(no subject)
The Julia Gfrörer interview conducted by Jason Leivian
"Julia Gfrörer is an artist living in Portland, OR. She has previously self-published a number of books including How Life Became Unbearable and Ariadne Auf Naxos with Teenage Dinosaur. Flesh and Bone is her first book published by Sparkplug Comic Books. It’s a grim, magical fairy tale told with a modern voice. It is primarily a love story. A man’s lover has died and he is sick with despair. He believes suicide is a mortal sin, so he asks a witch to help him “deceive God” and reunite him with his dead lover. We are then treated to a story within the story as the witch’s ritual involves two children walking through the woods as a sort of Hansel and Gretel homage. The themes and humor are reminiscent of her earlier comic, Ariadne Auf Naxos, which read more like a diary comic embellished with fantastic details. It’s satisfying to see her develop the symbolism and style of her writing into a longer story arc."
Breaking Into the Boys Club: The New Crop of Female Comic Creators (Part 1)
"Now gender is no guarantee of high quality work, but it is a fairly good gauge of finding comics that represent a different aesthetic or world view. So how do you find that talent without going broke (and trudging through a morass of subpar work)? Sure, if you're even a casual comic book fan, you've heard of big-name vets like Gail Simone, Alison Bechdel, Colleen Doran and Jill Thompson. And more educated fans probably know about established creators deserving more recognition, such as Becky Cloonan, Colleen Coover, Jessica Abel and Nicola Scott. But who are the up-and-comers? Where can someone find the next wave of top female creators?"
Read about comics >> Flesh and Bone
I’m cutting right to the chase here: Julia Gfrörer’s Flesh and Bone is a creepy, disturbing, comic. I mean that in a good way; Gfrörer mixes love, death, occult, and betrayal into a fascinating story that takes a simple starting point and then moves it down a dark and twisty road. If I had to try and compare Flesh and Bone to an existing comic, it would probably be Hellboy, but a story in which Hellboy himself never comes to save the day.
"Julia Gfrörer is an artist living in Portland, OR. She has previously self-published a number of books including How Life Became Unbearable and Ariadne Auf Naxos with Teenage Dinosaur. Flesh and Bone is her first book published by Sparkplug Comic Books. It’s a grim, magical fairy tale told with a modern voice. It is primarily a love story. A man’s lover has died and he is sick with despair. He believes suicide is a mortal sin, so he asks a witch to help him “deceive God” and reunite him with his dead lover. We are then treated to a story within the story as the witch’s ritual involves two children walking through the woods as a sort of Hansel and Gretel homage. The themes and humor are reminiscent of her earlier comic, Ariadne Auf Naxos, which read more like a diary comic embellished with fantastic details. It’s satisfying to see her develop the symbolism and style of her writing into a longer story arc."
Breaking Into the Boys Club: The New Crop of Female Comic Creators (Part 1)
"Now gender is no guarantee of high quality work, but it is a fairly good gauge of finding comics that represent a different aesthetic or world view. So how do you find that talent without going broke (and trudging through a morass of subpar work)? Sure, if you're even a casual comic book fan, you've heard of big-name vets like Gail Simone, Alison Bechdel, Colleen Doran and Jill Thompson. And more educated fans probably know about established creators deserving more recognition, such as Becky Cloonan, Colleen Coover, Jessica Abel and Nicola Scott. But who are the up-and-comers? Where can someone find the next wave of top female creators?"
Read about comics >> Flesh and Bone
I’m cutting right to the chase here: Julia Gfrörer’s Flesh and Bone is a creepy, disturbing, comic. I mean that in a good way; Gfrörer mixes love, death, occult, and betrayal into a fascinating story that takes a simple starting point and then moves it down a dark and twisty road. If I had to try and compare Flesh and Bone to an existing comic, it would probably be Hellboy, but a story in which Hellboy himself never comes to save the day.