COMX Magazine 2023

Keith Mayerson in conversation with Nate Powell + Remembering Diane Noomin

by Bill Kartalopoulos

BFA • COMICS 2O23

• BFA COMICS •

2O23

SENIORS

Cal Botelho

18

Freddie Della Famina

20

Natalie Riolfi

22

Kaitlyn Quach

24

Michael Barletta

26

Sinclair Dowty

28

Nahia Mouhica

30

Madelyn Sackett

32

Yeabin Lee

34

Marko Palushi

36

Xiomara Pardo Reyes

38

Zhiyu Lin

40

Allison Doll

43

Koby Clarke

44

Gloria Lee

45

Sabrina Reyes

46

Apollo Baltazar

47

Ian Van Doren

48

Ariel Lachance

49

Spark Park

50

Yoo Jin Ko

51

Sarah Langston

52

Jaz Mason

53

Aiden Franco

54

Cat Kaiser

55

BFA Comics Senior Thesis Faculty JOSHUA BAYER NICHOLAS BERTOZZI DAVID ROMAN

Cover: Nahia Mouhica @PEACHIARE NAMOUHICA.WIXSITE.COM/ NAHIAMOUHICA

A CONVERSATION WITH

Nate Powell

&

Keith Mayerson

A

fter graduating from SVA in 2000, Nate Powell began a prolific career

because my entire life was wrapped up

writing and drawing comics, winning two Ignatz Awards for his debut

in extremely do-it-yourself pursuits,

graphic novel, Swallow Me Whole. He is best known for drawing the

mostly with my band. A lot of my work

acclaimed March trilogy in collaboration with Congressman John Lewis, which

was structured around what was filling

has won a number of prestigious prizes including the National Book Award.

my time, through music and the punk

Keith Mayerson, Nate’s former SVA teacher, recorded a conversation with Nate for COMX magazine. Keith is the author of Horror Hospital Unplugged, and

community.

All of my work in comics revolved

the recently published “wordless novel” My American Dream. Keith taught

around the fact that I scheduled my life

Cartooning at SVA from 1994 to 2016, was Cartooning coordinator from 2005

around being in a punk band—always

to 2016, and is now professor of art at the University of Southern California

touring, playing shows or recording. I was

(USC), where he began a Visual Narrative Art program and minor.

rather prolific at the time with comics, but I never did a story longer than 50 pages because of that.

KEITH: Nate, it’s great to see you! Remind

KEITH: How did you know about SVA,

me, where were you living when you were

back in that era?

in high school, and when did you graduate? And how did you end up at SVA?

I stopped being in my main band. All of a sudden, I had as much time as I needed to make a story, whether it was

NATE: Comics were running really deep

50 pages or 500 pages. It was such

throughout my band, and two of my best

a major shift in how I organized my time

NATE: That was ‘96. I’m from Little Rock,

friends had already started art school.

and what I expected of the work

Arkansas. In my senior year of high school,

I heard about SVA through Mike Lierly,

I made in comics.

I had an existential crisis where I listened

who was in your class as well. I kept

too much to the prevailing wisdom of my

getting word about teachers, classes,

started hop, skip and jumping across

parents’ generation, and, despite the fact

projects and stuff that was going on

America, living in Michigan, Massachu-

that my lifelong passion was comics,

at SVA. It was kind of a no-brainer. Mike

setts and Rhode Island, before settling

I hadn’t really thought about anything that

and I immediately combined forces and

here in Bloomington, Indiana.

I was going to do to continue to hone

decided we were going to move to New

those skills. I wound up signing up to go

York City together to continue the path

KEITH: All inexpensive places to live, which

to George Washington University in

that comics had opened up for us.

is healthy for a cartoonist, especially

I moved to Kansas City for a bit, then

when you’re starting out. Comics are not

D.C., which, thankfully, had a pretty good drawing program. But the existential

KEITH: Being in a band was really important

provincial, like in the fine art world, where

crisis hit, and I was like, “I know what

for you then, and I know you’re about to

you need to be in New York, or L.A., or a

I have to do!”

publish a book, Fall Through, about your

place where there’s a marketplace. With

punk rock years, told through different

comics you can live anywhere, as long

iately transferred to SVA for my second

personas, coming out around the same

as you go to conventions and let people

year of college. So I had you in ’98 to ‘99.

time that this interview is going to be

know that you’re alive. When you were

It seems unreal that I only had you for

in print. You would tour with your punk

touring, you were also distributing your

one school year, because your class was

band and sell your issues of Walkie

comics, right?

the vortex around which so much of my

Talkie to promote your work. Comics are

other classwork revolved.

like punk rock in that they’re really about

NATE: Yes, my band’s first tour in ‘97 was

I broke it down to my parents. I immed-

speaking to your community, to help

my first experience actually making my

KEITH: Wow, thank you! Probably you were

people relate to one another through the

books accessible to people who did not

in sophomore Principles of Cartooning.

