Jessica Abel
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Jessica Abel (born 1969) is an American comic book writer and artist best known for her miniseries La Perdida, as well as her earlier work in the short-fiction omnibus series Artbabe. She has also created such non-fiction comics as , co-written with Ira Glass of This American Life.
Abel's artistic concerns center on communication, or lack of same, and her strengths as an artist are in dialogue and depicting non-verbal communication (gesture, facial expressions). Her comics tend to be word-heavy and character-centered. While working on the Artbabe series, Abel frequently set her stories in Chicago and utilized characters who were members of Generation X, specifically hipsters. In La Perdida, Abel's subject matter became less specific, though still related to the way understanding can break down, this time between cultures. Abel has stated[link] that her major work is not autobiographical. Abel has also stated she is a feminist although she does not make her work explicitly political. [link]
Biography
Abel grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, mostly Evanston), graduating from Evanston Township High School. She attended Carleton College for one year (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, Abel worked for three years in the administration at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.After graduating in 1991 with a degree in English language and literature, 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 appear in any of these 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 radio at home.
Abel and Madden moved back to the U.S. in 2000, married, and settled in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, where Abel created the five-issue, 250-page series La Perdida. Published by Fantagraphics, it concerns a Mexican-American woman, Carla, raised by her Anglo parents, who moves on a whim to Mexico City to search for her identity.
Abel teaches 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.
See also
Books
- (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN 1560974303
- Mirror, Window (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN 1560973846
- :Compiles Artbabe Vol. 2, #1-4 (1997-1999)
References
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