New Yorker magazine cartoonist Hilary Campbell dances into the pages of the Sonoma Valley Sun
Known by most of the world as New Yorker Cartoonist Hilary Campbell, she is known to most of us as Sonoma Valley local, Hilary Campbell. Hilary visits frequently and considers Sonoma her second home. Because of this, and her incredible talent, it is with great excitement that we entered into an agreement with her to print her comics in the Sonoma Sun! Watch for a new comic every issue. I interviewed Hilary, so that we could all get to know her better.
Hilary lived in Sonoma until 2009, when she graduated from Sonoma Valley High. The day after she graduated, she moved to SoCal to attend UC Santa Barbara and study film. She tried to live in LA, working in film, and running the Slam Dance film festival for a few years, before realizing that she didn’t want to be on that side of things. She didn’t want to be a manager. Like the rest of Los Angeles, and most everyone who has driven there, she hated LA traffic. To make things more uncomfortable, almost everyone she met was a writer. Just as quickly as she’d arrived, in 2015 Hilary fled to New York.
It was in New York that she realized she wanted to be a cartoonist. She was working odd jobs and began submitting cartoons to the New Yorker weekly. It took a year for them to accept her first piece, but she’s been part of the artist community there ever since. Hilary emphasizes that selling art to the New Yorker is, in and of itself, incredible, but it helps her in every aspect of her life. Through her community as a New Yorker cartoonist, she met her agent and was able to write her first book, “Murder Book, a Graphic Memoir of True Crime Obsession.”
Sonoma to LA to New York to become a cartoonist may seem like an unusual path, but when you learn where it started, it begins to make a lot of sense.
The walls of Hilary’s childhood home, here in Sonoma, are adorned with comics. “My father is Dr. Doug Campbell, and takes care of all of Sonoma,” she laughs. “My mom’s father was golf buddies with Charles Schulz.” She taught herself to draw copying Snoopy, and thinks she still has Schulz influences in her work today. The walls used to be covered in the work of Charles Schulz, but now there is a good balance between her own work and that of the famous Snoopy creator.
Recently, Hilary found a to-do list she had written when she was six years old. The number one thing on the list was, “BE A CARTOONIST.” The second item on her list was, “BE A ROCKETTE.” Other important six-year-old list items included meeting Clint Black, and, of course, the Spice Girls.
Hilary comes from a family of medical professionals and dancers. Her entire family loves dance. As a small child, Hilary danced with Fabulous Feet run by Therese Hernandez in the Springs, and then joined Broadway Bound Kids. “My sister was so good at River Dancing!” She remembers, “I started the dance team at Sonoma High. I had to beg for it and go through tons of paperwork but I’m so happy the dance team is still there today.” If you follow her on TikTok, her free and joyful dance videos will enchant you.
Hilary currently makes a living as a cartoonist, most of her work is on Substack now, where people can subscribe to receive her weekly email. The past couple of years, she has been wanting to get back into dancing. “It helps combat the stillness of having to sit and draw all day.”
It isn’t just the one list Hilary uses to manifest her dream life. “There is a variety show at a place called the Slipper Room in New York. One day I got a text asking if I wanted to dance in their Tuesday night burlesque show.” Never having danced Burlesque before, she naturally agreed, and became part of a variety show that allowed her to, “share the stage with comedians, magicians and the like.”
After that, she enrolled in the New York School of Burlesque. Hillary loved the experience and her teacher. “I took a life-changing course with Jo Weldon, author of ‘The Burlesque.’” And it is safe to conclude that there is definitely more dance in Hilary’s future. For now, she’s happy to be moving again. “I love drawing dancing, I love drawing movement that way, I think they inform each other. I drew a comic in 2019 that said something like, ‘Maybe one day I’ll be dancing at the Slipper Room on a Tuesday.’ After it happened, I realized that it actually came true.”
Hilary has a way of putting pen to paper that brings her dreams to life, so if I were Clint Black, or any one of the Spice girls, I’d be so excited right now. We sure are honored that she danced her way into the pages of the Sonoma Valley Sun and we look forward to reporting on whatever wonderful thing she does next.
Story by Alyssa Conder
3 thoughts on “New Yorker magazine cartoonist Hilary Campbell dances into the pages of the Sonoma Valley Sun”
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It’s Charles SCHULZ, Not Schultz.
Thanks, it’s been corrected.
To dear Hilary C: I can’t recall if you ever did a cartoon for the Padre Parade. If not that would be a missed opportunity to add to my book of errors. I have enjoyed your New Yorker cartoons, and look forward to checking you out on Substack and the Sun. Best to you. 👍🏻🤗Mrs C