Autobiographical Comics - 1980s

1980s

• Art Spiegelman combined biography and autobiography in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus, about his father's Holocaust experiences, his own relationship with his father, and the process of interviewing him for the book. This work had a major effect on the reception of comics in general upon the world of mainstream prose literature, awakening many to the potential of comics as a medium for stories other than adventure fantasy.

• Eddie Campbell's Alec stories (collected in The King Canute Crowd, Three Piece Suit, and other books) started with the Scottish/Australian artist as a young man drifting through life with his friends, and followed him through marriage, parenthood, and a successful artistic career.

• Campbell's English colleague Glenn Dakin created the Abraham Rat stories (collected in Abe: Wrong for All the Right Reasons), which began as fantasy and became more contemplative and autobiographical.

• Spain Rodriguez drew a number of stories, collected in My True Story, about being a motorcycle gang member in the 1950s.

• Underground legend Robert Crumb focused increasingly on autobiography in his 1980s stories in 'Weirdo'. Many other autobiographical shorts would appear in Weirdo by other artists, including his wife, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Phoebe Gloeckner (more about whom, see below in 1990s section), and Dori Seda.

• Jim Woodring's unusual "autojournal" Jim combined dream art with occasional episodes of realistic autobiography.

• David Collier, a Canadian ex-soldier, published autobiographical and historical comics in Weirdo and later in his series Collier's.

• In the late 1980s, DC Comics' Wasteland featured, unusually for a mainstream title, as well as more conventional forms of black comedy and horror, semi-autobiographical stories based on the life of co-writer Del Close. One of the stories also parodied the autobiographical stories of Harvey Pekar, portraying a version of Pekar's famous appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, in which Pekar's vehement critique of General Electric had earned him a longtime ban from the program.