Guy Colwell
| Guy Colwell | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | March 28, 1945 Oakland, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Colorist |
| Notable works | Inner City Romance Central Body: The Art of Guy Colwell |
| Official website | |
Guy Colwell (born March 28, 1945, in Oakland, California) is an American political artist and underground cartoonist. Although not African-American himself, Colwell's comics often portray blacks in strong roles in stories of life on the streets.
Colwell studied art at the California College of Arts and Crafts. After a two-year stint working for Mattel, he was arrested for draft resistance and was sentenced to two years in jail. His experiences there were the genesis of his underground comix series Inner City Romance, begun in 1972. During the turbulent 1960s scene in San Francisco, Colwell worked as an illustrator for the underground paper Good Times.[1]
After this creative period marred by drug abuse, Colwell worked for Rip Off Press as a colorist, also contributing stories and artwork to underground anthologies like Artsy, Fartsy, Funnies (Paranoia, 1974), Corporate Crime (Kitchen Sink Press, 1977), Young Lust (Last Gasp, 1977), Slow Death Eco-funnies (Last Gasp, 1979), Fat Freddy's Comics & Stories (Rip Off Press, 1983), Fire Sale: a Benefit for Larry Todd (Rip Off Press, 1989), Open Season: the Mini Comic (Roger May, 1989), and Graphic Babylon: San Diego Comic Con Minicomix 1990 (Roger May, 1990).
In 1986, upon hearing of a cross-country peace march (The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament), Colwell took a nine-month leave of absence from Rip Off Press to join what was touted by original Great Peace March organizer David Mixner as a major event in American history. While on the GPM, Colwell helped draw route maps for the marchers as well as creating art depicting marchers in their everyday lives. His route maps and drawings are part of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.
Colwell currently is married and lives in Berkeley, California, where he devotes himself to creating personal and political art. His most recent painting, Abuse, is his depiction of the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. This being Colwell's most controversial work, Lori Haigh, the owner of the San Francisco gallery where it was exhibited received death threats and was physically attacked. Her gallery also received damage from unknown persons, causing it to close permanently.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Bibliography
- Inner City Romance (Rip Off Press, 5-issue series, 1972–1978)
- Doll (Rip Off Press, 3-issue series, 1989)
- The Further Adventures of Doll (Kitchen Sink Press, 1989)
- Central Body: The Art of Guy Colwell (Rip Off Press, 1991) — collection of his art between the years 1964-1991
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Sherman, Bill. "Colwell's Mean Street Comix," The Comics Journal no. 43 (Dec. 1978), pp. 70–71
- Michigan State University Libraries, Special Collections Division, Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection, "Colt" to "Colyer"
