Hi there! My name is Becca Lee. I’m a writer and illustrator with a couple of advanced degrees and a heart of gold. I live and work in Utah Valley (it’s actually a very cool place to live!) and I’ve shared my comics online as the Haunted Librarian since 2019.

I’m a fully self-taught comic artist, though I’ve been making comics since I was eight years old. I used to fantasize about being a famous comic creator, and a lot of my fantasies involved parties being thrown in my honor, with expensive cakes in the shape of my head served to all my guests.

That has yet to materialize, but I still consider myself on the path to success (and hopefully cake).

Though it was always my dream to make funnies, comic artist wasn’t a serious career path for most of my life, so when I got to college, I decided to become a Serious Literary Writer instead. I earned an MA in English literature and an MFA in Creative Writing back-to-back. I got some recognition for my writing—I won lots of university awards and even a scholarship—but I always felt like something was missing from my work.

In the 2010s I graduated and had some babies. I still wrote regularly, but I found it difficult to do deep creative work during those intense early years of parenthood.

In 2020 I had a career crisis.

Besides the whole pandemic of it all, my best friend in the world (a beautiful, creative person named Annie) died of cancer in December that year. It was gutting, and after she died, I realized how much time I’d spent going after things I didn’t care about. I realized that being a Serious Literary Writer actually sounded kind of awful.

That’s when I started making comics again in earnest.

My educational background is in English literary history and creative writing, though I have a broad familiarity with art history as well. Most of my comics fit into that category. I love all things eclectic and terrifying, but deep down I’m a softie who just loves ghosts and books and secrets. 

At first, I shared all my work on the Haunted Librarian instagram, but these days you’ll mostly find me on Substack. Since moving my comics there, the Haunted Librarian has been a Substack Featured Publication two years in a row.

In addition to writing and drawing for Substack, I’m also hard at work on some creative projects that I hope to show off soon. I also work as the in-house illustrator for a childhood education company called Uplift Kids. You can find some of my illustration work here in my portfolio, but you can also see most my work on their website.

When I’m not writing and drawing, I teach English, comics, and illustration full time at a local liberal arts charter school. I teach both high school and middle school students and it’s the best job I’ve ever had.

Thanks for being here! I’m delighted that you found yourself on my corner of the internet. You make my whole world possible.

See you out there, boys and ghouls.

🖤 Becca Lee, Haunted Librarian 🖤