One of Ed Piskor’s first paid jobs in comics was drawing for Harvey Pekar’s Our Movie Year, which chronicles the experiences of Pekar and his wife Joyce Brabner before, during and after the filming of the movie adaptation of American Splendor. Later Piskor and Pekar collaborated on the anthology The Beats and the reportage comic Macedonia, after which Piskor continued on his own, in the carefully researched hacker story Wizzywig.
Piskor’s breakthrough came a few years later with the publication of the first volume of Hip Hop Family Tree. This ambitious project aims to map out the emergence of hip hop as both genre and culture. Among the things that make Hip Hop Family Tree fascinating is how Piskor’s visual language and presentation underline the close ties between the American art forms of hip hop and superhero comics. OCX is happy and proud to present a cartoonist who is in the middle of creating of a modern classic.
Notable works: Hip Hop Family Tree vol. 1-2, Wizzywig
Simon Hanselmann’s rise to international fame started shortly after he began publishing the adventures of the dysfunctional trio Megg, Mogg & Owl on his tumblr. The combination of Simpsons style humor and heartfelt depictions of a life of anxiety, drugs and depression quickly became popular among readers, and resulted in Fantagraphics putting out the critically acclaimed collection Megahex. The first edition quickly sold out but a second one will be out by the time Hanselmann visits OCX.
The stories about Megg the witch, Mogg the cat and the unfortunate owl Owl usually start out on a cheerful note but end up in far darker territories where hallucinations, violence and sexual abuse tend to play a part. While Hanselmann belongs to the visually oriented tumblr generation of cartoonists, he is also a storyteller in the tradition of Peter Bagge, Daniel Clowes and other artists who defined the American alternative comics of the 1990s.
Notable works: Megahex, Life Zone
Stathis Tsemberlidis is a Greek comics artist based in Denmark, who publishes most of his work via the British small press Decadence Comics. Tsemberlidis runs Decadence with fellow OCX guest Lando, both of which are fascinated by cryptic sci-fi with an underlying political tone. Many of Tsemberlidis’ comics are short and wordless vignettes that depict grotesque and alienating biological processes, but face offs between crowds and authority figures is also a recurring motif.
Moebius’ and Geoff Darrow’s influences on Tsemberlidis are obvious, though while these artists’ work mainly involve highly detailed fantasy worlds readers can get lost in, Tsemberlidis seems more concerned about closing the gap between fiction and reality. And given his nationality, it’s hard not to see Tsemberlidis’ work as a comment on the situation in contemporary Greece.
Notable works: MOA-192B, Cyborg M85, Neptune’s Fungi, Decadence Comics #1-10
As Lando, Dave Lander makes sci-fi comics which transport the reader to a mystical futuristic world marked by high-tech violence, speaking marble statues and cryptic rituals. Manga, Moebius and computer game visuals are among the building blocks of Lando’s enigmatic and fascinating visions of the future. The main characters are people involved in conflicts they can neither control nor comprehend, but they also include elements which are familiar to the reader from their own lives, which adds a political dimension to the works.
Along with fellow festival guest Stathis Tsemberlidis Lando runs the small press Decadence Comics. Decadence is also the name of an anthology of sci-fi comics, which for the last few years has been an important part of the British comics scene. Lando’s work will in the coming time be found in a new anthology called Island, published by Image Comics and edited by former OCX guest Brandon Graham.
Notable works: Gardens of Glass, Decadence Comics #1-10
Aisha Franz is a German comic book artist and illustrator based in Berlin, where she used to be a part of comics art collective The Treasure Fleet. She’s a graduate from the Kassel School of Art and Design, where she studied visual communications.
In addition to contribuiting to a number of anthologies and exhibitions in her native Germany and abroad, Franz has also published two graphic novels which have been translated into Italian, Spanish, English and French. Last year Earthling, a tale of two sisters growing up in a dead end suburb, was released to great acclaim by Drawn and Quarterly. In Germany Franz followed up Earthling with Brigitte, a story about a dog working as a secret agent.
In addition to publishing several mini comics, Franz has also contributed illustrations to publications such as Le Monde Diplomatique and The New York Times.
Notable works: Earthling, Brigitte
Paul Paetzel is a German cartoonist and illustrator born, raised and currently residing in Berlin, where he is part of the art collective Édition Biografiktion along with Ana Albero and Till Hafenbrak. Biografiktion was formed in 2008 and is best known for the publication by the same name, which tells fictionalized tales of famous people such as ABBA and Eddie Murphy. In addition to this, the trio also publishes the illustration-oriented anthology Human News.
Paetzel draws inspiration fromboth super hero comics, illustration and experimental art comics, and his work is characterized by a humourous approach to the tropes and conventions of the comics medium. Like his Biografiktion-colleagues, Paetzel treats silk screening and other reproduction techniques as an artistic tool, and his solo releases include beautiful and lovingly crafted books and zines like Key-Man, Die Geschicte von Rudolf, Schurkensalan, Das Kaufhaus and Bela Lugosi - A True Life Story.
Notable works: Biografiktion
Since its debut in 2012, London publisher Breakdown Press has become one of the most interesting publishing outfits on the English language comics scene. Breakdown was created after editors Simon Hacking and Tom Oldham, at the time working in the comic book store Orbital Comics, discovered their mutual taste in comics. Initially their idea was to start a comic book magazine but they quickly decided that the best way to have an impact on what type of comics people would read and make was to publish some themselves. They got in touch with artist Joe Kessler and soon after published his Windowpane, and Breakdown Press was born.
