Romy Mimi Ilano, 34, draws comics. But her work doesn’t look like the strips in the daily newspaper. Instead, it’s brimming with surreal, free-associative images—cat-headed women, killer cupcakes, a living scarf that eagerly whimpers, “Meep! Meep! Meep!” as its wearer stuffs it into his coat pocket. Then there are the strange storylines, which segue smoothly into totally unrelated plots, each a hodgepodge gumbo with its own dream logic. Ilano, who lives in Oakland, names autobiographical cartoonist Lynda Barry as inspiration. Clearly, though, her fluid, meandering stories and blunt, aggressive linework are all her own.
You Call This Funny? (East Bay Monthly, July 2010)
Tags: blogs, bob fowler, cartoons, comics, derek mcculloch, east bay monthly, internet, jack chick, jason shiga, minicomics, oakland, romy ilano, webcomics, zines
When I used to work as a copy editor for the Fairfield Daily Republic, we must have gotten at least a letter a week complaining about what was happening in the funny pages. Sorry, people, but just because I work the copy desk at the local paper doesn’t mean that I have a direct line to Cathy Guisewite. I can’t pass along how upset you are about Cathy marrying Irving. I recommend that you contact King Features or whoever is in charge of that.
In this article, I took a look at how newspaper cartoonists, like editorial cartoonist Daryl Cagle and “Sally Forth” scribe Francesco Marciuliano, are dealing with the brave new world of the Internet. This article was also fun because I had a chance to speak with one of my favorite bloggers, Josh Frulinger of The Comics Curmudgeon.
Newspaper Cartoonists Engage Audience (Even Haters) Online (PBS Mediashift, March 30, 2009)
In retrospect, I don’t think that title really captures the essence of the article, but oh well. Hindsight, eh?
