Автобиографический комикс: история и развитие формы

An autobiographical comic (also autobio, graphic memoir, or autobiocomic) is an autobiography in the form of comic books or comic strips. The form first became popular in the underground comix movement and has since become more widespread. It is currently most popular in Canadian, American and French comics; all artists listed below are from the U. S. unless otherwise specified. Autobiographical comics are a form of biographical comics (also known as biocomics).

Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro (1846–1905) "made an attempt of an autobiographical comics exercise" in his 1881 graphic reportage book No Lazareto de Lisboa ("The Lazaretto of Lisbon"), by including himself and personal thoughts. Some of Bordalo Pinheiro's panels and strips were also autobiographical, such as self caricatures of personal anecdotes from his travel in Brazil.

Fay King (1910s–1930s newspaper cartoonist) drew herself as a character later used as Olive Oyl in autobiographical strips portraying her reportages, opinions, and personal life. Hinko Smrekar (1883–1942, Slovenian painter, newspaper cartoonist) drew and wrote a 24 page booklet Črnovojnik about his experience in the army and army prisons. This self ironical proto comic has been published in 1919 – two years after he finished it. All of the pages have up to four illustrations, some include typical comic book balloons. The complete text was handwritten.

Carlos Botelho (1899–1982) had a weekly comic page in a "style that mixed up chronicle, autobiography, journalism, and satire" Named after the number assigned to her family unit, the book contains almost two hundred of Okubo's pen and ink sketches accompanied by explanatory text. Published in 1946, the book has been in print for more than 75 years.

Shinji Nagashima created Mangaka Zankoku Monogatari ("Cruel Tale of a Cartoonist") in 1961. Yoshiharu Tsuge published in 1966 his autobiographical story "Chiko" ("Chiko, the Java sparrow"), depicting his daily life as a struggling manga artist living with a bar hostess making most of their money. Published in the seminal magazine Garo, it started the movement of Watakushi manga ("I manga", or "comics about me"). These short graphic nonfictions (including memoirs, chronicles, travel or dream diaries) were also represented by Yu Takita, Tadao Tsuge, and Shinichi Abe (see below). Yu Takita (1932–1990) started in 1968 his Terajima cho stories ("Terajima neighborhood mystery tales"). They were series of vignettes about 1930s life in this Tokyo district where his parents ran a tavern. Tadao Tsuge started in 1968 his personal stories, later collected in Trash Market.

Justin Green In 1969, Justin Green published his first autobiographical comic strip in Gothic Blimp Works #3 titled, "When I Was Sixteen 'Twas a Very Bad Year."

In 1980, Art Spiegelman combined biography and autobiography in his Pulitzer Prize winning Maus (serialized 1980–1991), about his father's Holocaust experiences, his own relationship with his father, and the process of interviewing him for the book. This work had a major effect on the reception of comics in general upon the world of mainstream prose literature, awakening many to the potential of comics as a medium for stories other than adventure fantasy. In 1982, Eddie Campbell's Alec stories started with the Scottish/Australian artist as a young man drifting through life with his friends, and followed him through marriage, parenthood, and a successful artistic career. (They were later collected in The King Canute Crowd, Three Piece Suit, and other books.) Campbell's English colleague Glenn Dakin created the Abraham Rat stories (collected in Abe: Wrong for All the Right Reasons), which began as fantasy and became more contemplative and autobiographical. Spain Rodriguez drew a number of stories, collected in My True Story, about being a motorcycle gang member in the 1950s. In the mid 1980s, Carol Tyler shifted from making paintings to autobiographical comics. Her first published comics piece appeared in Weirdo in 1986. Underground legend Robert Crumb focused increasingly on autobiography in his 1980s stories in Weirdo magazine. Many other autobiographical shorts would appear in Weirdo by other artists, including his wife, Aline Kominsky Crumb, Carol Tyler, Phoebe Gloeckner (see below in 1990s section), and Dori Seda. In 1987, Sam Glanzman released his WWII graphic memoir A Sailor's Story (Marvel Comics), a more personal extension of his 1970s U. S. S. Stevens war stories. In 1988, Andrea Pazienza releases Pompeo, his last graphic novel, depicting the gradual downfall of a heroin addict (a largely autobiographical character), up to his eventual suicide. Jim Woodring's unusual "autojournal" Jim combined dream art with occasional episodes of realistic autobiography. David Collier, a Canadian ex soldier, published autobiographical and historical comics in Weirdo and later in his series Collier's. In 1987, DC Comics' anthology Wasteland (1987–1989) featured, unusually for a mainstream title, as well as more conventional forms of black comedy and horror, semi autobiographical stories based on the life of co writer Del Close. One of the stories also parodied the autobiographical stories of Harvey Pekar, portraying a version of Pekar's famous appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, in which Pekar's vehement critique of General Electric had earned him a longtime ban from the program. In 1989, John Porcellino started in his long running autobio series King Cat Comics (still ongoing).