In previous years OCX has invited large international publishing houses such as Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly to be our featured publisher but this year we decided to bring in a considerably smaller and newer operation. Despite only having been active for a few years, and operating with small budgets and low print runs, Breakdown has made a large impact on the European and American comics scene. Not only do they publish some of the most interesting of today’s cartoonists, they have also teamed up with comics scholar Ryan Holmberg in order to give Western readers the chance to familiarize themselves with important and idiosyncratic Japanese comics from the 50s, 60s and 70s.
At OCX 2015 publishers Hacking and Oldham will be joined by art director Kessler and French cartoonist Antoine Cossé in a panel dedicated to the art of creating a market for new and ambitious comic art in an economical landscape similar to the one small Norwegian publishers are facing.
No one has had more comics or pages published by Breakdown Press than Antoine Cossé. Cossé’s comics are characterized by soft lines, elegant watercolors and a style that simultaneously references classic European humor comics and black-and-white cinema. The seductive aesthetics and the easy-to-follow storytelling pulls the reader into tales of humorous absurdity and creates a feeling of exhilarating confusion which resembles the experience of encountering a culture you don’t completely understand but still like very much.
Cossé’s most ambitious and critically acclaimed publication to date is Mutiny Bay, a hallucinatory depiction of the failed mutiny against the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1520.
Notable works: Mutiny Bay, NWAI, J.1137
Joe Kessler is a British comic book artist, designer and art director for Breakdown Press. The first comic ever published by Breakdown was Kessler’s experimental risograph-printed Windowpane, a book which served as a manifesto for the publisher’s exploratory and deliberate approach to comic art. Kessler is distinctly influenced by the visual arts and his works routinely dismiss many of the aesthetic and narrative conventions traditionally associated with comics. Instead he returns to the basic principle of the art form – namely images and graphic symbols in sequence.
As a designer Kessler is responsible for making Breakdown’s releases visually coherent while also letting the style of each artist shine through.
Notable works: Windowpane #1-2
Anja Dahle Øverbye is a Norwegian cartoonist and illustrator educated in Bergen and the UK. To comics readers she is probably best known for her contributions to the anthology Forresten, which are recognizable by their detailed pencil drawings and warm grey tones. In addition to anthology contributions, she has also published fanzines of her own and this spring sees the release of her debut book Hundedagar (“Dog Days”) from Jippi Comics. Hundedagar is a story about growing up in a small valley in Western Norway in the 90’s - a tale of friendship and puberty, of collecting stamps and going to 4-H.
Dahle Øverby’s work is largely autobiographical and on her blog she regularly posts diary comics inspired by her own life. Her pieces span themes such as childhood, family life, drawing and watching TV. Apart from comics and illustration she has also worked on contemporary art projects and has had her work exhibited Oslo, London and Berlin.
Notable works: Hundedagar
In 2000 Geir Moen made a name for himself on the Norwegian comics scene with the first issue of his self published series Ghasp, which he advertised as the most violent Norwegian comic ever published. Ghasp was whirlwind of gleeful violence, heavily indebted to British 2000 AD legend Simon Bisley, which paved the way for Blodøks, a Slaine- and Conan-inspired viking comic written by author and comics critic Morten Harper.
In the years since, Moen has worked on a number of projects in different genres, of which De fire store – which presents an irreverent steampunk take on the lives of famous Norwegian authors and artists at the turn of the 19th century – have garnered the most acclaim. Moen continues to evolve as an artist, and last year’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsens Peer Gynt was a career highlight which proved that he has come a long way from his barbarian roots.
Notable works: Peer Gynt, De fire store: Når de døde våkner, De fire store: Bukk fra luften, bukk fra bunnen
Kristian Krohg-Sørensen’s background is somewhat different from that of the majority of his fellow Norwegian cartoonists. By education he is a journalist specializing in Russian affairs, and his work experience includes working as a writer, translator, radio journalist and illustrator. He has illustrated everything from restaurant menus, wine labels and maps to posters, card decks and magazine articles.
Krohg-Sørensen is fond of telling stories and has long harbored a dream of making comics, which has now resulted in his long-awaited debut book Gulosten - Liv i helvete (which literally translates as “The Yellow Cheese - Life in hell”). The book is the first in a planned three-volume biography on the life and times of Norwegian rum-runner and WW2 resistance fighter Johannes S. “Gulosten” Andersen.
Notable works: Gulosten - Liv i helvete
Tim Ng Tvedt is one of the most interesting and distinctive Norwegian cartoonists who have emerged during the current decade. Besides being the general manager and in-house designer for TIM-TEK, Tvedt is a part of such outfits as Galleri Laika, Tur-nips, 2 M.O.H, NFFK, DZP and Team Narnia, and sporadically collaborates with Oslo-based new wave colourist Falnes Farve.
Since he and the rest of the Tur-nips comics collective released their first anthology Vegetable Comic in 2013, Tvedt has made his mark with a series of anthology contributions and cover illustrations, most of which showcase his curious obsession with ladders, stepladders, stools and footstools. Thus, expectations have naturally been high for his first solo publication Omrokering (Jippi Comics), which is his master’s project from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.
Notable works: Omrokering
Xueting Yang was born in Kaifeng, China in 1988. In 2011 she moved to Norway to undertake a master’s degree in design at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Being a newcomer in a country where she knew neither the language nor the culture, Yang used drawing and comics to communicate her experiences. These stories and vignettes were published last year in her debut book Et annet sted (“Another Place”), a poetic collection of Yang’s meeting with Norway, in which the main character is joined by an imaginary creature called Shi.
The book is filled with expressive, minimalistic drawings and in the afterword Norwegian author Gro Dahle draws a parallell between Yang’s comics and the Chinese poetic tradition also known as “shi”. Et annet sted was awarded the Ministry of Culture’s 2014 prize for comic art and silver in Årets vakreste bøker (Most beautiful books of the year) 2015.
Notable works: Et annet sted