About Jessica Abel

Cartoonist and writer Jessica Abel is the author of two textbooks about making comics, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures and Mastering Comics (First Second Books), written in collaboration with her husband, the cartoonist Matt Madden; and the graphic novel La Perdida (Pantheon Books). She’s also the co-writer of the graphic novel Life Sucks.

Previously, she published Soundtrack and Mirror, Window (Fantagraphics Books), two collections of stories and drawings from her omnibus comic book Artbabe, published between 1992 and 1999. She collaborated with Ira Glass on Radio: An Illustrated Guide, a non-fiction comic about how the radio show This American Life is made. Abel won the Xeric Grant in 1995, and both the Harvey and Lulu awards for “Best New Talent” in 1997; La Perdida won the 2002 “Best New Series” Harvey Award.  She is at work on a new science fiction comics series called Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars, for Dargaud France, as well as a non-fiction comic about story and radio, Out on the Wire (Crown Books). Madden and Abel were series editors for The Best American Comics from 2007 to 2013 and teach at various institutions. They live in Brooklyn, New York, with their two children, but are currently on a residency at the Maison des Auteurs in Angoulême, France.

For more, see jessicaabel.com.

Bring Jessica to your school or institution

Jessica and Matt are available to do lectures and workshops on making comics in a variety of contexts and grade levels. You can find reports about many of our talks and school visits on our blog. If you are interested in getting in touch about an event, please write us at dwandwp@gmail.com.