About the Author

“Two world-changing upheavals six years apart, inextricably entwined, both launched with the loftiest ideals of liberty and equality, yet each arriving at astonishingly different outcomes. The interconnected stories of the American and French Revolutions are well worth knowing. My challenge as an author and illustrator is to take these heavy, complicated subject matters and present them in an approachable and compelling new way that prizes conciseness and clarity while being in turns entertaining, moving, and thought-provoking. That's what The Brick Chronicle is all about: making history fun."

Elbe Spurling

Elbe Spurling is an artist and author best known for The Brick Bible, her wildly ambitious one-woman project to illustrate the entire Bible in lego building blocks, from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to the army of locust beasts and the seven-headed dragon in the Book of Revelation. Her work has been widely praised for its meticulous attention to detail combined with a keen sense of humor and poignancy that adds vivid life to her dramatic storytelling.

The results of more than a decade’s worth of efforts honing her craft, ingeniously constructing and expertly photographing thousands of vignettes, have been shared with the world on the popular Brick Bible website and in two best-selling book series for children and adults, published by Sky Horse Publishing of New York City.

With her illustrated Old and New Testament books released as a double hardcover box set in 2013, Spurling next chose to bring her unique illustrative and storytelling talents to bear on some of the most fascinating and pivotal moments in more recent history with the launch of the first book in The Brick Chronicle series, Assassination! Attempts on the Lives of Twelve US Presidents. This was followed up with a prequel of sorts, Revolution!, which Skyhorse released in 2014 under the cumbersomely long subtitle: The Brick Chronicle of the American Revolution and the Inspiring Fight for Liberty and Equality that Shook the World.

Having established her career under her birth name Brendan Powell Smith, in March of 2015, Spurling completed the process of having her name changed, her gender legally recognized as female, and on publicly came out to her fans as a transgender woman. In late 2016 Spurling released her debut LP as ɘlbe, gɘtting thɘre (listen on spotify), a concept album about gender transition that has been called “a psychedelic indie pop masterpiece”.

Born in the suburbs of Boston, Spurling earned a degree in Philosophy & Religion at Boston University before moving to the Bay Area in California where she now lives with her family Seneca, Lila, and John, and their three cats Gimlet, Moonshine, and the Countess Julep Di Borgia.

For more information about elbe and her other creative projects, see her official website at elbespurling.com.