Career
Alternative comics
Madden began his career self-publishing minicomics in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the early 1990s. He was co-editor with Matt Feazell and Sean Bieri of the anthology 5 O'Clock Shadow. [3] After several of his short pieces appeared in established publications, Madden's first graphic novel, Black Candy, was published by Black Eye Books in 1998. His graphic novel Odds Off was published by Highwater Books (2001), and two issues of his periodical series of short works, A Fine Mess, were published by Alternative Comics (2002–2004).
Madden's work from the early 2000s often dealt with themes in settings in Mexico (where he lived for a time in the late 1990s), or that were rooted in Mexican culture. For a time, he was a consulting editor for the minicomic Le Sketch, published out of Portugal. [4]
During this period, Madden also worked as an editorial illustrator.
In 2002, Madden was named the "U.S. correspondent" of OuBaPo, [5] a French comics movement which believes in the use of formal constraints to push the boundaries of the medium.
Madden's 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style , published in 2005, is an inventive comics homage to Raymond Queneau's 1947 book Exercises in Style . 99 Ways to Tell a Story retells a single, mundane one-page anecdote in 99 radically different visual and narrative variations. Both playful and analytical, the book serves as a living demonstration of the formal possibilities of comics — exploring how changes in style, structure, and design transform meaning while foregrounding the very language of the medium. [6]
Madden's Ex Libris, published in 2021, is a playful, metafictional locked-room mystery in which a nameless narrator searches an endless, imaginary library for clues to his predicament. Mixing genres and visual styles — from superhero parody to indie romance to EC Comics horror — the book is both a puzzle and a celebration of comics themselves. [7]
Other works expressing Madden's interests as a comics theorist include Bridge (2013/2016/2021) [8] [9] and Drawn Onward (2015). [10]
Six Treasures of the Spiral: Comics Formed Under Pressure, a collection of Madden's experiments in comics formalism, was released in 2024 by Uncivilized Books. Stories take the form of a visual palindrome, align their structures with the letters of the alphabet, or adhere to strict poetic formats such as the villanelle and haiku. [11]
Criticism/education/translation
In the mid-1990s, Madden began writing reviews for The Comics Journal and other publications. In the early 2000s, he taught comics storytelling at the School of Visual Arts.
With his wife, fellow cartoonist Jessica Abel, Madden published two comics textbooks — Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, (First Second Books, 2008), and Mastering Comics: Drawing Words & Writing Pictures Continued (First Second, 2012).
Madden has translated a number of French bande dessinées for the English-language market, including works by Aristophane, Edmond Baudoin, and Blutch.
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