Matt Madden is a
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic bookA comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
writer and artist. He is best known for original
alternative comicsAlternative comics defines a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to "mainstream" superhero comics which in the past have dominated the US comic book industry...
, for his coloring work in traditional comics, and for the experimental work
99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style99 Ways To Tell a Story: Exercises in Style is an experimental graphic novel by Matt Madden, published by the Penguin Group. Inspired by Raymond Queneau's book Exercises in Style, it tells the same simple story in 99 different ways...
, which is based on the idea of
Raymond QueneauRaymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle .-Biography:Born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Queneau was the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot...
's
Exercises in StyleExercises in Style , written by Raymond Queneau, is a collection of 99 retellings of the same story, each in a different style. In each, the narrator gets on the "S" bus Exercises in Style , written by Raymond Queneau, is a collection of 99 retellings of the same story, each in a different style....
. He also teaches comics at the
School of Visual ArtsThe School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
and
Yale UniversityYale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
.
Career
Madden began his career self-publishing minicomics in Ann Arbor,
MichiganMichigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
in the early 1990s. He was co-editor with
Matt FeazellMatt Feazell is a Hamtramck, Michigan comics artist, primarily working in minicomics. He is best known for his wryly humorous The Amazing Cynicalman series and the simple “stick figure” art style he uses for it...
and Sean Bieri of the anthology
5 O'Clock Shadow. After several of his short pieces appeared in established publications, Madden's first graphic novel,
Black Candy, was published by Black Eye Books in 1998.
In the mid-1990s Madden began writing reviews for
The Comics JournalThe Comics Journal, often abbreviated TCJ, is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels...
and other publications. He is a consulting editor for the mini-comic
Le SketchLe Sketch is a minicomic that gathers sketches from renowned contemporary illustrators and cartoonists. It has free distribution at selected points and saw an augmented reality issue online, for its tenth anniversary ....
.
He works in illustration and comics coloring and also teaches comics storytelling at the
School of Visual ArtsThe School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
. His graphic novel,
Odds Off, was published by
Highwater BooksHighwater Books was a small but influential independent comic book publisher based in Somerville, Massachusetts, noted for its arty editorial direction and production values under publisher Tom Devlin...
, and issue of his periodical series of short works,
A Fine Mess, are published by
Alternative ComicsAlternative Comics is a U.S. independent graphic novel and comic book publisher which operated from 1993–2007. Located in Gainesville, Florida, it is owned and operated by its founder, attorney Jeff Mason...
.
He regularly deals with themes in settings in
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
(where he lived for a time in the late 1990s), or that are rooted in Mexican culture.
Personal life
Madden currently lives in
BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
with his wife, fellow comics creator
Jessica AbelJessica Abel is an American comic book writer and artist, known as the creator of such works as Life Sucks, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, Soundtrack, La Perdida, Mirror, Window, Radio: An Illustrated Guide , and the omnibus series Artbabe.Abel has stated that her major work is not...
, and their daughter.
External links