Turns out it only takes 30 seconds to feel like you’re at a chariot race/gathered round a campfire/ shipwrecked/ awestruck by an Egyptian temple! Watching makes me smile every time.
Call of Kinnaru in Burlington Dec 1
There aren’t many chances to hear new ancient music, but Saturday in Burlington was one of them. Together with Brooklyn duo Gawain and the Green Knight, The Call of Kinnaru: John Franklin (lyre), Julia Irons (voice, percussion), Rachel Fickes (aulos, lyre, voice), Jamie Levis (drums) played Songs of Greek Mythology, covered by Seven Days VT. This fall the Call of Kinnaru performed at UT Austin and Harvard, with more gigs planned for 2024. Find the full Call of Kinnaru playlist here.
I created images for projections to illustrate songs for a production of Euripides’ Helen that John produced in 2018. The lyrics often refer to myth, which for ancient audiences would have brought images to mind. These projections attempt to simulate the experience, and it’s thrilling to see how the images interact with the music.
A week at the Vermont Studio Center
I was very fortunate to spend Vermont Week in Johnson at the Vermont Studio Center with 30 other artists and writers from the state. This meant hours in the studio, wonderful meals, many conversations with other residents, and open studios on Sunday. Thanks to Lori Duff for a photoshoot of me as serious author/cartoonist.
1177 BC A Graphic History: Pre-Order Now!
Pre-Order now through your local bookstore (mine is Phoenix Books in Burlington) and they’ll know they need to stock the book.
After more than two years of drawing maps, ancient art, imagined scenes of cities, ships, and battles, I’m excited to share this book with the world. The Late Bronze Age has never been more alive and in full color as it will be in April 2024! Arriving together with Eric Cline’s sequel, After 1177 BC!
Praise: “This funny, beautiful book is a tour de force of visual storytelling. Glynnis Fawkes’s stunning graphic rendition of 1177 B.C. amplifies Eric Cline’s landmark work without simplifying the historical questions that remain. From the mysterious Sea Peoples to garrulous hippos, the Late Bronze Age comes alive on the page.”—Josephine Quinn, author of How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History
Goodbye, Hunk of Home in the New Yorker
I’ve loved the flood of stories about beloved old cars that this cartoon produced. Published on my birthday, the day before a wonderful tribute to the life of Ed Koren at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolf, VT.
In the Burlington Free Press
I’m talking about my work on 1177 BC, archaeology, and the wonder of comics! Read the article here!
Making of graphic 1177 BC talk with the Vermont Humanities Council
Nov 2, 2022, Brownell Library, Essex Junction, VT, 7 PM
This talk is a preview of the pages I’ve drawn, and a glimpse into the process of interpreting Eric Cline’s 1177 BC The Year Civilization Collapsed in comics.
Creating this talk sent me on yet another round of edits and revisions, and there will be more to come. I’ve drawn and lettered about 144 pages so far, and there are about 100 left to go before the deadline in February. One of my favorite parts of making this book is imagining the scenes and the people who lived in the Late Bronze Age. And then it came to an end!
Watch the talk (courtesy of The Vermont Humanities Council and The Media Factory).
Creating MiddleGrade and YA Comics Summer '22 at CCS!
For the 3rd year in a row, and for the first time IN PERSON, Jo Knowles and I will be leading a week-long workshop on creating YA and MG comics at CCS in White River Junction, VT. EVEN on ZOOM this week left me feeling exhilarated, so I can’t wait to experience comics making together in the same room—being able to hop out to nearby cafes for breaks and lunch. As anxious as making plans to travel may feel at this point—I’m out of practice– the anticipation of this week dedicated to generating story ideas, workshopping projects, and gaining a community of peers eases these fears.
Wether you have an idea for a graphic novel, or a project already in progress, or even wonder about how to compose in panels, pages, and spreads—or know someone who does— consider spending this week at a spa for YA/MG comics! It’s also a chance to gain a short- term taste of life at CCS —the sound of trains rolling through the junction, and glorious immersion in making comics. Sign up here.
Most Costly Journey-Vermont Folklife Center
I’m proud to have contributed The Story of Ana to this anthology of stories of migrant farm workers in Vermont, and so pleased with printed collection. Each comic was originally printed as a pamphlet in Spanish and distributed among migrant workers, in order to share stories, make connections between people, and to ease the sense of isolation they might have while working far from home.
More Details about the book and how to order here.
Listen to a discussion about the project on Vermont Pubic Radio.
Special thanks to Andy Kolovos!
Publishers Weekly Announcement for Graphic 1177 BC
Now that I’m done with thumbnails and have started drawing, the project feels real! I’m immersed in imagining life in the ancient world, drawing ancient art, and figuring out the tech side of putting this book together (Special thanks to Ellen Lindner for expert advice!)
How a Librarian Created Community in a Pandemic
I drove to Westport, VT (about half hour from Burlington) and met writer Margaret Grayson and librarian Bree Drapa, to hear about what she’s done to keep the the community together over the past 10 months—which was a lot! I had 2 days to draw, ink, copyedit and color the story. Read it here and in the Dec 16 issue of SevenDays.
2020 As a Newborn in the New Yorker
Read the whole comic on The New Yorker. The anxieties of 2020 in one wailing bundle!
Sustainable Art Foundation Award
This award will help support the Middle Grade Graphic adventure I’m currently working on as well as a memoir.
The Sustainable Arts Foundation supports writers an artists with children.
From the 2020 award announcement: “Chosen from a field of nearly 1,800 applicants, these twenty artists and writers come from eighteen U.S. cities, Costa Rica, and Turkey; they are parenting thirty-four children. The world closed down while we were reviewing their portfolios, but their creativity opened the world back up to us. We are now all the more eager for the day when we can return to bookstores, galleries, museums, libraries and all the other vibrant spaces where art happens. We hope you will seek out their work.”
