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Below are some of my favourite cartoonists. With a few exceptions, they are all women. I've included links so that you can sample their wares before purchasing. Buying comics blind can be an expensive venture. I'm really glad for this thread myself. It's a nice reminder of what's out there. That, and I never would have found Elizabeth Watasin's wonderful website.
Carol Lay draws little self-contained fables for alternative weekly newspapers. They're really good, and you can read a whole slew of them online at her site. She also contributed a wonderful romance comic satire to the unfortunately out of print Twisted Sisters that I remember fondly.
Is Flux around? Lynda Barry pulls all my strings. I'll admit that her later stuff doesn't really float my boat (which is the reason Flux and I might disagree on her work), but I've found almost all of her early books in used bookstores. They're really wonderful. Her stories centre on the lives of a group of lower-class kids during the 60s. Their childish concerns are intermingled with confusion with the serious things that happen around them. You never see the adults fighting or arguing, you just hear about it second hand through the children. Heartwrenching stuff.
The one artist on this list that I've been meaning to pick up forever, Debbie Drechsler. Her site is for her illustration work, and her subsite at Drawn and Quarterly isn't really happening. Shame. If anyone has tried her work, let me know, please.
How can Le Tigre possibly be wrong? Julie Doucet is great. I don't even know what to say.
"Tired of artificial X-angst? Disappointed by trendy Vertigo lesbians? Concerned that multi-culturalism in comics is being cancelled with half of the Milestone line? Pick up Stuck Rubber Baby. You won't regret it." From a review here for Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse.
Deva's recommendation, Donna Barr, of Desert Peach fame.
Not much at the Action Girl website. You can pick up almost all the back issues at Slave Labor Graphics. If you want to see what kind of work can be found within Action Girl, check out A-Girl Studio, the official website of Elizabeth Watasin. Whole issues of her mini-comics work can be found here. It still scares me how similar my and Haus' tastes in comics are.
For SFD. I completely forgot about Renee French. Surreal horror comics that completely freak me out. The only comic that almost made me throw up was by French. You can find samples here.
Even if most of these cartoonists are considered "alternative" in the comic mainstream, easily the most outside world mainstream press is focussed on their work. I've seen articles on Phoebe Gloeckner and her work in numerous publications, including the New York Times Review of Books. The majority of her semi-autobiographical work centres on Minnie, a young girl trying to make sense of a world she can't control, and the abuse she suffers by people she trusts. A short sample can be found in the gallery section.
Dignifying Science, a comic about women scientists as drawn by women cartoonists. Haven't read it myself, but many of the names listed are quite talented.
OK, I'm stretching things here, but Peanuts by Charles Schulz is not only the greatest comic of all time, but Peppermint Patty kicks ass. Not to mention Marcie, Lucy, and Sally. Oh, hell, add Violet and Patty in there too.
Considered the greatest work in comics (they're wrong, see above), George Herriman's Krazy Kat. George Herriman was believed to be of African descent, though at the time he didn't really promote that facet of his life, a trait he inherited from his parents. Krazy Kat is filled to the brim with dialects and ideas that come from many different cultures, and Krazy hirself is known to be whatever gender strikes hir mood. Easily one of the most vibrant and poetic of comics.
There's obviously many, many more. I would suggest checking out zines, zine fairs and the like. Most of the best, most personal comics I have ever read were stapled by hand. And also go to the library. Almost all comics work is filed together in one place. You'd be surprised. I have seen many of the works listed above in public libraries. |
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