Steven Weissman

For the ESPN broadcaster, see Steve Weissman.
Steven Weissman
Born Steven Knight Weissman
(1968-06-04) June 4, 1968
California
Nationality American
Area(s) Cartoonist
Pseudonym(s) Ribs
Notable works
Chewing Gum In Church, Don't Call Me Stupid, Barack Hussein Obama, Yikes
Awards Harvey Award, 1998 (Best New Talent)

Steven Weissman (b. June 4, 1968, in California) is an award-winning alternative cartoonist best known for his offbeat and bizarre explorations of childhood friendships. His work has been published by Alternative Comics, Fantagraphics, Retrofit and Vice.

Yikes

Weissman made his name with the Harvey and Ignatz award-nominated 1997 series Yikes (volume II), published by Alternative Comics. It features the light-hearted adventures of a gang of kids, very much in the Little Rascals mold, who just happen to be "monsters" — vampires, zombies, and the like. Yikes ran for two issues, and has since been collected, with previous self-published Yikes comics, in Don't Call Me Stupid and Mean, both put out by Fantagraphics.

The Yikes gang

Barack Hussein Obama

In 2009, Weissman began a webcomic called Barack Hussein Obama featuring the president, his cabinet and family. All the characters have the same names and faces but live in an alternate dimension, living their lives and US government roles in different ways. Fantagraphics published the strips as a graphic novel in September 2012. A second volume is due in 2016.

Awards

1998 Harvey Award for Best New Talent.

Personal life

Weissman lived in San Francisco in the late 1990s, where he associated with fellow cartoonists/illustrators Ed Brubaker, Brian Biggs, Josh Neufeld, and Mats!? (with whom he shared a studio space). He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Charissa Chu, and their son Charles.

Quotes

Weissman, on drawing "cute":

I hated how cute art relied on BIG EYES so much that I made it a rule early on to always make my characters squint.[1]

Tom Spurgeon of the Comics Reporter:

Weissman's idiosyncratic character types, from Li'l Bloody to Sweet Chubby Cheeks, are so perfectly realized you almost feel like they're ideas you came up with first but never found the time to put to paper.[1]

Gilbert Hernandez:

Steven Weissman is the best cartoonist to explore the fantastic world of children since John Stanley (Little Lulu).[2]

Jaime Hernandez:

Steven Weissman is a cartoonist who is so good, so funny, and so original that he doesn't have to be serious to be taken seriously.[2]

Selected bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 Spurgeon, Tom. "CR Sunday Interview: Steven Weissman," the Comics Reporter (Sept. 22, 2007). Retrieved August 6, 2008.
  2. 1 2 Fantagraphics website. Retrieved August 6, 2008.

External links

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