SATA

• Our Little Kitchen Abrams Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2020
• My Best Friend Atheneum (New York, NY), 2020

1. Our little kitchen LCCN 2020011253 Type of material Book Personal name Tamaki, Jillian, 1980- author, illustrator. Main title Our little kitchen / Jillian Tamaki. Published/Produced New York : Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2020. Projected pub date 2009 Description pages cm ISBN 9781419746550 (hardcover) 9781419746567 (board) (ebook) Item not available at the Library. Why not? 2. My best friend LCCN 2018045570 Type of material Book Personal name Fogliano, Julie, author. Main title My best friend / Julie Fogliano ; illustrated by Jillian Tamaki. Edition First edition. Published/Produced New York : Atheneum, [2020] Projected pub date 2004 Description 1 online resource. ISBN 9781534427235 (eBook)

• Jillian Tamaki website - https://www.jilliantamaki.com/

  I am a cartoonist and illustrator. I grew up in Calgary, Alberta and currently live in Toronto, Ontario.

  I’ve been a professional artist since 2003, when I graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design. I do lots of different stuff: comics, editorial and book illustration, teaching (SVA and Parsons in NYC), even boarding for the TV show Adventure Time.

  My cousin Mariko Tamaki and I are the co-creators of the YA graphic novels SKIM and This One Summer, which won a Governor General’s Award and Caldecott Honor. I’m the author of SuperMutant Magic Academy, a book which collects my webcomic about weird mutant emo kids, and Boundless, a collection of short comic stories for adults. I have written and/or illustrated three picture books, including my latest, Our Little Kitchen (2o20).

  Selected Awards

  Governor General’s Award (2018, 2014) / Caldecott Honour (2015) / Printz Award (2015) / Society of Illustrators Gold Medal / Eisner Award / NYTimes Best Illustrated Children’s Books / Society of Publication Designers / Best American Comics / American Illustration / Doug Wright Award / Ignatz Award /

  Partial Client List

  The New York Times / The New Yorker / National Geographic / Penguin Random House / Cartoon Network / Marvel / WIRED / Washington Post / House of Anansi / Chronicle Books/ New York Magazine / MTA / Esquire / The Guardian / The Independent UK / CBC /The Atlantic / Abrams Books / The Walrus / Nickelodeon

  Hi, students! Thank-you very much for your interest in my work. Unfortunately I can’t review individual portfolios or answer every questionnaire thoroughly and thoughtfully. And so I’ve compiled some commonly-asked questions here. I’ve divided it up into three sections: Comics, Illustration, School/Life.

  mummers.jpg
  COMICS
  How do you and your cousin work together? How is it different from working alone?
  I have always made comics on my own and with my cousin, Mariko. I enjoy both, for the different challenges they present.

  Mariko and I had never really made a narrative comic before we started working together on our first story, Skim. She was a playwright and therefore wrote the script like a play–mostly dialogue with only a little bit of direction. I really enjoy overlaying my own ideas of character, acting, environment, direction, etc, on her stories. Typically we do not confer together, except for at the editing stage, when the whole thing is sketched out

  When I work on my own, I either write scripts in a word processor first (much like how Mariko does) or I write and sketch at the same time.

  When did you start making comics?
  I had done one little comics project in art school–just three pages. I really enjoyed it. I started making mini-comics just after graduation in 2003, using this tutorial(still up!). My first mini was about the city of Edmonton where I was living at the time. It was collected in my first book, Gilded Lilies.

  How did you get your comics published?
  I sold my mini-comics online and in shops, and started going to indie comic conventions. Eventually people asked if they could publish them in books. Kind of a boring story! I guess the idea is to just start making a thing and try to put it in front of eyeballs. It’s easier to do that now, with social media and stuff–you don’t even need to learn how to collate Xeroxes, if you don’t want to. SuperMutant Magic Academy was a webcomic that was eventually collected.

  What is it like to have a banned book?
  Weird! It’s certainly not something that Mariko and I set out to do. But our books are about the very messy, scary, confusing parts of growing up, and we aim to depict them honestly. So I suppose it’s not very surprising that some people feel they are not appropriate for certain kids. And I actually agree! I think our book should be shelved properly–it’s recommended for 12+. Sometimes the fact that it’s a comic and that it won the Caledott Honor causes some confusion. As far as restricting its availability to people within the age range, I do have a big problem with that. You are free to read and not read what you wish, but it’s a big problem to tell others what they can access.

  Are your books feminist? Is it important to you to portray different body types?
  I don’t categorize my books as feminist–they do not explicitly declare themselves as such nor are they about feminist theory. But I’m a feminist and a lot of the stories are about women living autonomous lives, so sure.

  Representation is important and I’m aware of that. However I would say that aim for a level of visual realism in my work, whether that means a car or a lamp or a body. I think it would be very strange to not include a spectrum of body types, as that is the nature of the world.

  Did you grow up reading comics?
  Yes! I loved Archie comics and newspaper strips. I read the weekend funnies without fail. My parents had Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, and Herman anthologies in the house. (I didn’t get Herman then and I’m not sure I do now?)

  I stopped reading comics after I outgrew Archie but picked them up again in college, when my friends were reading Clowes, Tomine, Ware, etc. I read the alt weeklies for Fiona Smyth and Marc Bell’s Shrimpy and Paul. I really liked Bipolar by Tomer and Asaf Hanuka, and later a lot of the D&Q stable–Doucet, Brown, Seth, Rabagliati. I learned how to cartoon exclusively through reading comics.

  doodle2.jpg
  ILLUSTRATION
  How did you get started in the illustration field?
  Upon graduation from the Alberta College of Art and Design (2003), I was lucky to be introduced by a teacher to a local designer who gave me some jobs and enabled me to build up my professional portfolio. I worked at a video game company in Edmonton, Alberta, doing texturing and character work, while freelancing during (all of) my free time. Basically, I worked my day job until I had built up enough clients to allow me to freelance full-time, which I started doing in early 2005 when I moved to New York.

  How do you manage to have so many styles?
  I have a short attention span. And why not? It’s important to me, for my own happiness, to do all these different things, and luckily I’ve managed to convince others to pay me to do so. Certain clients will only want to hire you for certain things, and that’s fine. Other clients I have had for my entire career and are interested in supporting my zigs and zags.

  What is your illustration idea process?
  Read this. Then this.

  How do you market/promote your work?
  In the past I have sent out postcard promos and targeted mini-portfolios. I have never done an email promo, but that seems increasingly accepted. In truth, I don’t promote directly anymore–at some point, published work becomes a kind of promotion.

  Social media is the most effective promotional tool. As fraught as those spaces can be, I think it’s great they are cheap and accessible–it used to be hundreds of dollars to print/send mailers. I think it has really opened up the industry to new voices too. I think you have to manage your relationship to those spaces–you can participate and exist online in many different ways. Try to find a way that feels non-gross to you.

