Katie Skelly | |
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 Skelly speaking at the Small Press Expo in 2019 | |
| Born | February 5, 1985 |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | comics artist |
Katie Skelly is an American comics artist and illustrator. She is best known for her graphic novels My Pretty Vampire, Maids , and Nurse Nurse.
Katie Skelly was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her father's side of the family operated a newsstand in downtown Bethlehem and he brought her comics from the stand to read. She began drawing her own comics in high school, and after graduating from college, Skelly began her science fiction-themed, Barbarella -inspired series Nurse, Nurse. She received a B. A. in Art History from Syracuse University and followed it with graduate coursework at City College of New York. [1]
In 2017 Fantagraphics Books published Skelly's first hardcover graphic novel My Pretty Vampire, notable for its "dramatic colors" and "sense of mercurial motion". [2] Inspired by the Italian horror films of Dario Argento and the early work of comics illustrator Jean-Claude Forest, [3] the story follows a young vampire who escapes captivity by her brother to discover herself through surreal, sensual and often violent adventures in the modern world.
Skelly's other works include Operation Margarine (2014, Adhouse Books), for which she was awarded the inaugural Emerging Artist Prize at the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus Festival in 2015; [4] The Agency (2018, Fantagraphics Underground); and illustrations for the Alex de Campi penned Twisted Romance: Heartbreak Incorporated (2018, Image Comics), which received a 2019 Eisner Awards nomination for best anthology. [5]
Among her early works, Skelly self-published Nurse Nurse in chapter-sized installments until Sparkplug Comics founder Dylan Williams offered to publish the collected issues. Nurse Nurse was one of the last pieces Williams finished publishing before he died in 2011. [6]
Skelly has written and lectured about comics for The Comics Journal , the Center for Cartoon Studies, Fordham University, and The New School, among others. In 2017 she told NPR: "When I started drawing comics, it was to make my own reality. But now as an adult, I draw them to better understand why everyday life is extraordinary." [7]
Currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York, Skelly's biographical graphic novel Maids, based on the lives of convicted murderers Christine and Léa Papin, was published by Fantagraphics Books in October 2020. [8] Library Journal's advance review of the book discusses the "horror of the Papin sisters’ crimes," noting that Skelly's "perceptive examination of the complex bond between Catherine and Lea evokes incredible sympathy for the two nonetheless." [9]
Skelly's first solo exhibition Skellyworld ran at The Naughton Gallery at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland August 8 through October 6, 2019. [10] The show gave insights into Skelly's work and artistic process, exhibiting original drawings from all of her major published works, as well as paintings, sketchbooks, video projects, self-produced merchandise, and a 78-card tarot deck that she designed and illustrated. Exhibition curatorial notes listed Japanese comics, bandes dessinée , science fiction and B movies from the 1960s and 1970s as Skelly's inspirations, and noted that she "examines exploitation genres for transgressive elements" in her work.
Her art has also appeared in group exhibitions, including 18+ at Recspec Gallery in Austin, TX (2018); Speculative Skins at The Naughton Gallery (2018); From Panel to Panel X: C/Overt Movement in Comicana, at the Medialia Gallery in New York City (2014), and Karma-Con at the Rubin Museum of Art (2012).
William Erwin Eisner was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book Comics and Sequential Art (1985). The Eisner Award was named in his honor and is given to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium; he was one of the three inaugural inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
Colleen Doran is an American writer-artist and cartoonist. She illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines, including the autobiographical graphic novel of Marvel Comics editor and writer Stan Lee entitled Amazing Fantastic Incredible Stan Lee, which became a New York Times bestseller. She adapted and did the art for the short story "Troll Bridge" by Neil Gaiman, which also became a New York Times bestseller. Her books have received Eisner, Harvey, Bram Stoker, Locus, and International Horror Guild Awards.
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.
Dame Darcy Pleasant, better known by the pen name Dame Darcy, is an alternative cartoonist, fine artist, musician, cabaret performer, and animator/filmmaker. Her "Neo-Victorian" comic book series Meat Cake was published by Fantagraphics Books from 1993 to 2008. The Meat Cake Bible compilation was released in June 2016 and nominated for The Eisner Award July 2017. Vegan Love: Dating and Partnering for the Cruelty-Free Gal, with Fashion, Makeup & Wedding Tips, written by Maya Gottfried and illustrated by Dame Darcy, was the Silver Medalist winners of the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2018.
