Phoebe Gloeckner
Encyclopedia
Phoebe Louise Adams Gloeckner is an American
cartoonist
, illustrator
, painter
, and novelist.
, and spent most of her later childhood and young adult life in San Francisco
, where her family moved in the early 1970s. She attended several Bay Area schools, including The Hamlin School for Girls, Castilleja (in Palo Alto), Urban High School, Lick-Wilmerding High School, The Independent Learning School, and San Francisco State University
, where she studied art and biology. She was interested in cartooning from an early age; her father was a commercial illustrator, and through her mother she met several of the San Francisco underground comics figures who were to have a profound influence upon her, including Robert Crumb
, Bob Armstrong, Aline Kominsky, Bill Griffith, and Diane Noomin
. However, rather than pursue a career in cartooning, she choose to study medical illustration at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
.
Gloeckner has lived in San Francisco, Dallas, Aix-en-Provence, Paris, Prague, Setauket NY, and Ann Arbor, where she now teaches at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, in the School of Art and Design. She has been married three times and has two children.
She was the recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim fellowship
.
edition of J. G. Ballard
's novel The Atrocity Exhibition
, used clinical images of internal anatomy, sex, and physical trauma in ambiguous and evocative combinations.
Her comics
work, in the form of short stories published in a variety of underground anthologies including Wimmen's Comix
, Weirdo
, Young Lust and Twisted Sisters
, was sporadic and rarely seen until the 1998 release of the collection A Child's Life and Other Stories. This was followed by her 2002 novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl, which revisited the troubled life of the young character previously featured in some of her comics, this time in an unusual combination of prose, illustration, and short comics scenes.
Her novel and many of her short stories are semi-autobiographical
, a frequent cause of comment due to their depiction of sex, drug use, and childhood traumas; however, Gloeckner has stated that she regards them as fiction. Sexual content led to A Child's Life being banned from the public library in Stockton, California
after it was checked out by an 11-year-old reader; the mayor of Stockton called the book "a how-to manual for pedophiles".
Less controversial, and actually intended for children, is the book "Weird Things You Can Grow," published by Random House, and books in the series beginning with Tales too Funny to be True published by HarperCollins, for which she did the illustrations.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
, illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, and novelist.
Background
Gloeckner was born in 1960 in PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, and spent most of her later childhood and young adult life in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, where her family moved in the early 1970s. She attended several Bay Area schools, including The Hamlin School for Girls, Castilleja (in Palo Alto), Urban High School, Lick-Wilmerding High School, The Independent Learning School, and San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
, where she studied art and biology. She was interested in cartooning from an early age; her father was a commercial illustrator, and through her mother she met several of the San Francisco underground comics figures who were to have a profound influence upon her, including Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
, Bob Armstrong, Aline Kominsky, Bill Griffith, and Diane Noomin
Diane Noomin
Diane Noomin is an American comics artist associated with the underground comics movement, best known for her character Didi Glitz. She is the editor of the anthology series Twisted Sisters, and one of the original contributors to Wimmen's Comix. She has also done theatrical work, creating a stage...
. However, rather than pursue a career in cartooning, she choose to study medical illustration at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is one of the biomedical research institutions of the University of Texas System, incorporating three degree-granting institutions, four affiliated hospitals, including Parkland Memorial, the teaching hospital, and biomedical research...
.
Gloeckner has lived in San Francisco, Dallas, Aix-en-Provence, Paris, Prague, Setauket NY, and Ann Arbor, where she now teaches at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, in the School of Art and Design. She has been married three times and has two children.
She was the recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
.
Works
Gloeckner has worked prolifically as a medical illustrator since 1988, and her training is evident in her paintings and comics art, which are highly detailed and often prominently feature the human body. Her first prominent work in fiction publishing, a series of illustrations for the RE/SearchRE/Search
RE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded and edited by Andrea Juno and V. Vale in 1980. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanzine Search & Destroy , and was started with $100 from Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti...
edition of J. G. Ballard
J. G. Ballard
James Graham Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, and prominent member of the New Wave movement in science fiction...
's novel The Atrocity Exhibition
The Atrocity Exhibition
The Atrocity Exhibition is an experimental collection of "condensed novels" by British writer J. G. Ballard.Originally published in 1970 by Jonathan Cape. A revised large format paperback edition, with annotations by the author and illustrations by Phoebe Gloeckner, was issued by RE/Search in 1990...
, used clinical images of internal anatomy, sex, and physical trauma in ambiguous and evocative combinations.
Her comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
work, in the form of short stories published in a variety of underground anthologies including Wimmen's Comix
Wimmen's Comix
Wimmen's Comix, later titled Wimmin's Comix, was an influential all-female underground comics anthology published from 1972 to 1992. Though it covered a wide range of genre and subject matter, Wimmen's Comix focused more than other anthologies of the time on feminist concerns, homosexuality, sex...
, Weirdo
Weirdo
Weirdo was a magazine-sized comics anthology created by Robert Crumb and published by Last Gasp from 1981 to 1993.Weirdo served as a "low art" counterpoint to its contemporary highbrow RAW...
, Young Lust and Twisted Sisters
Twisted Sisters
Twisted Sisters may refer to:* Unnamed Hariri Pontarini Architects project in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada* An underground comic series by Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Diane Noomin...
, was sporadic and rarely seen until the 1998 release of the collection A Child's Life and Other Stories. This was followed by her 2002 novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl, which revisited the troubled life of the young character previously featured in some of her comics, this time in an unusual combination of prose, illustration, and short comics scenes.
Her novel and many of her short stories are semi-autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, a frequent cause of comment due to their depiction of sex, drug use, and childhood traumas; however, Gloeckner has stated that she regards them as fiction. Sexual content led to A Child's Life being banned from the public library in Stockton, California
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
after it was checked out by an 11-year-old reader; the mayor of Stockton called the book "a how-to manual for pedophiles".
Less controversial, and actually intended for children, is the book "Weird Things You Can Grow," published by Random House, and books in the series beginning with Tales too Funny to be True published by HarperCollins, for which she did the illustrations.
Solo works
- A Child's Life and Other Stories. (1998; revised edition, 2002) North Atlantic Books. ISBN 1-58394-028-6
- The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures. (2002) Frog Press. ISBN 1-58394-063-4
As illustrator
- Ballard, J.G. The Atrocity Exhibition. (1990) RE/SearchRE/SearchRE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded and edited by Andrea Juno and V. Vale in 1980. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanzine Search & Destroy , and was started with $100 from Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti...
Publications. ISBN 0-940642-18-2 - Spinrad, Paul. "The RE/Search Guide to Bodily Fluids". (1994). RE/SearchRE/SearchRE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded and edited by Andrea Juno and V. Vale in 1980. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanzine Search & Destroy , and was started with $100 from Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti...
Publications. ISBN 0-940642-28-X (cover image) - V. ValeV. ValeV. "Valhalla" Vale is a writer, keyboard player and, as Vale Hamanaka, was a member of the initial configuration of Blue Cheer, prior to that band becoming famous as a power trio. He is the publisher and primary contributor to books and magazines published by his company, RE/Search Publications...
(Ed.) and Andrea Juno (Ed). "Angry Women". (1991). RE/SearchRE/SearchRE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded and edited by Andrea Juno and V. Vale in 1980. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanzine Search & Destroy , and was started with $100 from Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti...
Publications. ISBN 0-940642-24-7 (cover image) - Winks, Cathy, and Anne Semans. The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex, 3rd edition. (2002) Cleis Press. ISBN 1-57344-158-9
External links
- Phoebe Gloeckner page at the University of Michigan