Here's some recent petty comics related drama. Cartoonist and painter Alex Graham posted a vent comic on Instagram complaining about awards and "Cal-Arts" style. She attributes the success of mediocre work to white guilt.
I compiled the panels from Instagram so you don't have to wander over to that shithole.
Here's the last 6 pages.
Bitter cause his shit look terrible?
She posted this text with the comic:
Let’s keep making and judging art through a lens of fear. That’s probably healthy for the culture, right?
It looks like she started as a painter but started doing some comics during the pandemic which got her attention and eventually published by Fantagraphics.
I'm glad slurs are being said on a daily basis again. Like what you wanna like and not what some group of faggots tells you.
Let's take a look at some samples of Dog Biscuits.
Hanselmann here is hyping things up pretty hard. Will this live up to it?
Some context on the formatting and structure.
Gussy here is supposed to be some middle aged man.
Is she mad about minorities getting overrecognized because of white guilt? Or is she mad about white people using their white guilt in comics to gain recognition?
Skipping ahead (since this is just a sampling).
This is towards the end. I read a bit and skimmed the rest when I couldn't take it anymore. It's basically animal people getting high, having sex, and being miserable to each other. Nothing wrong with that of course or with making shitty comics. A shit comic is better than no comic after all. But people are going to be curious.
This is ass, I don't even want to see these characters fuck
Perhaps she vented since the Eisner Award nominees were recently posted. Fantagraphics led the charge with 25 nominees. Perhaps sour grapes? In 2022 her book Dog Biscuits was a nominee for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize but lost to Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith.
Has more soul than anything else posted here
Awards are flawed for many reasons so in that regard there is a real problem there. But this sure comes off as whining. Here's the cover for her most recent comic series.
I've never seen a comic artist bitching about other art in comic form that wasn't just an enormous narcissist
Looking at you, Luna
Let's look at some of her paintings since that seems to be her main focus. This is a painting that shows up towards the end of Dog Biscuits.
What comic is she supposed to be shitting on?
Granted this looks pretty awards-pandering but the quality of the art is phenomenal
Something from 2023.
Only slightly better than Chris Chan
Degenerate art style. Draw prettier and ill care
Personally I don't really care for these but also think they show skill. It's just in that kind of gross out surrealism that I don't particularly care for.
unclear pacing, dialogue could have been written by a middle-schooler, amateur use of comic language…
wow alex was right, this does suck.
One more for good measure.
And that's all I have for now. Now you're all caught up on the latest petty comics drama. Honestly her stuff seems like the kind of no name pretentious shit she's complaining about. This is probably the most social media attention she's ever gotten.
It's one of the worst comics I've ever read.
God knows why.
Passed on her books when Fanta people were pushing them since it looks like tired Fort Thunder shit fifteen years too late. It's just strange to see anyone at all get pissy about awards. Especially comics awards.
It comes off as fighting over scraps. The whole framing around white guilt also feels like an opportunistic attempt to turn this into a Culture War fight though to give her the benefit of the doubt maybe that was unintentional since this is a shitty vent comic. Still I can see this escalating into a big "the woke mob has canceled me so please buy my books" pissing match. Best to laugh at her ignorance and move on. Awards should just be seen as an excuse to have a party anyway.
Shit like this getting traction makes me wonder why I try so hard with my webcomic. Her art is ass yet she got published by Fantagraphics
She's literally arguing that DEI failed. Or arguing that it succeeded, because the categories that allow shitty artists to gain accolade have been expanded to people who aren't white.
This is just more stuff cribbed from Paper Rad.
That at least looks like it's got basic competence. Graham's stuff is subpar, especially for somebody who liberated themselves of most troubles through the 2x3 grid.
Fantagraphics has some of the deepest pockets in comics and they only care about funding some of the most degenerate art.
Here's a quote from a 2019 interview with The Comics Journal when she was asked if she reads comics.
Do you read a lot of comics? Are you someone who reads comics and then gets excited to make more comics, or is your passion for making comics not linked to any particular love for other comics?
I started making comics before I even knew who any of these people were. Lately I can’t read comics. There is so much political heaviness leaning on this mere art form that I can’t pick up anything contemporary without feeling nauseous. Or maybe it’s my competitive edge. Either way I’d rather look at some David Hockney paintings or some Grandma Moses paintings. Those are the same thing as comics.
Really comes off as the kind of lazy incurious person whose entire perception of comics is from engagement bait memes and headlines she saw while passively scrolling through social media. You can feel the contempt in her answer like she thinks comics are beneath her but feels obligated to say something because she happened to get more attention for her comics than her outsider art paintings.
Somehow not surprised that Simon Hanselmann liked it.
I get the Eisners are bs and all that but gonna be frank, she sounds radiates Phil Fish vibes and even he mellowed out IIRC
degenerate art
They've published some stinkers but saying "degenerative art" just makes you look like a dork
This looks like it'd be a Anon Babble banner ad
Um, based?
Alex Graham
who?
first panel
tl;dr
Resting Karen face disorder. She looks like she wants to speak to me about traditional Catholicism or the Great Replacement.
It's basically animal people getting high, having sex, and being miserable to each other.
Basically chud things.
unironically saying something is CalArts adjacent
There it is. You've outed yourself as someone who doesn't watch cartoons, read comics, but someone in your group chat won't shut up about modern cartoon ideology.
Couldn't they have given her a list of comics she could say she's been reading? Sheesh
Calarts style acknowledged
seems like something a degenerate would say.
how do you make a fucking living off this crap?