Jessica Abel
Encyclopedia
Jessica Abel is an American
comic book
writer
and artist
, known as the creator of such works as Life Sucks, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, Soundtrack, La Perdida, Mirror, Window, Radio: An Illustrated Guide (with collaborator Ira Glass
), and the omnibus series Artbabe.
Abel has stated that her major work is not autobiographical, and that although she is a feminist, her work is not explicitly political.
. She attended Carleton College
for in 1987-88, and then transferred to the University of Chicago
, where she published her first comics work in 1988, in the student anthology
Breakdown. Additionally, she worked for three years in the administration at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She graduated with a BA degree.
Abel started self-publishing the photocopied, hand-sewn and embellished' comic book Artbabe in 1992; four annual issues followed, with Abel having won a Xeric Foundation
grant to self-publish and distribute issue #5. This was the first professionally printed Artbabe, and was subtitled The Four Seasons.
With the publication of the Xeric issue of Artbabe, Abel came to the attention of Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth
, who offered to publish Artbabe. Each issue of Artbabe contained one or more complete stories; Abel did not begin any longer sequential work until La Perdida in 2000. The character Artbabe, who appears on every cover, does not actually appear in any of the stories.
In 1998, Abel moved to Mexico City
with her boyfriend, now husband, comics artist Matt Madden
. She went on hiatus from Artbabe in 1999. From 1996-2005, Abel did a series of one-page journalistic
comics for the University of Chicago Magazine, and also embarked on Radio: an Illustrated Guide for the radio program This American Life
. This book depicted how an episode of the show is made, with behind-the-scenes reportage and a how-to guide to creating a radio show at home.
After two years in Mexico City, Abel moved to Brooklyn, New York. Abel created the five-issue, 250-page series La Perdida. Published by Fantagraphics Books, it concerns a Mexican-American woman, Carla, raised by her Anglo mother, who moves on a whim to Mexico City to search for her identity.
Abel teaches undergraduate cartooning courses at the School of Visual Arts
, and gives workshops at other locations, such as Ox-Bow Summer School of Art. She appeared as a character in the back-cover story of Hate
#10 by Peter Bagge
.
Abel wrote and drew La Perdida
, first published by Fantagraphics Books
between 2000
and 2005
as a five-part mini-series
. Abel revised the text for its compilation and publication in 2006 as a hardcover volume
by Pantheon Books
. The book has received a positive critical response.
In 2008, Abel and Madden produced Drawing Words and Writing Pictures for First Second. The book is a product of the years Abel and Madden have spent as teachers, is a comprehensive manual on creating comics. That same year, Abel also collaborated on Life Sucks
, written with Gabe Soria and Warren Pleece
.
Abel and Madden are now at work on the second volume of Drawing Words and Writing Pictures.
Her group exhibitions include the Jean Albano Gallery in Chicago, Athaneum, Stripdagen, in the Netherlands
, the Davidson Galleries in Seattle, the Forbes Gallery at the Hyde Park Art Center
, in New York, the Regina Miller Gallery and Vox Gallery in Philadelphia, Centre National de la Bande Dessinée et de l'Image in Angoulême, France, and the Norman Rockwell Museum
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
.
, live in Sunset Park, Brooklyn
with their daughter.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, known as the creator of such works as Life Sucks, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, Soundtrack, La Perdida, Mirror, Window, Radio: An Illustrated Guide (with collaborator Ira Glass
Ira Glass
Ira Glass is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.- Early life :...
), and the omnibus series Artbabe.
Abel has stated that her major work is not autobiographical, and that although she is a feminist, her work is not explicitly political.
Early life
Abel was born in 1969 in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in the Chicago metropolitan area. She graduated from Evanston Township High SchoolEvanston Township High School
Evanston Township High School District 202, is a four-year, comprehensive high school occupying a campus in Evanston, Illinois, a Chicago suburb along the Lake Michigan shore. ETHS serves the multiracial city of Evanston and a small portion of the neighboring village of Skokie, for a total...
. She attended Carleton College
Carleton College
Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...
for in 1987-88, and then transferred to the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where she published her first comics work in 1988, in the student anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
Breakdown. Additionally, she worked for three years in the administration at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She graduated with a BA degree.
Career
Xeric Foundation
The Xeric Foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation based in Northampton, Massachusetts, which for twenty years awarded self-publishing grants to comic book creators, as well as qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations...
grant to self-publish and distribute issue #5. This was the first professionally printed Artbabe, and was subtitled The Four Seasons.
With the publication of the Xeric issue of Artbabe, Abel came to the attention of Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth
Gary Groth
Gary Groth is an American comic book editor, publisher and critic. He is editor-in-chief of The Comics Journal and a co-founder of Fantagraphics Books.-Early life:...
, who offered to publish Artbabe. Each issue of Artbabe contained one or more complete stories; Abel did not begin any longer sequential work until La Perdida in 2000. The character Artbabe, who appears on every cover, does not actually appear in any of the stories.
In 1998, Abel moved to Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
with her boyfriend, now husband, comics artist Matt Madden
Matt Madden
Matt Madden is a U.S. comic book writer and artist. He is best known for original alternative comics, for his coloring work in traditional comics, and for the experimental work 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style, which is based on the idea of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style...
