Autobiographical comics
Encyclopedia
Autobiographical comics (often referred to in the comics field as simply autobio) are autobiography
in the form of comic books or comic strips. The form first became popular in the underground comics movement and has since become more widespread. It is currently most popular in Canadian, American and French comics; all artists listed below are from the US unless otherwise specified.
scene by storm during this period. The autobiographical genre had turned into English-speaking alternative comics subculture's "signature genre" in much the way that superhero stories dominated the American mainstream comic books, the stereotypical example recounting the awkward moment which followed when, the cartoonist sitting alone in a coffee shop when their ex-girlfriend walks in. However many artists pursued broader themes.
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
in the form of comic books or comic strips. The form first became popular in the underground comics movement and has since become more widespread. It is currently most popular in Canadian, American and French comics; all artists listed below are from the US unless otherwise specified.
1960s
- Shinji NagashimaShinji Nagashima, better known by the pen name , was a Japanese manga artist born in Tokyo, Japan. His pseudonym came about due to a publisher's error when printing his name, and he continued using the pseudonym after that.His oldest son is classical guitarist Shiki Nagashima....
created "Mangaka Zankoku Monogatari" (Cruel Tale of a Cartoonist) in 1961
1970s
- Justin Green is generally acknowledged to have pioneered the genre (in English-language comics, at least) in his "Binky Brown" stories, notably the 1972 comic book Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin MaryBinky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin MaryBinky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary is a 44-page autobiographical comic book from 1972 by American cartoonist Justin Green. It was the first long autobiographical work to appear in underground comics, and was extremely personal, detailing Green's childhood struggle with a disorder which in...
, an extremely personal work dealing with Green's CatholicCatholicismCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
and Jewish background and obsessive-compulsive disorderObsessive-compulsive disorderObsessive–compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions...
.
- Also in 1972, Japanese mangaMangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
artist Keiji NakazawaKeiji Nakazawais a Japanese manga artist and writer.He was born in Hiroshima and was in the city when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945. All of his family members who had not been evacuated died in the bombing except for his mother, and an infant sister who died several weeks after the bombing...
created the story "Ore wa Mita" ("I Saw It"), which told of his firsthand experience of the bombing of HiroshimaAtomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiDuring the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
. This was followed by a longer, fictionalized work, Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot GenBarefoot Genis a Japanese manga series by Keiji Nakazawa. Loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor, the series begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where the six-year-old boy Gen lives with his family...
), which was later adapted into three films.
- In 1976 Harvey PekarHarvey PekarHarvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.Pekar described American Splendor as "an...
began his long-running self-published series American SplendorAmerican SplendorAmerican Splendor is a series of autobiographical comic books written by the late Harvey Pekar and drawn by a variety of artists. The first issue was published in 1976 and the most recent in September 2008, with publication occurring at irregular intervals...
, which collected short stories written by Pekar, usually about his daily life as a file clerk, and illustrated by a variety of artists. The series led to Pekar meeting his wife Joyce BrabnerJoyce BrabnerJoyce Brabner is a writer of political comics and a sometime collaborator with her late husband Harvey Pekar. Brabner is also a liberal social activist, most recently championing Coventry Village in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the neighborhood in which she resides, with a series of imaginative...
, who later co-wrote their graphic novel Our Cancer Year about his brush with lymphomaLymphomaLymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system. Typically, lymphomas present as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. Treatment might involve chemotherapy and in some cases radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation, and can be curable depending on the histology, type, and stage...
.
- In the late 1970s Jim ValentinoJim ValentinoJim Valentino is an American writer, penciler, editor and publisher of comic books.-1970s - 1992:Valentino began his career in the late 1970s creating small press and mostly autobiographical comics. The early-mid 1980s saw normalman which first appeared as a back-up story in Aardvark-Vanaheim's...
began his career with autobiographical comics which sprung out from him having literally sold pages laid out on the sidewalk as he'd sit there leaned against a store front. The series was called "Valentino". Later most of these were repackaged into a trade paper back through Image ComicsImage ComicsImage Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
called "Vignettes". Also, through Image Comics Jim created a semi-autobiographical series called A Touch of Silver about a boy coming of age and comics in the 1960s, but he stopped work on the series as it became too personal. Valentino is revisitng his autobiographical roots with a new book called "Drawing from Life", due out in May 2007.
