Françoise Mouly
Encyclopedia
Françoise Mouly is a Paris
-born French
artist and designer best known for her work with RAW
, a showcase publication for cutting edge comic art, and as art editor of The New Yorker
, a position she has held since 1993. In April 2008, the respected critic Jeet Heer wrote on his blog, Sans Everything: "Is there anyone in the cartooning world who is more underrated than Françoise Mouly?" and went on to give an extensive list of Mouly's achievements.
and survived by doing a series of odd jobs: selling cigarettes in street kiosks, actress in a Richard Foreman
play, model-maker in a Japanese architectural agency, plumber, electrician, and assistant to a plastic surgeon (her father). In 1976, she met Art Spiegelman
(who would only later become the author of Maus
, in which she makes brief appearances) and discovered her passion: graphic arts and book production. From 1972–1979 Mouly was a freelance colorist
for Marvel Comics
, where she worked on such comics as Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Marvel Two-in-One, and Tomb of Dracula, as well as doing individual fill-ins on numerous other titles.
to Mark Beyer
, Spiegelman or Bruno Richard. Starting in 1977, Mouly published and edited the Streets of Soho and Tribeca Map and Guide, until she sold it in 1991.
, a large-format, luxuriously printed magazine of comics, graphics, and illustrated texts that she designed and co-edited with Spiegelman. Starting with the second RAW in December 1980, each issue of the magazine included a chapter of Maus
, which Spiegelman had just started. RAW gathered together the work of American artists who had few other venues to publish (Charles Burns
, Gary Panter
, Sue Coe
, Jerry Moriarty
, Mark Beyer
, Ben Katchor
, Chris Ware
, etc.), students of Spiegelman's at the School of Visual Arts
(Drew Friedman, Mark Newgarden
, Kaz, Jay Pulga), and European artists contacted by Mouly and Spiegelman on their trips to Europe (Javier Mariscal
, Joost Swarte
, Ever Meulen
, Jacques Tardi
, Jacques Loustal, Lorenzo Mattotti
, etc.) For the next eleven years, Mouly run the publishing house with a yearly Soho Map as the financial foundation for the business. She operated out of the Soho loft until 1987, when, pregnant with her first child, she moved the RAW offices to a ground-floor space. On top of the yearly issue of RAW, Mouly published a series of artists' books, labeled RAW One-Shots, with work by Moriarty, Beyer, Panter, Coe and others.
, a new editor who had just been brought in to revitalize The New Yorker, published a cover by Spiegelman of a Hasidic Jew kissing a black woman, an overt reference to the civil strife in the Crown Heights
neighborhood of Brooklyn. There was an outpouring of protests about the breach of composure for the stately Eustace Tilley. On the strength of what she had seen at the RAW offices and the buzz surrounding the cover, Brown brought Mouly to The New Yorker as the magazine's art editor.
Mouly brought many of the RAW artists to The New Yorker (Charles Burns
, R. Crumb, Chris Ware
, Lorenzo Mattotti
, Marisca], Joost Swarte
, Ever Meulen, David Mazzucchelli
, Richard McGuire, Jacques Loustal, Drew Friedman, Sue Coe
, Ben Katchor
and more) as well as developed and promoted new artists for the magazine (Barry Blitt, Ian Falconer
, Bruce McCall
, Harry Bliss
, Ana Juan, Peter deSeve, Carter Goodrich, Bob Staake
, Maira Kalman
, Anita Kunz
and more). She welcomed the newer generation of 'independent' cartoonists (Adrian Tomine
, Dan Clowes, Ivan Brunetti
, David Heatley
, Seth
and others) as well as renewed the magazine's commitment to two great New Yorker artists who had become somewhat disengaged, Saul Steinberg
and Jean-Jacques Sempé
. She also included a few select artists from the fine art world such as Komar and Melamid
, Wayne Thiebaud
, William Wegman
and Kara Walker
.
Mouly is responsible for all of The New Yorker
's most memorable recent covers: the September 11, 2001 black on black cover she created with Art Spiegelman, the "New Yorkistan" image by Maira Kalman
and Rick Meyerovitz, the "terrorist fist bump" cover by Barry Blitt in July 2008, the 'O" election cover by Bob Staake, the first New Yorker cover drawn on an iPhone
, by Jorge Colombo, and, for the 85th anniversary of The New Yorker
in February 2010, a 4-part cover by Chris Ware
, Adrian Tomine
, Dan Clowes and Ivan Brunetti
with a fictional meta-narrative about the creation of Eustace Tilley by Rea Irvin.
