Sweatshop

by Peter Bagge, Stephen DeStefano, Johnny Ryan, Jim Blanchard, Stephanie Gladden

Overview

This situational comedy graphic novel is about a newspaper strip "sweatshop" of aspiring cartoonists who are attempting to make it big like their boss, but on their own terms.

Mel Bowling is the unhappy, out-of-touch creator of a very bad, daily newspaper comic strip called Freddy Ferret (a cross between Dilbert and Garfield). He spends most of his time listening to Rush Limbaugh and coming up with horrible catchphrases to merchandise, while his “sweatshop” cast of studio assistants grind out all the hard work. Sweatshop is a hilarious situational comedy from acclaimed author Peter Bagge (Buddy Does Seattle, Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story) that ingeniously incorporates the visual styles of cartoonist guest stars like Stephen DeStefano (Popeye) and Johnny Ryan (Prison Pit) to give voice to Bowling’s colorful cast of misfit, aspiring cartoonists (plus a cameo by Neil Gaiman!), all attempting to make it big like their boss, but on their own terms. Originally published as a six-issue series by DC Comics in 2003 that was never collected, this is one of the best and most undervalued works of one of the key voices of his generation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781606998120
Publisher:	Fantagraphics Books
Publication date:	02/08/2015
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 10.20(h) x 1.80(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Peter Bagge  created Hate, one of the bestselling and most influential comic book series of the past quarter century. Born in New York in 1957, after graduating from the School of Visual Arts, Bagge contributed to and, along with R. Crumb, edited the underground anthology Weirdo. Bagge's numerous original graphic novels and collections of comics have won him multiple Harvey Awards, an Inkpot Award, and numerous Eisner Award nominations. He lives in Tacoma, WA.

Stephen DeStefano has been a professional cartoonist since he was 15. He has drawn comics for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Oni and Fantagraphics. In 1992 he began working in television animation on Ren & Stimpy, and more recently was a supervisor on Adult Swim’s The Venture Brothers. He currently resides in Hoboken, New Jersey, with his wife Siobha´n.

Johnny Ryan lives in Glendale, CA with his daughter. He is the creator of the cult favorite Angry Youth Comics, a co-creator of the Nickelodeon series Pig Boat Banana Cricket, and was the story editor of Warner’s mid-2010s reboot of Looney Tunes.

Born in Texas, Jim Blanchard has lived all across the U.S.A. and in Norway. From 1982–1988, he was the editor and publisher of the punk rock/graphics zine Blatch. In 1987, he moved to Seattle, Washington, where he’s been an illustrator, designer, and comic book artist, as well as an art director. His previous books for Fantagraphics include Meat Warp, Beasts & Priests, Glam Warp and earlier retrospective Visual Abuse: Jim Blanchard's Graphic Art 1982-2002. He lives in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife Diana and his dog Lucius.

Matt Wray is an associate professor of sociology at Temple University. In addition to recent research on suicide in Las Vegas, the city with the highest metropolitan suicide rate in the United States, Wray has studied the stigmatization of poor rural whites and is a long-time participant observer of the Burning Man Festival.

Editorial Reviews

"You’ll be forgiven if you missed Sweatshop the first time around …but I’m not sure you’ll have such a good excuse this time."

Comic Book Resources - J. Caleb Mozzocco

"Peter Bagge’s Sweatshop is a lost charmer... The characters stumble into all manner of wonderfully funny situations, events that reveal them to be strange, silly and intriguing. ... The more we get to know them, the more we start to like them as they show unexpected depth. As the last story ends, it wraps with a bit of bittersweet happiness as I’ve found myself becoming attached to these wacky people."

Comics Bulletin - Jason Sacks

"The series hits its targets’ bull’s-eyes with unerring precision... it’s good, nearly forgotten work from one of the most significant cartoonists of his generation."

The A.V. Club - Tim O'Neil

"…Sweatshop is entertaining stuff… Fundamentally, Sweatshop is a workplace comedy that takes some pokes at the comics world, mocking indie auteurs (Chris Ware, Charles Burns) as much as mainstream, kiddie-friendly fare."

Paste - Hillary Brown