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Marcellus Hall is an American artist and musician. As an illustrator, Hall has worked for The New Yorker and other publications. As a musician, Hall has performed solo and with bands Railroad Jerk and White Hassle.
Marcellus Hall was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, [1] and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design [2] where he also learned guitar and harmonica. [3]
As a freelance illustrator, Hall has worked for publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Time, The Christian Science Monitor, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Fortune, and The New Yorker. He first became a New Yorker magazine contributor in 1993 and his first cover was published in 2005. [4] His second in 2008. His third in 2013. [5] And his fourth in 2016. [6] About his fourth cover Hall said "...I did that in 2008 ...it got printed in 2016 ...it took eight years. [7]
In March 2018, Hall published with Bittersweet Editions a debut comic narrative (also known as a graphic novel) called Kaleidoscope City. The book is an existentialist meditation in words and drawings on a year in the life of an unnamed protagonist who seeks meaning through art and city life following the end of a romance. The book earned accolades from actor Bob Odenkirk, comics artist Adrian Tomine, and musician Adam Green. [8]
"I loved this book and it's understandable why people like Adrian Tomine and Bob Odenkirk do too. It's something I haven't seen or felt in a piece of art before. I haven't stopped thinking about it since finishing reading it. This is a nice and refreshing change of pace for comics and a great book for early spring,” said Lenny Schwartz of Forces of Geek. “...a wonderfully unique book.” [9]
“We wake up, trudge to work, eat, sleep, repeat. However, illustrator Marcellus Hall challenges that view of life and beckons us to look at life in a different way in his lyrical, sometimes ethereal, always lovely new graphic novel Kaleidoscope City," said Jed W. Keith of Freak Sugar. [10]
About Kaleidoscope City Hall has said “Life is a lonely business. Religion and art tell stories to make us feel less alone. The fact that we inhale air speaks to our need for air. The fact that we have religion and art speaks to our need for connection. I can’t say why we need connection anymore than why we need air, except to say that we would die without either of them.” [11]
Hall's work has also appeared in The Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, and Communication Arts annuals.
In his first years in New York, Hall also created the weekly comic strip Bill Dogbreath for alternative weekly newspapers that included The Onion, The Seattle Stranger, New York Perspectives, and Baltimore City Paper. [12]
In addition to illustrating the books White Pigeons and 57 Octaves for Fifth Planet Press, [13] Hall has self-published books of drawings and writing including Hard Luck Stories and Legends of the Infinite City (a collection of black & white drawings of New York City). [3]
A selection of Hall's sketches was published in Le Sketch #05, 2008.
In 2008 Hall began illustrating children's books. Among them are Because You Are My Baby (2008) by Sherry North, [14] City I Love (2009) by Lee Bennett Hopkins, [14] Because You Are My Daddy (2010) by Sherry North, [14] The Cow Loves Cookies (2010) by Karma Wilson, [15] Full Moon and Star (2011) by Lee Bennett Hopkins, [14] Because I Am Your Teacher (2012) by Sherry North, [16] What's New? The Zoo! (2014) by Kathleen Krull, [17] and Duddle Puck The Puddle Duck (2015) by Karma Wilson. [18]
In May 2013, Everybody Sleeps, [19] Hall's first children's book as both author and illustrator, was published by Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin.
Hall was a founding member of and main songwriter for the band Railroad Jerk. The group released four albums on Matador Records and was influential in the blues/punk/folk/grunge genre. The song "Rollerkoaster" from the album One Track Mind [20] appeared on MTV's Beavis and Butthead. [21] The song "Home=Hang" from One Track Mind appeared in the film Day at the Beach from 1997. [22]
After the dissolution of Railroad Jerk, Hall formed the band White Hassle with Railroad Jerk drummer Dave Varenka. [23] Using accompanying guitarists, a theremin player, and a DJ, White Hassle released albums on Matador Records, Fargo Records, Mazri Records, and Orange Recordings. [24] The band toured Europe and America before disbanding in 2006. [25]
Hall has since performed as a solo artist with his band, The Hostages (which includes mainstays Damon Smith and Mike Shapiro, as well as others, including Michael DuClos, Alex Berman, Troy Fannin, Jimmy Ansourian, Joachim Kearns, and Matt Martin). Hall released a debut album, First Line, on Modest Mouse singer Isaac Brock's label Glacial Pace in 2011. [26] The album is accompanied by a 44-page illustrated book.
In 2013 Hall raised money via Kickstarter for the album [27] Afterglow, [28] which was released on December 10, 2013. [29]
In 2024, Hall released I Will Never Let You Down, on Germany's Gutfeeling label, produced by Chris Maxwell. [30] About the long gap between albums, Hall has said, “We wanted to get it right.The pandemic intervened, but we got it right. These are songs about love, loss, hope, and redemption.” [31]
Illustrator and Author
Illustrator only
In 2013 Hall appeared in a music video for the song Soulmate. In 2021 Hall appeared in a documentary, Marcellus Hall, An Artist in New York City produced by Fourwind Films & Laura Davi. [36] [37] [38] [39]
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The High School of Art and Design is a career and technical education high school in Manhattan, New York City, New York State, United States. Founded in 1936 as the School of Industrial Art, the school moved to 1075 Second Avenue in 1960 and more recently, its Midtown Manhattan location on 56th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, in September 2012. High School of Art and Design is operated by the New York City Department of Education.