  Do you have a rep?
  I don’t have an illustration rep.

  I have a literary agent who handles my book and comics projects. Book contracts are much more complicated, so I think a literary agent is very helpful.

  What does it take for a young illustrator to be successful today?
  Illustration has become a very competitive field. Freshmen entering art school are operating at a much, much higher level than when I started. That said, illustration as a career involves much more than talent or technical ability. Yes, you must create good work that people actually want to commission and buy (note: not necessarily the same thing as being popular on social media). But you also need to familiarize yourself in the specifics of your area of interest, as the illustration industry is multi-faceted–children’s books are a very different thing from editorial, for example, even though some people do flow between them.

  Also remember that talent not enough. Professionalism, perseverance, and relishing the challenge of illustration is just as important in terms of longevity.

  doodle21.jpg
  ART SCHOOL/LIFE
  Do you recommend art school/masters programs?

  Art programs can be hugely beneficial for some people and a colossal waste of resources for others. This is for you to decide. In an ideal world, art school would be an enriching experience that allows people to grow as artists and people– goofing off, making new friends, moving away from your hometown, being challenged personally and artistically. The equation changes somewhat when you factor in the student debt that accompanies these degrees, particularly in the US. Being an artist is a tough go, even if you are successful.

  But you knew all that. I guess my more direct answer is: go to art school if you truly believe you are ready to learn and grow there and are willing to take on the debt. Don’t go to art school if your heart isn’t in it or believe the debt will be crippling. I have a lot of artist friends who didn’t go to art school.

  I went to (a cheap) art school and learned a lot.

  Can I become an illustrator if I didn’t go to art school?
  Of course. I might not be the best one to talk to, since I did go to art school. But it’s definitely possible–I know many who didn’t. There are myriad podcasts, blogs, professional organizations, FB groups, etc, you could avail yourself of figure out how the industry works and how to promote yourself. Don’t forget local people and scenes in your city. Maybe move to where artists are. Follow people’s careers and see their path and career choices. Get on the social media platform du jour. To be honest, that stuff is way easier to figure out than to actually make something unique and interesting.

  Do you recommend moving to NYC?
  Sure, why not. If you want to do it and can make that happen financially, I think you should. Living there will expose you to a lot of creative energy and culture at a high level. The community is very competitive and will be very stimulating for some people. It’s a difficult place to live, both financially and (in my opinion) mentally. I also believe one can make a go of it in other cities/towns/countries. I don’t know what environment or situation is right for you.

  I’m scared!!
  “What do people want?” “Will I get a job/jobs when I graduate?” Those questions are hard to avoid and I certainly struggled with them myself. However, my piece of advice is to try not to think so “large”. Think small. Think about the marks you want to make on the paper in front of you… the ones that bring you pleasure and satisfaction. You can’t control what other people think or if they’ll give you a job. You can only control your own actions and the work you produce. (And make a good faith effort at promoting yourself.) You have to be a little delusional to pursue a life in the arts, so throw caution to the wind and make pictures that excite you and hopefully the world will agree. It’s worked for me so far.

  Also: you have to take care of your mental and physical health in order to be a functional artist, not to mention a functional partner, friend, sister, son, etc.

• Wikipedia -

  Jillian Tamaki
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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  Jillian Tamaki
  Jillian Tamaki 2019.jpg
  Jillian Tamaki at the 2019 Stockholm international comics festival.
  Born April 17, 1980 (age 40)
  Ottawa, Ontario
  Alma mater Alberta College of Art and Design
  Known for Illustration, Comics
  Notable work
  Skim (comics), This One Summer
  Website http://jilliantamaki.com/
  Jillian Tamaki (born 1980) is a Canadian American illustrator and comics artist known for her work in The New York Times and The New Yorker and for the graphic novels Boundless, as well as Skim and This One Summer written by her cousin Mariko Tamaki.[1][2]

  Contents
  1 Early life
  2 Influences and themes
  3 Career
  3.1 Controversy
  3.2 Awards
  3.2.1 Wins
  3.2.2 Nominations
  4 Bibliography
  4.1 Co-created with Mariko Tamaki
  4.2 As illustrator
  4.3 As editor
  5 References
  6 External links
  Early life
  Tamaki was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and grew up in Calgary, Alberta.[3] She graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2003.[4] After graduating art school, she worked at the video game company BioWare[5] and later taught illustration at the New York City School of Visual Arts.[6][7]

  Influences and themes

  Jillian Tamaki photographed in 2017 in Montréal, Québec, Canada at the Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore.
  Tamaki read Archie comics and newspaper strips as a child. She submitted outfit designs into contests for Betty & Veronica comics. Her parents also had anthologies of other popular comics, including Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, and Herman. In high school she made zines for fun, but she had stopped reading comics after outgrowing Archie. Her interest in alternative and indie comics began while she attended college. Some of her favorite comics during this time include Bipolar by Tomer Hanuka and Asaf Hanuka, a few Drawn & Quarterly artists including Julie Doucet, Chester Brown, Seth, Michel Rabahliati, as well as books by Will Eisner. She began making mini-comics after graduating in 2003, and her very first mini-comic appears in her first book, Gilded Lilies. Tamaki often acknowledges her influences as inspirations for beginning her work as they helped her learn the basics of cartooning.[8][9]

  As a self-proclaimed feminist, Tamaki is often questioned about the role this plays in her work. She also grew up in an area of Canada where she was the only mixed-race child in her school. In multiple interviews, Tamaki explains that her identity shapes the lens that she sees through, but she does not make conscious effort to work these themes into her illustrations and designs. She is interested in the female experience and viewing women as whole human beings in an industry that often sexualized women’s bodies. Being shaped by feminism and race, her work aims to include diverse characters that readers can better identify with.

  Career
  Gilded Lilies (2006) is Tamaki's first published book and is a collection of Tamaki's illustrations and comic strips.[10] The first part of the book comprises a carefully selected assemblage of paintings, personal drawings, illustrations and comics. The second part consists of a wordless graphic narrative titled The Tapemines, which tells the story of two children in a surreal landscape featuring "forests of cassette tape".[11][12]

  Skim (2008) is a critically acclaimed graphic novel illustrated by Jillian and written by her cousin Mariko Tamaki.[13] It tells the story of a young high-school girl and touches on themes of friendship, suicide, sexuality, and identity.[14]

  Indoor Voice (2010) collects Tamaki's drawings, illustrations and comic strips and is part of publisher Drawn & Quarterly's Petit Livre series. The majority of the book is printed in black and white, but it also features some colour illustrations.[15] Indoor Voice was released to mixed reviews.[16][17][18]

  "Now & then & when" (2008), a drawing with ink and graphite, was purchased by the Library of Congress in 2011. Within a two-panel horizontal, she depicted herself as a central, monumental figure, flanked by smaller full length figures of herself from infancy to adulthood on the left, from middle age to elderly on the right. Tamaki's variation on the theme with figures in bathing suits, related vignettes and speech balloons, presents an updated counterpart to the demure figures and texts of artistic precedents.[19]

  This One Summer (2014) by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki is a graphic novel that centres on the experiences of close friends Rose and Windy, who are on the cusp of adolescence, during a summer holiday.[20] This One Summer won a 2014 Ignatz Award,[21] the 2015 Printz Honor and Caldecott Honor awards,[22] the 2015 Eisner Award[23] and the 2014 Governor General's Awards for Children’s Literature — Illustration category.

