Alexa Kitchen may very well be the world's youngest published cartoonist. She started drawing recognizable pictures at age two and just a few years later began drawing sequential art -- cartoons. (You can see some of her work on her website.) Since then, she has published four books, including her latest, "Drawing Comics is Easy (Except When It's Hard)", a how-to book for budding cartoonists. It may not be too surprising to learn that her father is a cartoonist as well. Her mother may have helped out too, having been a country music child prodigy.

It seems, also, that her folks, while certainly encouraging her talent, are not pushing too hard. Sure, they've put up a website and have her books for sale (though the older ones are out of stock), but it doesn't look like they've booked her on the talk show circuit or anything, the way some parents might.

Now about nine, Alexa is still going strong and is being recognized by some pretty well known folks in the animation world. Be sure to read the quote from Neil Gaiman on the quotes page. My kids are nowhere near as good -- Jared, at age four, is a smidge ahead of the curve -- he adds lines to his happy faces for legs and arms. At two, Sara is still just scribbling. Alexa is definitely something special -- congratulations to her and to her understandably proud parents!

via MetaFilter