Anders Nilsen (born 1973) is an American cartoonist who lives in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
Biography
Nilsen graduated with an art degree from the
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...
in 1996.Nilsen, Anders. "Afterword," ''Big Questions, or Asomatognosia'' (Drawn & Quarterly, June 2011), p. 589. He moved to Chicago in 1999 to get a Master of Fine Arts in painting, but dropped out after one year.
Nilsen's comics have appeared in the anthologies ''
Kramers Ergot
''Kramers Ergot'' is a series of anthology-style books of comic art edited by Sammy Harkham.
Publication history
''Kramers Ergot'' started as a mini-comic self-published by Sammy Harkham under the imprint Avodah Books. Issues 4 and 5 were publish ...
'' and '' Mome''. His graphic novel ''Dogs and Water'' won an
Ignatz Award
The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping ...
in 2005. An excerpt from '' Dogs and Water '' was featured in the inaugural 2006 edition of the ''Best American Comics'' anthology, and the book was expanded and reissued in hardcover in 2007. In 2007, Nilsen won an Ignatz Award for his graphic memoir, ''Don't Go Where I Can't Follow,'' and in 2012, he won an Ignatz Award for ''Big Questions'', a collected edition of his comic book series.
Nilsen is co-founder of Autoptic, a bi-annual festival of independent comics and art culture that takes place in Minneapolis. He is also one of the organizers of comics residency Pierre Feuille Ciseaux at the
Angoulême International Comics Festival
The Angoulême International Comics Festival (french: Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after ...
. Nilsen has been regularly holding lectures and workshops at various organizations, including
Chulalongkorn University
Chulalongkorn University (CU, th, จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย, ), nicknamed Chula ( th, จุฬาฯ), is a public and autonomous research university in Bangkok, Thailand. The university was originally fo ...
in Bangkok, Forecast program in Berlin, Center for the Humanities at the
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
,
Center for Cartoon Studies
The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) is a two-year institution focusing on sequential art, specifically comics and graphic novelsStanford University.
Awards
* 2001:
Xeric Award
The Xeric Foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation based in Northampton, Massachusetts, which for twenty years awarded self-publishing grants to comic book creators, as well as qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations. The Xeric Fou ...
for ''The Ballad of the Two-Headed Boy''
* 2005:
Ignatz Award
The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping ...
for ''Dogs and Water''
* 2007:
Ignatz Award
The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping ...
for ''Don't Go Where I Can't Follow''
* 2012:
Ignatz Award
The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping ...
for ''Big Questions''
* 2012: Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize for ''Big Questions''
Selected works
* ''Dogs and Water'', Drawn & Quarterly, October 2004,
* ''Monologues for the Coming Plague'', Fantagraphics, 2006,
* ''Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow'', Drawn & Quarterly, 2006 (reissued 2012),
* ''The End'', Fantagraphics, Coconino Press, January 2007,
* ''Monologues for Calculating the Destiny of Black Holes'', Fantagraphics, January 2009,
* ''Big Questions'', Drawn & Quarterly, June 2011,
* ''Rage of Poseidon'', Drawn & Quarterly, October 2013,
* ''God and the Devil at War in the Garden'', May 2015, Self Published
* ''Poetry is Useless'', Drawn & Quarterly, September 2015,
* ''A Walk in Eden'', Drawn & Quarterly, October 2016,
* ''Tongues Chapter 1-4'', No Miracles Press
*''In Your Next Life You Will Be Together With All of Your Friends'', No Miracles Press, March 2021,