Responsible for over 800 covers over her past seventeen years at The New Yorker, Ms. Mouly has in addition lectured on and written extensively about New Yorker covers. In 2000, she published “Covering The New Yorker: Cutting-Edge Covers from a Literary Institution," to commemorate the magazine's 75th anniversary. In 2005, she curated an exhibit of New Yorker covers for the Norman Rockwell Museum
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
. In the fall of 2007, she co-curated with Dodie Kazenjian an exhibit of paintings and drawings on the theme of Hansel and Gretel
at Gallery Met in Lincoln Center. The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) chose two of Ms. Mouly’s covers as among the “top 40 most highly recognized, memorable, influential, compelling and iconic magazine covers of the past forty years,“ and for the first three years of the ASME award, Ms. Mouly’s work received the honor of being ASME’s “best cover of the year” or "best news cover."
, anthologies of comics for children, under a joint imprint with Joanna Cotler books. The first three volumes were large-size hardcover anthologies, gathering the work of 15 to 20 contributors in each book, such as Maurice Sendak, Jules Feiffer, William Joyce, Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, Gahan Wilson, Martin Hanford, Kaz, Barbara McClintock and more. The LITTLE LIT books have been New York Times bestseller. In 2006, Mouly put together for Penguin Big Fat Little Lit, a smaller paperback gathering of most of the contents of the previous books under a new cover by Spiegelman.
, a series of hardcover comics for children, with titles by Spiegelman, Geoffrey Hayes, Jay Lynch
, Dean Haspiel
and Eleanor Davis
. Toon Books promoted itself as "the first high-quality comics designed for children ages four and up." The Toon Books website offers free online learning tools its visitors.
. She has received numerous awards from the Society of Illustrators and other art organisations. In 2001, she was made a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. In 2011, she received France's highest award, and was named Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur by Alan Juppé, Minister of Foreign Affairs. She lives in downtown Manhattan with her husband Art Spiegelman, with whom she has two children, Nadja and Dashiell. Their older child, Nadja, is the author of Zig and Wikki in Something Ate My Homework, which was published by TOON Books in the Spring of 2010.
Volume 2
see TOON Books
for more information
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
-born French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
artist and designer best known for her work with RAW
RAW (magazine)
RAW was a comics anthology edited by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly and published by Mouly from 1980 to 1991. It was a flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement, serving as a more intellectual counterpoint to Robert Crumb's visceral Weirdo, which followed squarely in the...
, a showcase publication for cutting edge comic art, and as art editor of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, a position she has held since 1993. In April 2008, the respected critic Jeet Heer wrote on his blog, Sans Everything: "Is there anyone in the cartooning world who is more underrated than Françoise Mouly?" and went on to give an extensive list of Mouly's achievements.
Early career
Mouly came to New York for the first time in 1974 as a 19-year-old architectural student. She soon settled in a loft in SohoSoho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
and survived by doing a series of odd jobs: selling cigarettes in street kiosks, actress in a Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman is an American playwright and avant-garde theater pioneer. He is the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.-Life :...
play, model-maker in a Japanese architectural agency, plumber, electrician, and assistant to a plastic surgeon (her father). In 1976, she met Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman
Art 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...
(who would only later become the author of Maus
Maus
Maus: 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...
, in which she makes brief appearances) and discovered her passion: graphic arts and book production. From 1972–1979 Mouly was a freelance colorist
Colorist
In comics, a colorist is responsible for adding color to black-and-white line art. For most of the 20th century this was done using brushes and dyes which were then used as guides to produce the printing plates...
for Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, where she worked on such comics as Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Marvel Two-in-One, and Tomb of Dracula, as well as doing individual fill-ins on numerous other titles.
RAW Books
In 1977, Mouly brought a printing press in her fourth-floor walk-up and founded a small publishing house, RAW Books & Graphics. She printed and published "mailbooks," an innovative format of eight-page booklets with postcard backs, publishing work by artists ranging from Caran d'AcheCaran d'Ache
Caran d'Ache was the pseudonym of the 19th century French satirist and political cartoonist Emmanuel Poiré. "Caran d'Ache" comes from the Russian word karandash , meaning pencil...
to Mark Beyer
Mark Beyer
Mark Beyer is a comic artist known for his bleak storylines, often featuring death, disfigurement, depression, and humiliation, which contrast with his childlike, geometric drawing style. Most of his stories are about the adventures of a codependent yet resentful couple named Amy and Jordan.His...