“music” of your drawing and writing.

live in my home state of Arkansas. It was still very much a do-it-yourself opera-

NATE: Right. Since I got all my humanities

NATE: Punk, in essence, is a folk art. The

tion, in that I was physically handing

classes pretty much done in my fresh-

people who consume and view and

copies of my comics to people at gigs in

man year of college, I had, like, 18 studio

engage with the art are typically also the

basements or living rooms. It expanded

credits every semester junior and senior

people making the art. It works great in

from there.

years and was just extremely focused on

terms of people finding and magnifying

integrating any class work and lessons

their voices. At that time, I had given up

KEITH: How did you end up settling in

into the comics that I was already doing

on being able to make a full-time living

Bloomington?

on my own time.

out of drawing comics. One reason was

NATE: One big reason is, during those very intensive years of touring, we became deeply embedded in the worldwide hardcore punk underground. Bloomington remains a really strong punk hub.

I knew that it was a cheap, friendly, supportive place. It’s a college town in a very conservative, mostly rural state, so it had an oasis-like quality to it.

So alongside making comics and doing all this stuff, for 10 years before I started doing comics full time, I was doing direct care and advocacy work for adults with developmental disabilities. I thought it was important to begin to grow some roots here, as a professional caregiver.

And then I fell in love and got married.

And all that sort of snowballed at the same time that I had an opportunity to take a chance on quitting my day job and doing comics full time. So it all happened really fast.

KEITH: Our class was a particularly great class, right? I was thinking of the other band that had a great cartoonist in it, My Chemical Romance.

NATE: Gerard [Way] started at SVA the year after I was done there. We had a lot of crossover through friends and classmates from the in-between years, like Becky Cloonan.

KEITH: Wasn’t Farel Dalrymple in that class?

NATE : Farel was, and Brendan Burford, and Carlo Quispe, a fantastic cartoonist.

And letterer extraordinaire Cory Petit!

I’ve kinda fallen back in love with the X-Men. I’ve re-read thousands of pages of X-Men. All of these books are lettered by my old friend and classmate, Cory, and he’s an incredible letterer. Lettering is the glue that holds comics together on a formal level. I think my Eisner nomination for best letterer is the one that is the highest honor for me. I’ll read X-Men and really focus on Cory’s lettering and what he’s doing, page by page, and it’s been

very helpful for me as a cartoonist.

peer crop of cartoonists from that sliver

Strong Female Protagonist in their

of time. Farel was in it and James Jean,

sophomore year at SVA. They continued

KEITH: Superhero comics are the Wall

Becky Cloonan, Esao Andrews, and Tomer

it for three years, and then, with the

Street of the comics world. We need

and Asaf Hanuka. And Dash Shaw and

Kickstarter campaign, they published it.

superhero comics to do well. They keep

Tom Herpich. It had a really solid lineup.

And they got, like, 60 or 80 thousand

the comic book stores open.

SVA has an older history, where comics

dollars to publish their graphic novel, and KEITH: There is strength in numbers.

I remember being at New York Comic

had become sort of misbegotten within

All great art movements happen with

Con with Cartoon Allies kids, and Molly

the administration. I’m so glad that you

like-minded people, oftentimes who went

was at the Top Shelf booth with their

guys were the first generation rebooting

to the same art school. The surrealists

books. And I said, “Top Shelf! You’re

it. I started teaching there around that

all left a school that they didn’t like,

distributing Molly’s book? They began

same time in ‘96. We sort of revolution-

together. R. Crumb and the underground

this in my class!” And Top Shelf was like,

ized the comics program to where it is

cartoonists got together. The women of

“Yes, we’re so proud of it.” First Second

today, that they could say it’s the Harvard

that generation, with Twisted Sisters and

was right across from Top Shelf’s booth,

of comics colleges. Not that there are

Diane Noomin—who also was a wonder-

and I was like, “Oh my gosh, that’s my

many comics colleges to compete with,

ful teacher at SVA—did their own

student, Molly Ostertag.” And they were

but it’s really a great program. My job

anthologies.

