Eric Reynolds (comics)

Last updated
Eric Reynolds
Born1971
Nationality American
Area(s) Cartoonist, Artist, Inker, Editor
Awards Inkpot Award (2018) [1]

Eric Reynolds is a Seattle-based cartoonist, critic and comics editor who is the Vice-President and Associate Publisher for Fantagraphics Books. His work has appeared in The Stranger , The Comics Journal , The New York Times , The New York Press and other publications. He has edited or co-edited The Complete Crumb Comics , Angry Youth Comics , Dirty Stories and MOME , [2] and has inked some of Peter Bagge's comics. [3]

Contents

Personal history

Reynolds read comics from an early age, and remembers being fascinated by a stack of Superman comics he saw when he was young. [4]

Reynolds was moving towards a career in journalism when he was in university in California and was managing editor and cartoonist for his university newspaper. In the spring of 1993, he realized that Fantagraphics published almost all of his favorite comics. He contacted them looking for a job. He got a job a month later, and stayed in Seattle for three months before returning to university. After finishing his degree a semester later, he returned to Fantagraphics and has remained there ever since. [4]

Reynolds worked as news editor for The Comics Journal from 1993, covering such events as the rise of Image Comics, the Mike Diana controversies and the general downturn in the comic book industry, before moving to marketing and promotion in 1996. [2]

As a cartoonist, Reynolds counts Chester Brown and Daniel Clowes as his strongest formative influences, especially Brown's Ed the Happy Clown . He also counts friends and Seattle residents Peter Bagge, Jim Blanchard, Jeremy Eaton, Pat Moriarity, Al Columbia, Jim Woodring and others amongst his contemporary influences. [4]

His name was given to a character who worked for a comic book publisher in an episode of The Simpsons in 2000 by writer and producer Dana Gould. [5] In 2018 he was the recipient of an Inkpot Award from Comic-Con International.

Publishing history

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underground comix</span> Comics genre

Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality, and violence. They were most popular in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s, and in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilbert Hernandez</span> American cartoonist

Gilberto Hernández, usually credited as Gilbert Hernandez and also by the nickname Beto, is an American cartoonist. He is best known for his Palomar/Heartbreak Soup stories in Love and Rockets, an alternative comic book he shared with his brothers Jaime and Mario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fantagraphics</span> American publisher

Fantagraphics is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint.

<i>Hate</i> (comics) Comic book by writer-artist Peter Bagge

Hate is a comic book by writer-artist Peter Bagge. First published by Fantagraphics in 1990 it ran for 30 issues, and was one of the best-selling alternative comics of the 1990s, at its height selling 30,000 copies an issue. In 2000 Bagge revived the series in Hate Annual, a yearly comic that continues the story after Hate in short stories, and includes writings on libertarianism, culture, and topical cartoons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Bagge</span> American cartoonist

Peter Bagge is an American cartoonist whose best-known work includes the comics Hate and Neat Stuff. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth. He won two Harvey Awards in 1991, one for best cartoonist and one for his work on Hate. In recent decades Bagge has done more fact-based comics, everything from biographies to history to comics journalism. Publishers of Bagge's articles, illustrations, and comics include suck.com, MAD Magazine, toonlet, Discover, and the Weekly World News, with the comic strip Adventures of Batboy. He has expressed his libertarian views in features for Reason.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Deitch</span> American cartoonist

Kim Deitch is an American cartoonist who was an important figure in the underground comix movement of the 1960s, remaining active in the decades that followed with a variety of books and comics, sometimes using the pseudonym Fowlton Means.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Clowes</span> American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter

Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter. Most of Clowes's work first appeared in Eightball, a solo anthology comic book series. An Eightball issue typically contained several short pieces and a chapter of a longer narrative that was later collected and published as a graphic novel, such as Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (1993), Ghost World (1997), David Boring (2000) and Patience (2016). Clowes's illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, Newsweek, Vogue, The Village Voice, and elsewhere. With filmmaker Terry Zwigoff, Clowes adapted Ghost World into a 2001 film and another Eightball story into the 2006 film, Art School Confidential. Clowes's comics, graphic novels, and films have received numerous awards, including a Pen Award for Outstanding Work in Graphic Literature, over a dozen Harvey and Eisner Awards, and an Academy Award nomination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Griffith</span> American cartoonist (born 1944)

William Henry Jackson Griffith is an American cartoonist who signs his work Bill Griffith and Griffy. He is best known for his surreal daily comic strip Zippy. The catchphrase "Are we having fun yet?" is credited to Griffith.

