child and an assortment of drawings on her desk, to Bissette, depicted as a tyrannosaurus rex emerging from a dark jungle, with a clutch of eggs at his feet. Courtesy of the Center for Cartoon Studies
What do eerie swamp monsters, evil aliens, and larger-than-life dinosaurs have in common? They all come from the mind of Stephen R. Bissette, Vermont’s new Cartoonist Laureate.
The honor was bestowed upon Bissette in April in a ceremony at the Vermont State House, where a formal resolution, co-sponsored by Reps. John Bartholomew, D-Hartland, and Elizabeth Burrows, D-West Windsor, was read.
Passing the torch to Bissette was Tillie Walden of Norwich.
Incoming Vermont Cartoonist Laureate Stephen R. Bissette and outgoing Cartoonist Laureate Tillie Walden share a moment at the Vermont State House in April. Courtesy photo
Vermont is the only state in the country to appoint a cartoonist laureate. Past honorees, in addition to Walden, were James Kochalka, Alison Bechdel, Rick Veitch and the late Ed Koren.
The selection process is done by Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction and the Vermont Arts Council as “recognition of comics as a distinctive and powerful artistic medium, spanning graphic novels, journalism, children’s literature, and other forms of storytelling,” according to the official resolution.
Career milestones
Bissette rose to national fame with the creation of the DC Comics “Swamp Thing,” drawn and written with Alan Moore. Beyond “Swamp Thing,” Bissette has created vast swaths of comics, ranging from prehistoric to intergalactic. Characters such as N-Man, Tyrant, and Hypernaut all emerged from Bissette's hand throughout the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. His creative work includes an adaptation of Steven Spielberg’s “1941” into a graphic novel and collaborations on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles projects.
After decades of drawing, Bissette retired from the industry at the turn of the century. He was a founding faculty member at The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, where he taught for 15 years, mentoring the next generation of artists.
The center’s co-founder James Sturm, noted that Bissette was a key figure in the creators’ rights movement of the 1980s and a signatory of the 1988 Creator’s Bill of Rights, which articulated artists’ ownership and control over their work. His advocacy for fair treatment and creative independence has had a lasting impact on how comics are made and valued today. “As a cartoonist, scholar, and teacher, Steve Bissette’s influence on comics is profound,” Sturm said. “This honor is richly deserved and reflects a lifetime of extraordinary work.”
For Bissette, that work continues as he emerges from retirement to serve as the state’s sixth Cartoonist Laureate.
Growing up in Duxbury and Waterbury
The site of Bisette’s Market, now Hong Kong Chinese Rastaurant on Vermont Route 100. Courtesy photo
Although he makes his home today in Windsor, Bissette, 71, grew up locally, living in Duxbury until he was 12. He said his family moved to Kneeland Flats in Waterbury and then to Colbyville, where they ran Bissette’s Market, today the home to Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant on Vermont Route 100.
Bissette said his childhood was far from the goopy swamps and gory underworlds of his comics. As a kid, he spent his time hunting, fishing, and hiking with his best friend. As he got older, Bissette became obsessed with monster movies.
He recalled how he would tune in to the few TV channels available to watch movies and shows like Dr. Who and Monty Python, becoming enamored with art on screen. “I remember those years – even with just an antenna on the roof – Duxbury was [in] this great pocket,” Bissette said. “I had a remarkable crash course in movies and the heyday of 1960s network TV.”
Bissette especially credits WDEV radio’s longtime Saturday morning radio show, “Music To Go To The Dump By,” with opening his eyes to the creative world. The program, hosted by former radio-station owner Ken Squier, was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the state’s open burn dumps in the 60s and 70s. Bissette said he would tune in every weekend to the hour-long show, full of wacky songs and banter.
As a kid growing up in Duxbury, young Stephen Bissette was a fan of the Red Sox and the Flintstones. Duxbury Elementary School is in the distance. Courtesy photo
“Like, wow! We had a local radio station, and they were creative,” Bissette said. “It was amazing that that was in Duxbury, you know, between Patterson's Trailer Park and the elementary school.”
Watching TV, listening to the radio, and rafting down the Winooski River, Bissette said he learned about the world. And all of that, he said, fed his imagination and comics.