- Throughout the 1970s, autobiographical writing was prominent in the work of many female underground cartoonists, in anthologies such as Wimmen's ComixWimmen's ComixWimmen's Comix, later titled Wimmin's Comix, was an influential all-female underground comics anthology published from 1972 to 1992. Though it covered a wide range of genre and subject matter, Wimmen's Comix focused more than other anthologies of the time on feminist concerns, homosexuality, sex...
, ranging from comical anecdotes to feministFeminismFeminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
commentary based on the artists' lives.
1980s
- Art SpiegelmanArt SpiegelmanArt Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
combined biography and autobiography in his Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning MausMausMaus: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman, is a biography of the author's father, Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. It alternates between descriptions of Vladek's life in Poland before and during the Second World War and Vladek's later life in the Rego Park neighborhood of...
, about his father's HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
experiences, his own relationship with his father, and the process of interviewing him for the book. This work had a major effect on the reception of comics in general upon the world of mainstream prose literature, awakening many to the potential of comics as a medium for stories other than adventure fantasy.
- Eddie CampbellEddie CampbellEddie Campbell is a Scottish comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Australia. Probably best known as the illustrator and publisher of From Hell , Campbell is also the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus , a wry adventure...
's Alec stories (collected in The King Canute Crowd, Three Piece Suit, and other books) started with the Scottish/Australian artist as a young man drifting through life with his friends, and followed him through marriage, parenthood, and a successful artistic career.
- Campbell's English colleague Glenn DakinGlenn DakinGlenn Dakin is a British cartoonist and author of children's books. He was a contributor to a number of British comics magazines including Escape and Deadline and was part of the British small press comics scene in the 1980s...
created the Abraham Rat stories (collected in Abe: Wrong for All the Right Reasons), which began as fantasy and became more contemplative and autobiographical.
- Spain RodriguezSpain RodriguezManuel Rodriguez , better known as Spain or Spain Rodriguez, is an American underground cartoonist who created the character Trashman. His experiences on the road with the biker gang, the Road Vultures, provided inspiration for his work, as did his left-wing politics.-Biography:Born in Buffalo, New...
drew a number of stories, collected in My True Story, about being a motorcycle gang member in the 1950s.
- Underground legend Robert CrumbRobert CrumbRobert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
focused increasingly on autobiography in his 1980s stories in 'Weirdo'. Many other autobiographical shorts would appear in Weirdo by other artists, including his wife, Aline Kominsky-CrumbAline Kominsky-CrumbAline Kominsky-Crumb is an American underground comics artist best known as the wife of cartoonist R. Crumb....
, Phoebe GloecknerPhoebe GloecknerPhoebe Louise Adams Gloeckner is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, and novelist.-Background:Gloeckner was born in 1960 in Philadelphia, and spent most of her later childhood and young adult life in San Francisco, where her family moved in the early 1970s...
(more about whom, see below in 1990s section), and Dori SedaDori SedaDorthea Antonette "Dori" Seda was an artist best known for her underground comix work of the 1980s. Her comics combined exaggerated fantasy and ribald humor with documentation of her life in the Mission District of San Francisco, California.- Biography :Seda was originally a painter and ceramics...
.
- Jim WoodringJim WoodringJim Woodring is a Seattle-based cartoonist, comic book author, artist and toy designer. He also produces fine art works in a variety of other media, including painting and charcoal....
's unusual "autojournal" JimJim (comics)Jim is a comic book series by Jim Woodring. Begun in 1980 as a self-published zine, it was picked up by Fantagraphics Books in 1986 after Woodring was introduced to Gary Groth by Gil Kane. The publisher released four magazine-sized, black and white issues starting in September, 1987...
combined dream artDream artDream art is any form of art directly based on material from dreams, or which employs dream-like imagery.-History:References to dreams in art are as old as literature itself: the story of Gilgamesh, the Bible, and the Iliad all describe dreams of major characters and the meanings thereof...
with occasional episodes of realistic autobiography.
- David CollierDavid Collier (cartoonist)David Collier is a Canadian alternative cartoonist best known for his fact-based "comic strip essays."- Biography :As a child, Collier was introduced to the work of Robert Crumb, whose work has been a significant influence...
, a Canadian ex-soldier, published autobiographical and historical comics in Weirdo and later in his series Collier's.
- In the late 1980s, DC ComicsDC ComicsDC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
' WastelandWasteland (DC Comics)Wasteland was an American anthology-style horror comic book published by DC Comics in 1987-1989 and intended for adult readers. The series lasted 18 issues....
featured, unusually for a mainstream title, as well as more conventional forms of black comedyBlack comedyA black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
and horrorHorror fictionHorror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
, semi-autobiographical stories based on the life of co-writer Del CloseDel CloseDel Close was an actor, improviser, writer, and teacher. Considered one of the premier influences on modern improvisational theater, Close had a prolific career, appearing in a number of films and television shows...
