Dave Cooper (b. 1967 in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 g ...

, oil painter, and animator. Cooper was born in

in 1967 and moved to

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

at the age of nine. Cooper began his career in the 90s, making underground comics for Seattle's Fantagraphics Books. His periodical ''Weasel'' won both the underground

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 ...

and the

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that we ...

in 2000. His psycho-erotic graphic novel ''Ripple'' sported an introduction by

David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation ...

. At the turn of the century, Cooper morphed into an oil painter, showing alternately at galleries in Los Angeles and New York City. He also had a large retrospective of his comicbook artwork in Angouleme and Paris in 2002. Monographs of his paintings included introductions by comedian

David Cross David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and writer known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series ''Mr. Show'' (1995–1998), and his role as Tobias Fünke in the Fox/ Netflix sitco ...

, and filmmaker

Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and actor. He directed the Academy Award–winning fantasy films ''Pan's Labyrinth'' (2006) and '' The Shape of Water'' (2017), winning the Academy Awards for ...

. Around 2008 Cooper turned his attention to the field of animation, ultimately getting two of his original kids TV shows greenlit — ''Pig Goat Banana Cricket'' for

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

and ''The Bagel and Becky Show'' for

Teletoon Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of "television" and "cartoon". The channel primarily broadcasts an ...

/BBC. His short adult film, ''The Absence of Eddy Table'' was released in the fall of 2016 and has since won a number of awards internationally. In the summer of 2017 Cooper returned to oil painting, embarking on ambitious new works for his largest gallery show to date — 70 paintings for Paris 2020. Concurrently, he completed his largest single commission for a Madrid museum—a 13'-wide nod to Bosch's '' The Garden of Earthly Delights''. In 2019, a French publisher will release a 300-page English/French retrospective of Cooper's work, ''Pillowy, the Art of Dave Cooper''. Also in 2019, Cooper joined the board of directors of Ottawa's cutting-edge artist-run centre Saw Gallery. Cooper lives in Ottawa, Canada.

Selected works

* ''Suckle'' (1997) * ''Weasel'' #1–5 * ''Crumple'' (2000) * ''Dan and Larry'' (2002) * ''Ripple'' (2003) * ''Overbite (Weasel 6)'' (2003) * ''Underbelly (Weasel 7)'' (2005) * ''Bagel's Lucky Hat'' (as Hector Mumbly, 2007) * ''Bent'' (2010) *''Ripple'' deluxe re-release (2017) *''Mudbite'' (2018)

Awards

, Best New Series, 2000 — ''Weasel'' *

, Outstanding Artist, 2000 — ''Weasel'' *Best Design, Ottawa International Animation Festival, 2016 – "dave cooper's The Absence of Eddy Table" *Audience Award, Fredrikstad Animation Festival, 2016 – "dave cooper's The Absence of Eddy Table" *Grand Prix, Fredrikstad Animation Festival, 2016 – "dave cooper's The Absence of Eddy Table" *Special Mention, Art Direction, Spark Animation Festival, 2016 – "dave cooper's The Absence of Eddy Table" *Grand Prix, 2017 Festival BD6Né- "dave cooper's The Absence of Eddy Table" *Best Animated Short, 2017 Guanajuato International Film Festival- "dave cooper's The Absence of Eddy Table" *Best Animated Short, 2017 FEFFS Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival- "dave cooper's The Absence of Eddy Table"

References

External links

*
Dave Cooper on Fantagraphics Booksdavegraphicsyeah.wordpress.cominstagram.com/davecooper67/?hl=en
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Dave Alternative cartoonists Artists from Ottawa Artists from Nova Scotia Living people Showrunners 1957 births Ignatz Award winners for Outstanding Artist Canadian animators Canadian cartoonists Canadian graphic novelists