MATT MADDEN 20 Lines 01.10. / 07.11.2015
"La principal fuente de inspiración fue un libro en prosa del autor del Oulipo Harry Mathews titulado 20 líneas al día, que es un documento incompleto de un período en que el autor escribía 20 líneas de prosa cada mañana en su despacho, como ejercicio de calentamiento. Lo hacía inspirado por una cita de Stendhal que hablaba de "20 líneas al día, seas un genio o no". Se tomó la idea literalmente pero de manera un tanto irónica y yo hice un poco lo mismo: a ver, ¿20 líneas dibujadas no son lo mismo que 20 líneas escritas? (casi siempre es más rápido, eso seguro).
Lo puse en práctica cuando nos instalamos en Francia, ya que uno de mis objetivos aquí era profundizar en el dibujo, porque siempre tiendo
más a la escritura o al pensamiento estructural/lingüístico sobre los cómics. Quería concentrarme en los aspectos más básicos del dibujo -líneas
en un suelo para explicar cómo las líneas llenan el espacio y se ensamblan. Quizá no tanto "explicar", sino más bien poner a trabajar mi mano,
mi cerebro y mis ojos de dibujante y ver qué surgía. No sé cómo todo esto se percibirá en mis cómics, pero creo que es parte de un proceso
para controlar más conscientemente mis dibujos, desde un punto de vista tanto físico como conceptual."
Matt Madden es dibujante, profesor, traductor y editor. También es el representante americano de Oubapo, Taller de la Historieta Potencial.
99 ejercicios de estilo fue publicado por primera vez en Estados Unidos por la editorial Penguin Books, y ha tenido gran éxito en Japón, Francia, Italia, Bélgica, y en España, donde lo publicó Sins Entido en 2007.
Comenzó su carrera profesional auto-editando minicómics en Ann Arbor, Michigan a comienzos de los 90. Después de que varias de estas piezas apareciesen en publicaciones, la primera novela gráfica de Madden, Black Candy, fue publicada por Black Eye Books en 1998, seguida por Odds Off, publicado por Highwater Books en 2000. A mediados de los 90, Madden comenzó a escribir para The Comics Journal y otras publicaciones y desde 2001 enseña en la School of Visual Arts y anima talleres por todo el mundo. En 2013 fue nombrado Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
por el gobierno francés.
Con su esposa, la también autora Jessica Abel, han escrito dos libros de texto sobre cómo hacer los comics, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures (2008)
y Mastering Comics (2012). También estuvieron responsables del serie The Best American Comics durante seis años.
Actualmente reside en Angoulême, Francia, con Abel, y sus hijos Aldara y Jasper. Trabaja sobre varios nuevos proyectos, enseña talleres de cómic
por todo Europa, y colabora con Oubapo y Oulipo.
"The initial inspiration was a prose book by the American Oulipo author Harry Mathews called 20 Lines a Day, which is a partial document of a period where he wrote 20 lines of prose every morning he was at his desk as a warm-up exercise. He was inspired by a quote by Stendhal to the effect
of "20 lines a day, genius or not". He took that notion literally in a somewhat wry way and I did the same kind of thing: well, 20 drawn lines,
how is that so different from 20 lines of writing? (It's faster for one thing, most of the time.). I took it on once we moved to France because
one of my goals here is to work on my drawing, which lags behind my writing and my structural/linguistic thinking about comics.
My goal was to concentrate on the most basic elements of drawing--lines on a ground--to reflect on how lines fill space, how they fit together.
Maybe not so much "reflect" as simply to put my drawing hand, my brain, and my eyes to work to see what would come out of it.
How all that will translate back into my comics I don't really know, but I see it as part of a process of taking more conscious control of my drawing both at a physical as well as conceptual level"
Matt Madden (NYC 1968) is a cartoonist who has also taught at the School of Visual Arts and in workshops around the world. His work includes
99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style (Penguin), his comics adaptation of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style; a translation from the French
of Aristophane's The Zabîme Sisters (First Second); and Drawing Words & Writing Pictures and Mastering Comics, (First Second), a pair of comics textbooks written in collaboration with his wife, Jessica Abel. The couple were series editors for The Best American Comics from Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt for six years. In 2013 he was named Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. He is currently on an extended residency in Angoulême, France with Jessica and their two children. You'll find recent news at www.mattmadden.com.
of "20 lines a day, genius or not". He took that notion literally in a somewhat wry way and I did the same kind of thing: well, 20 drawn lines,
how is that so different from 20 lines of writing? (It's faster for one thing, most of the time.). I took it on once we moved to France because
one of my goals here is to work on my drawing, which lags behind my writing and my structural/linguistic thinking about comics.
My goal was to concentrate on the most basic elements of drawing--lines on a ground--to reflect on how lines fill space, how they fit together.
Maybe not so much "reflect" as simply to put my drawing hand, my brain, and my eyes to work to see what would come out of it.
How all that will translate back into my comics I don't really know, but I see it as part of a process of taking more conscious control of my drawing both at a physical as well as conceptual level"
Matt Madden (NYC 1968) is a cartoonist who has also taught at the School of Visual Arts and in workshops around the world. His work includes
99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style (Penguin), his comics adaptation of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style; a translation from the French
of Aristophane's The Zabîme Sisters (First Second); and Drawing Words & Writing Pictures and Mastering Comics, (First Second), a pair of comics textbooks written in collaboration with his wife, Jessica Abel. The couple were series editors for The Best American Comics from Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt for six years. In 2013 he was named Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. He is currently on an extended residency in Angoulême, France with Jessica and their two children. You'll find recent news at www.mattmadden.com.