A few years back there was an exhibition of my work at a local gallery and they held a reception. Of the people who attended, a woman approached me and wanted me to meet her son who was a cartoonist. She also told me he had Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of autism.
When I met Dan, I didn’t really notice anything besides his intelligence and his talent and unique perspective. He gave me a copy of his comic book “Soil” and I loved it. “Soil” is about Cory, a semi-autobiographical character who doesn’t quite fit into mainstream society because of his autism. The comic strip is interesting because he takes you inside the mind of an autistic person and what they have to face trying to fit in, but it is darkly humorous, as well.
My work was going to be featured in a group show, and when the curator asked me if I knew of any other cartoonists in the area, I mentioned Dan, so his work was shown and written about in the local papers. It’s also interesting to note that his support has grown, and among several notables on the Friends and Links page is Mark Haddon , author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a terrific best seller whose protaganist is a young autistic boy.
Dan’s brother-in-law, Wade, contacted me recently, and let me know he had designed a website for “Soil” : http://www.soil-toons.com
and after looking at it, I thought our readers might be interested in checking it out. Wade gave me permission to use a couple of Dan’s cartoons here.
So, when you have a minute and want to read something quite unique in the comics world, go read Dan’s cartoons!
January 19th, 2009 at 7:40 am
I’ve been enjoying your posts, Stephanie! I will definitely check out Soil…looks interesting. Are you going to tell us about the show you were in? Any photos? Did you frame all your comics? Any tips for this type of thing? I’m been asked to do an exhibit next November and it’s new stuff to me.
January 19th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Thanks, Sandra! The exhibit was at a local gallery. The other was a group show I was invited to exhibit in, in Portsmouth NH. There were some illustrators and a couple of fine artists. The woman who was curating asked me if I knew of anyone interesting for her to contact, so I mentioned Dan. I think I have a photo from the first exhbit. If I do, I’ll try and post it.
Sandra, the biggest expense is framing. If you are going to exhibit, you do have to frame your work. But what I do is have a local frame shop cut my mats and I also have them cut backing. Then I order glass from the local hardware store, and metal sectional frames online. You save a BUNDLE doing it that way.
Steph
January 19th, 2009 at 8:54 am
thanks, I’ll look into that. I’ve been told I don’t need to frame for this particular exhibit because the display case in in glass and there are little ledges that the strips can rest on…and I was thinking about showing some story arcs so that would mean a LOT of strips…but it might be worth it to frame them and just keep everything stored for another time. Where I would keep it, I don’t know…
January 28th, 2009 at 5:56 am
I took the link to SOIL and really loved it. Is there a story behind that name?
Margaret
February 1st, 2009 at 7:23 am
Hi Margaret,
I’ve wondered about that, too. I’ll have to ask.
Steph