Jessica Abel

Jessica Abel
Jessica Abel in April 2011
Born	Jessica Courtney Clare Abel 1969 Illinois
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Cartoonist, Writer, Artist
Notable works	Life Sucks Artbabe La Perdida Drawing Words and Writing Pictures Radio: An Illustrated Guide
Awards	Xeric Award, 1995 Harvey Award, 1997, 2002
http://www.jessicaabel.com

Jessica Abel (born 1969) is an American comic book writer and artist, known as the creator of such works as Life Sucks, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, Soundtrack, La Perdida, Mirror, Window, Radio: An Illustrated Guide (with collaborator Ira Glass), and the omnibus series Artbabe.

Abel was born in 1969 in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in the Chicago metropolitan area. She graduated from Evanston Township High School. She attended Carleton College for in 1987–88, and then transferred to the University of Chicago, where she published her first comics work in 1988, in the student anthology Breakdown. Additionally, she worked for three years in the administration at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She graduated with a BA degree.

Abel started in the world of minicomics, self-publishing the photocopied, hand-sewn and embellished comic book Artbabe in 1992; four annual issues followed, with Abel having won a Xeric Foundation grant to self-publish and distribute issue #5. This was the first professionally printed Artbabe, and was subtitled The Four Seasons. She appeared as a character in the back-cover story of Hate #10 (Fall 1992) by Peter Bagge. Abel has stated that her major work Artbabe is not autobiographical.

With the publication of the Xeric issue of Artbabe, Abel came to the attention of Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth, who offered to publish Artbabe. Each issue of Artbabe contained one or more complete stories; Abel did not begin any longer sequential work until La Perdida in 2000. The character Artbabe, who appears on every cover, does not actually appear in any of the stories.