. One of the stories also parodiedParodyA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
the autobiographical stories of Harvey Pekar, portraying a version of Pekar's famous appearance on the Late Night with David LettermanLate Night with David LettermanLate Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
, in which Pekar's vehement critque of General ElectricGeneral ElectricGeneral Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
had earned him a longtime ban from the program.
1990s
Autobiographical work took the alternative comicsAlternative comics
Alternative comics defines a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to "mainstream" superhero comics which in the past have dominated the US comic book industry...
scene by storm during this period. The autobiographical genre had turned into English-speaking alternative comics subculture's "signature genre" in much the way that superhero stories dominated the American mainstream comic books, the stereotypical example recounting the awkward moment which followed when, the cartoonist sitting alone in a coffee shop when their ex-girlfriend walks in. However many artists pursued broader themes.
- Maltese-American Joe SaccoJoe SaccoJoe Sacco is a Maltese-American comics artist and journalist. He achieved international fame through the 1996 American Book Award-winning Palestine, and his graphic novel on the Bosnian War, Safe Area Goražde.- Biography :...
appeared as a character in his journalistic comics, beginning with Yahoo (collected in Notes from a Defeatist) and Palestine.
- Howard CruseHoward CruseHoward Cruse is an American alternative cartoonist known for the exploration of gay themes in his comics.Cruse was raised in Springville, Alabama, the son of a preacher and a homemaker. His earliest published cartoons were in The Baptist Student when he was in high school. His work later appeared...
's graphic novel Stuck Rubber BabyStuck Rubber BabyStuck Rubber Baby is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Howard Cruse, first published in 1995. Set mostly in the 1960s in the Southern United States, in the midst of the Black Civil Rights movement, it deals with homosexuality and racism....
told a fictionalized version of Cruse's young adulthood as a gay man in the South during civil rightsCivil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
conflicts.
- In the anthology series Real Stuff, Dennis EichhornDennis EichhornDennis P. Eichhorn is an award-winning American writer best known for his adult-oriented autobiographical comic book series Real Stuff...
followed Pekar's example of writing true stories for others to illustrate, but unlike Pekar, emphasized unlikely tales of sex and violence. Many of the Real Stuff stories took place in Eichhorn's native state of IdahoIdahoIdaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
. In 1993, Eichhorn received an Eisner AwardEisner AwardThe Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
nomination for Best Writer and his Real Stuff series received nominations for both Best Continuing Series and Best Anthology. In 1994, Real Stuff again received a Eisner AwardEisner AwardThe Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
nomination for Best Anthology.
- One of the most popular self-published mini-comicMinicomicA minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term "small press comic" is equivalent with minicomic reserved for those publications measuring A6 or less...
s of the 1990s in America, Silly Daddy, depicted Joe Chiappetta's parenthood and divorce, sometimes realistically and sometimes in a parallel fantasy story.
- Julie DoucetJulie DoucetJulie Doucet is a Canadian former underground cartoonist and artist, best known for her autobiographical works such as Dirty Plotte and My New York Diary...
's series Dirty Plotte, from Canada, began as a mix of outlandish fantasy and dream comics, but moved toward autobiography in what was later collected as My New York Diary.
- A trio of Canadian friends, SethSeth (cartoonist)Seth is the pen name of Gregory Gallant , a Canadian comic book artist and writer. He is best known for comics such as Palookaville.Born in Clinton, Ontario, Seth attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto...
(Palookaville), Chester BrownChester BrownChester William David Brown , is an award-winning, best-selling Canadian alternative cartoonist and, since 2008, the Libertarian Party of Canada's candidate for the riding of Trinity-Spadina in Toronto, Canada....
(Yummy Fur, The Playboy, I Never Liked You), and Joe MattJoe MattJoe Matt is an American cartoonist. He started drawing comics in 1987 and is best known for his autobiographical work, Peepshow. In addition to his cartooning career, he is known for his large collection of vintage Gasoline Alley comic strips. Matt lived in Canada from 1988 to 2002...
(PeepshowPeepshow (comic book)Peepshow is the title of a 1992 comic book collection and an ongoing autobiographical comic book by American cartoonist Joe Matt, both published by Drawn and Quarterly...
