blake 3:17
12th June 2014, 08:19
This is massive.
State of the Art: QU33R
BY ROB CLOUGH JUN 9, 2014
Rob Kirby has been editing comics anthologies for over twenty years. Starting with Strange Looking Exile in 1991 (which included Alison Bechdel & Roberta Gregory), and continuing with Boy Trouble through the ’90s until 2006, and Three in the past couple of years, Kirby has published them in the formats of mini-comics, comic books, and trade paperbacks. Kirby has always had one eye on quality and another eye on diversity, trying to get as many different points of view and styles as possible into his queer-themed anthologies. At the same time, it’s always seemed like he was trying to push his contributors into doing their best work for his anthologies, because diversity alone wasn’t enough. He’s also long had an eye for emerging young talent, encouraging young cartoonists to submit to his anthologies while attempting to push them past their limits as creators.
What’s interesting about Kirby is that while he’s been a prominent queer cartoonist and editor for nearly twenty-five years, he also sees himself and the artists he publishes as part of the greater alt-comics scene. The queer alt-comics scene is one that has evolved parallel to the straight underground scene, with surprisingly little crossover or awareness between the two audiences. Of course, that’s never been the case for Kirby himself, who grew up reading Weirdo and worked to have John Porcellino distribute his comics through Porcellino’s Spit And A Half. It’s always been part of his mission to find ways to connect the two communities without compromising the identity of the queer community. This is one reason why the 2012 Justin Hall-edited No Straight Lines was such a landmark. While that totally uncompromising survey of queer comics not only won a Lambda Literary award, it was also nominated for the (quite mainstream) Eisner Award. Kirby’s new anthology QU33R is very much a reaction to and extension of No Straight Lines. If the latter collection represents the past of queer comics (including the very notion of what it is to be queer in the modern day), Kirby wanted to assemble an anthology that provides a snapshot of its present.
full story: http://www.tcj.com/state-of-the-art-qu33r/
State of the Art: QU33R
BY ROB CLOUGH JUN 9, 2014
Rob Kirby has been editing comics anthologies for over twenty years. Starting with Strange Looking Exile in 1991 (which included Alison Bechdel & Roberta Gregory), and continuing with Boy Trouble through the ’90s until 2006, and Three in the past couple of years, Kirby has published them in the formats of mini-comics, comic books, and trade paperbacks. Kirby has always had one eye on quality and another eye on diversity, trying to get as many different points of view and styles as possible into his queer-themed anthologies. At the same time, it’s always seemed like he was trying to push his contributors into doing their best work for his anthologies, because diversity alone wasn’t enough. He’s also long had an eye for emerging young talent, encouraging young cartoonists to submit to his anthologies while attempting to push them past their limits as creators.
What’s interesting about Kirby is that while he’s been a prominent queer cartoonist and editor for nearly twenty-five years, he also sees himself and the artists he publishes as part of the greater alt-comics scene. The queer alt-comics scene is one that has evolved parallel to the straight underground scene, with surprisingly little crossover or awareness between the two audiences. Of course, that’s never been the case for Kirby himself, who grew up reading Weirdo and worked to have John Porcellino distribute his comics through Porcellino’s Spit And A Half. It’s always been part of his mission to find ways to connect the two communities without compromising the identity of the queer community. This is one reason why the 2012 Justin Hall-edited No Straight Lines was such a landmark. While that totally uncompromising survey of queer comics not only won a Lambda Literary award, it was also nominated for the (quite mainstream) Eisner Award. Kirby’s new anthology QU33R is very much a reaction to and extension of No Straight Lines. If the latter collection represents the past of queer comics (including the very notion of what it is to be queer in the modern day), Kirby wanted to assemble an anthology that provides a snapshot of its present.
full story: http://www.tcj.com/state-of-the-art-qu33r/