Babs Tarr

American freelance comic book artist (born 1987)

Babs Tarr
Tarr at the 2022 WonderCon
Born	Barbara Tarr (1987-11-12) November 12, 1987 (age 36)
Nationality	American
Pseudonym(s)	Babs Tarr
Notable works	Batgirl Motor Crush

Barbara Tarr (also known as Babs Tarr) is an American freelance comic book artist who has worked for DC Comics and Image Comics. She is best known for her work on Batgirl and for her Japanese-style illustrations.

Early life

Babs Tarr grew up in Charleston, South Carolina.^[1] She went to Bishop England High School, after which she studied Printmaking at Osaka University of Arts and Illustration at Maryland Institute College of Art, where she received her BFA in Illustration.^[2]

Career

In 2014, Tarr's Japanese-influenced fan art caught the eye of DC Comics, and they hired her to draw a new Batgirl series.^[3] She later became the first long-term female artist to work on a Bat-Comic.^[4] Since then, she has been worked on titles published by DC's Young Animal imprint, Marvel Comics, and Image Comics.^[5] Early issues of Batgirl were sketched out by Cameron Stewart, and then passed over to Tarr to color, add details to, and enhance.^[6] Since then, Tarr has illustrated and drawn covers for other DC Comics series, such as Black Canary and Gotham Academy.^[7] She has also worked for Hasbro, Disney, Boom! Comics, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, and Brand X. Her manga-inspired style has become more popular after Batgirl's popularity in the comic book industry, and it has found its way into other comics that Tarr has worked on.

Tarr's Sailor Moon Motorcycle Girls illustration inspired Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher to write two villains for Batgirl #36 based on Tarr's illustration.^[8]^{[better source needed]}

In 2016, Tarr stopped working on Batgirl and moved on to work on Image Comics' Motor Crush series where she worked as an artist and writer.^[9]

In 2019, Tarr began co-hosting the weekly Internet show Pub Draw on the Critical Role Twitch and YouTube channels. Each week, Tarr would teach co-host Marisha Ray and occasionally a guest how to draw characters from Critical Role, on which Ray is a star.^[10]

Bibliography

Artist

Batgirl Vol. 4 #35–50 (2014)
DC Sneak Peek: Batgirl (2015)
Motor Crush #1–5, 7–11
Batgirl: A Celebration of 50 Years (2017)
Batgirl: An Adult Coloring Book (2017)

Variant Cover

Batgirl Vol 4 #52 (2016)
Black Canary #2
Gotham Academy #6 (2015)
Justice League Vol. 2 #39 (2015)
Bombshells United #1
Doom Patrol Vol. 6 #1
Southern Bastards #16 (2017)
Stranger Things #1 (2018)
Loki #2 (2019)

Cover

Batgirl Vol. 4 #44, 45, 47–52
Convergence Superboy #1–2 (2015)
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Pink (2017)
Motor Crush #2–11
Southern Bastards #19 (2017)

Penciller

Young Gotham Sampler

Writer

Motor Crush #4–11

References

^ BABS to the BONE. Twitter. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
^ Tarr, Barbara. "Babs Tarr Info". BabsBabsbabs.
^ Haire, Chris (April 22, 2015). "Mt. Pleasant's Babs Tarr joins the Bat Family and helps give Batgirl a much-needed Veronica Mars makeover". Charleston City Paper.
^ Neumann, Caryn (2015). "The Fan and the Female Superhero in Comic Books". Journal of Fandom Studies. 3 (3): 291–302. doi:10.1386/jfs.3.3.291_1.
^ Tarr, Barbara. "Babs Tarr Info". babsbabsbabs.
^ Kanayama, Kelly (9 December 2014). "Zooming in on Badass Ladies: Interview with Babs Tarr". Women Write about Comics. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
^ "Babs Tarr". 14 July 2014.
^ Ochoa, Randy Z. (2015). "Babs of Burnside -- An Interview with Batgirl Artist Babs Tarr". We the Nerdy.
^ Pitts, Lan (31 March 2016). "Babs Tarr Says Goodbye to Batgirl and Hints at What's Next on IMAGE COMICS". Newsarama. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017.
^ "Pub Draw". 2019.