American cartoonist (born 1956)
Paul Karasik
(
kara-sick
;
[1]
born 1956)
[2]
is an American
cartoonist
, editor, and teacher, notable for his contributions to such works as
City of Glass: The Graphic Novel
,
The Ride Together: A Memoir of Autism in the Family
, and
Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All!
. He is the coauthor, with
Mark Newgarden
, of
How to Read Nancy
, 2018 winner of the Eisner Award for "Best Comics-Related Book". His work has appeared in
The New York Times
,
The Washington Post
and he is also an occasional cartoonist for
The New Yorker
.
Life and career
[
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]
In the early 1980s, after having graduated from the
Pratt Institute
, Karasik studied briefly at the
School of Visual Arts
(SVA) in New York, where he was a student of
Will Eisner
,
Harvey Kurtzman
, and
Art Spiegelman
.
[2]
In 1981, Spiegelman, with his wife,
Francoise Mouly
, invited Karasik to become associate editor of their seminal international comics and graphics revue,
RAW
,
[3]
a position Karasik held until 1985. During this period, originally under the auspices of Spiegelman and SVA, Karasik co-edited with fellow cartoonist
Mark Newgarden
three issues of
Bad News
,
[3]
which ran work by many of the
RAW
cartoonists, including
Kim Deitch
,
Ben Katchor
,
Richard McGuire
, and
Jerry Moriarty
. He and Newgarden wrote the essay "
How to Read
Nancy
," originally published in
The Best of
Ernie Bushmiller
’s
Nancy
by Brian Walker (Henry Holt/Comicana, 1988). Karasik and Mark Newgarden expanded the "How to Read Nancy" essay to book length, published in 2017 by
Fantagraphics Books
. The book won an Eisner Award in 2018.
In
1994
Karasik collaborated with
David Mazzucchelli
to adapt
Paul Auster
's novel
City of Glass
into a
full-length comic
. This adaptation was cited by
The Comics Journal
as one of the "100 Best Comics of the 20th Century".
[4]
Translated into more than a dozen languages, the graphic novel has been exhibited in Italy. It was excerpted in
The Norton Anthology of Post-Modern American Fiction
.
Karasik's book
The Ride Together: A Memoir of Autism in the Family
(2004), co-written with his sister, Judy Karasik, employed the format of alternating prose and comics chapters to tell their story of growing up with an older brother with
autism
.
The Ride Together
was named the Best Literary Work of the Year by the
Autism Society of America
.
[5]
Karasik co-edited of
Masters of American Comics
(2005), the coffee-table companion catalog to the first major American exhibition of comics, co-sponsored by the
Hammer Museum
and the
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art
.
His anthology highlighting the work of the (previously) obscure
Golden Age
cartoonist
Fletcher Hanks
,
I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets
(Fantagraphics, 2007), won a 2008
Eisner Award
,
[6]
the highest honor in the industry. A second volume,
You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation
(Fantagraphics, 2009), when combined with the first, comprises the complete works of Fletcher Hanks.
Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All!
, a volume combining the two earlier books with some added material, was published in 2016.
As Program Director of the
comics festival
Comic Arts Brooklyn
for two years, Karasik conducted interviews with Paul Auster, Charles Burns, Roz Chast, Jeff Smith, Art Spiegelman, et al.
Paul Karasik’s
gag cartoons
and essays have appeared in
The New York Times
,
The Nation
and
The New Yorker
.
[5]
Teaching
[
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]
Also a teacher, Karasik has taught at
Packer Collegiate Institute
, the
Rhode Island School of Design
,
Boston University
, and the
School of Visual Arts
in the United States, and abroad at the EESI school in Angouleme, France,
The Animation Workshop
in Viborg, Denmark, and, at the
Scuola Internazionale di Comics
in Rome and Florence, Italy.
[3]
He has given workshops and lectured at The
Center for Cartoon Studies
, and given writing seminars at
Bennington College
,
American University
,
Princeton University
,
Penn State
, and
Wheaton College
.
[5]
He was the first Stuckeman Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Penn State University in the autumn of 2017 and Visiting Professor at Texas A&M in the spring of 2020.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Karasik grew up in the
Washington, D.C.
area. He moved to
Martha's Vineyard
,
Massachusetts
, in 1989. Karasik's wife, Marsha Winsryg, is an accomplished pastel artist and painter, and Director of the African Artists Community Development Project, raising awareness and funds for a community of children with disabilities in Zambia.
[7]
[8]
Bibliography
[
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]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
"Paul Karasik | White Glove Testimonial"
.
YouTube
.
Archived
from the original on 2021-12-21
. Retrieved
3 July
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Kartalopoulos, Bill.
"Coffee with Paul Karasik,"
Indy
magazine (Spring 2004).
- ^
a
b
c
Karasik profile
, Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928?1999.
- ^
"The Top 100 English-Language Comics of the Century," (#45)
The Comics Journal
#210 (February 1999).
- ^
a
b
c
Lash, Elissa.
"Galleries: Laugh Lines,"
Archived
2011-09-27 at the
Wayback Machine
Martha's Vineyard Times
(December 24, 2008).
- ^
"2008 Eisner Awards: Complete List of Eisner Award Winners:" Best Archival Collection/Project?Comic Books
Archived
2011-04-27 at the
Wayback Machine
, San Diego Comic-Con International website.
- ^
Karasik bio
, Permanent Endowment for Martha's Vineyard. Accessed Jan. 3, 2017.
- ^
"Paul Karasik Marsha Winsryg Exhibit,"
Vineyard Gazette
(December 14, 2016).
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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