 Kate Beaton – a bestselling cartoonist and former member of Pizza Island – signing books at Stumptown Comics Fest. | |
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Pizza Island was a shared cartooning studio space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn established in 2010. It was established by Sarah Glidden, Julia Wertz, and Domitille Collardey, [1] and included Kate Beaton, [2] Meredith Gran, Lisa Hanawalt, Karen Sneider, [3] and Deana Sobel Lederman. [4] Unintentionally, it consisted of all-female cartoonists.
Sarah Glidden and Julia Wertz had the idea to create a shared cartoon space in October 2009, just as Domitille Collardey was planning to move from her native France to New York. The location of Pizza Island was discovered on Craigslist. According to Glidden, the name comes from a nonexistent restaurant they were mistakenly seeking one night. [5]
Pizza Island was located in Studio 2J at the Morgan Fine Arts and Film Center on 649 Morgan Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Their studio was semi-annually open for tours and some Pizza Island members would offer prints and artwork for sale. [6]
Despite its resemblance to a cartoonists collective, Pizza Island cannot be considered an artist collective because there was no shared project or collective rules imposed upon the Pizza Island members. Instead, each was encouraged to pursue her own independent projects, including such different projects as Kate Beaton's comedic webcomic Hark! A Vagrant to Sarah Glidden's 20-page political comic on Iraqi refugees in Syria. [8]
Though the cartoonists worked on separate projects, sharing the space caused them to create lasting connections, such as the friendship of Kate Beaton and Lisa Hanawalt,. [9] Being around each other influenced them enough to learn from the others' art styles, comedy, and subject matter. While working, the cartoonists often engaged in conversations and critiques to benefit their comics and illustrations. [10]
Pizza Island announced its disbandment on January 17, 2012 with a satirical blog post written by Wertz, detailing their "cat fights" and "screaming" upon ending this "all-male" studio, as well as lampooning the different cartoonists with exaggerated caricatures of their personality (such as Lisa Hanawalt lovingly drawing a horse as she speaks, [11] having Sarah Glidden run away from the interview with art supplies tumbling out of her clothes, and detailing a failed relationship between Julia Wertz and a parasitic twin growing out of Lisa Hanawalt's back). [12] In reality, the cartoonists parted ways at the end of the lease while retaining their friendships and creative alliances. [13]
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Kathryn Moira Beaton is a Canadian comics artist best known as the creator of the comic strip Hark! A Vagrant, which ran from 2007 to 2018. Her other major works include the children's books The Princess and the Pony and King Baby, published in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The former was made into an Apple TV+ series called Pinecone & Pony released in 2022 on which Beaton worked as an executive producer. Also in 2022, Beaton released a memoir in graphic novel form, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, about her experience working in the Alberta oil sands. Publishers Weekly named Ducks one of their top ten books of the year.
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Sarah Glidden is an American cartoonist known for her nonfiction comics and graphic novels.
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Notable events of 2012 in webcomics.
Lisa Hanawalt is an American illustrator, writer, and cartoonist. She has published comic series, as well as three books of illustrations. She worked as the production designer and a producer of the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman (2014–2020), and co-hosts the podcast Baby Geniuses (2012–present) with comedian Emily Heller. She created and executive produced the Adult Swim animated series, Tuca & Bertie (2019–2022).
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Disbandment announcement