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Julie Doucet (DIRTY PLOTTE)
Raw, unflinching, heart-rending, and strangely endearing comics about every-day and not-so-every-day nightmares, told in a tangle of dense, twisty artwork. Quoting a certain Jim Woodring; "Such depths, such luster! I lick your sidewalk in admiration." You can get a hint of what he's talking about at Drawn and Quarterly in the Artists section.

Jim Woodring (FRANK)
Candy-coated surrealism - nightmarish, creepy, delightful, bizarre, and lushly, unexpectedly beautiful. Visit Jim's personal web site or his blurb page at Fantagraphics for your own dose of woozy, brain-squeezing eye-and-soul candy.

Chris Ware (ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY)
The most hypnotizingly detailed attention to graphic design ever seen in the world of comics. If you haven't stumbled across this man's work before you must get up off your lazy duff and do it now; either at Fantagraphics or at Drawn and Quarterly.

Jeff Smith (BONE)
One dip in the pool and you will know why this comic has become so popular. BONE is light and funny, but also intelligent and mysterious. Jeff's brilliant, film-like sense of timing makes his on-going epic one of the best reads on the comic book market. (P.S. With BONE it's best not to start in the middle. Start with issue #1, so that you can experience the full pleasure of watching the various elements of this saga emerge - bit by delightful bit. Jeff is a skilled storyteller.) (P.P.S. - This one's kid-friendly too!)

Jamie Hernandez (MAGGIE AND HOPEY, PENNY CENTURY, LOVE AND ROCKETS)
I discovered the revolutionary comic book world of LOVE AND ROCKETS (Los Bros Hernandez) backwards. I started with Jamie Hernandez's "Color Fun" issue MAGGIE AND HOPEY in 1997, and continued with his PENNY CENTURY series. When these issues started coming too slowly to satisfy my growing interest, I began buying up the collections of past LOVE AND ROCKETS comics (1981 to 1997) as well. Maggie and her friends have grown older over the years, changed their hair continuously, and gained weight (or not) just like real people. And they've had a multitude of adventures along the way that range everywhere from whacky, surrealistic, and mysterious to utterly every-day and just-down-the-street.... Good Heavens! - They seem almost like family to me in the meantime! If you haven't met Maggie, Hopey, Penny, Izzy, and the others yet, it's high time you did.

Dame Darcy (MEATCAKE)
Weird and wonky tales of passion, love, horror, insanity, and general down-home, turn-of-the-century silliness; starring girls who steal clothing from the dead, possessed dolls, a wicked mermaid in a wheelchair, an obnoxious but dandily dressed werewolf, Siamese twins who steal silver-wear and knit, fillies, jars of honey, knives, nooses, the works - told in a slanty and mightily entertaining drawing style. If you enter this lady's name in the Google search engine you'll find that she's quite well liked on the net, but the most consistent links I've found for her so far are DameDarcy.com and her blurb page at Fantagraphics. By the way, she'll read your palm too, if you like - or make you a tiny, molded doll crowned with a lock of your own hair.

Other Comics Worth Looking Into:
- The eerie and hypnotic BLACK HOLE by Charles Burns...
- Kyle Baker's hilariously funny graphic novels; WHY I HATE SATURN, THE COWBOY WALLY SHOW, YOU ARE HERE, and I DIE AT MIDNIGHT...
- Jill Thompson's wonderfully-drawn, kid-friendly comic SCARY GODMOTHER (which also alternately appears as a children's book) ...

Three Comic Book Artists Worth Keeping an Eye Out For:
- Jamie Hewlett: Whotta guy! Here are a couple of pages where you can see the glory that was once his co-creation TANK GIRL: at Bob Rosenberg's Tank Girl Site and at the Tank Girl is my Hero page. At the GORILLAZ home page you can see what he's up to these days....
- Andrew Robinson: He's a bit more of a romantic than Jamie, but it looks to me as though he's a Hewlett fan himself. I'm just guessing, but I'll bet I'm right. An' he sssssure does draw nice!...
- Ted Naifeh: This fellow likes the goth-oriented topics and elaborates on them with stylish ink-work that is crisp and elegant...

Friends Of Lulu
And if you've ever found yourself wondering where all the girls are (in the comic world, that is), then this is the site to visit. Friends of Lulu is an energetic organization with a big, friendly web page full links, lists, and information concerning women in the field of comics...

BUST
Well, this isn't a comic, but as long as we're on the subject of what girls are up to: Bust is a quarterly(?) magazine for women who like to rant feministic'ly but who are not opposed to a nice leopard-print, push-up bra now and again... ;-)


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