Autobiographical work took the English speaking alternative comics scene by storm during this period, becoming a "signature genre" in much the way that superhero stories dominated American mainstream comic books. (The stereotypical example of an alternative autobiographical comic recounted the awkward moment which followed when, the cartoonist sitting alone in a coffee shop, their ex girlfriend walks in.) Slice of life comics and comics strips gained popularity during this period as well. However, many artists pursued broader themes. Maltese American Joe Sacco appeared as a character in his journalistic comics, beginning with Yahoo (collected in Notes from a Defeatist) and Palestine. In the anthology series Real Stuff, Dennis Eichhorn followed Pekar's example of writing true stories for others to illustrate, but unlike Pekar, emphasized unlikely tales of sex and violence. Many of the Real Stuff stories took place in Eichhorn's native state of Idaho. In 1993, Eichhorn received an Eisner Award nomination for Best Writer and his Real Stuff series received nominations for both Best Continuing Series and Best Anthology. In 1994, Real Stuff again received an Eisner Award nomination for Best Anthology. One of the most popular self published mini comics of the 1990s in America, Silly Daddy, depicted Joe Chiappetta's parenthood and divorce, sometimes realistically and sometimes in a parallel fantasy story. The story continued in trade paperbacks and as a webcomic. The Job Thing, 1993. Carol Tyler details her troubles with low paying jobs. A collection of stories originally published in Street Music Magazine. Julie Doucet's series Dirty Plotte (1991–1998), from Canada, began as a mix of outlandish fantasy and dream comics, but moved toward autobiography in what was later collected as My New York Diary. A trio of Canadian friends, Seth (Palookaville), Chester Brown (Yummy Fur, The Playboy, I Never Liked You), and Joe Matt (Peepshow), gained rapid renown in North America for their different approaches to autobiography. Brown and Matt were also notorious for depicting embarrassing personal moments such as masturbation and nose picking. Seth created some controversy by presenting realistic fictional stories as if they had actually happened, not as a ploy to fool writers but as a literary technique. However some readers did get fooled. Keith Knight's weekly comic strip The K Chronicles began in the early 1990s, exploring themes relevant to Knight's racial heritage, as well as current events, both personal to Knight and general to the world. Howard Cruse's graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby (1995) told a fictionalized version of Cruse's young adulthood as a gay man in the South during civil rights conflicts. Phoebe Gloeckner created a series of semi autobiographical stories drawing on her adolescent experiences with sex and drugs in San Francisco, collected in A Child's Life and Other Stories. She later revisited similar material in her 2004 illustrated novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures. Seven Miles a Second, written by painter David Wojnarowicz and illustrated by James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook, was based on Wojnarowicz's life and his response to the AIDS epidemic. The graphic novel David Chelsea in Love described the eponymous author's romantic difficulties in New York City and Portland. Rick Veitch told the story of his twenties entirely through a dream diary in the Crypto Zoo volume of Rare Bit Fiends. Ariel Schrag's tetralogy Awkward, Definition, Potential, and Likewise, about discovering her sexual identity in high school, was unusual in having been mostly completed while in high school. Jim Valentino's A Touch of Silver (Image Comics, 1997) portrayed his unhappy youth in the 1960s. English artist Raymond Briggs, best known for his children's books, told the story of his parents' marriage in Ethel & Ernest (1998). James Kochalka started to turn his daily life into a daily four panel strip starting in 1998, collected in Sketchbook Diaries, and later in the webcomic American Elf. Swedish cartoonist Martin Kellerman launched the autobiographical comic strip Rocky in 1998, focusing on an anthropomorphic dog and his friends in their everyday life in Stockholm. Rocky is based on Kellerman's own life. The comic has since been translated into Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Serbian, English, Spanish, and French, either as a running strip or collected in book form. Bread and Wine: An Erotic Tale of New York (1999), written by Samuel R. Delaney and illustrated by Mia Wolff, is an autobiographical graphic novel about a gay science fiction writer (Delaney) meeting a homeless man who becomes his partner. Brian Michael Bendis' three issue American comic book limited series Fortune and Glory (Oni Press, 1999–2000) is the story of the author's attempts to break into Hollywood by writing screenplays for his hardboiled comics (such as Jinx, A. K. A. Goldfish, and Torso). The series was nominated for Eisner Awards in three categories.