Steven Weissman
| Steven Weissman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Steven Knight Weissman June 4, 1968 California |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
| Pseudonym(s) | Ribs |
Notable works | Chewing Gum In Church, Don't Call Me Stupid, Barack Hussein Obama, Yikes |
| Awards | Harvey Award, 1998 (Best New Talent) |
Steven Weissman (b. June 4, 1968, in California) is an award-winning alternative cartoonist best known for his offbeat and bizarre explorations of childhood friendships. His work has been published by Alternative Comics, Fantagraphics, Retrofit and Vice.
Yikes
Weissman made his name with the Harvey and Ignatz award-nominated 1997 series Yikes (volume II), published by Alternative Comics. It features the light-hearted adventures of a gang of kids, very much in the Little Rascals mold, who just happen to be "monsters" — vampires, zombies, and the like. Yikes ran for two issues, and has since been collected, with previous self-published Yikes comics, in Don't Call Me Stupid and Mean, both put out by Fantagraphics.
The Yikes gang
- Li'l Bloody — a "deformation" of a Baron Blood knock-off Weissman drew in sketchbooks shared with his teenaged friends.
- Pullapart Boy — L'il Bloody's "Frankenstein's Monster" best friend
- Dead Boy — Pullapart Boy's "zombie" sidekick/brother
- Kid Medusa — inspired by Chrysaor, brother of Pegasus and son of Poseidon and Medusa
- X-Ray Spence — inspired by iconic comic book ads for X-ray glasses.
- "Sweet Chubby" Cheeks — a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde character, modeled after Joe Cobb.
- Li'l Tin-Stars — inspired by Western heroes like the Lone Ranger
- Elzie Crisler — the kids' mascot, a reanimated dead dog named after Popeye creator Elzie Crisler Segar.
Barack Hussein Obama
In 2009, Weissman began a webcomic called Barack Hussein Obama featuring the president, his cabinet and family. All the characters have the same names and faces but live in an alternate dimension, living their lives and US government roles in different ways. Fantagraphics published the strips as a graphic novel in September 2012. A second volume is due in 2016.
Awards
1998 Harvey Award for Best New Talent.
Personal life
Weissman lived in San Francisco in the late 1990s, where he associated with fellow cartoonists/illustrators Ed Brubaker, Brian Biggs, Josh Neufeld, and Mats!? (with whom he shared a studio space). He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Charissa Chu, and their son Charles.
Quotes
Weissman, on drawing "cute":
| “ | I hated how cute art relied on BIG EYES so much that I made it a rule early on to always make my characters squint.[1] | ” |
Tom Spurgeon of the Comics Reporter:
| “ | Weissman's idiosyncratic character types, from Li'l Bloody to Sweet Chubby Cheeks, are so perfectly realized you almost feel like they're ideas you came up with first but never found the time to put to paper.[1] | ” |
| “ | Steven Weissman is the best cartoonist to explore the fantastic world of children since John Stanley (Little Lulu).[2] | ” |
| “ | Steven Weissman is a cartoonist who is so good, so funny, and so original that he doesn't have to be serious to be taken seriously.[2] | ” |
Selected bibliography
- Tykes, 1997 (Alternative)
- Yikes (vol II), 1998 (Alternative)
- Lemon Kids, 1999 (Alternative)
- Champs, 1999 (Fantagraphics) ISBN 1-56097-372-2
- Don't Call Me Stupid : A "Yikes" Collection, 2001 (Fantagraphics) ISBN 978-1-56097-431-4
- White Flower Day, 2002 (Fantagraphics) ISBN 1-56097-514-8
- The Kid Firechief, 2004 (Fantagraphics) ISBN 978-1-56097-866-4
- Mean, 2007 (Fantagraphics) ISBN 978-1-56097-866-4
- Chewing Gum in Church, 2007 (Fantagraphics) ISBN 1-56097-736-1
- Chocolate Cheeks, 2010 (Fantagraphics) ISBN 978-1-56097-927-2
- Barack Hussein Obama, 2012 (Fantagraphics) ISBN 978-160699623-2
- Mutiny on the Mousey, 2014 (Stinckers) ISBN N/A
- Butter and Blood, 2015 (Retrofit/Big Planet) ISBN 978-1940398426
References
- 1 2 Spurgeon, Tom. "CR Sunday Interview: Steven Weissman," the Comics Reporter (Sept. 22, 2007). Retrieved August 6, 2008.
- 1 2 Fantagraphics website. Retrieved August 6, 2008.
External links
- Weissman's blog
- Fantagraphics author page
- What Things Do author page
- Comics Alliance interview
- Writing Disorder interview
- Comics Reporter interview
- Le Sketch: mini-comic with Steven Weissman's sketches.