Grace Comics Showcase Zine!
Check it out, over there on the right hand sidebar of this page you'll notice a link to purchase the Grace Comics Showcase Zine online! What the heck is this zine all about, you may ask? The main idea was to highlight more artists than I was able to invite to read at Grace. Also, I've been curious about how other female cartoonists have been responding to a 2005 article from Art News titled, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Comic-Book Artists", so there's a lot of talk about that in the zine.
Great women comics artists emerged in the 1960s,” says Laura Hoptman, who curated the 2004 Carnegie International, as well as R. Crumb’s recent show there. She notes Aline Kominsky-Crumb in particular. “The argument could be made that there’s a female Chris Ware, but up until recently it was a guy’s thing,” says Hoptman. But if there were a female Ware, would we know her if we saw her?
This question cracks me up. A female Chris Ware? No offense to Mr. Ware, but no thanks. Humorously enough, the inestimable Lorna Miller thumbed her nose at this very idea shortly before the Art News article came out. The larger point of this question is a good one though. Recognition of greatness in women cartoonists involves a willingness to expand ones horizons not just beyond the mainstream, but beyond even the women-friendly indy publishers who mean well but are still stuck in a predominantly masculine aesthetic, rather than, like, a totally yin-yang balanced holistic aesthetic.