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 ...
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
, painter, animator, writer, and performer from
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. currently based in
Los Angeles
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' ...
. Her work is dark, often explicit, and visually distinctive."Cat-Head Comics Catalog /ref> Her work has been exhibited in galleries since the late 1980s, including a number of solo shows in Los Angeles.
Krystine first published her comics in
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
zines
A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very sma ...
published out of San Francisco. She moved to Los Angeles in 1991.
She has been published in '' Weirdo'', ''
Raw
Raw is an adjective usually describing:
* Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made
* Raw food, uncooked food
Raw or RAW may also refer to:
Computing and electronics
* .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...
'', ''
Wimmen's Comix
''Wimmen's Comix'', later titled ''Wimmin's Comix'', is an influential all-female underground comics anthology published from 1972 to 1992. Though it covered a wide range of genres and subject matters, ''Wimmen's Comix'' focused more than other ...
The Narrative Corpse
''The Narrative Corpse'' is a chain story, or comic jam, by 69 all-star cartoonists based on ''Le Cadavre Exquis'' (see Exquisite corpse), a popular game played by André Breton and his surrealist friends to break free from the constraints of ra ...
'', ''
Comix 2000
''Comix 2000'' was an international one-shot independent comic book published in 1999 by L'Association (France) and distributed in the United States by Fantagraphics Books.
All the comics featured in ''Comix 2000'' are wordless in order to accom ...
'', ''Snake Eyes'', ''
Art Forum
''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably, ...
'', ''Buzzard'', and '' Twisted Sisters''. Her relationship with Dori Seda is chronicled in the story "'Bimbos From Hell," originally published in '' Weirdo'' #22 (Last Gasp, Spring 1988). In 1990,
Cat-Head Comics
Cat-Head Comics was an American Alternative comics, alternative/Underground comix, underground comics publisher that operated from 1980 to 1998. Founded by cartoonist Steve Lafler as a vehicle for his own work, Cat-Head was later joined by writer/p ...
released ''Death Warmed Over'', a collection of her comics. Cat-Head Comics described ''Death Warmed Over'' as "a beyond-beautiful collection of dark wonderment" and wrote "Kryttre's inventive 'scratchboard gothic' style has made this collection very popular."
Another collection, ''The #@@! Coloring Book'', was released by
Last Gasp
Last Gasp or The Last Gasp may refer to
* Last Gasp (publisher)
* ''Last Gasp'' (''Inside No. 9''), a TV episode
* '' The Last Gasp'', a 2007 album by Impaled
* ''The Last Gasp'' (novel)
* "Last Gasp" (song)
{{dab ...
in 2001.
After making comics from 1985–1992, she shifted focus to painting from 1994–2003, and
taxidermy
Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proce ...
from 1994–2002. Her most recent work has returned to painting and drawing. She has also produced a series of satirical toys called "Abu & 'Mo", inspired by the atrocities of
Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib (; ar, أبو غريب, ''Abū Ghurayb'') is a city in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq, located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000 (2003). The old road t ...
and the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...
.
Krystine is credited as a writer and creative producer for the segment "Anemia & Iodine" in the American sketch comedy series
KaBlam!
''KaBlam!'' (stylized as ''KaBLaM!'') is an American animated sketch comedy television series that ran on Nickelodeon from 1996 to 2000. The series was created by Robert Mittenthal, Will McRobb, and Chris Viscardi. The show was developed as a fu ...
(1996) She was also an animator for
Freaked
''Freaked'' is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Tom Stern and Alex Winter, both of whom wrote the screenplay with Tim Burns. Winter also starred in the lead role. Both were involved in the short-lived MTV sketch comedy show '' The Idiot ...
(1993).
From 2002 to 2008 she was a member of the L.A.-based Corpus Delicti Butoh Performance Lab, which performed stage pieces and guerilla street theater in public spaces.
The cartoonist and critic
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod; June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. He is best known for his non-fiction books about comics: ''Understanding Comics'' (1993), '' Reinventing Comics'' (2000), and ''Making Comics'' (200 ...
, in ''
Understanding Comics
''Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art'' is a 1993 non-fiction work of comics by American cartoonist Scott McCloud. It explores formal aspects of comics, the historical development of the medium, its fundamental vocabulary, and various ways in ...
'' (1993), wrote that "in Krystine Kryttre's art, the curves of childhood and the mad lines of a dvardMunch create a crazy toddler look."
Writer Terri Sutton, in
Artforum
''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...
, wrote that Krystine's work aimed to criticize the double standards of women and show feminist visions of healthy womanhood. She wrote Kryttre, along with artists
Mary Fleener
Mary Fleener (born September 14, 1951) is an American alternative comics artist, writer and musician from Los Angeles. Fleener's drawing style, which she calls ''cubismo'', derives from the cubist aesthetic and other artistic traditions. Her f ...
and
Julie Doucet
Julie Doucet (born December 31, 1965) is a Canadian
Krystine was a panel member at the
San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...
's panel "The Book of Weirdo: A History of the Greatest Magazine Ever Published" in 2019.
References
Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a ''name'' ...
Sources
Lambiek's Comiclopedia * Noomin, Diane. ''Twisted Sisters: A Collection of Bad Girl Art''. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1991.