CHF Chicago Humanities Festival

Panel

Alternativ Comix

The Not-So-Funny Situation of Alternative Comix

ABOUT 

  • ABOUT Lynda Barry

    Lynda Barry is the creator of the syndicated strip Ernie Pook's Comeek and the author of the books One! Hundred! Demons!, The! Greatest! of! Marlys!, Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel, Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies!, and What It Is. Born in Wisconsin, she studied at Evergreen State College, where she became good friends with The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Profile

  • ABOUT Jules Feiffer

    Jules Feiffer is a syndicated comic strip cartoonist and author. The author of the play Little Murders and the screenplay for Carnal Knowledge, he won an Oscar for his short animation Munro. Feiffer’s cartoons, which have been collected into nineteen books and ran for forty-two years in The Village Voice, have also appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, Playboy, and the Nation. He was commissioned by The New York Times to create its first op-ed page comic strip, which ran monthly until 2000. Profile

  • ABOUT Matt Groening

    Matt Groening is a cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell and the television series The Simpsons and Futurama.

     

    Profile

  • ABOUT Michael Miner

    Michael Miner is a media critic and blogger for the Chicago Reader.

    Profile

  • ABOUT Chris Ware

    Chris Ware is the author of Jimmy Corrigan—the Smartest Kid on Earth, which received the Guardian First Book Award in 2001 and was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Times.  In Chicago, his work was the focus of an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2006. He is currently serializing two graphic novels in his periodical The ACME Novelty Library, the twentieth issue of which will appear in 2010. Profile
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We are likely living in the golden age of graphic novels and alternative comics, but the artists themselves are facing what may be the most significant crisis in the medium’s history: the evaporation of virtually all of their outlets as alternative newsweeklies and comix publishers cease publishing their work in the midst of their own financial calamity. On November 7, 2009, The Chicago Reader’s Michael Miner hosted a summit meeting with Matt Groening, Lynda Barry, Jules Feiffer, and Chris Ware to examine the crisis and sift for solutions.

Above: self-portrait by Chris Ware.

Tags

Media, Journalism, Graphic Novels, Cartoons

Dig Deeper

Broader Investigation

Cartoonists Laughter

chf feature

Drawn Funny: Laughter and Cartooning

Lecture

The New Yorker Cartoonists

The New Yorker's cartoonists Pat Byrnes, Roz Chast, Ed Koren, and Robert Mankoff deconstruct the elements essential to the magazine’s famous cartoons and particular brand of humor.

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