Previous posts were non-fiction, here are some pure fiction, some semi-autobiographical. Check them out!
Gary Panter
Gary Panter is a fine graphic artist, go to his web site to see it all. A veteran of the groundbreaking compilation of graphic art RAW published by Fantagraphic, he has produced many great comics. He also created the TV set design for PeeWee’s Playhouse. Note also, Fantagraphic is the publisher of many many graphic books and a cornerstone of the industry.
Chris Ware
I own Jimmy Corrigan, Smartest Boy on Earth, a full length graphic novel. Chris Ware’s technique of constantly interwoven expanding and contracting comic frames, jumping forward and backward in time, seem to me the most creative use of the genre. Per Wikipedia, the book won 8 awards.
Linda Barry
Lynda Barry’s semi-autobiographical works are funny, poignant and incisive. Much of the work is dealing with teen angst. Her artwork seems alive and buzzing to me. I have several of her books, go to her web site and take a look at them. She is also buddies with Matt Groening, who needs no introduction, being the author of the Simpsons television cartoon. More below on Groening.
Matt Groening
I have many of Groening’s …is Hell series (Life is Hell, Love is Hell, Work is Hell…). His commentaries are right on if you have never read this series. The “Hell” series goes where the Simpsons never do.
Ben Katchor
Katchor draws a strip about a fictitious possibly lower east side-ish New York fantasy world, in his books Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. The streets signage includes unusual businesses like “Human Interest Distributors”, “Exhaustion of Style”, “Understatements…made to order”. The denizens of this world visit “The Municipal Laxative Garden” or the “Katsigh Collection of Worn Shoes and Broken Laces”. Vaguely familiar but weirdly strange is this world. Fun to visit.
Poetry by Don Segal 