), gained rapid renown in North America for their different approaches to autobiography. Brown and Matt were also notorious for depicting embarrassing personal moments such as masturbationMasturbationMasturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
and nose-pickingNose-pickingNose-picking is the act of extracting dried nasal mucus or foreign bodies from the nose with a finger. Despite being a very common habit, it is a mildly taboo activity in most cultures, and the observation of the activity in another person may provoke mixed feelings of disgust and amusement...
. Seth created some controversy by presenting realistic fictional stories as if they had actually happened, not as a ploy to fool writers but as a literary techniqueLiterary techniqueA literary technique is any element or the entirety of elements a writer intentionally uses in the structure of their work...
. However some readers did get fooled.
- Phoebe GloecknerPhoebe GloecknerPhoebe Louise Adams Gloeckner is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, and novelist.-Background:Gloeckner was born in 1960 in Philadelphia, and spent most of her later childhood and young adult life in San Francisco, where her family moved in the early 1970s...
created a series of semi-autobiographical stories drawing on her adolescent experiences with sex and drugs in San Francisco, collected in A Child's Life. She later revisited similar material in her 2004 illustrated novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl.
- Seven Miles a Second, written by painter David WojnarowiczDavid WojnarowiczDavid Wojnarowicz was a painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and activist who was prominent in the New York City art world of the 1980s.-Biography:...
and illustrated by James RombergerJames RombergerJames Romberger is an American fine artist and cartoonist known for his depictions of New York City's Lower East Side.Romberger's pastel drawings of the ravaged landscape of the Lower East Side and its citizens are in many public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art...
and Marguerite Van CookMarguerite Van CookMarguerite Van Cook is an artist, writer, musician/singer and filmmaker. She was born in England and now resides in New York in the Lower East Side/East Village. She attended Portsmouth College of Art and Design, Northumbria University Graphic and Fine Arts programs, BMCC, Columbia University for...
, was based on Wojnarowicz's life and his response to the AIDSAIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
epidemic.
- The graphic novel David Chelsea in Love described the eponymous author's romantic difficulties in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and PortlandPortland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
.
- Rick VeitchRick VeitchRichard "Rick" Veitch is an American comic book artist and writer who has worked in mainstream, underground, and alternative comics.-Early career:...
told the story of his twenties entirely through a dream diary in the Crypto Zoo volume of Rare Bit Fiends.
- Ariel SchragAriel SchragAriel Schrag is an American cartoonist and television writer who achieved critical recognition at an unusually early age for her autobiographical comics.-Biography:...
's tetralogy Awkward, Definition, Potential, and Likewise, about discovering her sexual identity in high school, was unusual in having been mostly completed while in high school.
- Jim ValentinoJim ValentinoJim Valentino is an American writer, penciler, editor and publisher of comic books.-1970s - 1992:Valentino began his career in the late 1970s creating small press and mostly autobiographical comics. The early-mid 1980s saw normalman which first appeared as a back-up story in Aardvark-Vanaheim's...
's A Touch of Silver portrayed his unhappy youth in the 1960s.
- English artist Raymond BriggsRaymond BriggsRaymond Redvers Briggs is an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist, and author who has achieved critical and popular success among adults and children...
, best known for his children's books, told the story of his parents' marriage in Ethel and Ernest.
- James KochalkaJames KochalkaJames Kochalka is an American comic book artist and writer, and rock musician. His comics are noted for their blending of the real and the surreal...
started to turn his daily life into a daily four-panel strip starting in 1998, collected in Sketchbook Diaries, and later in the webcomicWebcomicWebcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
, American Elf.
1990s in France
This period also saw a rapid expansion of the French small-press comics scene, including a new emphasis on autobiographical work:- Fabrice NeaudFabrice NeaudFabrice Neaud is a French comics artist. He got his baccalaureate in literature in 1986. He studied philosophy during two years. Then he entered an art school and studied there four years. In 1991 he quit the school...
's acclaimed Journal was the first lengthy autobiographical series in French comics.
- David B., another artist who had first published fantasy comics stories, produced the graphic novel L'ascension du haut mal (published in English as EpilepticEpileptic (graphic novel)Epileptic is the English title of L'Ascension du haut mal , an autobiographical graphic novel by David Beauchard .-Publication history:...
) applied B.'s distinctive non-realistic style to the story of his equally unusual upbringing, in which his family moved to a macrobiotic commune and sought many other cure's for B.'s brother's grand mal seizuresEpilepsyEpilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
.