like, “Oh, yes, we have them contracted

teaching there, growing into being Cartoon-

With your class, I still remember the

ing coordinator, and Tom Woodruff taking

real feeling of … a commune of cartoon-

over the program and really focusing on

ists and how you guys were so dedicated

NATE: Those Witch Boy books are beloved

comics and making it a much better

each week to bringing in work and putting

classics here in the house. The Witch Boy

program, led us to where we are now.

it on the wall. Was Steve Uy in that class?

trilogy has influenced my more recent

with us for next year.”

fiction; I’ve become more embracing of

Then in 2000, there was a sea change where all of a sudden, half my classes,

NATE: Yes! He brought the thunder more

genre. It’s been very freeing. Those books

wonderfully, were women.

than any other student. You were like,

are one of the best examples of genre.

“Okay, you guys, we’ve got this 16-page NATE: It was a revolutionary shift. Then

story you’ve got to turn in. What do you

KEITH: Witch Boy took ideas of genre and,

if you skip ahead even just five years, the

have, Steven?” And he’d be like, “Well, I

within the genre, critiqued it … Why can’t

impact that Raina Telgemeier made,

completed this 80-page book. It’s fully

boys be witches? It’s very gender-fluid,

transformed that sea change into a new

inked and lettered. I’ve already printed it.

and it really helps the world. Witch Boy,

generation of creators. It’s amazing

Would you like a copy?”

I think, was picked up by Fox Animation.

Molly’s partner, N.D. Stevenson, did art

now to be 18 years past that point and realize that Raina’s readers are adult

KEITH: Yeah, Steve got hired right away!

direction for She-Ra, which, I think, is

creators now!

He was at the bar near SVA after

kind of like Becky Cloonan doing Conan

graduation, and he had his portfolio with

stories; feminist creators retelling these

KEITH: There was a group at SVA called

him, and he was with a friend who was

very masculine kinds of adventure

Estrigious. It was Becky Cloonan and her

there with a Marvel editor, and the friend

narratives.

friends. They had their own website—

said, “Marvel editor! You should check

before people really had websites—that

out Steve’s work!” The Marvel editor

NATE: And N.D. Stevenson’s work on

would get like a thousand hits a day.

looked through dozens of pages in his

She-Ra stands the test of time, as it’s a

They would do compilation comics and

portfolio, and was like, “Yeah, I’ll hire you

full execution of classic themes and

go to comics fairs together and support

right away.” It’s usually not like that!

tropes, throughout hero narratives, and being able to do it in a loving way that

one another.

The male equivalent of that was Meathaus. Were you a part of Meathaus?

NATE: Right on. Luck is a real thing. There

also confronts the source material, it’s

is so much to be said for diligence and

able to turn it on its head.

discipline and vision, but you always have to be ready for unexpected stuff to happen

KEITH: Cartoonists make great storyboard

started corresponding with several of

just whenever, and be open to it chang-

artists. We mentioned Tom Herpich;

the Meathaus folks. I contributed to two

ing the course of your life.

he worked on Adventure Time and Steven

NATE: Yes, I was back in Arkansas and

Universe, along with Hilary Florido.

of the issues between 2001 and 2002.

I consider the Meathaus crew to be my

KEITH: Molly Ostertag did a comic called

Rebecca Sugar from Animation at SVA

was the head of Steven Universe.

KEITH: He was also the editor at King Features Syndicate.

NATE: My kids are eight and 11 now and watching Steven Universe with them has

NATE: Yes, and a real gem of a person.

been fantastic. It’s been great being able

I did some demo pages from the script,

to recognize that this is a radical shift in

and very quickly we realized that we

the expectations of narrative and emotion-

clicked well together. I’m also a South-

al weight and in what is expected when

erner; as a kid, I lived in Montgomery,

we’re talking about narrative conflict.

Alabama. My parents are from Mississippi. So it was very important that I had

KEITH: Nate, what did you do between

a lot of cultural and historical familiarity

graduation and March? March in particu-

but also topographical familiarity, in

lar, for our politics right now, is so

terms of what kind of dirt, what kind of

pertinent. With Congressman John Lewis, that collaboration, how did that begin?

