Abby Denson
Encyclopedia
Personal life
Abby Denson was born in Illinois, and grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut. She currently lives in New York, and runs City Sweet Tooth, an exploration of the city's best sweets and treats in unique comic book form.Comics
Abby Denson released her first self published minicomicMinicomic
A minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term "small press comic" is equivalent with minicomic reserved for those publications measuring A6 or less...
in 1996. Entitled Tough Love, a paperback comic about the story of two gay teenagers in high school. The characters were Brian, a cute shy suburban boy, Chris, a kung-fu fighter , and Julie, Brian's best friend. Abby sent a copy to XY Magazine for review; the editors at XY chose instead to serialize the comic in their publication, where it ran for a number of years, garnering Tough Love many fans. At the same time, Denson continued to release the series as a minicomic, until the story came to an end. Abby was also the illustrator for the cover of the special Survival Guide edition of XY.
In 2006, the entire series was reprinted as a graphic novel by Manic D Press
Manic D Press
Manic D Press is an American literary press based in San Francisco, California publishing fiction , poetry, cultural studies, art, narrative-oriented comix, and alternative travel trade paperbacks...
, entitled Tough Love: High School Confidential. The next year, in 2007, Abby Denson won the '2007 Lulu of the Year' Award from the comics organization Friends of Lulu
Friends of Lulu
Friends of Lulu was a non-profit, national charitable organization in the United States, founded in 1994 to promote readership of comic books by women and the participation of women in the comic book industry...
.
Abby Denson has also worked on several newsstand comics, such as ((Amazing Spider-Man Family]], Josie and the Pussycats
Josie and the Pussycats
Josie and the Pussycats are a fictional rock band created by Dan DeCarlo.They have been featured in a number of different media since the 1960s:...
, The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls is an American animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network...
, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, and others. At the same time, she has continued to release her own self published comics which include the titles Night Club, Jamie Starr Teen Drag Queen, Deadsy Cat & Kissy Kitty, Cute Boys of the 80's, and others.
Abby is also a contributor to the Friends of Lulu published anthology, The Girls' Guide To Guy's Stuff; Robert Kirby
Robert Kirby (comics artist)
Robert Kirby is the creator of the syndicated comic Curbside.Curbside is the story of two young men, Drew, an aspiring writer, and Nathan, an aspiring musician, who meet and eventually form a tumultuous relationship...
and David Kelly's anthology, The Book of Boy Trouble 2; and Tim Fish
Tim Fish
Tim Fish is a comic book author and artist.Fish was born in 1970 and attended the University of New Hampshire, where he had a twice-weekly comic strip running in the college newspaper, The New Hampshire, and started a 100-issue superhero comic called "Arche-Lady." Fish has lived in St. Louis, San...
's anthology, Young Bottoms In Love.
Abby's most recent graphic novel is Dolltopia published in 2009 by Green Candy Press, it garnered a silver Moonbeam Children's Book Award and a bronze International Manga Award.
Music
Abby has been in a number of bands including the all-women bandAll-women band
An all-female band is a musical group composed of female musicians exclusively. A distinction is made here with a girl group, in which the members are solely vocalists, though this terminology is not universally followed.-1920s-1940s:In the Jazz Age and during the 1930s, "all-girl" bands such as...
Mz. Pakman, Let's Audio, Abbymatic and, most recently, The Saturday Night Things. She also collaborated with Rodney Greenblat
Rodney Greenblat
Rodney Alan Greenblat, born August 23, 1960 in San Francisco, California, is an American graphic artist known best in the United States for the visual style of the computer games PaRappa the Rapper and UmJammer Lammy, and in Japan for his comic Thunder Bunny. He was also the character designer for...
on the album Let's Audio.
Books
- Tough Love: High School Confidential, Manic D PressManic D PressManic D Press is an American literary press based in San Francisco, California publishing fiction , poetry, cultural studies, art, narrative-oriented comix, and alternative travel trade paperbacks...
, 2006 - Dolltopia, Green Candy Press, 2009
Contributions
- The Book of Boy Trouble 2: Born to Trouble, edited by Robert KirbyRobert Kirby (comics artist)Robert Kirby is the creator of the syndicated comic Curbside.Curbside is the story of two young men, Drew, an aspiring writer, and Nathan, an aspiring musician, who meet and eventually form a tumultuous relationship...
and David Kelly, Green Candy Press, 2008 ISBN 978-1-931160-65-0 - The Girls' Guide to Guy's Stuff, Friends of LuluFriends of LuluFriends of Lulu was a non-profit, national charitable organization in the United States, founded in 1994 to promote readership of comic books by women and the participation of women in the comic book industry...
, 2007 - Young Bottoms In Love, edited by Tim FishTim FishTim Fish is a comic book author and artist.Fish was born in 1970 and attended the University of New Hampshire, where he had a twice-weekly comic strip running in the college newspaper, The New Hampshire, and started a 100-issue superhero comic called "Arche-Lady." Fish has lived in St. Louis, San...
, Poison Press, 2007 ISBN 978-0-9762786-7-2
External links
- Abby Denson's website, Abbycomix
- Abby Denson's cartoon dessert blog, City Sweet Tooth
- Interview with Abby Denson
- Comic artist Abby Denson makes a difference with 'Dolltopia August 2008 interview with the New York Daily News.
- Abby Denson's Tough Love at ZineWikiZineWikiZineWiki is an open-source online wiki devoted to zines, fanzines, small press publications, chapbooks, and independent media. It covers the history, production, distribution and culture of the small press.-History:...