Cartoonist Brunetti to Discuss Cartooning, Comics and Graphic Novels

The history and aesthetics of cartoons, comics and graphic novels will be discussed by Ivan Brunetti, a cartoonist and editor of an acclaimed anthology of cutting-edge comics, in a talk at Illinois State University at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 19.

Brunetti’s will present “The Cartoonist Eye” in room 147 of the Center for Visual Arts, located at the south end of the quad. His talk is a presentation of ISU’s English Department and its English Studies Lecture Series. The event is free and open to the public.

Brunetti brings the perspective of a cartoonist as well as a critic and art gallery curator to his analysis of cartooning as a visual narrative.

His artwork has appeared on the covers of The New Yorker and in many other publications including Entertainment Weekly, Spin, The New York Times and The Comics Journal. Brunetti has published four issues of his comic book series, “Schizo,” and two each of “HAW!” and” HEE!” Fantagraphics published “Misery Loves Comedy,” which is a collection of “Schizo” and earlier works. Schizo #4 received an Ignatz award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. Brunetti’s work has also been nominated for several Harvey and Eisner awards for outstanding work in comics and sequential art.

In 2005 he curated “The Cartoonist’s Eye,” an exhibit of 75 artists’ work for the A+D Gallery of Columbia College Chicago. The exhibit was a precursor to An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories (Yale University Press, 2006). The New York Times Book Review called Brunetti’s Anthology "a manifesto of the comics' coming of age." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch named it one of the Best Books of 2006. Newsweek praised the book and reported it “assembles some the most influential comics from the past nearly 100 years.” The second anthology Brunetti has edited will be published by Yale in Fall 2008.

Brunetti was an associate editor of McSweeney’s No. 13: An Assorted Sampler of North American Comic Drawings, Stripes and Illustrated Stories (McSweeney’s 2004). He has published Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice (Buenaventure Press 2007). Brunetti’s art and comics have been shown in galleries and museums in New York, California, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Chicago.

At Columbia College, Brunetti is an instructor in the Art & Design Department, teaching courses in Cartooning and Drawing the Graphic Novel. He teaches Writing the Graphic Novel at the University of Chicago.  Brunetti develops and maintains Columbia College’s website. He grew up in Italy and moved to Chicago with his family when he was young.