Roberta Gregory is an American comic book writer and artist best known for the character Bitchy Bitch from her Fantagraphics Books series Naughty Bits. She is a prolific contributor to many feminist and underground anthologies, such as Wimmen's Comix and Gay Comix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Ryan</span> American alternative comics creator,writer and animator (born 1970)

John F. Ryan IV is an American alternative comics creator, writer, and animator. He created Angry Youth Comix, a comic book published by Fantagraphics, and "Blecky Yuckerella", a comic strip which originated in the alternative newspaper the Portland Mercury and now appears on Ryan's website. He also created Pig Goat Banana Cricket, a TV show made jointly with Dave Cooper that Nickelodeon picked up. He was the story editor for Looney Tunes Cartoons. In a throwback to the days of underground comix, Ryan's oeuvre is generally an attempt to be as shocking and politically incorrect as possible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rick Altergott</span> American alternative cartoonist

Rick Altergott is an American alternative cartoonist and illustrator. Altergott is best known for Doofus, a long-running low-brow, scatological series of strips which chronicle the misadventures of two small-town weirdos, Doofus and Henry Hotchkiss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Forney</span> American cartoonist

Ellen Forney is an American cartoonist, educator, and wellness coach. She is known for her autobiographic comics which include I was Seven in '75; I Love Led Zepellin; and Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me. She teaches at the Cornish College of the Arts. Her work covers mental illness, political activism, drugs, and the riot grrrl movement. Currently, she is based in Seattle, Washington.

Michael Catron is an American comic book editor and publisher. He is former publisher of Apple Comics and co-founder of Fantagraphics.

Philip W. Nel is an American scholar of children's literature and University Distinguished Professor of English at Kansas State University. He is best known for his work on Dr. Seuss and Harry Potter, which has led to him being a guest on such media programs as CBS Sunday Morning, NPR's Morning Edition,Talk of the Nation, and CNN's Don Lemon Tonight.

Robert C. Harvey was an American author, critic and cartoonist. He wrote a number of books on the history and theory of cartooning, with special focus on the comic strip. He also worked as a freelance cartoonist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Eichhorn</span> American writer (1945-2015)

Dennis P. Eichhorn was an American writer, best known for his adult-oriented autobiographical comic book series Real Stuff. His stories, often involving, sex, drugs, and alcohol, have been compared to those of Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, and Charles Bukowski.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Thompson</span> American comic book editor, and publisher (1956-2013)

Kim Thompson was an American comic book editor, translator, and publisher, best known as vice president and co-publisher of Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books. Along with co-publisher Gary Groth, Thompson used his position to further the cause of alternative comics in the American market. In addition, Thompson made it his business to bring the work of European cartoonists to American readers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Yoe</span> American historian

Craig Yoe is an author, editor, art director, graphic designer, cartoonist and comics historian, best known for his Yoe! Studio creations and his line of Yoe! Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paco Roca</span>

Francisco Martínez Roca aka Paco Roca is a Spanish strip cartoonist with experience in graphic novels and advertisement illustrations.

J. R. Williams is an American cartoonist, animator, and fine artist best known for his late 1980s/early 1990s work in alternative comics. Known for his manic, exaggerated cartooning style, Williams brought an underground comix edge to his work during this period. Williams' characters Skinboy and the Bad Boys made recurring appearances in many of his stories.

References

  1. Inkpot Award
  2. 1 2 Spurgeon, Tom (2008-01-04). "CR Holiday Interview #9: Eric Reynolds". The Comics Reporter. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
  3. "Eric Reynolds". Comic Art Collective. Archived from the original on 2011-05-25. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
  4. 1 2 3 Contino, Jennifer M.; Atchison, Lee (December 2002). "Fantagraphics Man of Many Hats: Eric Reynolds". Sequential Tart. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
  5. Sandall, part 4

Sources