Jordan Crane

Jordan Crane (born 8 September 1973) is an American comics creator, and is noted for well observed narratives that focus on the vulnerability and mystery of the human experience.

Crane's immaculate sense of design, powerful cartooning, striking posters and objets d’art have had a profound effect on alternative comics and the way comics are perceived as an art form. Infusing a punk rock D.I.Y. aesthetic with a clear understanding of craft, Crane’s work feels both like humble, handcrafted objects made in the garage of a lonely teenager, and amazingly planned and sophisticated works of an artist at the height of his form.

Winner of numerous awards and prizes in both design and comic industries, Crane first emerged in 1996 with the anthology "NON", which he edited, contributed to, and published. This anthology took the best of what made Art Spiegelman’s "RAW" a classic and combined it with a clear sense of where the future of comics lay. After two more issues of NON, he moved to Massachusetts, and began collaborating with the now defunct comics publisher Highwater Books. His first novel, "The Last Lonely Saturday", a simple but powerful tale of love and loss, demonstrated that Crane was an artist who had come into his own. He followed that with "Col-Dee", a work that expanded on the emotional ideas in his first novel. Following two eventful days in the life of a seven-year-old, the work masterfully wrestles with a child’s understanding of life’s mysteries and the reality that is forever imposing itself. Crane's most recent book, The Clouds Above, is a fast-paced children's story which follows the adventures of a boy named Simon and his large cat named Jack. They battle angry clouds, peevish birds and elude the grasp of an overbearing teacher, with the effect resonating somewhere between "Where the Wild Things Are" and "The Wizard of Oz".

Crane is currently working on a quarterly comic book called "Uptight" where he will present new short stories and serialize his sprawling, epic meditation on family, death, and the imagination called "Keeping Two".

References

* [http://www.reddingk.com Jordan Crane's site]
*"the Clouds Above" in [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/12/051212crbn_brieflynoted2 the New Yorker]
* [http://www.comicartcollective.com/jordan/ original art by Crane]
*Print interview in [http://tci.homestead.com/ The Comics Interpreter # 1 Vol. 1]
* [http://www.lambiek.net/crane.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia] accessed 10 September 2005
* [http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubb/Forum1/HTML/010392.html The Comics Journal Message Board "Happy Birthday Jordan Crane"] accessed 10 September 2005