A Woman Drew This Comic
Graphic novels are no longer a boys' club.
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Graphic Memoir
Filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming was recovering from a car accident when she discovered a 16 mm reel showing her grandmother and great-grandfather performing in vaudeville theaters around the world. The discovery that her great-grandfather had been a world-famous magician sent Fleming on a quest for more information. She documented the journey on film, then wrote the graphic-novel-memoir that chronicles her search using cartoons as well as the posters, theater bills, and photographs that she found along the way.
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Insightful Pen
Exit Wounds, Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan’s first full-length graphic novel, tells the story of Koby, a young taxi driver, and Numi, the female soldier he refers to as “the giraffe,” as they try to identify the unnamed victim of a suicide bombing in Hadera. (Perhaps Koby’s estranged father, who was also Numi’s lover?) Modan draws the pair’s delicate interactions with an incredibly insightful pen, bringing readers into every awkward, intimate moment they share. The book won the Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Novel in 2008.
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Bloody Manga
Junko Mizuno takes cuteness in horrifying directions in her sometimes bloody manga. She’s widely known in Japan for her psychedelic fairy tale adaptations Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Princess Mermaid, which have also made her popular in the U.S. Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu is the first in an erotic series starring an adorable alien. In addition to her manga, Mizuno designs toys and clothing, and recently launched the Mizuno Garden line of condoms, lubes, and sex toys.
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Persian Design
Following the wild success of her autobiographical series Persepolis, Satrapi has put out two self-contained books about life in Iran. Embroideries portrays an inter-generational group of women trading stories on everything from sexual positions to the value of the veil. Chicken with Plums tells the story of Satrapi's great uncle Nasser Ali, who wastes away after his wife destroys his musical instrument. Satrapi draws on Persian design style, layering intricate patterns behind her characters.
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Webcomics
Many artists publish their work online. Jennifer Hayden adds a chapter to her Underwire comic every month on the webcomics collective ACT-I-VATE; Laura Park puts comics on her flickr page; Vanessa Davis features stories on her website; Lisa Hanawalt lives at Vice;and Emily Steinburg's darkly funny Graphic Therapy can be found at SMITH Magazine. Mimi Pond's Over Easy jumped from the web to the pages of this year’s The Best American Comics.
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ArtBabe
Jessica Abel was first known for ArtBabe, which she began self-publishing in the early ’90s, and which was later published by Fantagraphics. Her following grew with the release of La Perdida. At a 2006 Hammer Museum show, Abel lamented the absence of women, blaming “the patriarchy” and emphasizing that she’s not interested in being known as a “woman cartoonist” but simply as a great cartoonist. With her husband, cartoonist Matt Madden, she edited this year’s The Best American Comics.
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Family Saga
Carol Tyler began publishing in Weirdo and Twisted Sisters in the 80’s, using the name C. Tyler on her comics because, she says, “I don't want to be gender identified. I’m a woman, but that’s not all my work is about.” The first volume of a three-part memoir, You'll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man, was released to great acclaim this year. The book pays homage to the Greatest Generation, recounting Tyler’s father’s experiences in WWII while telling the story of the family saga that took place during the book’s creation.
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Visual Journal
French-Canadian artist Julie Doucet was the first artist published by Drawn + Quarterly, which Anne Elizabeth Moore says is “what a gender-blind publishing house really looks like.” Associate Publisher Peggy Burns confirms that “gender is just never an issue." Doucet’s first comic series Dirty Plotte began publication in 1990, and in 1991 she won a Harvey Award for Best New Talent. Doucet focuses on printmaking, collage, writing, and abstract animation these days, and calls 365 Days a “visual journal” not a comic.
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Creative Mix
The Masters of American Comics show “really missed an opportunity” by not showcasing Lynda Barry, creator of the strip Ernie Pook's Comeek, as a prominent newspaper cartoonist of the last half-century, says Peggy Burns. “It would have been interesting to show the evolution of experimental art of newspaper strips from Krazy Kat and Gasoline Alley in every leading daily to Ernie Pook in alternative weeklies.” Barry's What It Is, a mix of collage, cartoon, autobiography, and instruction manual, won the 2009 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work.
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Robot Love
Sara Varon moves easily between children’s books (Chicken & Cat and Chicken & Cat Clean Up, published by Scholastic) and graphic novels (Robot Dreams, published by First Second, which publishes graphic novels). Robot Dreams is the story of a robot and a dog whose friendship is challenged when, after assembling the robot, the dog abandons it on the beach. They attempt to work through their pain in a tale that is adorable, sweet, and heartbreaking. If a wordless story hasn’t made you cry lately, this one will.
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Reversible Book
Emily Holton isn’t quite sure what to call what she does. “I've tried on a lot of different terms for my work—‘zines,’ ‘art books,’ ‘comics’—but I keep coming back to my tried and true ‘drawings and writing.’” Her most recent book is reversible: an illustrated letter to the Canada Council declaring her intent to found her own town on one side; a dreamy love letter on the other. Holton’s books have been nominated for several awards, including the Pigskin Peters Doug Wright Award, honoring experimental cartoonists.
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Detective Story
Asked to name his three favorite graphic novels of 2008, British cartoonist Bryan Talbot said, “Funny, they’re all by women. […] In no particular order: Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan, Britten and Brülightly by Hannah Berry and Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds. They stood out because they’re all bloody brilliant.” Berry, 25, began Britten and Brülightly when still in college. The melancholic detective story told in somber and evocative painted panels takes inspiration from classic noir and the French comics artist Nicolas de Crécy, while creating a quiet beauty all its own.
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Lilli Carré brilliantly re-tells folk and fairy tales, lending Paul Bunyan or Hans Christian Anderson's The Fir Tree an oddly dark lyricism with her drawings. The Lagoon, her first full-length graphic novel, is an original legend, the story of a swamp creature that lures people out of their homes with its nighttime siren song. Carré’s drawings of swamp reeds, seaweed, and curling locks of hair are luscious and enchanting. She’s also a frequent contributor to the experimental comics journal Mome.