NATE: My first graphic novel came out in 2008, Swallow Me Whole. It took about six years total to make it happen. Once it was released I was surprised that people were actually reading it and were affected by it.

What allowed me to quit my job to try being a full-time cartoonist was drawing a graphic novel for First Second called The Silence of Our Friends, which revolved around writer Mark Long’s life growing up outside of Houston in the sixties, set against the backdrop of a forgotten moment in the civil rights movement.

I consider my work on The Silence of Our Friends as a boot camp for the March process, especially the reference and research, and issues of authorship, voice and privilege that went into working on March.

Andrew Aydin, the March co-writer, was a staffer for Congressman Lewis.

They’d been working on the script for a couple of years. They cut a deal with Top Shelf to publish March, but with no artist. Chris Staros from Top Shelf called me up about a week later and suggested that I try out. One reason was because of my previous work blending fiction and nonfiction. I had done a little bit of it in short-form comics, journalism and nonfiction work for Brendan Burford’s Syncopated anthology.

roads, and what kinds of plant life.

One reason why they wanted me to draw the March trilogy was because of my ability to balance this dreamy, intuitive, very personal kind of storytelling with a more objective, realistic, cartooning approach. So whenever I could, I was encouraged to lean on my own experiences and memories of living in the South in the eighties and nineties, especially watching these social and political shifts, which foreshadowed this dangerous return of very regressive outright fascism in the 2020s.

KEITH: My parents are also from the South, and I relate to that, too, in terms of my legacy. They got the hell out of there in the sixties, when they saw their friends become fascists.

A lot of people don’t realize that one of the reasons John Lewis got into the civil rights movement was because of a comic, right? The Montgomery Story.

And it seems like your covers, and the color choices were emulating The Montgomery Story.

NATE: Yes, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story was the impetus for March. It was this 1957 comic that teenage John Lewis used as a training primer in nonviolence workshops in Nashville. Dr. King and other early nonviolence leaders distributed the comic out of the trunks of their cars and in church basements during training sessions. It directly impacted not only the civil rights movement but also a variety of justice, equality and pro-democracy movements throughout the world, like Cesar Chavez’s labor movement…. It even had bootleg translations in Arabic and Farsi during the lead up to the Arab Spring in 2010 and 2011. It has a fascinating history of its own, and that history is still alive.

One of the big reasons why March happened was because John Lewis told Andrew about this comic’s role in his legacy and how baffled he was that this

to convince 40% of America that Nazis are real, and they exist and they are evil.

And they’re in America.

NATE: Comics are a very easy target for this current wave of censorship. People insist on comics being just one thing that they can define in a narrow way. It’s really interesting to butt up this limitless communication tool against the insistence of a lot of unfamiliar people to define it. Comics are a medium and a language on their own.

Last year, when the organized bookban movement started really in earnest, level of significance would essentially be

I did some shorter op-ed comics for The

KEITH: Do you have any good advice for

relegated to obscurity.

Washington Post and for The Nib. Then,

young cartoonists?

I went on the counteroffensive. I made KEITH: It’s really well written, and drawn,

a poster that the American Library

NATE: The number one thing is to show

I think, by an anonymous illustrator.

Association distributed that provides

up. I know that we’ve all had a massive

a simple set of unique strengths that

setback, socially and community-wise

NATE: Andrew did his graduate thesis at

comics has pitted against the unique

with the last three years of the pandem-

Georgetown on that comic, and in 2018,

weaknesses of these book-banners.

ic, living in holes scattered across the

he actually had a face-to-face meeting

I thought it would be nice to be able to

globe. But it is important that we begin

at Dragon Con with cartoonist Sy Barry

define what comics is, how it works, and

to truly reclaim our community spaces.

and confirmed that he was, in fact, the

to know what the benefits are. I think it’s

Comics is an industry and an art form,

artist on the book. But it was a Silver

important for comics lovers and creators

but comics is also a community.