, Spiegelman or Bruno Richard. Starting in 1977, Mouly published and edited the Streets of Soho and Tribeca Map and Guide, until she sold it in 1991.
RAW magazine
In July 1980, Mouly launched RAWRAW (magazine)
RAW was a comics anthology edited by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly and published by Mouly from 1980 to 1991. It was a flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement, serving as a more intellectual counterpoint to Robert Crumb's visceral Weirdo, which followed squarely in the...
, a large-format, luxuriously printed magazine of comics, graphics, and illustrated texts that she designed and co-edited with Spiegelman. Starting with the second RAW in December 1980, each issue of the magazine included a chapter of Maus
Maus
Maus: 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...
, which Spiegelman had just started. RAW gathered together the work of American artists who had few other venues to publish (Charles Burns
Charles Burns (cartoonist)
Charles Burns is an American cartoonist, illustrator and film director.-Life:Burns is renowned for his meticulous, high-contrast and creepy artwork and stories. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, painter Susan Moore, and their two daughters Ava and Rae-Rae.His father was an oceanographer for...
, Gary Panter
Gary Panter
Gary Panter is an illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of Arcade: The Comics Revue and the initiation of RAW, one of the second generation in American underground comix...
, Sue Coe
Sue Coe
Sue Coe is an English artist and illustrator working primarily in drawing and printmaking, often in the form of illustrated books and comics. She grew up close to a slaughterhouse and developed a passion to stop cruelty to animals. Coe studied at the Royal College of Art in London, lived in New...
, Jerry Moriarty
Jerry Moriarty
Jerry Moriarty is an American artist and teacher at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Moriarty entered the Pratt Institute in 1956 and earned a BFA in 1960. After graduating he worked as a freelance magazine illustrator to support his Abstract Expressionist painting...
, Mark Beyer
Mark Beyer
Mark Beyer is a comic artist known for his bleak storylines, often featuring death, disfigurement, depression, and humiliation, which contrast with his childlike, geometric drawing style. Most of his stories are about the adventures of a codependent yet resentful couple named Amy and Jordan.His...
, Ben Katchor
Ben Katchor
Ben Katchor is an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. He has contributed comics and drawings to The New Yorker and The New York Times...
, Chris Ware
Chris Ware
Franklin Christenson Ware , is an American comic book artist and cartoonist, widely known for his Acme Novelty Library series and the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he resides in the Chicago area, Illinois...
, etc.), students of Spiegelman's at the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
(Drew Friedman, Mark Newgarden
Mark Newgarden
Mark Newgarden is an American underground cartoonist. His work has appeared widely, and his influential shape-shifting weekly feature Newgarden, which appeared in alternative weekly newspapers like New York Press, created a cult following for the artist.Newgarden's work has appeared in a diverse...
, Kaz, Jay Pulga), and European artists contacted by Mouly and Spiegelman on their trips to Europe (Javier Mariscal
Javier Mariscal
Javier Mariscal is a Valencian Spanish artist and designer whose work has spanned a wide range of mediums, ranging from painting and sculpture to interior design and landscaping. He was born in February 1950 in the city of Valencia, Spain, into a family of eleven brothers and sisters...
, Joost Swarte
Joost Swarte
Joost Swarte is a Dutch comic artist and graphic designer. He is best known for his ligne claire or clear line style of drawing, and in fact coined the term....
, Ever Meulen
Ever Meulen
Ever Meulen is a Belgian illustrator and comic strip artist. His work has appeared in Humo, the magazine for which he drew "Balthazar de Groene Steenvreter" and "Piet Peuk"...
, Jacques Tardi
Jacques Tardi
Jacques Tardi is a French comics artist, born 30 August 1946 in Valence, Drôme. He is often credited solely as Tardi.-Biography:After graduating from the École nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris, he started writing comics in 1969, at the...
, Jacques Loustal, Lorenzo Mattotti
Lorenzo Mattotti
Lorenzo Mattotti is an Italian comics and graphical artist as well as an illustrator. His illustrations have been published in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue, The New Yorker, Le Monde and Vanity Fair...
, etc.) For the next eleven years, Mouly run the publishing house with a yearly Soho Map as the financial foundation for the business. She operated out of the Soho loft until 1987, when, pregnant with her first child, she moved the RAW offices to a ground-floor space. On top of the yearly issue of RAW, Mouly published a series of artists' books, labeled RAW One-Shots, with work by Moriarty, Beyer, Panter, Coe and others.
