RPM Comics
  • RPM Comics
  • News
  • About
  • Gallery
  • Shop

Battleground

1/12/2017

0 Comments

 
Just before Election Day, I had the pleasure of being interviewed in a StoryCorps booth by my friend Leigh Anne.  We talked about art making and libraries, but we mostly talked about the election.  I told her that this was the first time I felt genuinely frightened about the outcome of an election.  I knew that many people were foolish, misogynistic and racist enough vote for this president elect, but I had hoped that enough other people would be terrified enough to vote for Clinton too.  I am still reeling and don't want to type his name.

I am so thankful to have been invited to contribute to State of Emergency at the Illustrated PEN.  Working on my piece, Battleground, helped me dig into the deep structural racism that shapes this country and the way we vote.  I emerge from writing and drawing stronger and ready to fight again.  
0 Comments

Creation

3/26/2016

1 Comment

 
Just like all your friends with babies, I've dropped off the face of the earth.  Don't worry about me - we're fine, the baby is perfect and yes, I am getting some sleep, thanks.  So I am starting to think about those other kinds of creations now - the ones I've got control over: comics!

We're coming up on an exciting week for comics in Pittsburgh -  PIX: The Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo is next Saturday, April 2nd.  I am super excited to read comics at the Pre-PIX Reading with some of my favorite cartoonists on Friday, April 1st, and the main event has the best line up yet - including Bill Griffith & Kaz!

I am looking forward to sharing the first postpartum installment of Nonpartum my series for Mutha Magazine with you soon.  I'm also thrilled that Spontaneous, Inevitable, Habitual has been accepted for the Society of Illustrators 2016 Comic Art Annual! 
Picture
1 Comment

We Conceive!

6/7/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
I've heard lots of artists describe their creative projects as their "children".  I can understand that, but I don't feel that way myself.  I do love to build a comic up out of thoughts, shape it, and send it into the world, but I know my work is all mine, in a way that a child won't be.  Now that Mutha Magazine has posted "We Conceive", the first comic about my pregnancy, I'm even more certain that growing a baby is very different from growing a comic!  First of all, the baby is growing with no mental effort on my part.  With the exception of a tiny bit of awesome start-up material from my beloved husband, my viable fetus is made entirely out of my own body, but once he is born, he'll be his own person. For now though, he's still a part of me.

When I'm making comics, I feel like I am working on a puzzle.  I gather the pieces and make them fit (shaving them down and adding to them as necessary until it works.)  Creating art is hard work,but creating a baby makes me feel like a god!  This kind of creativity is actually pretty easy, and I enjoy it too!  That realization (that I am like a god) makes me think about abortion rights.  If I'm a god - capable of making an actual person in my belly - who is anyone else to tell me that I don't get to decide whether I should complete the process or not?  The panel above, from We Conceive, is a nod to this particular power women have, and the discomfort some people feel when they are confronted with that power.

Want to read NONPARTUM in print?  Check out Copacetic Comics online or in Pittsburgh (worth a hike up the stairs in your third trimester!) for a print copy with all new bonus material.
0 Comments

Zco.mx  - (zeeee- comics!)

4/28/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
zco.mx - a non-profit sharing site for small-press cartoonists - just launched!  I am excited to share more comics with more people through this site.  Check it out HERE.  There's no doubt about it: there are tons of mind-blowing, funny, provocative comics out there, that you and I haven't had a chance to read yet.  I expect that zco.mx is going to make them a lot easier to find! 

So far, I've been especially enjoying comics by
Inés Estrada, David Lasky, David C. Mahler, and Andrea Tsurumi
Check out some of my previously hard-to-find-online-stories electronically at the site.  I'll be adding more in coming weeks.  You will see great new-to-you work from around the world at zco.mx, and most importantly you can contribute to support work you like.  All proceeds go directly to the artists! 
0 Comments

MUtha love

1/25/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
I am glad to say that I've been lax about updating this site because I've been extra busy making comics.  So far, Non Partum at Mutha Magazine has been my most gratifying creative project ever!  I hope that you will read the series as it grows through 2015.  I feel sure that I'll never run out of ideas for comics about motherhood, and that we all can't help but be interested in mothers - everybody has at least one!  As always, it's super satisfying for me to gather the pieces that will make up each story - some directly from my own life, some I've invented completely, and others derived from my constant worrying about everything.  I like building the scaffolding that will hold that story together convincingly so I can send it out to you.