Age book, and oftentimes creators were

to go on the offensive and get familiar

entirely uncredited.

with how to talk about how comics work

one-off books for, like, 15 years before

and why they are valuable.

things really started clicking. But what’s

I toiled and self-published and put out

KEITH: Now March is read all around the

The older I get, the more I realize that

important is that you are ready to spend

world and is on so many syllabi in high

it’s important to recognize when you’re

an entire paycheck getting some conven-

schools and colleges. It’s so neat to see

simply out of touch with something and

tion table space and printing up some

March on bookshelves behind people

when it’s time to listen, in terms of litera-

comics to sell. A lot of it is about being in

talking on MSNBC. At the Lucas Muse-

cy, in terms of new ways of telling and

the same physical space as other people.

um of Narrative Art, I had a meeting with

absorbing stories, and new ways of

Over time, even if you’re not selling very

Judy Baca, the great Latinx muralist.

thinking about the world.

many books, people remember you.

I walked in and turned the corner, and

Believe it or not, they are already a little

behind her desk, she had a blow-up

familiar with your work. It may not feel

of one of the pages from March.

like it, but it’s absolutely true. Showing up is really important.

NATE: A county defender in Minnesota used March: Book One to be sworn into

KEITH: Nate, you’ve shown up in every

office just this year.

way. You’re keeping at it, making these stories that really matter, for the art of

KEITH: I had Art Spiegelman and

it and for telling stories that make the

Françoise Mouly come to talk to my

world a better place.

students at USC about the subversive power of comics and to talk about Maus.

NATE: Thank you! Another thing is, as

[Spiegelman] realized it’s so important

you’re working on your big idea and

to keep talking about it because we have

really trying to make it be the thing that

rocks the world … one of the biggest mistakes is betting everything on that one big idea and languishing, sometimes for years, because it’s not hitting. What’s more important is the first question people will ask: “What are you doing next?” People want to know where you’re going from that, and that has a lot more currency than the thing that you’re pitching around to get published. People want to know what’s in the future more than what is in their hands at the comic convention.

The other major thing is … whenever I talk to young people, I try to adjust to the reality of what it means to sign up for higher education and being able to not only pursue their passion but find a way out of a potentially very risky situation in terms of taking on student loan debt.

It’s something that can’t be ignored. Very few cartoonists make a full-time living off of comics. And that’s absolutely okay.

The vast majority of cartoonists, as you said, have day jobs, whether it’s in the arts or teaching. And this returns to what DIY punk means to me. People feel like they need to make a comic, to let something out or to tell a certain story… It must be made, no matter what it takes, and it’s important to embrace that. What’s important is that the work comes first; the work will find a way. Don’t sweat your work, your big idea, your emerging projects as a means to an end, in terms of paying your rent. Comics is a life journey. Sometimes that takes five or 10 or 15 years.

But don’t sweat that. What’s important is what you’re putting on the page.

KEITH: That’s right, that’s the integrity of comics.

NATE: I’m a full-time cartoonist. But that means a different thing for everyone. For me, it means that I do my weird, usually magical realist fiction that has a smaller readership. That’s my real passion project.

Then, I have a second project I usually do concurrently that’s nonfiction-based,

“Comics is a life journey. Sometimes that takes five or 10 or 15 years. But don’t sweat that.

What’s important is what you’re putting on the page.”

—N AT E P O W E L L

KEITH: Sadly, we’re in this politically turbulent time. But as Dr. King said, “The moral arc of justice…” What’s the exact quote?

NATE: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” The important takeaway here is that it does not bend by itself. We bend the arc. So, please, actually show up, and bend the arc.

KEITH: Comics are such a democratic medium, and we need them, seriously, to help save democracy.

NATE: Definitely. Yeah. Not an exaggeration. usually with another writer, that mixes

was an itinerant musician; he would

more of my worldly concerns and that

travel and play banjo on radio stations

COMX magazine thanks Nate and Keith

by balancing those things I’m able to make

back in the thirties. But lo and behold,

for sharing their thoughts and memories

it. So I put out a lot of books; I think I’m

when he died—and his wife didn’t even

with us.

about to put out my nineteenth and

know—he’d done thousands of pages

twentieth book-length comics in the

of comics! He just loved being in that

next year.

world. It was a meditative space.

But what’s wild is, I’m turning 45 this

And it seems like you must be in that

summer. I’ve got, like, 50 more years.

space, where it’s your safe zone to be

There’s no health insurance or retire-

at your drafting table, rendering, right?

ment plan for cartoonists. So I’m gonna die at the drawing table.