Jessica Abel is an American comic book writer and artist, known as the creator of such works as Life Sucks, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, Soundtrack, La Perdida, Mirror, Window, Radio: An Illustrated Guide, and the omnibus series Artbabe.
Carol Tyler is an American painter, educator, comedian, and eleven-time Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist known for her autobiographical comics. She has received multiple honors for her work including the Cartoonist Studio Prize, the Ohio Arts Council Excellence Award, and was declared a Master Cartoonist at the 2016 Cartoon Crossroads Columbus Festival at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.
Lorenzo Mattotti is an Italian comics artist and illustrator. His illustrations have been published in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue, The New Yorker, Le Monde and Vanity Fair. In comics, Mattotti won an Eisner Award in 2003 for his Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde graphic novel.
Dash Shaw is an American comic book writer/artist and animator. He is the author of the graphic novels Cosplayers, Doctors, New School, and Bottomless Belly Button, published by Fantagraphics. Additionally, Shaw has written Love Eats Brains published by Odd God Press, GardenHead published by Meathaus, The Mother's Mouth published by Alternative Comics, and BodyWorld published by Pantheon Books.
Renée French is an American comics writer and illustrator and, under the pen name Rainy Dohaney, a children's book author, and exhibiting artist.
Alex de Campi is a British-born American music video director, comics writer and columnist.
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is a research library of American cartoons and comic art affiliated with the Ohio State University library system in Columbus, Ohio. Formerly known as the Cartoon Research Library and the Cartoon Library & Museum, it holds the world's largest and most comprehensive academic research facility documenting and displaying original and printed comic strips, editorial cartoons, and cartoon art. The museum is named after the Ohio cartoonist Billy Ireland.
Eleanor McCutcheon Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator.
Craig Yoe is an American author, editor, art director, graphic designer, cartoonist and comics historian, best known for his Yoe! Studio creations and his line of Yoe Books.
Emma Ríos Maneiro is a Spanish comics artist, writer, and editor with an international presence in the comics industry. She has worked for some of the largest American comics publishers, including Marvel, Image, and Boom! Studios.
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is a two-volume debut graphic novel by American writer Emil Ferris. It portrays a young girl named Karen Reyes investigating the death of her neighbor in 1960s Chicago. Ferris started working on the graphic novel after contracting West Nile virus and becoming paralyzed at age forty. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for writing and began the graphic novel to help her recover in 2010, taking six years to create 700 pages. The work draws on Ferris's childhood growing up in Chicago, and her love of monsters and horror media. The process of creating the book was difficult, with Ferris working long hours, living frugally, and encountering publishing setbacks, such as a cancelation by one publisher and the temporary seizure of the first volume's printing at the Panama Canal.
Julia Gfrörer is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and author. Her work is often transgressive, invoking occult themes within an ambience of subtly observed historicist concerns, in narratives generally characterized by "mumblecore dialogue, persistent overtones of horror and suffering, and unapologetic sexuality."
Sparkplug Comic Books was a publisher and distributor of alternative comics founded by cartoonist Dylan Williams. Based in Portland, Oregon, the company operated from 2002 to 2016. The publisher's backlist was later handled by Alternative Comics.
Vault Comics is an American publisher of comic books. The company is known for its horror, fantasy, and science fiction titles, with a focus on diversity and cross-media properties.
Maids is a 2020 graphic novel by Katie Skelly. It is about Christine and Léa Papin's 1933 murder of Genevieve and Léonie Lancelin, it was published by Fantagraphics.
Acclaimed cartoonist Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets) appeared in conversation with artist Katie Skelly... Skelly said her next book, Maids, will be about the Papin sisters, French maids who committed a grisly murder in the 1930s. It's due from Fantagraphics in 2020.
Inspired by gekiga, giallo, bande dessinée, science fiction comics, and B movies from the '60s and '70s, Skelly's work examines exploitation genres for transgressive elements. Through her female protagonists, Skelly normalises all manner of female sensuality, encouraging confidence, sense of self, or the power to erase one's self and become an agent, an alias, or a woman on the run.
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