  In 2015, Drawn & Quarterly published SuperMutant Magic Academy, a collection of Tamaki's web comic of the same name from 2010 to 2014.[24] Previously, these comics won an Ignatz Award in 2012 for Outstanding Online Comic.[25]

  In June 2017, Drawn & Quarterly published Tamaki's graphic novel Boundless, a collection of short stories.[26] The book received rave reviews.[27][28][29] A review in The Atlantic described the book as "an ambitious and eclectic set of tales, [that] focuses on the interior lives of unexpected subjects."[30] Other reviews called Boundless a "picture-perfect" collection[31] and as "a showcase for Tamaki’s mercurial style."[32] NPR and Publisher's Weekly named Boundless as one of the best graphic novels of the year.[33][34]

  Tamaki hand-embroidered three book covers for Penguin. The covers were designed for three classic literature books: Emma by Jane Austen, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. In her free time, she also makes quilts as a hobby.[35]

  In September 2020 Tamaki published Our Little Kitchen, an illustrated book about preparing fresh food, for children.[36]

  Controversy
  Tamaki became the centre of controversy when Mariko Tamaki alone was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award for Skim. The comics community and others circulated an open letter to the Awards Committee that argued for Tamaki as a co-nominee, which was signed by notable comics artists such as Lynda Barry, Dan Clowes, and Julie Doucet.[37] They state in the letter:

  "In illustrated novels, the words carry the burden of telling the story, and the illustrations serve as a form of visual reinforcement. But in graphic novels, the words and pictures BOTH tell the story, and there are often sequences (sometimes whole graphic novels) where the images alone convey the narrative. The text of a graphic novel cannot be separated from its illustrations because the words and the pictures together ARE the text. Try to imagine evaluating SKIM if you couldn’t see the drawings. Jillian’s contribution to the book goes beyond mere illustration: she was as responsible for telling the story as Mariko was." [38]

  This One Summer, created by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, ranked #1 on the list of top ten most banned and challenged books in the US in 2016. The main reasons this book was challenged were for its LGBT characters, drug use and profanity, sexually explicit content, and mature themes.[39]

  Awards
  Wins
  2008 Ignatz Award for Best Graphic Novel for Skim [40]
  2008 New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books List for Skim [41]
  2008 Best of Books of the Year: Publishers Weekly, Quill & Quire for Skim [42]
  2009 Doug Wright Award Winner, Best Book for Skim [43]
  2012 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Online Comic, for SuperMutant Magic Academy.[44]
  2014 Governor General's Award for children's illustration, for This One Summer[45]
  2014 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel for This One Summer [46]
  2015 Caldecott Honor Book, for This One Summer[47]
  2015 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: New, for This One Summer[48]
  2015 Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize, for This One Summer[49]
  2016 Rudolph-Dirks-Award for Best Youth Drama / Coming of Age for This One Summer[50]
  2016 Eisner award for Best Publication for Teens, for SuperMutant Magic Academy
  2018 Governor General's Award for children's illustration, for They Say Blue[51]
  2018 Boston Globe–Horn Book Picture Book Award Winner for They Say Blue[52]
  Nominations
  2008 Governor General’s Literary Award nominee for Skim [53]
  2009 Eisner Award nominee (Best Publication for Teens, Writer, New Graphic Album, Penciller/Inker) for Skim [54][55]
  2014 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel for This One Summer[56]
  Bibliography
  Gilded Lilies. (Conundrum Press, 2006) ISBN 1894994191
  Indoor Voice (Drawn & Quarterly, 2010) ISBN 978-1770460140
  Frontier #7: SexCoven (Youth In Decline, 2015)[57]
  SuperMutant Magic Academy (Drawn & Quarterly, 2015) ISBN 1770461981
  Boundless (Drawn & Quarterly, 2017) ISBN 9781770462878
  They Say Blue (Abrams, 2018) ISBN 9781419728518
  Co-created with Mariko Tamaki
  Skim (Groundwood Books, 2008) ISBN 978-0-88899-753-1
  This One Summer (First Second Books; Groundwood Books, 2014) ISBN 978-1-59643-774-6
  As illustrator
  Gertie's Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2016) ISBN 9780374302610
  My Best Friend by Julie Fogliano (Atheneum, 2020) ISBN 9781534427228
  As editor
  The Best American Comics 2019 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019) ISBN 9780358067283

• London Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/13/jillian-tamaki-super-topical-boundless-interview

  Interview
  Graphic novelist Jillian Tamaki: 'Our brains are being rewired to exist online'
  Marta Bausells
  The stories in Boundless, her latest collection, show the Canadian author-illustrator pushing the boundaries of the graphic form to reflect a changing world

  Jillian Tamaki
  ‘I think it’s really interesting to do something super-topical’ … Jillian Tamaki. Photograph: Reynard Li
  Marta Bausells
  @martabausells
  Tue 13 Jun 2017 11.26 BST

  140
  20
  In one of Jillian Tamaki’s comic-book stories, entitled 1. Jenny, a “mirror Facebook” appears on the internet. At first, it looks like it is merely a duplicate of the familiar social network – until small changes begin to appear on everyone’s profiles. Like most internet phenomena, it is “all anyone could talk about for two weeks”, considered “playful at best, mischievous at worst”. But as Jenny watches the mysterious mirror-Jenny’s life diverge from her own in tiny ways – growing her hair long, watching Top Gun – she grows increasingly obsessed with the life that could be hers; wishing, all the same, that “she had followed through with her threats to quit Facebook. (Threatening to whom?)”

  As in many of Tamaki’s stories in her delicate new collection Boundless, 1. Jenny is unpredictable and wry, focusing on women struggling with societal expectations, both online and in reality. Technology and social media are front and centre in most of the stories, but the Canadian writer and artist isn’t moralising. “I try to be more observational about it, and think about its sensory aspects or people’s different connections to it,” she says from Toronto.

  Despite some of the stories being written years before Black Mirror and The Handmaid’s Tale landed on TV, they feel very current. “Part of your brain thinks, ‘I should make something that stands the test of time and is very universal’,” Tamaki says with a smile. “I can see how there is a temptation to do that, but I think it’s really interesting to do something super-topical. I am living in 2017 and that’s where my brain is – and a lot is happening and our brains are being rewired to exist online.”