- Lewis TrondheimLewis TrondheimLewis Trondheim , born 11 December 1964, is an extremely prolific French cartoonist and one of the founders of the independent publisher L'Association. Both his silent comic La Mouche and Kaput and Zösky have been made into animated cartoons...
portrayed himself and his friends, albeit with animal heads, in Approximative continuum comics, some of which was later published in English as The Nimrod.
- Much of Edmond Baudoin's later work is based on his personal and family history.
2000s
- Iranian exile Marjane SatrapiMarjane SatrapiMarjane Satrapi is an Iranian-born French contemporary graphic novelist, illustrator, animated film director, and children's book author...
created the multi-volume Persepolis, originally published as a newspaper serial in France, about her childhood during the Iranian RevolutionIranian RevolutionThe Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
.
- The Spiral Cage, by English artist Al Davison, is about Davison's experience of living with spina bifidaSpina bifidaSpina bifida is a developmental congenital disorder caused by the incomplete closing of the embryonic neural tube. Some vertebrae overlying the spinal cord are not fully formed and remain unfused and open. If the opening is large enough, this allows a portion of the spinal cord to protrude through...
.
- Jeffrey BrownJeffrey BrownJeffrey Brown is a comic book writer and artist born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.-Biography:After growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a 25-year-old Jeffrey Brown moved to Chicago in 2000 to pursue an MFA at the School of the Art Institute. By the time he finished his studies, he had abandoned...
's Clumsy and Unlikely told the story of two failed relationships using hundreds of single-page stories.
- Art SpiegelmanArt SpiegelmanArt Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
wrote In the Shadow of No TowersIn the Shadow of No TowersIn the Shadow of No Towers is a comic by Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic artist Art Spiegelman.-Overview:The comic evolved from Spiegelman's experiences during the September 11 terrorist attacks...
(2004), an oversize graphic memoir about his experiences during the 9/11 attacks.
- Josh NeufeldJosh NeufeldJosh Neufeld is an alternative cartoonist known for his nonfiction comics on subjects like Hurricane Katrina, international travel, and finance, as well as his collaborations with writers like Harvey Pekar and Brooke Gladstone...
published his Xeric Award-winning A Few Perfect Hours (2004), documenting his backpacking adventures through Southeast Asia, Central Europe, and Turkey.
- Joe KubertJoe KubertJoe Kubert is an American comic book artist who went on to found The Kubert School. He is best known for his work on the DC Comics characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman...
wrote Yossel April 14, 1943 (2005), a "fake autobiographical graphic novel" about what would have happened if his parents hadn't moved from Poland to the US and they would have been there during the Holocaust.
- Xeric Award-winner Steve Peters wrote and illustrated Chemistry (2005) about a failed relationship. He drew one panel a day for a year; the entire comic is 32 pages long with a total of 365 panels. Each panel's date is hidden somewhere inside it. Chemistry won the 2006 Howard Eugene Day Memorial Prize.
- Alison BechdelAlison BechdelAlison Bechdel is an American cartoonist. Originally best known for the long-running comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For, in 2006 she became a best-selling and critically acclaimed author with her graphic memoir Fun Home.-Early life:...
wrote and illustrated Fun HomeFun HomeFun Home is a 2006 graphic memoir by American writer Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, USA, focusing on her complex relationship with her father...
(2006), about her relationship with her father, and it was named by Time magazine as number one of its "10 Best Books of the Year."
- Martin Lemelman wrote Mendel's Daughter (2006), based on his mother's recorded confessions of her life during the Holocaust. He inserts a lot of family pictures as well.
- Miriam Katin wrote We Are on Our Own: A Memoir (2006), a graphic memoir about her survival, with her mother, of the Holocaust.
- Danny Gregory wrote Everyday Matters, after he taught himself to draw following a traumatic moment in his life: his wife was hit by a train and became paralyzed. He keeps an online diary at www.dannygregory.com.
- Aline Kominsky-CrumbAline Kominsky-CrumbAline Kominsky-Crumb is an American underground comics artist best known as the wife of cartoonist R. Crumb....
published Need More Love: A Graphic Memoir (2007), her life story, with inserted photographs.
- Carol LayCarol LayCarol Lay is the author of a weekly comic strip, Way Lay, which first appeared in 1992 and which runs in the LA Weekly and Salon. It is also printed in daily and weekly newspapers as far afield as Hong Kong and Norway. Lay has been drawing professionally for over 25 years.-Biography:Lay was born...
wrote and illustrated The Big Skinny (2008) about her experiences with weight loss.