Leeanne M. Krecic

Hi. I’m Leeanne M. Krecic, though most people know me as MONGIE, which is easier to spell, pronounce, and shout across a convention hall. (Kinda.)

I’m the creator of Let’s Play, an Eisner-nominated and Ringo Award-winning webcomic about video games, social anxiety, and slow-burn romance. It’s been read by over 7 million people, translated into multiple languages, and has somehow managed to live rent-free in the minds of anyone who thought, “I can fix him” about a pixelated man. It’s also being adapted into an anime by OLM, the same studio behind Pokémon and Komi Can’t Communicate. So yes, things have escalated. And if I had known things would go this well, I would have certainly picked a more SEO friendly title than “Let’s Play.”

In partnership with Rocketship Entertainment, Let’s Play was brought to print through a series of wildly overachieving Kickstarter campaigns, raising over $2 million and landing the series among the top 30 most-funded comic projects of all time. The print editions have been distributed globally, shipped to tens of thousands of readers, and have probably bent more mail carrier spines than anyone expected. Rocketship has helped transform Let’s Play from digital scroll to coffee table statement piece. Glossy, heavy, and occasionally signed in silver ink when I’m feeling fancy.

In addition to comics, I co-created EVERDATE, a dating sim based on Let’s Play, because clearly I wasn’t finished making fictional men emotionally available. I also write, illustrate, and accidentally manage a small creative empire that runs on caffeine, passive aggression, and Google Docs.

Before this, I worked as head of IT. I know how to build platforms, configure servers, and survive meetings that should have been emails. I have a degree in computer science — an expensive investment to be professionally qualified to tell people to just “turn it off and on again.”

Along the way, I’ve been:

• Nominated for an Eisner Award (2019)
• Twice nominated for Ringo Awards (2021, 2022)
• Voted Fan Favorite Hero in the 2023 Ringo Awards. But, let’s be honest, that award belongs to Sam

I currently live in Kansas City with my husband, two dogs, two cats, many fish, and a growing army of houseplants I swear I didn’t mean to collect. They followed me home!

If you’re looking for stories with emotional honesty, strong female leads, and uncomfortably attractive fictional men you wish were real, you’re in the right place.