Art Imitating Lit
Sometimes I get these ideas in my head, and I just cannot get rid of them until I put them to pen and paper. And then it just feels so good to get them out. A mental movement, if you will. That's what happended a few months ago. I got this silly idea for a comic strip with some well-known literary guys, and I just had to write it down. Thing is, it just took so freakin' long to ink and colour the darn thing, 'cuz I had so much other pressing things to do, like actual freelance work.
But then I recently read this article in the New York Review of Books, written by John Leonard, in which he gripes about Jonathan Lethem's obsession with comics, and how he should really move on to something else. And then I read this other article about these women writers bitching about the quality of women's writing these days, and then the very angry response that came soon after. It got me thinking about the subject of my silly comic, and so I thought, shit, I gotta get this darn thing finished.
Oh, and by the way because of this silly idea, I've decided to create another category, entitled Art Imitating Lit. Every now and then (when I have the energy and time!) I will create a comic strip that spoofs some element of the book and literary world, past or present.
So without further ado, here's the strip. Enjoy.
The strip is so superb that I had to drop everything to send out a link. I hope that Jonathan Franzen sees it! The text is as great as the drawing. A perfect match!
Great work!
Posted by: R J Keefe | April 02, 2005 at 01:33 PM
Oh, man, Pat. Can you say Net meme? I can. Great work, (and so true)!
Posted by: Z Houle | April 02, 2005 at 04:53 PM
That was great. I love the Eau de Chic!
Posted by: iliana | April 04, 2005 at 09:29 AM
Beautiful!
Posted by: David | April 04, 2005 at 10:54 AM
Didn't have time to reda it till now. I really like it!
Posted by: eliane | April 04, 2005 at 10:25 PM
Brilliant!
Posted by: gwenda | April 05, 2005 at 12:43 PM
This is genius. Absolutely fantastic.
Posted by: Mad Max | April 06, 2005 at 12:14 AM
Top-notch! Nice links on the articles as well; as sure as they are to utterly infuriate me. Thanks for taking the time to make that strip. Keep it up.
(If only you'd thrown Haruki Murakami in there...you have hit my own personal Triple Crown of working writers.)
Posted by: alphamonkey | April 07, 2005 at 05:12 AM
Jonathan Lethem to Novelize Three Comics:
http://www.locusmag.com/2005/Features/0401_Lethem.html
Posted by: Mort | April 07, 2005 at 09:25 AM
Brilliant, Patricia, positively brilliant.
Posted by: Pete | April 07, 2005 at 10:46 AM
I went intrigued by the name "Chabon". In Argentina it´s an idiosincratic slang word meanin "guy". Did you know that?
You got a fine sense of humor. Compliments.
Posted by: Roberto Bobrow | April 08, 2005 at 08:55 PM
Absolutely brilliant. But as your former Slush partner, I expected nothing less!
Posted by: Bev | April 09, 2005 at 05:50 PM
I love your strip!! As a female reading comics/graphic novels, I am more than familiar with gender prejudices. I want some "Eau du Chick" for geeks everwhere!
Keep on scribbling....
Posted by: ladyjester | April 13, 2005 at 09:41 AM