  Panels from Jillian Tamaki’s Boundless
  A panel from The ClairFree System. Photograph: Drawn and Quarterly
  In SexCoven, a cult develops around an anonymous music file that surfaces on the web. In Darla!, the only story with a male protagonist, a TV producer reminisces about his quickly cancelled 90s “porno sitcom” and resents the millennials who have started to watch it ironically on the internet. That story is “about intention versus interpretation”, says Tamaki. “You find, as a creator, you make [something] with one intention but it ends up being something else! And that’s wonderful.”

  Tamaki is used to unmanageable interpretations. Her previous book, This One Summer, created with her cousin Mariko Tamaki, topped the list of most banned and challenged books in the US in 2016. It is a story of two pre-teenage girls coming of age during a summer vacation, during which they discuss topics like breast size, the word “slut” and their developing sexualities. “It was [obviously] interpreted as being very scandalous,” says Tamaki. “You definitely don’t feel like you’re making a very controversial book. People bring their own thing to it.”

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  The stories in Boundless often started as thought experiments, for which Tamaki would conjure up the domino sequence that follows. Half Life exemplifies her simultaneously deadpan and sensitive voice: protagonist Helen slowly shrinks in size, as if possessed by an intractable force. “If [the concept] gets pushed and pushed and pushed, it is relentless. There’s no changing her path,” explains Tamaki. But it is Helen’s reactions that are the focus of the story. “I think the story is quite fantastical, obviously, but it’s also fantastical in that she is completely calm about it. She’s not afraid, she’s not freaking out – people around her are freaking out – but she is completely adapting to the new circumstances.”

  Panels from Jillian Tamaki’s Boundless
  Panels from the story Half Life. Photograph: Drawn and Quarterly
  Half Life is metaphorical of ageing, she ventures. “Not that I’m old, but you can already see, at 37, that the body starts changing in ways that feel very inevitable, and they link you to broader humanity – you think, ‘Oh yeah, that’s why old people are they way they are.’ It feels inevitable, like you’re joining some sort of weird club. But as we face ageing, we don’t want to do it with fear. Ageing is death, right? That’s why we all freak out about it, but we want to deal with it calmly. That’s what we all would like – you lose control over your body, and you’re doing it with a degree of grace.”

  The women in Boundless are smart and self-aware, reflective and angry; diverse in age, race and body shape – but their characters seem almost interchangeable. “I feel like they are possibly conceptual,” Tamaki says. The stories [are about] a fantastical element, always butting up against reality. I wonder if the women are incidental. Maybe it’s the same woman at different times in her life, or something like that.”

  While Tamaki has published an array of bestselling and lauded books, Boundless feels the most personal. The stories often have open endings because Tamaki followed what “instinctively feels right” – which, with her, often means no satisfying arc or conclusion: “I’m bored with traditional narratives, where it’s so prescribed,” she says. Her “mainstream” successes, like webcomic-turned-book SuperMutant Magic Academy, have put her in a position where she feels comfortable to push the form: “I’m not making crazy art comics that are beautiful abstract things, but I do want to bridge [mainstream and experimental] somewhere. It’s a little bit of a challenge to see if they fold together and they still work.”

  Using many styles, from hyperrealist drawings to impressionistic ink work, Tamaki adapts her pen work for each story, giving each its own colour palette, scale and visual ambience. Strangely, the juxtaposition makes them speak to each other. Tamaki is pleased with the result of collaging them together: “Some of it is completely unintentional. It’s like developing a photograph – you’re not exactly sure what the effect will be once it’s bound together.”

  Boundless is published by Drawn & Quarterly at £16.99 and is available from the Guardian bookshop for £14.44.

• The Comics Journal - http://www.tcj.com/a-conversation-with-jillian-tamaki/

  ← DogAdding More →
  FEATURES
  A Conversation with Jillian Tamaki
  BY ELEANOR DAVIS JUN 05, 2017
  Jillian Tamaki’s new book, Boundless, has just come out from Drawn & Quarterly. It’s a collection of her short comics done over several years: a calm, whipping, crackling body of work.

  To talk about Jillian Tamaki’s artwork, for me, means talking about myself. For most of my life I felt like being a woman meant I was worth less as a human being. I felt like I could never make art as good as I could have if I were a man.

  I first learned about Jillian Tamaki’s work around 2007. After several years of seeing the images she created, I knew that there was no artist who was better than her. There are artists who may be as good, but there is no one who is better. It was the first time – but not the last - that I was able to recognize this in a woman artist.

  After that, a long and awful lie broke apart inside me and began to melt away.

  – Eleanor Davis, May 17th, 2017.

  ED: What story of yours have you found people respond to the most strongly? And what was your response to their response?

  JT: Well, obviously the strongest reaction I have had to A Book has been This One Summer, which is a collaboration. [This One Summer, by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, was the ALA’s most challenged book of 2016 – ED]. It's interesting, for the interviews for Boundless thus far, people have wanted to discuss “The ClairFree System.” Which is slightly surprising.

  ED: I experience the clearest emotional arc reading it. Not intellectual clarity, but emotional, with the conditional intimacy of the final moment.

  JT: I'm trying to think of their "reaction" though. I feel like they want to hear me talk about it. It feels very mysterious and strange to them, I guess? It's not a typical image-text pairing. I mean, it's about The Economy, which I think about constantly.

  ED: I read that comic as both a feminist critique, and defense, of Capitalism. I LOVED it, obviously.

  JT: I had forgotten: that story was sparked by learning that some of my friends in my hometown had gotten into what they called a "Skin cult." Which is maybe a pyramid scheme? You made commissions off of selling to your friends. But on the other hand, it just seemed like Mary Kay or Avon for the millennial set. And it was bizarre because I was like, oh, I remember Avon and these suburban selling-parties when I was a kid. But now I'm on the flip, the adult, and the moms needed CASH.

  ED: It's so fucking empathetic to the need for both beauty - a healthy, smooth exterior - and money. It’s so empathetic to what those two things can mean, in this case for women.

  JT: I am constantly bewildered by the juxtapositions of city-life. Like, businesses closing left, right, and center, but then so many empty storefronts. No one can afford to rent, and yet we can bid $500K over asking price on teardowns. So there was an attempt at that in that story. Human needs and desires with cold hard, figures. Friendship and manipulation. Hopes and realities.

  ED: I've noticed you think about environment a lot. Your first comic in Boundless, “World Class City,” is one of my favorites. That comic is so loving, and scared, and hopeful, and sheepish? I don't know if I'm projecting too much.

  JT: Cities. I feel like it's a real relationship. With longing and dreams and disappointments. Beautiful bits and really ugly bits. That comic is about NY, but can be about any big city. People project so much onto NY, it is still seen as a place to go make your dreams come true, put yourself to the test, be the best version of yourself, possibly even make yourself over. I think this thing can happen where the city gets folded into your identity. It's a song, by the way! The words in “World Class City” are song lyrics

  ED: Oh! Like, an existing song?

