We recently chatted with Erica about her career, and she graciously took the time to share with us her current top five comics, focusing on her favorite cartoonists. “I like the idea of picking cartoonists,” explained Erica, “because there's the implication that there's a level of storytelling within just the drawing of the characters. It's more comprehensive than ‘artists.’ It involves the writing as well. So I'm gonna pick a bunch of books where I love the cartooning…”

La Jeunesse de Mickey

One that I really like is this French Disney book… La Jeunesse de Mickey by Tebo. I think it's “The Youth of Mickey.” The cartooning in it is so beautiful. Yeah, it is. There's really good motion in the whole thing. It's just really cool. I've gone out to Europe a couple of times for conventions, and, both times, my now husband and I have brought empty suitcases inside our main suitcases to fill with comics. So we have a lot of comics that he can read better than I can. I can sit there with a dictionary and look up every third word. [Laughs.] So that’s one I really enjoy.

Will Eisner

I really like Will Eisner. Obviously, right? The guy was amazing at fluid motion and moving characters. He just really understood how to move your eye across the page, which is a thing that we don't think about enough. Because you have to set up a series of images to make someone look at a bunch of pictures as if they're reading text. He knew how to do that before we had developed any kind of real language about comics.

San-Antonio chez les Gones

Michaël Sanlaville. The stuff that's gotten translated of his is called The Last Man. Skybound publishes it in English. Again, it’s just really fluid, really dynamic. I think his San-Antonio chez les Gones is especially gorgeous. It really opened me up with its very loose coloring style. It reminds me of those ‘50s Looney Tunes cartoons where the backgrounds were almost pop art, very interpretive. Like, “Here's a line drawing of a tree and a square of green over it.” I really enjoy this loose kind of coloring. It's more expressive. I don't I don't worry as much about staying within the lines if it looks good.

Fantasy Sports

Sam Bosma – Fantasy Sports. I feel like my explanation for all of these is going to be the same – just great design, very expressive. [Laughs.]

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

I'm gonna make my last one Kate Beaton. Because she's someone who can just use a very minimal amount of line and you know exactly what's going on. She tells very soulful stories, even her silly little ones, you get a full range of emotion from very simple linework. It's very impressive.

For exclusive Skybound coverage and rewards, join Skybound Insiders now -- free!