Mary Fleener | |
|---|---|
 Fleener at the 2024WonderCon | |
| Born | (1951-09-14)September 14, 1951 (age 73) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Alternative comics,comics artist |
| Awards | Inkpot Award (2019)[1] |
| Website | Official website |
Mary Fleener (born September 14, 1951) is an Americanalternative comicsartist, writer and musician from Los Angeles.[2] Fleener's drawing style, which she callscubismo, derives from thecubist aesthetic and other artistic traditions. Her first publication was a work aboutZora Neale Hurston, calledHoodoo (1988), followed by thesemi-autobiographical comics seriesSlutburger, and the anthologyLife of the Party (1996). She is a member of therock band called The Wigbillies.
Among Fleener's influences areancient Egyptian art and the works ofChester Gould (Dick Tracy),Otto Soglow (The Little King) andAl Capp (Li'l Abner).Robert Crumb andRobert Armstrong (creator ofMickey Rat) encouraged her to create her own comics.
Her works have been exhibited at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Track 16, David Zapt Gallery, Laguna Beach Art Museum Annex, LACE (Los Angeles), COCA (Seattle), Southwestern College, Patricia Correia Gallery, Sushi Gallery. In 2020 her work was included in the exhibitWomen in Comics: Looking Forward, Looking Back at the Society of Illustrators in New York City.[3]
She lives and works inEncinitas, California.[4]
Mary Fleener was born in 1951.[5] Her mother had worked forDisney from 1941 to 1943. Fleener attendedCal State Long Beach for 4 years where she focused on printmaking,[6] but she disliked the art program's focus on abstract works and dropped out in 1976.[7] In 1984, she read an article "new comix," byMatt Groening in the LA WEEKLY that inspired her to create her first comic works. She developed her aesthetic on her own, and considers herself self-taught.[8]
She started drawingminicomics in 1984 and published her first full work,Hoodoo, four years later. Her semi-autobiographicalSlutburger Stories were first published byRip Off Press, and later byDrawn & Quarterly. Many of Fleener's short stories appeared in anthologies likeWeirdo andTwisted Sisters and the all-womenWimmen's Comix; and her illustrations appeared inEntertainment Weekly.[9] Fleener went on to create more semi-autobiographical strips that were released in 1996 in the anthologyLife of the Party, published byFantagraphics.[9] Thesecomix depicted the artist and a colorful cast of characters playing in rock bands, surfing, going to college, and gleefully partaking of drugs and casual sex, among other things. Fleener's art style complements her stories, which are narrated in matter-of-fact but bemused first-person dialogue.[10]
Life of the Party.Fantagraphics Books, 1996.ISBN 1-56097-261-0, a collection of an autobiographical series (as translated in German and Spanish)[11]
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