  JT: No! The one and only song I have ever written. I was briefly in a punk band with a few other women in their 30s.

  ED: Oh my God! Your band Shebola? Have you recorded it? Why doesn't Boundless come with a flexidisk insert?

  JT: It always ended up very shoegaze-y or angry songs about pussies. Literally, we could have put out an album of pussy songs. Anne Ishii and Chelsea Cardinal are the other members.

  ED: FLEXIDISK INSERT!

  JT: Oh God, I would like to be much better! I am very enthusiastic, though. Screaming is great.

  ED: Jillian! That's so cool! I want to hear this song‼

  JT: This is so embarrassing, but here is “World Class City,” the song, sort of.

  [JT sends ED the song]

  [ED listens to the song]

  ED: Holy shit! I love this so much! What instrument are you playing? This is just hugely satisfying.

  JT: We switched all the time! Guitar, keyboard, drums. Punk as fuck.

  ED: Did you write “World Class City” after you realized you were gonna leave New York?

  JT: Oh yes. Definitely. I had always had a very weird, uncomfortable relationship with New York, but it was my home and leaving was very melancholy despite being 100% the right decision.

  ED: I read it in the voice of someone who is in love with a thing, but is aware of being in denial about its flaws. A keening sort of mournful love.

  JT: Oh, I never fell in love with the place. But, I'm glad. I prefer that, instead of it seeming sarcastic.

  ED: How did you decide the images for it?

  JT: To be honest, I can feel increasingly confined by the image part of comics. Perhaps because often, for more commercial works, the images need be a lot more literal? I feel like images can "lock" an idea. To depict someone specific can be nice sometimes - the books I do with Mariko are always about specificity of time and place and character. But sometimes it's nice, when reading prose, to have the ideas and concepts more open. They can feel more universal or possibly even symbolic. So I guess this comic was about trying to stretch that word-image relationship. I don't want to show you what kind of person thinks this way, acts this way, etc.

  ED: “World Class City,” and another story in Boundless, “The ClairFree System,” are doing an odd trick that I'm not super familiar with in comics. With both of them the divide between the words and the images is very stark. The dreaminess of the images makes real life feel muffled. Then, in “ClairFree,” when you come out of the beautiful dreamlike images and into a sequence depicting reality, reality is this scruffy, itchy thing.

  JT: The images in ClairFree system are a combination of found photos I had kicking around and pictures I took of various artworks at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Both were sort of adapted to a sort of universality, which is what that comic ends up being about.

  ED: It feels hypnotic.

  JT: Most of the artworks were statuary. Universality is the wrong word. Perhaps more like, the line between hope and survival, future and present?

  ED: The images have a sense of purity and solidity, and grandeur.

  JT: I dunno, I just feel like, how to recapture some of the feeling of prose? Where ideas are so much more free-floating. It's cool to create juxtaposition between dialogue and body language, I do that all the time, and we have our tricks as to how to create ambiguity, but what if you are given NO "clues" as to how the words are intended? Sometimes comics can feel like seeding clues.

  ED: Yes! I think you did that!

  JT: Ideas, dialogue, environment.

  ED: One of the things that makes me feel crazy about comics is that they're so distant, inherently.

  JT: How so?

  ED: Prose feels like it's happening inside your head, because you're building the images of the text yourself. Comics does that work for you, about fourteen inches in front of your face, so you're less engaged. With “ClairFree” and “World-Class,” you're allowing the world-creating prose-response, but then folding additional images on top of that. I had a sense that both comics existed inside my own mind in a way that other comics do not.

  JT: Perhaps some people will feel the image-word relationship will have been stretched too far.

  ED: Yeah, dude, it's going to really bug a lot of people!

  JT: Well, whatever [Laughs].

  ED: Just to give you a heads-up. [Laughs] I know this is kind of a shitty attitude, but I feel so comfy in people not getting my stuff. I just roll around in it.

  JT: I wonder if having a kid would change this equation entirely. If you're suddenly all, ok, cool, time to flesh out the SuperMutant Magic Academy universe and call up Cartoon Network. Instead at this point it’s like, what am I going to do... NOT try to push myself? I've been making some choices that are, "ok, well, you're in a position to do this."

  ED: I've been there lately too. It feels good, and bad, and scary.

  JT: It's really scary. I don't think we're supposed to talk about being scared.

  ED: Yeah.

  JT: Mid-career is a trip, man. I have seen so many ppl around me flip that switch, where it's like, "time to get real."

  ED: Time to get real, like, make that money?

  JT: Yeah, or the innovation stops.

  ED: "This look is selling."

  JT: This sounds weird but it can almost seem childish or selfish to keep on pushing in this way.

  ED: Well, art directors and audiences don't tend to ask for it. It IS for oneself.

  JT: Yeah. It's true. Feels increasingly like a choice.

  ED: I am trying to think of anyone I know who has pushed their style so much or as successfully as you have.

  JT: What choice do I have but to try to aim for the highest heights? I simultaneously HATE this way of thinking, because it strikes me as so masculine, and phallic and horrible.

  ED: Don't you think we're both masculine ladies though, in that regard? I am OK with that. When I'm not being my best self I'm proud of it. Wanting to succeed, fuck it, that's my feminist act of resistance.

  JT: I'm really lucky though. It does feel like a very charmed life.

  ED: Oh my God, I say I'm lucky all the time but I HATE hearing you say you're lucky! Guys don't say they're lucky!! They say they WON!!!

  JT: I work hard but.... right time, right place, etc. etc... THAT kind of luck! Like, COSMIC luck!

  ED: Jillian, that's what I say! But it’s infuriating to hear you say it! It's LUCKY that God came down and pressed his finger into your nog and gave you fight mixed with skill!

  JT: WELL! I mean! I coulda had shitty parents who forbade me from drawing and forced me to be an accountant like my dad!

  ED: OK, that part is "lucky." That part was lucky for all of us. [Laughs]

  Final question: what do you think an artist owes their audience?

  JT: I accept various answers. If someone were to respond, "NOTHING!", I totally accept that! I'm even OK with a level of cynicism from an artist. I guess for me I have found the most powerful and meaningful outcomes have arisen from people connecting with characters or stories, and relating them to their own lives or situations. I feel I owe my audience honesty so we can make that connection.

• From Publisher -

  JILLIAN TAMAKI is an illustrator and comics artist living in Toronto, Ontario. She is the co-creator, with her cousin Mariko Tamaki, of the YA graphic novels Skim and This One Summer, the latter of which won a Caldecott Honor in 2015. Her own books include the graphic novels SuperMutant Magic Academy and Boundless, as well a picture book for young children, They Say Blue. A professional illustrator since 2003, she has worked for publications around the world and taught at Parsons and SVA at the undergraduate and graduate level. Her second picture book, My Best Friend, written by Julie Fogliano, will be released in 2020.

