Field Guide Women’s Comics
Women Comics in the NW!
Transmedia Field Guide Option I: Field Guide to an Art World – Sophie Navarro
I am interested in focusing on women cartoonists and/or graphic novelists in the Pacific Northwest. The “Comic art world” has opened up new ways for women to market their cartooning and now they are becoming more recognized as a form of aesthetic art. I recently went to a Comic Symposium on Friday, October 25th and listened to Hilary Chute speak on comics. Here is some of her thoughts on comics.
“I am particularly interested in the relationships between word and image, fiction and nonfiction that we see in contemporary comics, a field with roots in the 1970s that is also connected to deeper histories of drawn reportage and visual witnessing.
My book Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics, which examines the graphic narrative work of five authors, including Alison Bechdel and Marjane Satrapi, argues that the medium of comics has opened up new spaces for nonfiction narrative—particularly for expressing certain kinds of stories typically relegated to the realm of the private. I am also the author of Outside the Box: Interviews with Contemporary Cartoonists, which examines the aesthetics and the practices of twelve literary cartoonists. “ – Hilary Chute – http://english.uchicago.edu/faculty/chute
Her talk inspired me deeply and made me realize that I am also very interested in that the medium is opening up for that nonfiction narrative. My work is about my life, the nutty and the quirky experiences I have had. My hope is to continue my comics and nurture their stories. I just need to find the right mentor and an excellent editor!
The attitude has changed toward the “Graphic Novel”. My goal is to research my favorite women cartoonists and reach out to them as an opportunity for networking. I am interested in how they started, what roadblocks they might have ran into and how they continued to work on their craft to get to a place where they are published and honored in their communities.
I see creating comics and publishing as an art form in itself. The reason behind that is from my own experience in creating comic panels, I have learned to improve my drawing skills, focus on my day job and balance parenthood. It can be very challenging to maintain all these aspirations. However, I am seeing more women cartoonists doing this and doing this very well. It takes hard work, dedication and the will to see your work in print. It is a valuable and exciting journey. My hope by interviewing these talented women cartoonists is to gain perspective, a more disciplined and realistic look into this art world. I also believe that reaching out to other artists creates your community and it is a way to find mentors that see your vision.
I am a local artist and have been working on my own series of cartoons. It has taken some time for me to develop my characters and my stories. I also have a series of acrylic paintings that I show in cafes or art galleries throughout the year. I had a small opportunity to show the “Register Guard” my collection of comic strips. Bob Keefer, a great reporter had shown an interest when I was showing my work at the 24 Hour Comics at the Diva during a reception in October 2011. This experience taught me to work very hard and put out 12 panels of comic strips that could potentially run in the Guard. I submitted them in March 2012 and I waited for a response. It took some time. However, they were not interested and I didn’t get any feedback. I had heard that the Features Department liked my style and appreciated my designs. However, it came down to budget and perhaps other issues. The biggest lesson that I learned is to never stop drawing. I lost my momentum since it was disheartening after working so hard for those particular panels. My hope is that this field guide will in essence re-awaken my inner “Artist” and re-work my panels. I know I have plenty of material that is just waiting to pop up again. The artists I will contact are Jan Eliot, Ariel Schrag, Erica Moen and Ellen Forney.
Erica Moen
http://www.erikamoen.com/art/
Erika Moen is a freelance cartoonist with a self-made degree from Pitzer College in Illustrated Storytelling. You can hire her for comics, illustration, storyboarding, character design, and all-purpose-arting. You can also contact her about appearing at your event or for a speaking engagement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erika_Moen
Ellen Forney
Ellen Forney (born March 8, 1968) is a cartoonist and teacher based in Seattle, Washington, whose work has been published by Fantagraphics Books and The Stranger (an alternative newspaper), among other publications.[1][2][3] She teaches at the Cornish College of the Arts.
In 2007, Forney’s I Love Led Zeppelin was nominated for a prestigious Eisner Award as Best Reality-Based Comic.[4] She illustrated Sherman Alexie‘s novel for young adults entitled The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which won the National Book Award in 2007.[5][6][7]
Forney’s book Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir[8] was published by Penguin Books (imprint Gotham Books) in November 2012.[9][10] Fantagraphics distributed her previous autobiography, I Was Seven in ’75,[11] in 2001. Amongst other work in Forney’s career, her collection called Lust was published in 2008.[12]
Forney received her B.A. from Wesleyan University, where she majored in psychology.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Forney
Jan Eliot
http://www.stonesoupcartoons.com/
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jan Eliot (born 1950 in San Jose, California) is an American cartoonist. She writes and illustrates the comic strip “Stone Soup.” She created a previous strip known as “Patience and Sarah,” which enjoyed a run of five years in 10 publications.
Her next comic strip was called “Sister City.” This weekly strip appeared in the Eugene, Oregon, The Register-Guard for five years before the name was changed to “Stone Soup” in 1995, when it became nationally syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate. “Stone Soup” runs in about 200 newspapers in 6 countries. Beginning her career when she was a working mom with two young daughters, Eliot draws subject matter from her own life and the lives of those around her.
Before becoming a full-time cartoonist, Jan worked as a waitress, car salesperson, bookmobile driver, advertising copywriter, graphic designer, and greeting card writer. She chose the name Eliot after her divorce, in honor of George Eliot.[1] She lives in Eugene.[2]
Ariel Schrag – I have already made contact with Ariel. I have been emailing her for the last few years and have been trying to get her to lecture at the UO. It will happen someday! :)
Ariel Schrag
Ariel Schrag (born December 29, 1979) is an American cartoonist and television writer who achieved critical recognition at an unusually early age for her autobiographical comics.
While attending Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California, Schrag self-published her first comic series, Awkward, depicting events from her freshman year, originally selling copies to friends and family.[1] Slave Labor Graphics subsequently reprinted Awkward as a graphic novel, followed by three more books based on her next three years of school: Definition, Potential, and Likewise. The books were republished by Touchstone/Simon & Schuster in 2008 and 2009. The books tell stories of family life, going to concerts, experimenting with drugs, high school crushes, and coming out as bisexual and later as lesbian.[2]
Schrag was nominated for the 1998 Kimberly Yale Award for Best New Talent (administered by the Friends of Lulu).[citation needed]
Killer Films is producing a movie adaptation of Potential; Schrag has written the screenplay.[1]
Schrag graduated from high school in 1998. She graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in English in 2003,[1] and has continued to work as a cartoonist.
The documentary Confession: A Film About Ariel Schrag was released in 2004. It explores the then-23-year-old Schrag’s world in which she “negotiates fame, obsesses about disease, and discusses the way she sees as a dyke comic book artist.”[3]
Schrag was a writer for the third and fourth seasons of the Showtime series The L Word‘”.[2][4]
Schrag was listed in The Advocate‘s list of “Forty under Forty” out media professionals in its June–July 2009 issue.[5]
Schrag was a writer for the HBO series How To Make It In America.