Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: Alison Sampson, Allison Conway, Cecil Castellucci, Chris Wisnia, Dan Santat, dean haspiel, Diana Tamblyn, Faith Erin Hicks, hope larson, Jenny Soep, Jose Pimienta, kickstarter, leuyen pham, Mari Naomi, Nate Powell, Nicole Goux, pia guerra, Rachael Smith, sanya anwar, scott koblish, Sina grace, Thien Pham, Thit Bitsch, victoria ying

Cecil Castellucci To Become Her Own Comic Book, With Artist Tattoos

Former nineties indie rock musician, Cecil Castellucci's latest comic is going to be her own skin, a project called "I am the comic book."

Published Sat, 06 Apr 2024 06:57:14 -0500

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Cecil Castellucci's new project turns her skin into a comic with artist-designed tattoos.
"I am the comic book" to feature 24 artists contributing to a sequential story.
Temporary tattoos of the story to change every two weeks as Cecil walks a mile.
Kickstarter campaign raises $3419 of $8000 goal for artistic expression adventure.

Former nineties indie rock musician, Cecil Castellucci has written comic books including Shade, The Changing Girl, Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, The Year of the Beasts, Female Furies, Batgirl, Star Wars: Hyperspace, Odd Duck, Soupy Leaves Home and Shifting Earth. But her latest comic book is going to be her own skin, as part of a project called "I am the comic book."

She writes," I will be commissioning 24 artists to draw a sequential piece that stars a character, Maxi. The sequences will be prompted by me and be inspired by the sequence that comes before in a sort of exquisite corpse game of collaborative storytelling. Those pieces will be turned into a temporary tattoo that I will wear on my arm. The tattoos fade after about a week and a half, so every two weeks I will have a new part of the story continuing Maxi's journey. I will also intentionally walk for one mile every time I get a new piece of the story so that Maxi is walking with me as I am walking. In essence, I am the comic book! I think it's going to be fun and strange. I'll be launching this book project at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival in May."

"I've been feeling super bummed about how hard it is to be an artist in the world right now, the state of publishing, the hustle of everything, AI coming for our creative jobs. I wanted to come up with something that would be fun, playful, collaborative, interesting, ephemeral, difficult, and art for the sake of art. I'm always interested in hybrid comics art. It's something that I've been doing with my operas. This is a way of playing with the idea of what is a comic book?"

The artists named so far include Mari Naomi, Diana Tamblyn, Scott Koblish, Pia Guerra, Nate Powell, Victoria Ying, Chris Wisnia, Sanya Anwar, Jose Pimienta, Nicole Goux, Hope Larson, Dan Santat, Sina Grace, Faith Erin Hicks, Jenny Soep, Allison Conway, Dean Haspiel, Thit Bitsch, Leuyen Pham, Alison Sampson, Rachael Smith, Thien Pham and more to come.

On Kickstarter, Cecil Castellucci has raised $3419 against an $8000 goal from 47 backers with 27 days to go.

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