• Rookie - https://www.rookiemag.com/2017/05/boundless-an-interview-with-jillian-tamaki/

  QUOTED: "Compared to many art forms, comics still remain relatively accessible. It’s not perfect, and the comics community is constantly debating that accessibility, but truly, you need so little equipment to start. If you can get your work onto the internet, poof, you’re a cartoonist. I suppose another thing I hear new artists say is that they wish someone had told them about the financial realities. Comics are extremely labor-intensive and not terribly lucrative. Even a very decent advance typically is not going to stretch very far if you figure dollars per hour."

  Boundless: An Interview With Jillian Tamaki
  The illustrator on comics, pop culture, and technology.

  RACHEL DAVIES 05/30/2017

  Rookie is no longer publishing new content, but we hope you'll continue to enjoy the archives, or books, and the community you've helped to create. Thank you for seven very special years! ✴

  About Rookie
  Rookie is an online magazine and book series for teenagers. Each month, a different editorial theme drives the writing, photography, and artwork that we publish. Learn more about us here, and find out how to submit your work here!

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  So Long, Senior Year
  05/30/2017 Winter Smiley
  Over the last decade, Jillian Tamaki has penned seven books, drawn innumerable book covers, and designed an art piece that can be viewed daily on the New York City subway. Her productivity is impressive enough, but compounded with her sweeping drawings, and admirably peculiar storylines, Tamaki is an unbelievable force. Since I’ve been interested in comics, Jillian Tamaki’s work has felt like an essential element of the genre. This could be offhandedly summed up to my interest in queer narratives (namely her book Skim, which was written by her cousin, Mariko Tamaki), or Tamaki’s presence in my hometown library’s slim-pickings comics section (like me, she’s from Canada). In actuality the answer is simple: Tamaki is a master at what she makes, so it would be difficult for the comics scene to not be smitten with her work.

  Tamaki’s most recent book, Boundless, was released by Drawn and Quarterly today. When reading the book, a sinister feeling peeks from the edges of the pages, slowly encroaching like poison ivy. The book’s many stories are intriguing in their own respect, but what’s so captivating about the work is viewing it as a whole. Tamaki flawlessly captures the human impulses that are inseparable from our usage of the internet—such as a story of a girl’s spiraling obsessiveness with a Facebook meme.

  I interviewed Tamaki earlier this month about making work for the internet, meeting her readers, and the darker side of technology.

  RACHEL DAVIES: Does your approach to your work differ when you’re making something for the internet, opposed to making something specifically for a book?

  JILLIAN TAMAKI: Both have their strengths and limitations. The form of a book is quite rigid in some ways. You have to respect the physicality of it. For example, a page turn is quite a dramatic event that can be exploited for effect. Because we know books so well, it can be fun to try to subvert the form a little bit, too. In Boundless, some of the pages are printed sideways, as they were originally an endless scroll when they appeared online.

  When I had a webcomic on Tumblr [called SuperMutant Magic Academy], I loved the simplicity of the very fixed dimension and delivery method. There wasn’t really a lot of room for high detail. What worked best was very direct, simple drawings. The story was most important. Making a webcomic, where the feedback is immediate, can end up influencing the thing itself as it’s being made. Which is a very different creative effect from sitting alone in a room for a year, never showing your work.

  Each of your books seem to approach storytelling in a different way. This One Summer and Skim, made with Mariko Tamaki, have detailed narratives with equally precise illustrations, while SuperMutant Magic Academy is told through humorous vignettes in a more casual style. Are you intentionally mixing these up?

  There is a very strong through-line between the books I’ve made with my cousin, which are very narrative/dialogue driven, sensory, specific. Similarly, there is a connection between SuperMutant Magic Academy and the stories in Boundless. The shapes and styles change, but I sincerely hope there is a unity of voice.

  Many times the “form” of the work is a response to what I have just done. I did a webcomic because I wanted a more direct relationship with my audience, versus putting out a book once every three years. I started writing longer short stories when the webcomic started feeling too limiting.

  Did you grow up reading comics? When did you realize that you wanted to make comics specifically?

  I grew up reading Archie Comics. As an aside, yes, I am totally obsessed with Riverdale. When I outgrew them, I didn’t think of comics in any way. I made some zines in high school but was so stupid that I never thought to make copies…I just gave them to a girl I was trying to make laugh. I only started reading indie comics when I was in college. I made my first proper comic when I was about 23. It seemed like a cheap, accessible, doable way of making a thing. It’s not like I wanted to “break into the industry.” I just wanted to tell a story. But I’m a bit of a competitive person, too. Once I made it, I wanted people to see it! So I sold it online and people liked it, so that was encouragement to make more.

  Do you have any advice for young comics makers?

  Compared to many art forms, comics still remain relatively accessible. It’s not perfect, and the comics community is constantly debating that accessibility, but truly, you need so little equipment to start. If you can get your work onto the internet, poof, you’re a cartoonist. I suppose another thing I hear new artists say is that they wish someone had told them about the financial realities. Comics are extremely laboor-intensive and not terribly lucrative. Even a very decent advance typically is not going to stretch very far if you figure dollars per hour. So I guess I will also throw that in. Be prepared!

  You do a lot of commissioned pieces—book covers, magazine work, et cetera. I’m wondering if you feel that the possibly stricter parameters of these projects affect the way you approach your other work?

  Well, I mentally categorize them differently. I pour a lot of sweat and tears into all my work, but obviously there is an increased sense of ownership over your own stories and characters. But I try to learn something on every job I do. Sometimes, to be honest, it can be a relief to do a straight illustration job, where you are interpreting someone else’s material. You get to give your own personality a breather for a second. Also, it’s not like I have complete freedom with my own work either. Those projects end up as “products,” to be perfectly crass, as well.

  Some of the stories in Boundless are told primarily through interior monologue, and the words leave the reader with a lot to choose from, as far as visual representation goes. Like in the beginning of “1.Jenny,” you begin with writing about the mirror Facebook but the drawings are of the plants in the greenhouse before it’s indicated to the reader that she works in a greenhouse. How do you decide what to represent with your drawings?

  Well, that’s the fun, isn’t it? The space between image and text is the whole thing. One generally wants to avoid being too literal, because then what’s the point of having separate image and text? I think of them as two streams of information–they can support or diverge or conflict. Many of the stories in Boundless aim to stretch and manipulate this space.

  In the case of “1.Jenny,” I wanted to represent Facebook as something much more organic–not the actual interface. For a person who is completely comfortable online, the internet is not a series of windows or whatever, it’s a headspace or textural medium or something. The mirror Facebook might be the result of a bug or spam, but it grows autonomously, hence plants feeling appropriate.