The New Yorker
In February 1993, Tina BrownTina Brown
Tina Brown, Lady Evans, CBE , is a journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host and author of The Diana Chronicles, a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales. Born a British citizen, she took United States citizenship in 2005 after emigrating in 1984 to edit Vanity Fair...
, a new editor who had just been brought in to revitalize The New Yorker, published a cover by Spiegelman of a Hasidic Jew kissing a black woman, an overt reference to the civil strife in the Crown Heights
Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The main thoroughfare through this neighborhood is Eastern Parkway, a tree-lined boulevard designed by Frederick Law Olmsted extending two miles east-west.Originally, the area was known as Crow Hill....
neighborhood of Brooklyn. There was an outpouring of protests about the breach of composure for the stately Eustace Tilley. On the strength of what she had seen at the RAW offices and the buzz surrounding the cover, Brown brought Mouly to The New Yorker as the magazine's art editor.
Mouly brought many of the RAW artists to The New Yorker (Charles Burns
Charles Burns (cartoonist)
Charles Burns is an American cartoonist, illustrator and film director.-Life:Burns is renowned for his meticulous, high-contrast and creepy artwork and stories. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, painter Susan Moore, and their two daughters Ava and Rae-Rae.His father was an oceanographer for...
, R. Crumb, Chris Ware
Chris Ware
Franklin Christenson Ware , is an American comic book artist and cartoonist, widely known for his Acme Novelty Library series and the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he resides in the Chicago area, Illinois...
, Lorenzo Mattotti
Lorenzo Mattotti
Lorenzo Mattotti is an Italian comics and graphical artist as well as an illustrator. His illustrations have been published in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue, The New Yorker, Le Monde and Vanity Fair...
, Marisca], Joost Swarte
Joost Swarte
Joost Swarte is a Dutch comic artist and graphic designer. He is best known for his ligne claire or clear line style of drawing, and in fact coined the term....
, Ever Meulen, David Mazzucchelli
David Mazzucchelli
David Mazzucchelli is an American comic book artist and writer. His latest work is the award-winning graphic novel, Asterios Polyp.-Career:...
, Richard McGuire, Jacques Loustal, Drew Friedman, Sue Coe
Sue Coe
Sue Coe is an English artist and illustrator working primarily in drawing and printmaking, often in the form of illustrated books and comics. She grew up close to a slaughterhouse and developed a passion to stop cruelty to animals. Coe studied at the Royal College of Art in London, lived in New...
, Ben Katchor
Ben Katchor
Ben Katchor is an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. He has contributed comics and drawings to The New Yorker and The New York Times...
and more) as well as developed and promoted new artists for the magazine (Barry Blitt, Ian Falconer
Ian Falconer
Ian Woodwark Falconer is an American illustrator, children's book author, and costume and set designer for the theater. He has created 30 covers for The New Yorker as well as other publications...
, Bruce McCall
Bruce McCall
Bruce McCall is a Canadian author and illustrator, best known for his frequent contributions to The New Yorker.Born and raised in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, he was fascinated by comic books and showed an early aptitude for drawing fantastical flying machines, blimps, bulbous-nosed muscle cars and...
, Harry Bliss
Harry Bliss
Harry Bliss is a United States cartoonist and illustrator.Bliss grew up in New York State among an artistic family. His sister Rachel Bliss and brother Charlie Bliss, and father Jack Bliss are all artists...
, Ana Juan, Peter deSeve, Carter Goodrich, Bob Staake
Bob Staake
Bob Staake is an American illustrator, cartoonist, children's book author and designer. He lives and works in Chatham, Massachusetts on the elbow of Cape Cod....
, Maira Kalman
Maira Kalman
Maira Kalman, born in 1949, is an American illustrator, author, artist, and designer. Born in Tel Aviv, Kalman came to New York City with her family at age 4. She attended the High School of Music and Art, now LaGuardia High School....
, Anita Kunz
Anita Kunz
Anita E. Kunz, OC is a Canadian-born artist and illustrator.Kunz has lived in London, New York and Toronto, contributing to magazines and working for design firms, book publishers and advertising agencies in Germany, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Canada, South Africa, Holland, Portugal, France and England...
and more). She welcomed the newer generation of 'independent' cartoonists (Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine , a popular contemporary cartoonist, is best known for his ongoing comic book series Optic Nerve and his periodical illustrations in The New Yorker.- Biography :...