. She went on hiatus from Artbabe in 1999. From 1996-2005, Abel did a series of one-page journalistic
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
comics for the University of Chicago Magazine, and also embarked on Radio: an Illustrated Guide for the radio program This American Life
This American Life
This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...
. This book depicted how an episode of the show is made, with behind-the-scenes reportage and a how-to guide to creating a radio show at home.
After two years in Mexico City, Abel moved to Brooklyn, New York. Abel created the five-issue, 250-page series La Perdida. Published by Fantagraphics Books, it concerns a Mexican-American woman, Carla, raised by her Anglo mother, who moves on a whim to Mexico City to search for her identity.
Abel teaches undergraduate cartooning courses 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...
, and gives workshops at other locations, such as Ox-Bow Summer School of Art. She appeared as a character in the back-cover story of Hate
Hate (comic)
Hate is a semi-autobiographical comic book by writer-artist Peter Bagge. First published by Fantagraphics in 1990 it ran for 30 issues, and was one of the best-selling alternative comics of the 1990s, at its height selling 30,000 copies an issue...
#10 by Peter Bagge
Peter Bagge
Peter Bagge is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of Buddy Bradley, Hate, Neat Stuff, Martini Baton, and Sweatshop, Apocalypse Nerd and Other Lives. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth...
.
Abel wrote and drew La Perdida
La Perdida
La Perdida is an independent comic book series created by Jessica Abel and published by Pantheon Books.-Content:La Perdida is a story centered on the life of a young American woman , living abroad in Mexico...
, first published by Fantagraphics Books
Fantagraphics Books
Fantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint...
between 2000
2000 in comics
-February:*Strange Adventures vol. 2, #4, final issue cover-dated February - January :* January 5: Goseki Kojima, co-creator of Lone Wolf and Cub, dies at age 71.* January 6: Mad magazine fixture Don Martin dies at age 68....
and 2005
2005 in comics
- January :* January 3: Will Eisner, creator of The Spirit, dies at age 87.-April:*April 13:**DC Comics announces the discontinuation of its Humanoids and 2000 A.D. titles....
as a five-part mini-series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
. Abel revised the text for its compilation and publication in 2006 as a hardcover volume
Trade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
by Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books is an American imprint with editorial independence that is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.The current editor-in-chief at Pantheon Books is Dan Frank.-Overview:...
. The book has received a positive critical response.
In 2008, Abel and Madden produced Drawing Words and Writing Pictures for First Second. The book is a product of the years Abel and Madden have spent as teachers, is a comprehensive manual on creating comics. That same year, Abel also collaborated on Life Sucks
Life Sucks
Life Sucks is a graphic novel by Jessica Abel and Gabe Soria and illustrated by Warren Pleece. It is about a vampire who works as at night as a store clerk and is in love with a goth Latina woman who wants to be a vampire....
, written with Gabe Soria and Warren Pleece
Warren Pleece
Warren Pleece is a British comics artist. He is best known for his work at the DC Comics imprint Vertigo.-Biography:With his brother Gary Pleece, he wrote and drew four issues of a self published comics magazine called Velocity between 1987 and 1989...
.
Abel and Madden are now at work on the second volume of Drawing Words and Writing Pictures.
Exhibitions
Abel's one-person exhibitions include "Corridoio Altervox" in Rome, the Phoenix Gallery in Brighton; the Oporto International Comics Festival in Portugal, Viñetas desde o Atlántico in A Coruna, Spain, and the Naples Comicon.Her group exhibitions include the Jean Albano Gallery in Chicago, Athaneum, Stripdagen, in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, the Davidson Galleries in Seattle, the Forbes Gallery at the Hyde Park Art Center
Hyde Park Art Center
The Hyde Park Art Center is a visual arts organization and the oldest alternative exhibition space in the city of Chicago. Since 2006, HPAC has been located just north of Hyde Park Boulevard, at 5020 S.Cornell Avenue, in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.-Beginnings:The Hyde Park Art...
, in New York, the Regina Miller Gallery and Vox Gallery in Philadelphia, Centre National de la Bande Dessinée et de l'Image in Angoulême, France, and the Norman Rockwell Museum
Norman Rockwell Museum
The Norman Rockwell Museum is home to the world's largest collection of original Rockwell art.-History:Founded in 1969, the museum is located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where Rockwell lived the last 25 years of his life. The museum has been at its current location since 1993. The museum...
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...
.
Awards and honors
- Harvey AwardHarvey AwardThe Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman and founded by Gary Groth, President of the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987.The Harvey Awards are...
- Chicago Artists International Program Grant
- Xeric Grant
Personal life
Abel and her husband, Matt MaddenMatt Madden
Matt Madden is a U.S. comic book writer and artist. He is best known for original alternative comics, for his coloring work in traditional comics, and for the experimental work 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style, which is based on the idea of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style...
, live in Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Sunset Park is a neighborhood in the western section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. It is bounded by Greenwood Heights to the north, Borough Park to the east, Bay Ridge to the south, and Upper New York Bay to the west...
with their daughter.