  After the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, you wrote on Instagram about seeing a lot of the same fans each year. Since you come face to face with your readers, I’m wondering if you think about your audience when you’re creating, or if you manage to compartmentalize?

  You have to compartmentalize, at least for large chunks of the process. It’s scary to think about a stranger reading your book. I try to write “to” a few real people I respect and hope for the best. It’s probably best to also assume you will lose certain readers over time or on a book-by-book basis. Not everything is going to appeal to everyone. I’m not interested by doing the same thing over and over again.

  I really love your posts about quilting. Can you talk a bit about the importance of creating things that aren’t necessarily for the public eye as someone whose job it is to create?

  Thanks! Many self-initiated projects—comics, embroidery, even sketchbooking or blogging—have resulted in new career directions. Or, in other words, I have a problem of turning hobbies into work. I’m not sure that those things aren’t ultimately for some sort of “public eye” though. I mean, I did ultimately end up showing them, putting images of them online.

  Regarding quilting, when I moved back to Canada from New York City, one of the things I wanted to prioritize was making non-commercial work. It’s a little cheaper to live [in Toronto], and the cartooning community in Toronto still has a very DIY sensibility that I admire greatly.

  A lot of your stories have this eerie portrayal of technology or contemporary living, whether it be the grave effect “SexCoven” has on its audience, or the personal ways that Body Pods fit into the narrator’s life and relationships. When you started working on stories for the book, did you realize that they would all connect thematically, or were you just following your story telling impulses?

  The latter. I think a lot of pop culture or technology can be easily dismissed possibly because they are so quotidian? There is “real culture,” then there is “garbage culture,” or something like that. But the garbage culture is so powerful. I mean, I think that became very obvious with fake news. People were like, “Wait, those crappy, obviously fake headlines on Facebook had a real effect?!” Or gamergate. The internet is not a subset of IRL. SexCoven chronicles a time when the internet felt more positive and anonymous, a sort of techno-nostalgia. It all feels a little darker now. ♦

• CBR.com - https://www.cbr.com/interview-jillian-tamaki-boundless/

  INTERVIEW: Tamaki's Boundless Explores Women and the World Around Them
  This One Summer coauthor Jillian Tamaki returns with a collection of short stories focusing on women and how they connect to the world around them.

  BY MICHAEL C LORAH
  MAY 30, 2017

  boundless-header
  Jillian Tamaki’s latest book, Boundless, in stores now via publisher Drawn & Quarterly, follows on the creator's hits This One Summer and Supermutant Magic Academy. Boundless is a shift to more adult storytelling, with a focus on women and their sense of connection to the world around them.

  In one tale, a woman finds her clothes no longer fit, as she begins to recede from the world around her. Another woman discovers ‘mirror Facebook,” where an alternate (better?) version of herself chronicles her relationships and successes. Other stories detail the stigma of discovering a bedbug infestation, or chart the ebb and flow of a cult-favorite song, or take readers inside the experience of various animals.

  RELATED: Jillian Tamaki Enrolls at Supermutant Magic Academy

  Ahead of the new book's release, Tamaki took some time out during her tour to answer some questions about following up on her previous hit and continuing to break new ground, while giving readers some flavor from several of the short stories from Boundless<.

  CBR: Jillian, “World-Class City” is more a poem or meditation than a story, and it’s very striking for anybody living an urban life. When you’re working on something that doesn’t have a concrete narrative visual, how do the images come to you and incorporate with the text?

  Jillian Tamaki: They are originally song lyrics.

  Sometimes I think about how the image-element of comics can actually feel like it limits the word-element. Sure, images are supposed to support and "show not tell" and vice-versa, blah, blah, blah. But it can feel like words are more open-ended in their meaning and symbolic and once they get saddled to an image sometimes something gets lost. Anyway, I think it's fun to pull the image and words a little further and see if the meaning still stands, changes, or takes on something entirely new.

  The use of colors in “Body Pods” makes for a very emotional effect. What makes that technique the right for this tale of a woman whose relationships are continually complicated by her partners’ affection for a particular pop culture touchstone?

  Everything in this book was done digitally. Obviously that story uses two colours to very clearly break up the fictional and "real life" sequences. I wanted the images from "Body Pods" -- the movie all the protagonist's love interests are obsessed with -- to be a little more vivid and alluring. Sometimes fictional worlds and spaces are richer, safer, and more interesting than our everyday lives.

  In “1 Jenny,” we see a woman who is able to watch an alternate version of her life unfold on “Mirror Facebook.” It’s ultimately a glass half-full story, isn’t it? Things may look better somewhere else right now, but they aren’t always going to stay that way.

  If you think it's half-glass full, I'm OK with that.

  What inspired “HalfLife,” in which a woman finds herself inexplicably shrinking away to microscopic size?

  Well, I think it's an interesting premise to think about! Thinking about the sequence of events as people try to control the situation.

  You really capture the feeling of shame in “Bedbug.” The couple here haven’t done anything wrong - they got this infestation from bad luck, wrong time/wrong place. Isn’t it strange how we can feel so terribly about something we can’t truly control?

  Well, the wife did do something wrong. She had an affair. And she may have gotten bedbugs as a result of it, but obviously one never does know. But yes, all around us everyone is always attempting to exert control over their lives and situations but it's often just an exercise. They just make us feel better–the alternative, to acknowledge that much of our lives is not controllable, is terrifying chaos.

  “Sexcoven” follows the popularity arc, from cult favorite to mass appeal then back to the hardcore audience. I’m wondering how it feels to follow up This One Summer, which seemed your mass appeal breakthrough? Do you feel any extra pressure on this set of stories?

  It's a totally different book from This One Summer. I mean, that was marketed as a YA book, this is obviously for adult audiences. I feel very fortunate that I can mix it up. As far as pressure, there is always pressure to make a good, successful book. But in the end, I don't really have much to do with it. I did my best and was present and attentive to the work.

  “Boundless” is a nice bookend to “World-Class City” at the start of the book. Again, it’s more a poem, the sensations of animals - both their freedoms and their vulnerabilities. This time, however, the imagery is more literal. Where did this one come from?

  I walk around my neighborhood in Toronto a lot. On a sunny day, I saw a bird land on a wrought iron fence. Inside the wrought iron fence design there was a spiderweb which was caught in a light beam. And I just thought, how does that bird perceive that web? Does it see it? Is it as inconsequential to it, as it is to me? I mean, the bird was really tiny. Anyway, this is quite twee, but it just made me think about how we navigate the world, how much it would vary from species to species, but also from human to human.

  How far back does the oldest of these stories date? What about the most recent?

  Oldest is probably around 2011. Newest 2016.

  There’s an impressive range of story styles in Boundless (the book, not the short). Do you see any themes or connections between them?

  I suppose there is a sense of connection/disconnection. Or transcendence.