Of course, comics are nothing unless they are being read.  That's why I rely on feedback from readers to know if I am being heard and making sense.  I think of myself as a print cartoonist, but it's clear to me now that online comics can reach more people more quickly than any of the print comics in my shop.  The best part of being part of Mutha Magazine's comics roster is knowing that people are hearing me, sharing the same fears and joys, and bringing their own experiences to reading (like you can help that!)

I am especially honored by these reviews, recommendations at shoutouts from
Scott McCloud -Understanding Comics is the reason I actually sat down and consciously decided to make comics
Comics Reporter - a "Go, Look" from the site I read the most for reviews, news and interviews about comics
Women Write About Comics - the most thorough analysis of one of my comics ever, and it's right on target in every way.

Please keep commenting and sharing - it means so much to me.


0 Comments

Autobiofictionography

5/28/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
None of the comics I drew in the 1990s were autobiographical.  When people wrote me letters (real letters - to a P.O. Box!) many of them assumed that my comics were completely autobiographical.  One reader asked "How much of these stories come from your own life?...I guess you must be an 11 year old-grandma-newlywed on maternity leave!"  I take that autobio-assumption for what it is: a compliment, but I think it also says something about comics and the way we read them with such trust.  When you read a comic, you are complicit in making it happen - it feels true.

I've only written a couple of completely autobiographical stories, and I find the responsibility confining.  In my non-comics time, I am a librarian.  That means that I have tsk tsked my way through anti-plagiarism presentations, discretely explained the difference between fiction and non-fiction to all kinds of people, untangled mangled citations, and identified valid information more often than most people.  I am obsessed with proof and documentation, and even more obsessed with the limits of documentation to represent reality.

This has been on my mind while working on my new series Non Partum
at Mutha Magazine and reading this discussion at The Comics Journal.  I am honored to have my comics up with some of my favorite cartoonists and nuanced, funny, diverse, intelligent writing on motherhood.  Non Partum is turning out to be the most autobiofictionographical work I've ever done.  I am being very truthful and precise about many things, but I am also mushing some people together, inventing others completely, pretending some things have happened, and not mentioning others that did.  One thing I love about the lies is that they might be what makes the story feel true to you.
0 Comments

Comics, Activism, and the Art of Storytelling

4/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
I'll be joining Katherine Arnoldi & Russ Fedorka tonight for a panel discussion sponsored by the Pittsburgh Collaborative for Working Class Studies.  The event will be in Room 602 in the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh - 6-8PM.  We each use comics to address class, feminism and activism in different ways - it will be a lively and enlightening conversation.  Plus there will be a display of feminist/working class/queer/alternative comics out front!
0 Comments

Daydreams & Dog City #2

3/5/2014

2 Comments

 
Picture
I imagine that all small press cartoonists entertain similar daydreams.  Being interviewed by Terry Gross - answering the MacArthur "genius grant" phone call - and having work reviewed in The Comics Journal are my top three.  So, I might have passed out for a second when I saw my name in Rob Clough's review of the Dog City # 2 anthology in The Comics Journal this week.

Working with Dog City Press has been so fulfilling and exciting.  Like most people, I love comics, but I've become too lazy to spend time digging in bins, and flipping around online to find the next comic that's going to change my life.  Dog City box sets recognize the need for curation to make small press comics shopping less daunting, while preserving that giddy feeling of discovery when you unearth your next favorite thing.

As an artist, the best part of contributing to Dog City has been seeing my work operating in an environment with other innovative cartoonists.  Rob Clough captures the excitement of unwrapping, flipping through and reorganizing the set. 
There's nothing like a review - from someone who reads, thinks and breathes comics - and "gets" what you are trying to do.  I don't expect the other daydreams to come true...ever...so I'm definitely reveling in this with all the Dog City Artists!

2 Comments

three short comics

3/1/2014

3 Comments

 
I had so much fun presenting comics at the Bonfire Reading Series last month, that I decided to post these three short comics from the event as a slide show here.
3 Comments

Bonfire Reading series

2/13/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
I sometimes tell people that I decided to become a cartoonist because I want to be a storyteller, but don't want to do readings!  I've even been working my way away from read-out-loudable comics over the years too - either by using unpronounceable symbols or eliminating words all together.  Of course, I still want you to hear my voice - for real!  If you are in Pittsburgh on Friday, February 21, 2014 - 6:30-9:30 PM, I hope you will come and hear some comics from me at this month's Bonfire Reading Series.  I am so proud to have been invited to read with this group that supports boundary breaking contemporary writers. 

0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>

    Archives

    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    September 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    August 2017
    June 2017
    January 2017
    March 2016
    June 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All
    Dog City
    Lynda Barry
    Minicomics
    Mutha Magazine
    Pittsburgh
    Small Press
    Spx
    Webcomics

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.