Nimona

Nimona is a fantasy graphic novel by ND Stevenson, an American cartoonist. The story follows Nimona, a shapeshifter who joins the villain Ballister Blackheart in his plans to destroy the over-controlling Institute. Blackheart tries to operate under his code of ethics, while Nimona has no problem with killing. The setting mixes magic and technology. Stevenson began work on Nimona while studying at Maryland Institute College of Art, revisiting a character he had created while at high school. Stevenson published Nimona as a webcomic from 2012 through 2014, initially through Tumblr, developing the story and the art style as time progressed. The finished work ultimately doubled as his senior thesis. After an agent reached out to Stevenson, HarperCollins printed Nimona as a book in 2015. It has been translated into at least 16 other languages and adapted into an audiobook. The comic won an Eisner Award, a Cybils Award, and a Cartoonist Studio Prize. Reviews and academic analyses have highlighted themes of queerness and fluidity of identity, and how they oppose and subvert traditional controlling institutions and exclusionary systems. An animated feature film adaptation was first announced in 2015 by 20th Century Fox Animation. After Disney bought Fox, it cancelled the film, but it was revived by Annapurna Pictures and is scheduled to be released on Netflix in 2023.