There’s more to comics than just the ones you see on the single issue shelves of your local comic store. One of the most talented modern comic creators is one that’s only appeared in two comics in the past ten years, but that’s only because she’s been making her name outside traditional comic books.
Cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks came into comics as an enterprising young webcomic artist with a five-year long series called Demonology 101 around the turn of the century. It quickly made her name in the webcomics community, and she followed that up with a series of shorter works also online. In 2007, comic publishers began to take notice and SLG published her insider’s guide to the zombie apocalypse, Zombies Calling, in 2007. The writer/artist followed that up with the girls’ school comic War At Ellsmere before being snapped up by juggernaut publishing imprint First Second. There she entered the third phase of her career, at first drawing someone else’s story in Brain Camp before returning to writing her own material in Friends With Boys.
Friends With Boys saw her return to her webcomics roots, with First Second serializing it online before it’s impending print publication in February 2012. While she’s worked on that, Hicks also began a comics strip for her local newspaper The Coast titled Superhero Girl, which she runs online simultaneously. Although she’s made her name outside superheroes by far, she’s had some popular dalliances with the capes crowd with a story in Marvel Comics’ Girl Comics #2 and a talked-about fancomic she did called “Wolverine Goes Grocery Shopping.”
Hicks has quietly become a regular comics veteran, with some comparing her to Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley. While some might argue she needs to venture more into traditional comic books like DC, Marvel, Image and others to become a star, she’s proven that there’s more to comics than, well, traditional comics.
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I’m so glad your featuring Hicks’ work, especially ‘Friends with Boys’. She’s rapidly become one of the most engaging, inventive cartoonists in the business. She also has some great craft talk in the blog posts that go along with her regular webcomic entries.
How do we get her to write and draw a supergirl comic for us?!?!?
Ask Dan Didio when the next Wednesday Comics comes around?
I know. What a waste of the new 52 that new voices like this with such differing styles from the “house stlye” were not included. (Not to say that the publishers didnt try because we dont know and they say they did get turned down from a few people they asked to be a part, but DAMN!)
Her artwork looks great.
This is exactly what I needed. I’ve recently started to look into the works of cartoonists like these, like Joe Matt, Kate Beaton and Michael Kupperman. Their works have a great and relatable vibe to them, and are fun as hell.
this is great work. Really interesting stuff. I wish the Big 2 would take a risk on letting an artist like this work on one of their characters. What’s the harm? Sales already suck and if its a B-list character, the book is already on death row before the first issue drops. Maybe a surprise hit will occur? Take a risk, mix it up…new ideas and interpretations. Constantly outputting “more of the same” with the interchangeable house style art is just going to maintain the status quo.
I could really see her doing a Buffy or even an X-23. Love the energy of her style.
I’d even like to see them go riskier. The Wolverine stuff she did was awesome, so give her an X-book for a while. X-Factor springs to mind as something she would probably do incredibly as both writer/artist (though i dont want to see anything happen to Peter David who I love).
Or even New Mutants? That book could use a little life coaching.
OMG thats genius Maty. I want to see her draw Roberto!
how bout Avengers Academy or Teen Titans? The whole youth thing…would totally work! lets face it…cartooning in this direction on ANY marvel or DC universe superhero book would scare the crap out of anyone who gets to decide these things. Seems editorial direction is hellbent on low risk / moderate to low reward creative teams.
Wow. What a great style and these stories are funny too.
The Wolverine one definitely had me laughing for a while.
I can’t think of anything less interesting or more pointless than putting someone with all this going on to work on Big 2 titles, jeez.
You say that, but it seems to me that the fate of comics in general is tied in to the fate of the big two. Putting a fresh new voice on one of their books and possibly increasing the pool of fans interested in comics can only be a good thing for comics in general. It might not be the most original use of her talents, but it could be the most constructive, in terms of the industry as a whole.
Sure, and let’s put Bryan Lee O’Malley on X-Men and Marjane Satrapi on Supergirl! That’ll really open the eyes of all those 40 yr old X-Men and Supergirl fans who’ve been ignoring Los Bros and Moebius all these years.
The Big Two could not be LESS relevant to where comics in general are going. They’re rehashing old shit for copyright maintenance and movie production purposes, to a shrinking audience of (increasingly) jaded, hidebound and just plan OLD fans. What is the future of THAT.
Love this art, I can definitely see the comparison with Bryan Lee O’Maley, but, dare I say it, Faith Erin Hicks is better! Similar cartoon aesthetic, but with more detail and real world touches.
I will be looking her up from now on.
Thanks iFanboys!