Brandon Dayton

Brandon Dayton (born 1977) is an American comic book creator, artist, and podcast host. After studying film at Brigham Young University, he worked as a video game concept artist for Electronic Arts and Avalanche Software. He then self-published his first comic, Green Monk, in 2009. After the comic was named one of the Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens by the in 2011, Dayton was able to publish an expanded version—Green Monk: Blood of the Martyrs—with Image Comics in 2018. He has hosted the podcast "How to Be an Artist" since 2020.
Early life
Dayton was born in 1977 in Los Angeles, California. He grew up attending the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He became interested in art in junior high school, particularly through Disney animation and Image Comics. He read Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Marvel comic books. Dayton wanted to study animation, but BYU did not have an animation program at the time, so he studied film instead. Dayton was also a contributor to the art instruction book Making Faces (2008), which focused on drawing the expressions of cartoon characters.
Around the same time he started working as an artist in the video game industry, He created the mini-comic while working full time for EA Salt Lake, completing a panel a day in the evenings. namely, that of a warrior with a blade of grass as his weapon. After being exposed to films in college, He had attempted a few other projects before starting work on the mini-comic,
Dayton wrote a 22-page comic for Jim Henson's Storyteller: Giants in 2017, a project that took him a few months. On August 29, 2017, he drew on the wall of the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art as part of a collaborative effort for the Salt Lake Comic Con.
On September 26, 2018, Image Comics published an expanded version of Green Monk, entitled Green Monk: Blood of the Martyrs, as a graphic novel. Dayton worked to avoid Green Monk becoming a comic with a good-versus-evil storyline with a defined villain. He was inspired by Princess Mononoke in this regard. Dayton also sought to "sustain a sense of ambiguity about what is 'real' and what isn't" during the main character's dream sequences. Green Monk: Blood of the Martyrs explores themes of violence and heroism.
In 2020, Dayton began producing his podcast, "How to Be an Artist."<ref name":6" /> His goal for the show is to explore the different facets of art and how they relate each other. He has also expressed his wish to create a space for artists apart from the world through his podcast.<ref name":0" /> Dayton oscillates between creating his art digitally and by hand: he begins with hand-drawn thumbnails, then formats his layouts on a computer, then fills them in with pencil and ink, then uses a computer to colorize them.<ref name":4" /> He has expressed a desire to create more comic books in the future.<ref name":0" />
Personal life
Dayton lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with his wife, Annie, and three children, Lucy, Grey, and Evangeline.<ref name=":6" /> On his YouTube channel, he has addressed topics such as mental health and the importance of art. He sees art and spirituality as being connected<ref name":7" /> and practices meditation to assist in maintaining his mental health.<ref name":0" /> Dayton has said: "My goal is to empty as many stories out of my brain as I can before I die."<ref name=":2" />
Awards and nominations
* 2011 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens - Green Monk<ref name=":5" />
* 2018 AML Award finalist - Green Monk: Blood of the Martyrs<ref name=":8" />

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