Karl Stevens (born November 21, 1978 in

Concord, Massachusetts Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the conflu ...

) is a

graphic novelist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...

and

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

. His first book, ''Guilty'', was published in 2005 with a grant from the

Xeric Foundation 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 ...

. He is also the author of ''The Lodger'' (2010), ''The Winner'' (2018), and '' Penny: A Graphic Memoir'' (2021). His comic strips have appeared in the alternative newsweekly the ''

Boston Phoenix ''The Phoenix'' (stylized as ''The Phœnix'') was the name of several alternative weekly periodicals published in the United States of America by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the ''Portland Phoenix'' and ...

'' (2005-2012), ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' (2016-2017), and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' magazine (2018-present).

Work

''Guilty''

''Guilty'' is set in

Allston Allston is an officially recognized neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most part ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, and chronicles the events following an unexpected bus stop encounter between exes. Guiltycover

Reviews of ''Guilty'' noted its "painstaking cross-hatch ng... and its pitch-perfect, 'overheard' dialogue" and its extremely — even "overwhelmingly" — detailed realism. In addition to receiving the

Xeric Deserts and xeric shrublands are a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Deserts and xeric (ancient Greek xērós, “dry") shrublands form the largest terrestrial biome, covering 19% of Earth's land surface area. Ecoregions in this h ...

award for comic self-publishing, ''Guilty'' was nominated for the 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 a ...

for Promising New Talent, has been translated into French (published by

Ego Comme X Ego comme x was the name of a French comics publishing house created in Angoulême in 1994. Company history ''Ego comme x'' started by publishing a magazine in 1993 created by a few authors and after a few years started to publish other works. ...

) and Dutch, and is included in Stephen Weiner's ''

The 101 Best Graphic Novels ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''.

Comics and other books

Stevens' weekly

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

"Whatever" appeared in the ''

'' for three years, beginning in spring 2005. A collection of the strips, also called ''Whatever,'' was published in April 2008 by

Alternative Comics Alternative comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which ...

. In January 2009, Stevens debuted a new weekly

in the ''

'' called "Failure." Stevens' book ''The Lodger,'' published in 2010, is a selection of strips from the first year of "Failure," accompanied by oil paintings and watercolors. In 2010, "Failure" won the

Association of Alternative Newsweeklies The Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) is a trade association of alternative weekly newspapers in North America. It provides services to many generally liberal or progressive weekly newspapers across the United States and in Canada. AA ...

award for Best Cartoon. 2013 saw the publication of ''Failure'' from Alternative Comics which collected the last years of the weekly comic. In 2018 Retrofit/Big Planet Comics published ''The Winner'', an original graphic novel that focuses on Stevens's relationship with his wife Alex, and various short stories in different genres. Since 2018 his gag cartoons have been appearing in

magazine and website. 2021 saw the publication of Penny: A Graphic Memoir from Chronicle Books. A collection of strips about Stevens's cat.

Painting and other work

Stevens' oil paintings and watercolors have been exhibited at the Carroll and Sons and Howard Yezerski galleries in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. A solo exhibition entitled "The Lodger" was on view at Carroll and Sons in July and August 2010.Carroll and Sons Past Exhibitions.
/ref> As an illustrator, Stevens collaborated with Anthony Apesos on the book ''Anatomy for Artists: A New Approach Discovering, Learning, and Remembering the Body'', released in October 2007 by North Light Books.

References

External links

Karl Stevens at Alternative Comics"Failure" and "Whatever" (Boston Phoenix)French ''Guilty''Dutch ''Guilty''French ''The lodger''French ''Whatever''2019 audio interview
at The Virtual Memories Show {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Karl Alternative cartoonists American graphic novelists 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists Living people 1978 births American male novelists 20th-century American male artists The New Yorker people