Vanessa Davis is an American illustrator, humorist, and

cartoonist 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 ...

of alternative comic books. She is best known for the autobiographical graphic novel ''Make Me A Woman'' and

minicomic A minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term small press comic is equivalent with minicomic, reserved for those publications measuring A6 (105& ...

''Spaniel Rage'', published by

Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, ...

. Her comics have appeared in several anthologies, including ''

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 publishe ...

'', ''

The Best American Comics ''The Best American Comics'' was a yearly anthology of comics in the United States published by Houghton Mifflin from 2006 to 2019 as part of ''The Best American Series''. Stories were chosen using the same procedure as the other Best American t ...

'', ''Stuck in the Middle'', ''Papercutter'', and ''An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories''. She earned a fine arts degree from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. Davis' comics and illustrations are usually rendered in highly chromatic watercolors or in pencil. The stories they tell are taken from her diary and are candidly personal, witty and self-deprecating; centering on her youth, mother, relationships with men, and

Jewish identity Jewish identity is the objective or subjective state of Identity (social science), perceiving oneself as a Jew and as relating to being Jews, Jewish. Under a broader definition, Jewish identity does not depend on whether a person is regarded as ...

. Her work has appeared in ''The New York Times'', ''Dissent'', ''Vice'', and ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', and she is a regular contributor to ''

Tablet Magazine ''Tablet'' is an online magazine focused on Jewish news and culture. The magazine was founded in 2009 and is supported by the Nextbook foundation. Its editor-in-chief is Alana Newhouse. History ''Tablet'' was founded in 2009 with the suppor ...

''. In 2009, she was awarded the Maisie Kukoc Award for Comics Inspiration, and in 2017 the Terry Southern Prize for Humor for her eight-part series, ''Summer Hours'', published in the

Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

Bibliography

* ''Summer Hours'' (self-published, 2016) * ''Make Me a Woman'' (

, 2010) * ''Kitchen Conniption'' (self-published, 2010) * ''Spaniel Rage'' (

Buenaventura Press Buenaventura Press was a publisher and distributor for comics, prints, anthologies and graphic novels based in Oakland, California, run by Alvin Buenaventura. Publishing history Buenaventura Press originally specialized in handcrafted fine press ...

, 2005) ** reissued (Drawn & Quarterly, 2017)

References

External links

Official Vanessa Davis website

Vanessa Davis on Tablet Magazine

Vanessa Davis on Etsy

"Summer Hours"
comics series by Vanessa Davis {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Vanessa 1978 births Alternative cartoonists American women cartoonists American female comics artists American comics writers American graphic novelists Living people Jewish American artists American women illustrators Feminist artists Female comics writers American women novelists American cartoonists 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women