We recently connected with Neil Kleid and have shared our conversation below.

Neil, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

So, I have two outlets for creative work. The first, product design; yes. I have maintained a successful and thriving career as a user experience designer and product designer, after a pivotal shift from being a print designer toward UX/UI work thanks to opportunities to expand my skills at a financial publisher in 2007, and then an unforeseen layoff in 2017. But I came back stronger and more assured, having spent the time exploring and learning what it meant to be a design thinker versus a constant producer…and sure, at first I was navigating a series of freelance assignments and contracts, but eventually settled into a succession of stable, rewarding, educational roles at a variety of well-known companies.

My second outlet—or my nights and weekends job, my moonlight superhero job as I call it—is authoring (or co-authoring) comic books and graphic novels. I can’t say that journey has been as easy as my design journey. I tell folks that I’ve walked the hard, long road—self publishing print and digital stories, then submitting to anthologies and finally pitching original and licensed work to various publishers. I’ve managed to pen stories for both well-known characters—Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, the X-Men—but mostly, I’ve managed to create stories of my own, many of which are original pieces of Jewish fiction which highlight Judaic themes, I can’t say the road has been easy; some stories and pitches are more well-received than others. And as we’re talking comics, well, the passion needs to often outweigh financial necessity. But has it been rewarding? Emotionally, creatively…sure. Will I keep going? You bet your life.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve been drawing and creating in one form or another since I was a kid—comics, stories, designing t-shirts, posters and postcards. All my life, as a comic book fan, I always thought that I would end up drawing comic books. But then my Dad walked me through the financial realities of being an adult—house, car, utilities, kids—and I decided that while I would still create comic books, I needed a day job. But which application of my art to pursue; which application of my artistic skills might best fulfill both my creative and financial needs?

Enter ‘Toy Story.’

“Toy Story” inspired me to want to tell stories through animation…but as the field was still coming into its own in the early Nineties, I was unclear as to which courses I might take. I saw “graphic design” in my school’s catalogue, and thought it sounded the closest to “computer graphics” I signed up for Typography, Intro to Photoshop, Graphic Design 101…and fell in love with type, systems, with thresholds and the way ideas could be communicated with—and people could be persuaded by— words and images. I learned design helps communicate to people who need things…and the best way to find out how to provide them with that was to ask and listen. I’ve transferred those skills from a 2D space into a vast interactive canvas over the years, putting them to work for well-known brands in a variety of industries. And while I’ve always been able to balance them with the needs of a business…I’ve tried my best to put the user’s needs first.

I never did learn to animate movies, but as an experience designer I learned the value of telling a good story…and the value of listening to others’ stories, too.

And I’ve applied that storytelling muscle to the fiction that I tell, having played all roles in the process of creating comic books and graphic novels—writer, artist, lettering, editor, design and publisher—and I have also learned to translate those skills to prose fiction, as well.

I’ve authored acclaimed graphic novels—’Ninety Candles’ (for which I won the prestigious Xeric Grant in 2003), ‘Brownsville’, and ‘The Big Kahn’, the latter two which were the first entries in my sequential/narrative exploration of Judaism—my third, ‘Nice Jewish Boys’, was co-authored with John Broglia and Ellie Wright, and released from Comixology Originals in 2024. With the late Alex Nino, I adapted Jack London’s novel ‘The Call of The Wild’ into comics for Penguin Books; did the opposite for the seminal Marvel Comics’ storyline ‘Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt’ for Penguin and Titan Books; co-authored (with Brian Michael Bendis) ‘Powers: The Secret History of Deena Pilgrim’ for Thomas Dunne Books/MacMillan, an original prose novel based on the award-winning comic book series; and penned both ‘The Phoenix Chase’, an original X-Men novel, and “Kid Omega Faces Ths Music”, an original X-Men short story for Aconyte Books / Marvel, the latter for which I was nominated for a 2022 Scribe Award.

I co-authored ‘Savor’, a young adult culinary adventure graphic novel for Dark Horse Comics, and ‘The Panic’, a New York subway thriller with Andrea Mutti, was released from Dark Horse in partnership with Comixology Originals. In 2023, I was named the Jewish Writer of the Year by the Center for Jewish History in New York, as part of their inaugural, annual JewCE Awards. By day, I work as a digital product designer and I’ve solved usability challengers for clients such as the Topps Company, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Clarks Shoes, and Girls Scouts of the USA.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I’d say that in terms of design, I want to always create experiences that center users. The user’s need is my solution’s north star, and though the end result may conflict with business requirements, I strive to bring both together in harmony via elegant solutions. More often than not, I always consider: “Can my tech-challenged father navigate this without a problem?” The easiest way to find out, of course, is to put a prototype in his hand. But that mindset has never steered me wrong. Now, while remaining user-centric is always my key goal from an outcome perspective, I will say for process I like to embrace everything and try half of it; I’m never finished growing as a designer, considering new ways to provide elegant solutions for a range of evolving answers. There’s always something to learn—but there’s no race to learn it all at once. Listen. Learn. Return.

From a comics and storytelling perspective, ‘legacy’ has oft been a theme in much of my work—fathers and sons, teachers and students—but a stronger mission has been advocating for more original Jewish fiction and strong representation of Jewish characters and stories in all sorts of media. As a Jew and father, it would be fantastic if those stories were available not only to myself but to my children, and I can already see a wellspring of Jewish fiction bubbling up by may authors in multiple genres in all corners of the film, television, prose and comic book industries.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

“Write what you know.” Delivered to me by fellow authors.

I mean, can you imagine it? Should I only be penning fictional works from the point of view of a fifty-year-old white, Jewish dude from Detroit and New Jersey?

No. Expand your horizons. Learn everything. Challenge yourself. Try new formats, new genres, new demographics, new mediums. Do your research. Get test readers, and ensure all of the stories you are writing that may not be your own are at least reviewed and consulted upon by those whose stories they are.

Sure, writing what you know can help shine a light on your story to those whom it is unfamiliar…it can bring your story—your experiences—to a whole new audience in an intimate and authentic way…but empower yourself as a storyteller to tread new ground; to take an adventure or two, and do so in a way that also feels intimate, authentic and emotional.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.neilkleidbooks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neilkleid
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilkleidn
• Other: BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/neilkleid.bsky.social
  Design: https://neilkleid.webflow.io/

Image Credits

Star Wars is © & TM Lucasfilm, Ltd.
Topps and it’s marks © 2025 TOPPS. All rights reserved.
Spider-Man and the X-Men © & TM Marvel Characters, Inc., a subsidiary of Disney. All rights reserved.
© 2025 NFL Enterprises LLC. NFL and the NFL shield design are registered trademarks of the National Football League. The team names, logos and uniform designs are registered trademarks of the teams indicated. All other NFL-related trademarks are trademarks of the National Football League.
‘Kings and Canvas’ art by Jake Allen and Frank Reynoso
‘Nice Jewish Boys’ art by John Broglia and Ellie Wright
‘Brownsville’ art by Jake Allen