Neil Swaab is a New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 based artist, designer, writer, and educator. His illustrations and comics have appeared in numerous publications in the US as well as abroad in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

, and Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.
Swaab's most famous work is Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, which deals with a pill-popping, foul-mouthed teddy bear. The comics frequently deal with sex

Sex

In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...

, addiction

Substance dependence

The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...

, intoxication, psychosis

Psychosis

Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...

, molestation, cross-dressing

Cross-dressing

Cross-dressing is the wearing of clothing and other accoutrement commonly associated with a gender within a particular society that is seen as different than the one usually presented by the dresser...

, self-hate and misanthropy

Misanthropy

Misanthropy is generalized dislike, distrust, disgust, contempt or hatred of the human species or human nature. A misanthrope, or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings...

. This weekly comic strip currently runs online as well as in The New York Press, Real Detroit Weekly

Real Detroit Weekly

Real Detroit Weekly is a weekly newspaper distributed free of charge every Wednesday, that focuses mainly on entertainment news from Hollywood and the metro Detroit nightclub scene...

, Internazionale (in Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

), and New Times Broward-Palm Beach

New Times Broward-Palm Beach

New Times Broward-Palm Beach is an alternative weekly newspaper; it is part of the Village Voice Media chain. The paper split off from the Miami New Times in 1997, under the auspices of then editor-in-chief Tom Walsh. Walsh was succeeded by Chuck Strouse, who was replaced in 2005 with Tony Ortega...

.

The strip is also available online and collected in two books:

• Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles Vol. 1, 2002. ISBN 978-0972218207
• Attitude Featuring: Neil Swaab, Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles (AKA Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles Vol. 2), 2005.

In 2004, Swaab was interviewed in the book Attitude 2: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists

Attitude: The New Subversive Cartoonists

The Attitude series of books is a series of anthologies of alternative comics, photos and artists' interviews edited by Universal Press Syndicate editorial cartoonist Ted Rall. The books were designed by J. P. Trostle, news editor of EditorialCartoonists.com. Two sequels and three spin-off titles...

, edited by award-winning syndicated editorial cartoonist Ted Rall

Ted Rall

Ted Rall is an American columnist, syndicated editorial cartoonist, and author. His political cartoons often appear in a multi-panel comic-strip format and frequently blend comic-strip and editorial-cartoon conventions. The cartoons appear in approximately 100 newspapers around the United States...

. Attitude 2 included other cartoonists such as Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel is an American cartoonist. Originally best known for the long-running comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For, in 2006 she became a best-selling and critically acclaimed author with her graphic memoir Fun Home.-Early life:...

, David Rees

David Rees (cartoonist)

David Thomas Rees is a left-wing cartoonist and humorist whose best-known work combines bland clip art with outrageous "trash talk" to incongruous effect...

 and Aaron McGruder

Aaron McGruder

Aaron McGruder is an American cartoonist best known for writing and drawing The Boondocks, a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip about two young African American brothers from inner-city Chicago now living with their grandfather in a sedate suburb, as well as being the creator and executive...

.

Swaab is currently an instructor at Parsons School of Design in the Illustration program, and has worked on Adult Swim

Adult Swim

Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...

 cartoon Superjail!.

External links

• Official Site
• Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles
• Love at the Planetarium drawing by Swaab at Smyles & Fish
• Review of Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles at Ann Arbor Paper