Winner of the 2020 Comics Studies Society Edited Book Prize Contributions by Kylie Cardell, Aaron Cometbus, Margaret Galvan, Sarah Hildebrand, Frederik Byrn Køhlert, Tahneer Oksman, Seamus O’Malley, Annie Mok, Dan Nadel, Natalie Pendergast, Sarah Richardson, Jessica Stark, and James Yeh In a self-reflexive way, Julie Doucet’s and Gabrielle Bell’s comics, though often autobiographical, defy easy categorization. In this volume, editors Tahneer Oksman and Seamus O’Malley regard Doucet’s and Bell’s art as actively feminist, not only because they offer women’s perspectives, but because they do so by provocatively bringing up the complicated, multivalent frameworks of such engagements. While each artist has a unique perspective, style, and worldview, the essays in this book investigate their shared investments in formal innovation and experimentation, and in playing with questions of the autobiographical, the fantastic, and the spaces in between. Doucet is a Canadian underground cartoonist, known for her autobiographical works such as Dirty Plotte and My New York Diary. Meanwhile, Bell is a British American cartoonist best known for her intensely introspective semiautobiographical comics and graphic memoirs, such as the Lucky series and Cecil and Jordan in New York. By pairing Doucet alongside Bell, the book recognizes the significance of female networks, and the social and cultural connections, associations, and conditions that shape every work of art. In addition to original essays, this volume republishes interviews with the artists. By reading Doucet’s and Bell’s comics together in this volume housed in a series devoted to single-creator studies, the book shows how, despite the importance of finding “a place inside yourself” to create, this space seems always for better or worse a shared space culled from and subject to surrounding lives, experiences, and subjectivities.

Short stories, including the adapted-to-film original Cecil and Jordan in New York Gabrielle Bell splits her cartooning time between creating wry sketchbook autobiographical comics, such as those included in her 2006 graphic novel, Lucky, and working on more detailed fictional short stories. This collection represents her short comics work that has been published in various anthologies over the past five years, including Kramer's Ergot, Mome, and The D+Q Showcase Book Four. The surrealist title story, in which a young woman turns herself into a chair so as not to be too much of a bother to those around her, is being adapted into a short film, Interior Design, by director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep) as part of the forthcoming Tôkyô! trilogy set for fall 2008 release.

This book is the follow-up to Thierry Groensteen's groundbreaking The System of Comics, in which the leading French-language comics theorist set out to investigate how the medium functions, introducing the principle of iconic solidarity, and showing the systems that underlie the articulation between panels at three levels: page layout, linear sequence, and nonsequential links woven through the comic book as a whole. He now develops that analysis further, using examples from a very wide range of comics, including the work of American artists such as Chris Ware and Robert Crumb. He tests out his theoretical framework by bringing it up against cases that challenge it, such as abstract comics, digital comics and shojo manga, and offers insightful reflections on these innovations. In addition, he includes lengthy chapters on three areas not covered in the first book. First, he explores the role of the narrator, both verbal and visual, and the particular issues that arise out of narration in autobiographical comics. Second, Groensteen tackles the question of rhythm in comics, and the skill demonstrated by virtuoso artists in intertwining different rhythms over and above the basic beat provided by the discontinuity of the panels. And third he resets the relationship of comics to contemporary art, conditioned by cultural history and aesthetic traditions but evolving recently as comics artists move onto avant-garde terrain.

Doucet's third book, her longest and most,ambitious story collected for the first time in,one beautifully produced softcover edition.,Details the events in Doucet's life during a six,month period in 1991 when she packed her bags and,moved to New York to join her new boyfriend in his,upper west side apartment. Doucet effectively,portrays how the initial excitement of their,new beginning gives way to his over bearing,jealousy. Includes 'My First Time' and 'Julie in,Junior College'.

The first full-length Graphic Memoir from one of the masters of the form.

The annual comics anthology of emerging cartoonists The Drawn & Quarterly Showcase new talent series stands out among other anthologies on the shelf, as it is the only anthology to have the focused editorial vision of D+Q editor in chief Chris Oliveros, who is responsible for launching the careers of Adrian Tomine, Seth, Julie Doucet, and more. Five years ago, Oliveros was impressed by the talent and vitality of the new generation of cartoonists. Each volume has been lauded for its short stories, and by selecting the best cartoonists every year, Oliveros gives each artist more than twenty-five pages in the Showcase to spotlight their storytelling and artistic abilities. The D+Q Showcase is where you find tomorrow's critically acclaimed graphic novelists today. Book Four features three North American cartoonists: Dan Zettwoch (The Ghost of Dragon Canoe) of St. Louis, Gabrielle Bell (When I'm Old) of Brooklyn, and Martin Cendreda (Dang!) of Los Angeles. Zettwoch and Bell have both contributed to the award-winning anthology Kramer's Ergot. Cendreda is a frequent contributor to Giant Robot magazine.