Weissman, Steven 1968-

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Weissman, Steven 1968-

(Steven Knight Weissman)

PERSONAL: Born June 4, 1968, in CA; married; wife’s name Charissa; children: Charles. Education: Attended California State University and the Academy of Art.

ADDRESSES: Home— Los Angeles, CA. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Graphic novelist and comic book writer and artist, 1993—.

AWARDS, HONORS: Harvey Award, for best new talent, 1998.

WRITINGS

Yikes (minicomic), self-published, 1993.

Yikes, Volume 1 (minicomic), five issues, self-published, 1994–96.

Tykes, Alternative Comics Press (Gainesville, FL), 1997.

Yikes, Volume 2, two issues, Alternative Comics Press (Gainesville, FL), 1997–98.

The Lemon Kids, Alternative Comics Press (Gainesville, FL), 1999.

Champs, Fantagraphics (Seattle, WA), 1999.

Fichtre!, Editions Amok (France), 2000.

White Flower Day, Editions Amok (France), 2001, Fantagraphics (Seattle, WA), 2002.

Les Choupin Sherifs, 9eme Monde (France), 2001.

Don’t Call Me Stupid!, Fantagraphics (Seattle, WA), 2001.

The Kid Firechief, Fantagraphics (Seattle, WA), 2004.

Chewing Gum in Church, Fantagraphics (Seattle, WA), 2006.

Contributor to numerous comic anthologies, including The Big Book of Grimm; contributor to periodicals, including Bizarro Comics, Pulse!, Buzzard, Dark Horse Presents, Marvel Vision, Triple Dare, Dirty Stories, Chicago New City, Nickelodeon, Legal Action Comics, Non, Present: The Comics Journal, Shout, and Swell. Contributor to foreign periodicals, including Quadrado (Portugal), Mammoth (Japan), Stereoscomic (France), and Le Phaco (France).

SIDELIGHTS: Steven Weissman is a comic book and graphic novel writer and artist best known for his “Yikes” children. With their pudgy faces and oversized heads, Weissman’s tykes are mildly reminiscent of Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts kids, but Weissman’s cast includes characters with a darker, satirical edge, more like the kids in South Park. They include Li’l Bloody, a vampire; Pullapart Boy, who is stitched together in the Frankenstein manner; X-Ray Spence, who possesses special glasses; Kid Medusa, who will turn you to stone if you look at her; Dead Boy, a zombie; Chubby Cheeks; and Li’l Tin Stars.

White Flower Day consists of three stories, “White Flower Day,” “Look Out for Big Della,” and “I Saw You,” the last of which introduces a new character, College Boy, Pullapart Boy’s cousin. The recurring theme in these stories is revenge.

Don’t Call Me Stupid! collects Alternative Press releases from 1997 to 1998. In reviewing this book for Locus Online, Claude Lalumière commented that the seven-page story “Back in the Day,” in which the dog Elzie Crisler recalls the circumstances of her death and her resurrection by Professor Boy, is the “most heart-wrenching tale,” adding that it “evocatively contrasts brutality and tenderness while painting with great empathy a picture of heartless disregard.”

A reviewer for Comics Reporter online said of The Kid Firechief: Much of what works best . . . are those moments in which the narratives loosen up and flow with an almost giddy, bouncy sense of timing, like the moments of sublime action that sometimes took over the “Our Gang” films.

Weissman employs a four-panel structure and bright colors for Chewing Gum in Church, while keeping his kids violent and cruel. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that “these bizarre explorations of childhood friendships (not to mention competitiveness and mutual enmity) are hilarious.”