Living Above the Fold

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)

I met Bob Fowler at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco a few years ago and was immediately fascinated by his most unusual collection. Fowler collects Chick tracts, which, if you haven’t heard of them, are these little religious comics that you sometimes find in public restrooms or bus stations that explain how rock and roll is the devil’s music or how Dungeons and Dragons is satanic.  They’re published by southern California evangelical Jack Chick (WARNING: Link may be offensive), under the idea that the best way to reach potential converts is not with long-winded theological debates but with amusing little comics.  I’ve always been intrigued by those things; they’re just so bizarre.  Fowler has written a book where he attempts to interpret and catalog the entire Chick oeuvre.

You Don’t Know Jack (East Bay Express, April 30, 2003)

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?