I applied for this award many times over the years, gave up for a while, and early this year applied again. Grant applications are a way to describe and focus my projects for myself—as well as a jury. Most of my applications have not been successful—it’s amazing when they are. I’m so grateful for this support, especially now.
In Seven Days Quaranzine
Seven Days VT editor Dan Bowles compiled stories, poems, photos and comics responding to our Covid-19 world for the May 6 issue Quaranzine. I was glad to exorcize some of my anxiety about school-at-home in this comic. SOME of my anxiety.
Featured on The Literary Ladies Guide
Joined the gang of luminaries on the Literary Ladies Guide, a site that provides of Inspiration for Readers and Writers from Classic Women Authors.
I wrote a new bit about the process of making the book especially here.
Fall Book Tour Concluded!
This was a busy fall: I traveled to SPX, MICE, the Brattleboro Literary Festival, CAB, Short Run in Seattle, and finally the NTCE in Baltimore. My last stop is the Woods Hole Public Library on Dec 30.
Both Persephone’s Garden and Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre debuted at the Small Press Expo outside of Washington, DC this September. I shared a table with pals Jennifer Hayden, Summer Pierre, and Ellen Lindner.
Next was the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo, where Dan Mazur chaired a panel on historical Biography—it was packed!
Friday before MICE I went to an evening with Lynda Barry and Chris Ware. The wave of their energy has been carrying me along ever since. I sat next to Cara Bean, friend and inspiring cartoonist and educator.
After the panel at MICE and signing some books (thanks to Million Year Picnic) I drove to Brattleboro for the Literary Festival. On Sunday AM, Amongst the Liberal Elite author Elly Lonnon and I shared a stage—and a lot of laughs—people got up early to join us! Later that afternoon Madeline Miller gave a great talk on her best selling novel Circe. How to communicate my deep connection with Greek Mythology?
At Comics Art Brooklyn I was based at the Secret Acres table with Sadyiah Abjani and Keren Katz. Summer Pierre and I went to Lauren Weinstein’s interview of Ailine Kominski-Crumb. Life is Art and vice versa—at least that’s what I left pondering. So I keep going to yoga classes at Sangha Studio in Burlington.
On Sunday Ellen Lindner and I had a great time visiting all three Mets in one day: The Cloisters, The Main Met, and Met Breuer (for the Vija Selmans show.) #threeMets.
Several days later I was on the plane to Seattle for Short Run. I was a Special Guest, invited by my old friend and board member Meredith Li-Volmer. We had met at the University of Oregon Honors College in Topics in Modern Math 30 years earlier. We both look exactly the same. Short Run takes place in a beautiful light-filled space, and it was great to be a part of a gathering of a community of west-coast cartoonists there, and to table next to Ellen Lindner and Elise Dietrich. A few months before the festival I met Dash-Grant winner Rumi Hara, and am looking forward to her book with Drawn and Quarterly next year. A page from Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre is in a show at the Fantagraphics Store in Georgetown, with a lively opening party on Friday night.
The National Conference of Teachers of English in Baltimore was a revelation! It’s a gathering of teachers excited to learn and expand their curricula with new books and to meet authors excited to share their work. I’m grateful to Disney/ Hyperion for bringing me, and for luxurious accommodations in Baltimore! I signed more than 80 books and asked many teachers about their experience with the Brontes’ books. While Jane Eyre is not required reading any more (as it was for me in 9th grade) many teachers and librarians told me that it’s still their favorite book, and they recommend it to AP English students in high school. It was thrilling to meet authors Rebecca Roanhorse, Minh Le, Zetta Elliott, and Kwame Mbalia. Here we are on a water taxi after a lovely dinner with brilliant organizer Dina Sherman and a group of educators.
In the middle of December I presented the book to a group of 50 6th graders from Edmunds Middle School. About half had heard of Jane Eyre, and I was impressed by their attention and the questions they asked: “Will there be a sequel?” No, because after the book ends, everyone dies. “Who is my favorite Bronte?” I can’t decide—I love them all!
Now that a busy and challenging first semester with the bright and brilliant students at The Center for Cartoon Studies is over, I’m glad to be home and to get to work this winter on what’s next!
In Seven Days Vermont
My giant copy of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights sure came in handy here! (John got it at Barge Canal books last year while I was in the thick of working on Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre).
Thanks to Margaret Grayson for this great article about my big year!
CCS Appeal: In Any Era Remarkable Talent Needs Help to Take Root
What if the Charlotte and Emily Bronte, instead of going to school in Belgium, arrived in Vermont to study cartooning? The Center for Cartoon Studies really ups anyone’s game, whether you’re small, plain, and obscure from Yorkshire, or mighty and popular from anywhere else.
Read the whole comic HERE. Or stop by CCS in White River Junction, VT to pick one up! Or apply for your own creative experience! And donate to help support this remarkable institution.
Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre Review in the New York Times
This review in the New York Times one is the best yet! It appears in the print edition on Sunday Dec. 1st.
“This emotionally nuanced and visually stunning biography, illustrated in deft pencil strokes colored with moody shades of blue and featuring an insightful introduction written by Alison Bechdel, is the latest venture from the Center for Cartoon Stories…”
Stuck in Vermont and a Book Launch
Join me and Jason Lutes at Phoenix Books on Sept 26th for a launch of Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre and Houdini: the Handcuff King. We’ll have a discussion about historical biography and creating graphic novels.
If you can’t wait for that, here’s Episode 591 of Eva Solberger’s Stuck In Vermont, where I talk about making the book about Charlotte Bronte, the great cartooning weather in the state of Vermont, and a theme park idea. (hint: there will be gruel.)