Emilee Denich, who also works as EA Denich and under the online name ghostgreen, is an American cartoonist and illustrator from St Louis, Missouri. She began drawing as a child and was posting anime-influenced artwork online by her early teens. She studied animation at the Kansas City Art Institute, graduating in 2011 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in animation, and subsequently developed a career in comics and illustration.

In early 2013 Denich moved to Van Nuys, California, where she pursued work in animation and comics. Although she moved away from a conventional animation career, her training has remained important to her approach to drawing. The principles of animation – movement, physical acting, clear lines of action and visual storytelling – are evident in her energetic character work. After several years in Los Angeles, she returned to St Louis in April 2021.

Denich identifies as a lesbian, and queer experience and relationships are recurring elements of her personal and professional work. She is married, but keeps her wife’s name and occupation completely private. Her drawings frequently explore sapphic relationships, including her popular series of muscular ‘orc ladies’, which combines fantasy conventions with affectionate, humorous depictions of women and lesbian relationships.

Her full-length graphic novel debut, Yes, Roya, written by C. Spike Trotman and published by Iron Circus Comics in 2016, is her best-known erotic work – a three-way romance set in California in 1963, in which Denich’s expressive artwork combines strong characterisation with the movement and physicality characteristic of her animation training.

Denich’s other comics work demonstrates a considerably broader range. She illustrated The Long Con, a science-fiction comedy written by Dylan Meconis and Ben Coleman and published by Oni Press in 2018–19, handling both large-scale scenes and physical comedy. She has also contributed to Oh Joy Sex Toy, The Oath: An Anthology of New (Queer) Heroes, and licensed comics including cover art for Rick and Morty: Lil’ Poopy Superstar. Alongside commissioned work, she continues to produce independent illustrations, comics and web work, including collaborating with Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin on Heart Acres.

Emilee Denich’s Tumblr (as ghostgreen) can be found here.

Similar artists

Heather Benjamin – born the same year, exploring intimacy and sexuality through American zine culture.
Colleen Coover – American cartoonist and actual collaborator, bringing similar warmth and humour to lesbian romance.
Félix d’Eon – Mexican-American illustrator using humour and nostalgia to normalise queer desire.
Tracey Emin – British confessional artist treating erotic experience as emotional truth.
Katie Gilmartin – printmaker documenting lesbian and trans history with activist warmth.
Fyodor Pavlov – Russian-American queer artist working New York’s cabaret scene in a vintage erotic idiom.
Ambera Wellmann – Canadian painter of dissolving, entangled bodies exploring desire from a woman’s perspective.