Jessica Abel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Jessica Abel |
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Jessica Abel in April 2011
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| Born | Jessica Courtney Clare Abel 1969 Chicago, Illinois |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Writer, Artist |
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Notable works
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Life Sucks Artbabe La Perdida Drawing Words and Writing Pictures Radio: An Illustrated Guide |
| Awards | Xeric Award, 1995 Harvey Award, 1997, 2002 |
| http://www.jessicaabel.com | |
Jessica Abel (born 1969) is a talented American comic book writer and artist. She is well-known for creating popular works like Life Sucks, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, and La Perdida. She also created the series Artbabe and worked on Radio: An Illustrated Guide with Ira Glass.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Jessica Abel was born in 1969 in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up in the Chicago area. After high school, she attended Carleton College and then the University of Chicago. She started publishing her first comics in 1988 in a student magazine called Breakdown. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago.
Career in Comics
Jessica Abel began her career by making minicomics. These were small, self-published comic books, often photocopied and hand-made. In 1992, she self-published her comic book Artbabe. She continued to make four more issues each year.
She even won a special award called the Xeric Foundation grant. This award helped her print and share the fifth issue of Artbabe professionally. This issue was called The Four Seasons. Even though a character named Artbabe appears on every cover, she is not actually in any of the stories.
Moving to Mexico and New York
In 1998, Jessica Abel moved to Mexico City with her boyfriend, who is now her husband, comic artist Matt Madden. She took a break from Artbabe in 1999.
From 1996 to 2005, Abel created one-page comics that were like news stories for the University of Chicago Magazine. In 1997, she collected some of these comics into a small book called Jessica Abel, Intrepid Girl Reporter. She also created comics about real events for LA Weekly. These included stories about the 2000 Democratic National Convention and leaving Lower Manhattan after the September 11 attacks.
During this time, she also worked on Radio: An Illustrated Guide. This book showed how an episode of the radio show This American Life is made. It gave a behind-the-scenes look and even taught readers how to create their own radio show.
After two years in Mexico City, Abel moved to Brooklyn, New York.
La Perdida and Teaching
Jessica Abel created a five-issue comic series called La Perdida. This series was published between 2000 and 2005. Later, in 2006, all five parts were put together into one hardcover book. The story is about a Mexican-American woman named Carla who moves to Mexico City to find out more about herself. Many people praised the book.
Jessica Abel also taught cartooning classes at the School of Visual Arts. She also led workshops at other art schools.
Later Works and Return to the US
In 2008, Abel and her husband, Matt Madden, created Drawing Words and Writing Pictures. This book is a complete guide on how to create comics. It was based on their many years of teaching. In the same year, Abel also worked on Life Sucks with Gabe Soria and Warren Pleece.
Abel and Madden wrote another comic teaching book called Mastering Comics. This book came out in 2012 and was a follow-up to Drawing Words and Writing Pictures. In 2012, Abel and Madden moved to France for an artist residency. They ended up staying there for four years.
In 2015, Abel published Out On The Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio. This book was a sequel to her earlier comic, Radio: An Illustrated Guide.
On June 7, 2016, Jessica Abel announced that she was moving back to the United States. She accepted a job as the head of the new illustration department at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Awards and Honors
Jessica Abel has received several awards for her work:
- 1995: Xeric Grant
- 1997:
- Harvey Award for Best New Talent
- Kimberly Yale Award for Best New Talent
- 2002: Harvey Award for Best New Series (for La Perdida)
- 2017: Nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Publication for Teens for Trish Trash: Roller Girl of Mars
See also
In Spanish: Jessica Abel para niños
- List of women comics writers and artists
- List of American comics creators