NATE: I’m a big believer in compartmentalizing your time. The more I can

KEITH: Charles Schulz did that.

compartmentalize what I do, the happier I am, instead of trying to live like a chaotic

NATE: But that’s fine with me, recognizing,

artist, looking for flashes of genius. Once

like, what do you do when you have 45

my kids are at school, between nine and

or 50 more years of comics to do? This

three, I do nothing but work furiously, so

year over the winter, I had a mini existen-

that I’m able to switch back over to the

tial crisis. For the first time in, like, 25

dad zone for the rest of the day. It has

years, I was like, “I’m out of ideas. Inbox

made my studio into such a refuge and

at zero!” But then one day an idea popped

such a happy place because I allow

into my head. I’ve been noodling at it

myself to leave it at an appropriate time,

over the last couple of months, and very

so that I miss it, and I can’t wait to get

recently, I’m like, “Wait a minute. I’m

back to it.

not out of ideas. This is the next book.”

I think it’s important to impart to students

KEITH: Any last words of wisdom?

that this is something that happens along the way, and don’t beat yourself

NATE : Yeah, just stay loud and stick

over the head about it.

together. We’re in for a turbulent decade-plus ahead of us. That’s not a

KEITH: And just love the meditation

joke. But we’re gonna win. The fascists

of doing it. I’m co-editing a book for

are going to lose. Keep on doing the weird

Fantagraphics, two volumes of outsider

stuff that is [off] kilter. It requires your

cartoonist Frank Johnson’s work. He

unique voice, and you just being you.

R E M E M B E R I N G

Diane Noomin

BY BILL KARTALOPOULOS

I

n September 2022, the SVA community lost Diane Noomin,

work by women. When Wimmen’s Comix #1 was published in

a groundbreaking cartoonist who taught students a subject

1972, it was only the third such publication in American history

she nearly pioneered decades ago, “Personal Comics.”

(after 1970’s It Ain’t Me, Babe and alongside 1972’s Tits and

As an artist, Diane is remembered for the body of comics she

Clits #1). It also proved to be the most long-lasting, publishing

drew that spoke so eloquently in her own voice. As a teacher,

17 issues over 15 years.

Diane helped SVA Comics students find their voices. And in

Diane and Aline both published work in early issues of

fact, lifting up the voices of others was a substantial part of her

Wimmen’s Comix, but, by 1975, they felt stifled by the perceived

career. In 2019, Diane published her last book, Drawing Power,

pressure to produce work for the publication that upheld the

an anthology of autobiographical comics about sexual harass-

ideals of what was then called the “Women’s Liberation”

ment and sexual violence featuring personal comics by more

movement (and which we now identify as second-wave fem-

than 60 diverse women—including Diane. In her preface, she

inism). The following year they broke away from the collective

wrote that the #MeToo movement had motivated her to take

and published their jointly created, one-shot comic book

on this project. “I’m a cartoonist and an editor,” she wrote.

Twisted Sisters. That comic book’s cover greeted readers with

“The only logical way I could respond to this onslaught was as

a self-portrait by Aline, seen seated on the toilet in a moment

a cartoonist and editor.” It’s important that we remember

of physical self-loathing. Twisted Sisters was a space where

Diane the way she described herself: as both a cartoonist and

Diane and Aline could give full range to their thoughts and

an editor.

feelings—lustful, petty, self-deprecating, joyous and sad—and

In 1972, Diane was a young art school dropout in San

articulate the full range of their beings without limits. Aline’s

Francisco, filling up notebooks with drawings and poems. By

stories stuck close to the core of her career-long autobiograph-

a great stroke of luck, she met Aline Kominsky-Crumb (then

ical self-exploration in art. Diane spoke to readers through

Aline Kominsky) at a party, and Aline invited her to the first

the persona of “DiDi Glitz,” an alter-ego based on the women

organizational meeting for Wimmen’s Comix, a collectively run

Noomin had observed growing up on Long Island.

underground comics anthology series exclusively featuring

In the years that followed, Diane continued to publish

stories in various comics and edited Lemme Outa Here! (1978),

this work to an outside world of potential readers who might

a one-shot anthology satirizing the false dreams and stifling

be ready to read adult comics made by talented women

environment of American suburbia. In the years that followed,

speaking impolite truths. So she reinvented Twisted Sisters to

the underground comix milieu dissipated, and independently

create a better platform for their voices.

