Pirate Penguin vs Ninja Chicken Volume 1: Troublems With Frenemies

“Ray Friesen is a remarkable cartoonist. He makes the silly funny and the funny sublime. The world seems lighter after reading a Ray Friesen book.” — Jimmy Gownley, author of Amelia Rules!

“Ray Friesen is a veritable fount of silliness… Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken is filled with nonsense, from the copyright page to the comics to the endpages, and it’s guaranteed to make your geeklets giggle.” — Jonathan Liu, Wired GeekDad

“The humor comes at a furious pace, with sometimes four of five jokes crammed into a single panel. Lots to look at here.” — Jesse Karp, Booklist

“A comic book writer/artist of considerable talent and originality.” — Midwest Book Review

“The jokey asides and playfully sophisticated take on language are reminiscent of Walt Kelly’s Pogo… [a] manic blend of mayhem and adventure.” — Ian Chipman, Booklist

Ray Friesen is currently 22 years old, but if you read this in the future he might not be anymore. (if you’re reading this in the past, Time Travel High Five!) Ray draws lots of silly things, most of which have penguins in them.

Ray has been drawing cartoons for pretty much his whole life, but has been a professional artist since the age of four (That was the first time he got paid for his art – a wind energy company used a bunch of his cutesy animals and windmills drawings for their ‘clean energy for everyone’ campaign.)

Ray self published his first comic book at the age of 12, titled The Continuing Adventures of Raymond Q. Wonderful the titular character of which bore a very similar resemblance to the author. When confronted with claims that he has an enormous ego, Ray will be the first to point out that he is writing this autobiography in the 3rd person. “I’m just great!” he has been known to quip, when feeling especially boisterous.

Ray was nominated for the 2003 Ignatz award for Promising New Talent (“the youngest person ever!” Ray claims, though has done no actual research to prove this.)

Ray has spent the past however many years trying to take over the world via stealth doodling. He does school visits, so if you are a teacher and would like Ray to chat with your kids, please get in contact, we’ll see how feasible that would be! It helps if you live nearby where Ray lives, which is in Californialand.

Read more of what Ray has to say, and his weekly webcomic of the moment at his webular site,

Ray’s first graphic novel for Top Shelf debuts in 2011.

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