, Dan Clowes, Ivan Brunetti
Ivan Brunetti
Ivan Brunetti is an American cartoonist and comics scholar based in Chicago, Illinois.Noted for combining blackly humorous taboo-laden subject matter with simplified and exaggerated cartoon drawing styles, Brunetti's best known comic work is collected in his largely autobiographical series Schizo,...
, David Heatley
David Heatley
David Heatley is an American cartoonist, illustrator, graphic designer and musician.- Education :Born in Teaneck, New Jersey, Heatley graduated from Teaneck High School in 1993. He graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2000.-Comics:Though he studied painting and filmmaking at Oberlin,...
, Seth
Seth
Seth , in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is the third listed son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, who are the only other of their children mentioned by name...
and others) as well as renewed the magazine's commitment to two great New Yorker artists who had become somewhat disengaged, Saul Steinberg
Saul Steinberg
Saul Steinberg was a Romanian-born American cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his work for The New Yorker.-Biography:...
and Jean-Jacques Sempé
Jean-Jacques Sempé
Jean-Jacques Sempé, usually known as Sempé , is a French cartoonist. Some of his cartoons are quite striking, but retain a sentimental and often a somewhat gentle edge to them, even if the topic is a difficult one to approach...
. She also included a few select artists from the fine art world such as Komar and Melamid
Komar and Melamid
Komar and Melamid is an artistic team made up of Russian-born American graphic artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid . In an artists’ statement they said that “Even if only one of us creates some of the projects and works, we usually sign them together...
, Wayne Thiebaud
Wayne Thiebaud
Wayne Thiebaud is an American painter whose most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, toys and lipsticks. He is associated with the Pop art movement because of his interest in objects of mass culture, although his works, executed during the fifties and sixties, slightly predate...
, William Wegman
William Wegman
William Wegman may refer to:* Bill Wegman, baseball player* William Wegman , photographer...
and Kara Walker
Kara Walker
Kara Walker is a contemporary African American artist who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity in her work. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes, such as The Means to an End--A Shadow Drama in Five Acts.-Biography:Walker was born in...
.
Mouly is responsible for all of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
's most memorable recent covers: the September 11, 2001 black on black cover she created with Art Spiegelman, the "New Yorkistan" image by Maira Kalman
Maira Kalman
Maira Kalman, born in 1949, is an American illustrator, author, artist, and designer. Born in Tel Aviv, Kalman came to New York City with her family at age 4. She attended the High School of Music and Art, now LaGuardia High School....
and Rick Meyerovitz, the "terrorist fist bump" cover by Barry Blitt in July 2008, the 'O" election cover by Bob Staake, the first New Yorker cover drawn on an iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, by Jorge Colombo, and, for the 85th anniversary of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
in February 2010, a 4-part cover by Chris Ware
Chris Ware
Franklin Christenson Ware , is an American comic book artist and cartoonist, widely known for his Acme Novelty Library series and the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he resides in the Chicago area, Illinois...
, Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine , a popular contemporary cartoonist, is best known for his ongoing comic book series Optic Nerve and his periodical illustrations in The New Yorker.- Biography :...
, Dan Clowes and Ivan Brunetti
Ivan Brunetti
Ivan Brunetti is an American cartoonist and comics scholar based in Chicago, Illinois.Noted for combining blackly humorous taboo-laden subject matter with simplified and exaggerated cartoon drawing styles, Brunetti's best known comic work is collected in his largely autobiographical series Schizo,...
with a fictional meta-narrative about the creation of Eustace Tilley by Rea Irvin.
Responsible for over 800 covers over her past seventeen years at The New Yorker, Ms. Mouly has in addition lectured on and written extensively about New Yorker covers. In 2000, she published “Covering The New Yorker: Cutting-Edge Covers from a Literary Institution," to commemorate the magazine's 75th anniversary. In 2005, she curated an exhibit of New Yorker covers for the Norman Rockwell Museum
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,947 at the 2010 census...
. In the fall of 2007, she co-curated with Dodie Kazenjian an exhibit of paintings and drawings on the theme of Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel
"Hansel and Gretel" is a well-known fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister threatened by a cannibalistic hag living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery. The two children...
at Gallery Met in Lincoln Center. The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) chose two of Ms. Mouly’s covers as among the “top 40 most highly recognized, memorable, influential, compelling and iconic magazine covers of the past forty years,“ and for the first three years of the ASME award, Ms. Mouly’s work received the honor of being ASME’s “best cover of the year” or "best news cover."