motivated comics moved from the magazine racks of “head

Against all odds, Diane made a deal with Penguin to publish

shops” that catered to countercultural tastes to the back

a book—Twisted Sisters—that would collect work made by

shelves of a rising network of dedicated comic book specialty

women working in the alternative press. That first Twisted

stores, which principally catered to male collectors of commer-

Sisters book collection appeared in 1991, and it’s important to

cial genre comic books.

understand its significance at that moment. It can be difficult

As a new “alternative” comics scene developed, Diane

now to remember how few adult-oriented comics were pub-

noticed a rising generation of young women artists publishing

lished by mass-market publishers and distributed to mainstream

their work in independent comics like Weirdo, in magazines

bookstores in 1991. Certainly, Art Spiegelman’s Maus had been

like the National Lampoon, in hand-stapled mini-comics, and

very successfully published in two volumes in 1986 and 1991.

elsewhere. These women were producing great, individualistic

Spiegelman and his partner and collaborator Françoise Mouly

work that exhibited precisely the kind of narrative freedom and

had already brought their comics anthology series RAW to

aesthetic diversity that motivated Aline and Diane to publish

Penguin and had edited a handful of striking individual book

their own comic book in the first place. Diane saw these artists

projects at Pantheon and elsewhere, featuring work by Charles

as kindred spirits, fellow twisted sisters. Diane knew this work

Burns, Ben Katchor, Gary Panter, and others. Doubleday had

was good and that it was important, and that it was saying

published two collections of Harvey Pekar’s autobiographical

things that weren’t being said in the larger culture. But Diane

American Splendor comics as well as Larry Gonick’s Cartoon

also perceived that this work was not going to find its ideal

History of the Universe. But in 1991, there was little else on the

appreciative audience languishing in the backs of male-domi-

shelves of American bookstores that didn’t look like a Garfield

nated, fan-oriented comic book stores. Diane wanted to show

collection or a Batman book.

In that context, it remains striking how uncompromising

least. These include “Sixteen” by Debbie Drechsler, “Minnie’s

that first volume of Twisted Sisters was in its editorial choices,

3rd Love,” by Phoebe Gloeckner, and Diane’s own autobi-

anthologizing riveting, risky stories by MK Brown, Julie Doucet,

ographical story “Baby Talk,” in which she stepped out from

Phoebe Gloeckner, Krystine Kryttre, Dori Seda, and others that

behind the persona of DiDi Glitz and told her frank and

had previously been published in comparatively obscure comic

heartbreaking story of multiple unsuccessful attempts to carry

books and anthologies. It also remains clear just how seriously

a pregnancy to term.

Diane took editorial work. She spared no effort to present this

Diane’s two volumes of Twisted Sisters showed anyone

work to a potential audience of serious, adult readers who might

who cared to look how good comics by women cartoonists

not otherwise know that these comics even existed—and likely

could be. And a few years ago, with Drawing Power, she remind-

hadn’t thought much about the artistic potential of comics.

ed us how timely and important they could be, too. As an artist,

Twisted Sisters featured blurbs by Spiegelman and Robert

Diane has enriched the world of comics with her smart, funny

Crumb, the two artists making comics for adults who were most

and emotionally unflinching work. As an editor, she was always

likely to be recognized by a general audience. But even further,

a teacher, even before she joined the SVA faculty. We mourn

the book included a blurb by experimental feminist writer Kathy

that she is no longer with us. But her work leaves us all with

Acker, whose work continues to be rediscovered and studied

the opportunity to learn from her example: her keen editorial

today, and, across the back cover, in big red letters, an en-

sensibility, her powerful sense of mission, and the uncompro-

dorsement from pop superstar Madonna, then arguably at the

mising, deeply motivated drive she brought to all of her work

height of her cultural prominence and influence. In securing

are her inspiring, insistent gifts to us. We can miss her dearly,

this promotional quotation, Diane achieved something that

and we can celebrate that we live in a world that is better

even seasoned book publicists can only dream of.

because Diane Noomin was here with us, giving us her all.