Bissette is a 1973 graduate of Harwood Union High School. The school inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2025.
When Bissette left Vermont to attend The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in New Jersey, cartooning was a different game. “Comics was like an alien to most people. My dad didn't get it at all. I might as well have said ‘I’m gonna live on Neptune and breathe methane,’” he recalls.
Bissette eventually spent decades drawing and creating his own particular breed of horrifying, gruesome and magnificent comics, and was one of the few artists able to make a living as a cartoonist. He branched out in his career, doing magazine illustrations and eventually working as an award-winning editor and publisher, educator and public speaker. He’s collected multiple Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards, the Inkpot Award, and the Eisner Award for his work.
In the 2000s, Bissette retired and moved back to Vermont, settling in Wilmington. It was then that Bissette realized that the stigma around comics was starting to lift.
Parents of students at the local elementary school started asking Bissette to teach their kids how to draw comics. “If their kids drew, they were encouraging it,” he said.
The principal of the elementary school in Marlboro once asked Bissette to help a student draw. The student had a difficult home life, but showed a love of comics and monsters that blossomed with Bissette's guidance. “The fact that a small-town educator would go that distance for one student spoke volumes to me,” Bissette said.
A few years later, Bissette joined the faculty as the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction launched. “I was there from the day we opened our doors,” Bissette said. The center opened in 2005 and, for its two decades, has become a pioneer institution for the industry, offering a two-year master of Fine Arts degree for cartoonists.
Teaching the next generation of cartoonists has been very rewarding for Bissette. In fact, the students are the reason he agreed to serve as Vermont Cartoonist Laureate.
It was his colleague Sturm who offered him the role; Bissette initially declined. In a stroke of fate, that very night, an alumnus from the Center for Cartoon Studies called to thank him for the immense impact Bissette had on his education. The next morning, Bissette received more motivation in the mail – a copy of another graduate’s brand-new graphic novel.
“I went, ‘Okay, I guess I've got a job to do,’” Bissette said.
Current Vermont Cartoonist Laureate Stephen R. Bissette, original Vermont Cartoonist Laureate James Kochalka, and most recent prior Cartoonist Laureate Tillie Walden at the Vermont State House in April. Courtesy photo
Vermont Arts Council Executive Director Susan Evans McClure, Vermont Cartoonist Laureate Stephen R. Bissette, and Center for Cartoon Studies Co-Founder James Sturm, at the Vermont State House in April. Courtesy photo
On to document cartoon history
Now, as Cartoonist Laureate, Bissette said he hopes to shed light on many of the state’s forgotten cartoonists. “No one has ever done a history of Vermont cartoonists, ever. I want that to be the outcome of my three years,” he said.
To Bissette, cartoons are everywhere. “Comics is a lot of things. To even use ‘is’ is a little deceitful there. Comics are everywhere,” he said. “Americans tend not to recognize how all-pervasive comics are.”
Fifteen years ago, Bissette said he saw Idoline Duke’s exhibition of Vermont cartoonists at a gallery in Stowe. Duke had old family quilts displayed along with comic books. “She had everything from folk art to published cartoonists,” Bissette recalled. “My net is cast that wide as well.”
Illustration by Stephen R. Bissette
In his term, Bissette hopes to illuminate cartoonists like George Merkel, the artist behind “This is Vermont,” a series of panels commissioned by the Vermont Historical Society that tells stories of Vermont history. Cartoonists like Skip Morrow, who designed the Holstein spots of the MOO-ver buses in Southern Vermont, have made their mark on the state, too, he pointed out.
Another notable comic Bissette will illuminate is Jeff Danziger. For many years, Danziger drew a comic strip for the Rutland Herald and the Times Argus called “Out in the Sticks.”
“I read that strip, and it was one of the things that made me think I could do this for a living,” Bissette said. The newspapers continue to publish Danziger’s cartoons today.
For Bissette, Vermont has a rich and important comic history. The state, he says, is the only one with a Cartoonsit Laureate for a reason.
“There is something in the soil, I guess. Vermont has always been one of those outposts – we've just got these pockets of creative people,” Bissette said.