Little Lit
In 2000, Mouly founded the Raw Junior division, which published Little LitLittle Lit
Little Lit is a comic book anthology series published by New Yorker art editor, Françoise Mouly, and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, Art Spiegelman...
, anthologies of comics for children, under a joint imprint with Joanna Cotler books. The first three volumes were large-size hardcover anthologies, gathering the work of 15 to 20 contributors in each book, such as Maurice Sendak, Jules Feiffer, William Joyce, Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, Gahan Wilson, Martin Hanford, Kaz, Barbara McClintock and more. The LITTLE LIT books have been New York Times bestseller. In 2006, Mouly put together for Penguin Big Fat Little Lit, a smaller paperback gathering of most of the contents of the previous books under a new cover by Spiegelman.
Toon Books
In April 2008, she launched Toon BooksToon Books
Toon Books is a collection of hardcover graphic early readers launched in 2008 by New Yorker art editor Françoise Mouly. With titles by Mouly's advisor/husband Art Spiegelman , Geoffrey Hayes, Jay Lynch, Dean Haspiel and Eleanor Davis...
, a series of hardcover comics for children, with titles by Spiegelman, Geoffrey Hayes, Jay Lynch
Jay Lynch
Jay Lynch is an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his Bijou Funnies and other titles. His work is sometimes signed Jayzey Lynch. He has contributed to Mad, and in 2008, he expanded into the children's book field.-Early life and career:Born in Orange,...
, Dean Haspiel
Dean Haspiel
Dean Edmund Haspiel is an American comic book artist. He is known for his collaborations with writer Harvey Pekar on his American Splendor series as well as the graphic novel The Quitter. He has been nominated for numerous Eisner Awards, and won a 2010 Emmy Award for TV design work.-Early...
and Eleanor Davis
Eleanor Davis
Eleanor Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator who creates comic works and other art for both adolescent and adult audiences.-Biography:...
. Toon Books promoted itself as "the first high-quality comics designed for children ages four and up." The Toon Books website offers free online learning tools its visitors.
Personal life
Mouly appears in the 1988 documentary film Comic Book ConfidentialComic Book Confidential
Comic Book Confidential is an American/Canadian documentary film, released in 1988. Directed by Ron Mann and written by Mann and Charles Lippincott, the film is a survey of the history of the comic book medium in the United States from the 1930s to the 1980s, as an art form and in social...
. She has received numerous awards from the Society of Illustrators and other art organisations. In 2001, she was made a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. In 2011, she received France's highest award, and was named Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur by Alan Juppé, Minister of Foreign Affairs. She lives in downtown Manhattan with her husband Art Spiegelman, with whom she has two children, Nadja and Dashiell. Their older child, Nadja, is the author of Zig and Wikki in Something Ate My Homework, which was published by TOON Books in the Spring of 2010.
Raw
Volume 1- #1 (July 1980) - "The Graphix Magazine of Postponed Suicides"
- #2 (December 1980) - "The Graphix Magazine for Damned Intellectuals"
- #3 (July 1981) - "The Graphix Magazine That Lost Its Faith in Nihilism"
- #4 (March 1982) - "The Graphix Magazine for Your Bomb Shelter's Coffee Table"
- #5 (March 1983) - "The Graphix Magazine of Abstract Depressionism"
- #6 (May 1984) - "The Graphix Magazine That Overestimates the Taste of the American Public"
- #7 (May 1985) - "The Torn-Again Graphix Magazine"
- #8 (September 1986) - "The Graphic Aspirin for War Fever"
Volume 2
- #1 (1989) - "Open Wounds from the Cutting Edge of Commix"
- #2 (1990) - "Required Reading for the Post-Literate"
- #3 (1991) - "High Culture for Lowbrows"
Raw one-shots and Raw Books
- Agony by Mark BeyerMark BeyerMark Beyer is a comic artist known for his bleak storylines, often featuring death, disfigurement, depression, and humiliation, which contrast with his childlike, geometric drawing style. Most of his stories are about the adventures of a codependent yet resentful couple named Amy and Jordan.His...