Diane was driven and she pulled out all the stops on behalf of other people’s work. She believed an audience for this work was out there, somewhere beyond the comic book shop. She created a vessel for these comics that was designed to get out into the world, and between the covers, her editorial choices were, as I said, uncompromising. But one compromise is evident: two sexually explicit panels originally published in Young Lust were censored for publication by Penguin. So if Diane was quite early to see the positive potential of working with the mainstream book publishing industry, she also was quick to encounter the downsides of commercial publishing. The book sold out its first print run, but Penguin was in a state of disarray at the time—as corporate publishing companies seem to cyclically be. A new editor-in-chief came in who decided that Penguin was not in the comics publishing business. Clearly, the stigma against comics for adults still persisted in American culture, and so this book that had everything going for it and was selling well did not even go back to press for a second printing.

Nevertheless, Diane still believed in the project and began working on a sequel—this time featuring original work and longer stories. She returned to the independent press, where she knew she would retain full editorial control, and published the second volume of Twisted Sisters in 1994 with Kitchen Sink, one of the few surviving underground comix publishers, and one that had made some inroads into the mainstream book retail marketplace.

As an editor commissioning new work, Diane truly shone in that second volume of Twisted Sisters. Working directly for Diane and producing longer stories at her request, some of the artists in Twisted Sisters 2 made comics that are among the best of their careers—certainly up to that point, at the very

PHOTO BY BILL GRIFFITH

FOR THE LOVE OF COMICS

A

t the end of this year of teaching, I knew it had been a really good year, one full of discoveries and learning experiences for me. The indicator was: when summer came, instead of dropping school stuff like a hot potato in favor of

rest and recreation (you know that teachers look forward to this as much as you do), the first thing I did was look at next fall’s rosters to see if anyone had registered for my classes yet.

Would there be enough enrollment for my classes to run? Would there be some interesting diversity among my students? I looked, and then sighed with relief. All my classes were fully enrolled, with a nice variety of both new and familiar faces, in a great mix of colors and genders. Phew. Good. I get to do this again.

I am very fortunate in that my job is highly addictive. I get to spend my time sharing my enthusiasm for a subject I dearly love—comics. I assign my students comics to read. They read them. Then, they make comics for me to read. Repeat for 30 weeks, with myriad variations.

It helps that comics is such a fantastically layered and eclectic medium. You get out of comics what you put into it, so comics can be childishly simple or thrillingly busy. Comics can be broadly accessible or bizarrely esoteric, highly commercial or defiantly iconoclastic, deeply emotional or brilliantly intellectual. Or any combination of the above and more.

Falling in love with comics means knowing that you will never be bored. You will be too busy for that. There will always be something new to discover… or to invent.

Comics is a collection of nested modular objects: letters within words within balloons within panels within tiers within pages within chapters within books within epic 20-volume shoujo manga series. Plus, of course, some characters and backgrounds. And that nested modularity lends itself to endless creative and scholarly pursuits.

Falling in love with comics means knowing that you will never be bored. You will be too busy for that. There will always be something new to discover… or to invent.

Jason Little BFA Comics Coordinator BFA Comics/BFA Illustration

2023 BFA COMICS

Portfolio Selections

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Cal Botelho @CABOLGUE

19

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Freddie Della Famina

21

22

Natalie Riolfi

NATALIERIOLFI.ART

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24

Kaitlyn Quach @KAITOONIST

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26

Michael Barletta @MBARLETTAART

27

28

Sinclair Dowty @BROTHBONES

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30

Nahia Mouhica @PEACHIARE

31

32

Madelyn Sackett JUNIMADII.COM

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34

Yeabin Lee @JUDGEDARTS

35

36

Marko Palushi @VEDAS_VIRTUE

37

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Xiomara Pardo Reyes @XEO.P

39

40

Zhiyu Lin

@RABBITVJL. JPG

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42

Zhiyu Lin

@RABBITVJL. JPG

Allison Doll

ALLISONDOLL.COM

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44

Koby Clarke @SKUNKIDD_

Gloria Lee @YOONTOONS

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46

Sabrina Reyes

@SABRINANIGHTMAREN

Apollo Baltazar @APOLLOCORED

47

48

Ian Van Doren @IANVANDOREN

Ariel Lachance @ARIELM.ART

49

50

Spark Park @SPARKXART

Yoo Jin Ko @JUDY_LOLOL

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52

Sarah Langston @CAFE.CADET

Jaz Mason @ANGRYJAZ

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Aiden Franco @MOONYMOSS

Cat Kaiser

CATKAISERART.COM

55