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Becky Cloonan is one of the top artists in modern comics - but for the past four years she quietly stepped back from drawing professionally, as she began writing more. As it turns out, it wasn't a choice she necessarily made but one that was thrust on her after realizing she was burnt out. It wasn't until a surprise phone call for a dream project that she found herself brought back, and tonight that project won an Eisner award for 'Best Short Story.'

Cloonan took to the stage to accept the award for her short story 'The Kelpie,' published in Dark Horse Comics' Four Gathered on Christmas Eve.She revealed why she stepped away from drawing comics, and how this project brought her back.

"It's crazy because it's one of the first short stories I've drawn in a very long time. I kind of took a break from drawing because I was very burnt out," Cloonan shares. "And one day Eric Powell sends me a very strangely formal email inviting me to be an anthology with him, Mike Mignola, and James Harren. And I was like, 'Well, yeah!' I mean, I can't say no."

Cloonan says she "really owes a lot" to Powell for inviting her to a project that got her out of her slump. 

"Thank you to Richard Starkings who lettered it beautifully, and Dave Stewart. It's not just me on that page," says Cloonan. "And Eric Powell, who got me out of a big slump and now I'm drawing again. It feels really good."

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