- Big Baby by Charles BurnsCharles Burns (cartoonist)Charles Burns is an American cartoonist, illustrator and film director.-Life:Burns is renowned for his meticulous, high-contrast and creepy artwork and stories. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, painter Susan Moore, and their two daughters Ava and Rae-Rae.His father was an oceanographer for...
- Hard-Boiled Defective Stories by Charles BurnsCharles Burns (cartoonist)Charles Burns is an American cartoonist, illustrator and film director.-Life:Burns is renowned for his meticulous, high-contrast and creepy artwork and stories. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, painter Susan Moore, and their two daughters Ava and Rae-Rae.His father was an oceanographer for...
- X by Sue CoeSue CoeSue Coe is an English artist and illustrator working primarily in drawing and printmaking, often in the form of illustrated books and comics. She grew up close to a slaughterhouse and developed a passion to stop cruelty to animals. Coe studied at the Royal College of Art in London, lived in New...
- Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay by Ben KatchorBen KatchorBen Katchor is an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. He has contributed comics and drawings to The New Yorker and The New York Times...
- Jack Survives by Jerry Moriarty
- Invasion of the Elvis Zombies by Gary PanterGary PanterGary Panter is an illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of Arcade: The Comics Revue and the initiation of RAW, one of the second generation in American underground comix...
- Jimbo by Gary PanterGary PanterGary Panter is an illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of Arcade: The Comics Revue and the initiation of RAW, one of the second generation in American underground comix...
- How to Commit Suicide in South Africa by Holly Metz and Sue CoeSue CoeSue Coe is an English artist and illustrator working primarily in drawing and printmaking, often in the form of illustrated books and comics. She grew up close to a slaughterhouse and developed a passion to stop cruelty to animals. Coe studied at the Royal College of Art in London, lived in New...
Raw Junior Books/Little Lit
- Little Lit: Folklore & Fairy Tale Funnies, 2000
- Little Lit: Strange Stories for Strange Kids, 2001
- Little Lit: It Was a Dark and Silly Night, 2003
- Big Fat Little Lit, 2006
TOON Books
The two years since the launch in 2008 have seen the publication of eleven titles, each of which received glowing reviews and multiple awards, prizes, and distinctions.see TOON Books
Toon Books
Toon Books is a collection of hardcover graphic early readers launched in 2008 by New Yorker art editor Françoise Mouly. With titles by Mouly's advisor/husband Art Spiegelman , Geoffrey Hayes, Jay Lynch, Dean Haspiel and Eleanor Davis...
for more information
- Benny and Penny in Just Pretend (Geoffrey Hayes), 2008
- Otto's Orange Day (Frank Cammuso & Jay LynchJay LynchJay Lynch is an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his Bijou Funnies and other titles. His work is sometimes signed Jayzey Lynch. He has contributed to Mad, and in 2008, he expanded into the children's book field.-Early life and career:Born in Orange,...
), 2008 - Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons (Agnes Rosenstiehl), 2008
- Stinky (Eleanor Davis), 2008, a Geisel Honor book
- & Jo Fighting Together Forever (Dean HaspielDean HaspielDean Edmund Haspiel is an American comic book artist. He is known for his collaborations with writer Harvey Pekar on his American Splendor series as well as the graphic novel The Quitter. He has been nominated for numerous Eisner Awards, and won a 2010 Emmy Award for TV design work.-Early...
& Jay LynchJay LynchJay Lynch is an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his Bijou Funnies and other titles. His work is sometimes signed Jayzey Lynch. He has contributed to Mad, and in 2008, he expanded into the children's book field.-Early life and career:Born in Orange,...
), 2008 - Jack and the Box (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...
), 2008 - Luke on the Loose (Harry BlissHarry BlissHarry Bliss is a United States cartoonist and illustrator.Bliss grew up in New York State among an artistic family. His sister Rachel Bliss and brother Charlie Bliss, and father Jack Bliss are all artists...
), 2009 - Benny and Penny: The Big No-No! (Geoffrey Hayes), 2009, the 2010 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner
- Little Mouse Gets Ready (Jeff Smith (cartoonist)Jeff Smith (cartoonist)Jeff Smith is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone. His current series, RASL, focuses on an art thief who hops through dimensional barriers, hiding out on various parallel worlds.-Early life and education:Jeff Smith was born in McKees...
), 2009, a Geisel Honor book - Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker (Geoffrey Hayes), 2010
- Zig and Wikki in Something Ate My Homework, the first science-based early reader comic by Nadja Spiegelman and Trade Loeffler, 2010