Rose Cecil O'Neill was an American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer. She rose to fame for her creation of the popular comic strip characters, Kewpies, in 1909, and was also the first published female cartoonist in the United States.
Alan Aldridge was a British artist, graphic designer and illustrator. He is best known for his psychedelic artwork made for books and record covers by The Beatles and The Who.
Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon were American illustrators of children's books and adult paperback book and magazine covers. One obituary of Leo called the work of the husband-and-wife team "a seamless amalgam of both their hands". In more than 50 years, they created more than 100 speculative fiction book and magazine covers together as well as much interior artwork. Essentially all of their work in that field was joint.
Steve Brodner is a satirical illustrator and caricaturist working for publications in the US since the 1970s. He is accepted in the fields of journalism and the graphic arts as a master of the editorial idiom. Currently a regular contributor to GQ, The Nation, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, Brodner's art journalism has appeared in major magazines and newspapers in the United States, such as Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Esquire, Time, Playboy, Mother Jones, Harper's, and The Atlantic. His work, first widely seen exposing and attacking Reagan Era scandals, is credited with helping spearhead the 1980s revival of pointed and entertaining graphic commentary in the US. He is currently working on a book about the presidents of the United States.
William Elder was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art but is best known for a frantically funny cartoon style that helped launch Harvey Kurtzman's Mad comic book in 1952.
Barbara Nessim is an American artist, illustrator, and educator.
Jon Landau is an American music critic, manager, and record producer. He has worked with Bruce Springsteen. He is the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received that institution's Ahmet Ertegun Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2020.
Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product, such as a book, magazine, newspaper (tabloid), comic book, video game, music album, CD, videotape, DVD, or podcast.
Carson Friedman Ellis is a Canadian-born American children's book illustrator and artist. She received a Caldecott Honor for her children's book Du Iz Tak? (2016). Her work is inspired by folk art, art history, and mysticism.
Phoebe Hemenway Legere is an American pioneer of multi-disciplinary art. She is a Juilliard-educated composer, soprano, pianist and accordionist, painter, poet, and film maker. A graduate of Vassar College with a four octave vocal range, Legere has recorded for Mercury Records in England, and for Epic, Island, Rizzoli, Funtone, ESP Disk and Einstein Records in the United States. Legere plays seven musical instruments and has released 15 CDs of original music. She has appeared on National Public Radio, CBS Sunday Morning, PBS's City Arts, WNYC's Soundcheck, Charlie Rose and in films by Troma, Island Pictures, Rosa von Praunheim, Ela Troyano and Ivan Galietti, Abel Ferrara, Jonathan Demme, Ivan Reitman and many others. Legere is of Acadian and Abenaki descent. She is a standard bearer of the Acadian and Abenaki renaissance in America.
Railroad Jerk was a New York City–based indie rock band of the 1990s, specializing in a hard-driven punk blues sound.
Guy Billout is a French artist and illustrator. In 1989, Billout received the Hamilton King Award and in 2016, he was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.
Kadir Nelson is a Los Angeles–based painter, illustrator, and author who is best known for his paintings often featured on the covers of The New Yorker magazine, and album covers for Michael Jackson and Drake. His work is focused on African-American culture and history. The New York Times describes his work as: "sumptuous, deeply affecting work. Nelson’s paintings are drenched in ambience, and often overt symbolism. He has twice been a Caldecott honor recipient and won the 2020 Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in The Undefeated.
Paul Brooks Davis is an American graphic artist.
White Hassle were a band with the lead singer Marcellus Hall based in New York, New York. Dave Varenka played drums, with Chris Maxwell and Joachim Kearns on guitars. The Houston Chronicle described their music as "stripped-down ... noisy blues-soaked rock".
Barry Blitt is a Canadian-born American cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his New Yorker covers and as a regular contributor to the op-ed page of The New York Times. Blitt creates his works in traditional pen and ink, as well as watercolors.
Daniel Adel has worked as a portraitist, illustrator and fine artist since 1984. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times, and on magazine covers including The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and Time, for whom he painted two covers in 2004. His cover portrait of George W. Bush for the Time Person of the Year issue in 2004 is part of the collection of Washington, D.C.'s National Portrait Gallery. His portrait of the former Speaker of the New York City Council, Gifford Miller, hangs in New York's City Hall. He has been commissioned to paint the Editors-in-Chief of Time, Der Spiegel, and Vanity Fair.
Afterglow is the second solo album by illustrator and musician Marcellus Hall. The title song was listed on the New York Music Daily as song #48 on the 100 best songs of 2012 before the album was released. The Hostages consist of Troy Fannin on keyboard and guitar, Mike Shapiro on drums, and Damon Smith on bass. Mike Duclos also played Upright Bass on the album. Marcellus Hall said the members of the Hostages where not literally hostages but said this backup band was more cohesive as a group over other backup ensembles he had played with. The album was released at Rockwood Music Hall in the Lower East Side of New York City on December 10, 2013.
The Third Rail is the fourth and final studio album by New York City-based blues rock band Railroad Jerk, released on October 8, 1996 on Matador Records.