  What’s next for you?

  A picture book, which will come out next year.

Tamaki, Jillian THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2019 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Adult Fiction) $25.00 10, 1 ISBN: 978-0-358-06728-3

Series editor Kartalopoulos taps Tamaki (They Say Blue, 2018, etc.) to help curate the 2019 edition of this annual collection of exceptional graphic storytelling.

In her introduction, Tamaki observes, "It's not a bad time to make comics, if one absolutely must and is able to do so, and one's work is marketable enough." The wry caveat nods to an eternal struggle: The labor-intensive craft of comic creation often means small financial return for creators. Perhaps stating this struggle up front cleared the collection to plunge directly into art itself; though Lauren Weinstein's "Being an Artist and a Mother" entwines art and money in her struggle to retain her productive-artist self once she gives birth to her first child ("unless you can pay [for child care]…you don't have access to your hands"), the story is mostly about Weinstein's connection to a past artist whose painting captivated her as a new mother. Eleanor Davis' incisive "Hurt or Fuck" contemplates art and human need on an allegorical, visceral level in what could almost be a two-actor stage play. Erik Nebel's "Why Don't We Come Together" ingeniously explores the possibilities of a rigid format--repeating but shifting shapes and colors, figures and patterns play across a set of equal-sized panels stacked into a grid, clicking through simple, whimsical stories like a filmstrip of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Jed McGowan's "Uninhabitable" explores the forces of change as well, old and new colliding in a science-fiction tale of terraforming, hive minds, action, reaction, and creation. The collection also includes an excerpt from the first graphic novel longlisted for the Booker Prize, Sabrina by Nick Drnaso, and new work by master of graphic journalism Joe Sacco on the topic of climate and economy.

It's called "best" for a reason.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Tamaki, Jillian: THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2019." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A597739580/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cd21dbaf. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.

QUOTED: "Tamaki's masterful grasp of faces and mirthful body language."

My Best Friend. By Julie Fogliano. Illus. by Jillian Tamaki. Mar. 2020.32p. Atheneum, $17.99 (9781534427228). PreS-Gr. 1.

Fogliano (Just In Case You Want to Fly, 2019) has a knack for capturing the emotional tenor of very specific little kid experiences, and her latest, in collaboration with Tamaki (They Say Blue, 2018), is no different. Two girls, one pale with ginger hair, the other with sleek black hair and glasses, joyously run around a playground, sharing jokes, games, and quiet time, while Fogliano's lines narrate the redhead's inner monologue: "i have a new friend / and her hair is black / and it shines / and it shines / and she always laughs at everything." Their spontaneous, imaginative play lacks logical sequence, but it's clear from Tamaki's exuberant artwork, in a limited palette of warm, peachy pinks and deep, earthy greens, that logic doesn't matter one bit. The girls quack like ducks; one chases the other with a spooky leaf; the redhead pretends to be a pickle--and through it all, they bounce around the page spreads with sheer happiness on their faces. Then their day of fun abruptly comes to an end, when it's revealed that the girls only just met. Tamaki's masterful grasp of faces and mirthful body language, echoed in the looping, lively movement of the plants and animals in the background, is a captivating complement to Fogliano's plainspoken but evocative text, and the combination is sure to resonate with anyone who's ever made a fast friend. --Sarah Hunter

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Hunter, Sarah. "My Best Friend." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 9-10, 1 Jan. 2020, p. 102. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613203113/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=66942ff4. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.

QUOTED: "Children will happily recognize their first experiences with close friendship as they read this book."

FOGLIANO, Julie. My Best Friend, illus. by Jillian Tamaki. 32p. S. & S./Atheneum. Mar. 2020. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781534427228.

PreS-Gr 1--What are the qualities that make a best friend? Does her hair shine and her laugh fill the air? Does she hate strawberry ice cream? Beginning at a tire swing on a playground, two young girls spend a fun filled day together, laughing, playing, and pretending as they explore the park and learn about each other. Whether they're enjoying a quiet moment together or laughing into their knees to keep from being too loud, the world seems to have stopped just for them. Despite their differences, and especially the fact that one loves strawberry ice cream while the other detests it, they have all the makings of the best of friends--all before they learn each other's name! Little girls and their parents will fall in love with this book from the first page. Riveting, dynamic illustrations create the backdrop of this story, presented in the muted hues of sunset. The pencil lines are defined while simultaneously disappearing to give way to the larger images. Each line of text sounds like it came from the diary of a young girl, including very few uses of punctuation or capital letters. Paired beautifully with the illustrations, the combination draws readers into the whimsical and exciting moments of a budding new friendship. VERDICT Children will happily recognize their first experiences with close friendship as they read this book, losing themselves in the emotions that are so aptly captured.--Mary Lanni, formerly at Denver Public Library

Caption: My Best Friend (Fogliano)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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Lanni, Mary. "FOGLIANO, Julie. My Best Friend." School Library Journal, vol. 66, no. 1, Jan. 2020, p. 52+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A610418379/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ecaea3cc. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.

QUOTED: "Tamaki ... gives the action superhero-grade visual power with swoops and swirls."

Our Little Kitchen

Jillian Tamaki. Abrams, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4197-4655-0

"Tie on your apron!/ Roll up your sleeves!" Every Wednesday, an inclusive pickup team of volunteers--a short Black woman with a commanding presence and a cane, a white parent and small brown-skinned child, and more--gathers in a small community kitchen to prepare a weekly dinner for their neighbors, combining vegetables they harvest from a garden ("Look at these zukes!/ Let's use them up too!"), food bank beans ("Third week in a row!"), and a donation of apples ("Cut off the brown bits,/ they're still good to use") for a simple, filling meal. Clear-line panel artwork by Tamaki (My Best Friend) gives the action superhero-grade visual power with swoops and swirls in swaths of tomato red, avocado green, and beet pink. Smells drift deliciously around the group's noses, the chief cook tumbles through cascades of beans, and speech balloons collide like atoms. By making the collaborative meal preparation 'visually brilliant, Tamaki injects energy into this life-giving celebration. Then it's go time--"I mean it!" yells the crew's leader--and a parade of food arrives in the dining room, where an equally diverse group of neighbors awaits. Pictures in speech balloons reveal conversations shared over the meal: books, hockey, a sore toe. The cooks can't save the world alone, but by taking care of their neighbors ("Is your body warm?// Is your belly full?") they convey the power of thrift, collective action, and community-building. Recipes for an elastic number of diners are included, too. Ages 4--8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Sept.)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"Our Little Kitchen." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 29, 20 July 2020, p. 158. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632367720/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bcf6cec5. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.

QUOTED: "Tamaki's latest is a delight for the senses, bursting with bright colors, enticing scents, and effervescent prose."

Tamaki, Jillian OUR LITTLE KITCHEN Abrams (Children's None) $17.99 9, 22 ISBN: 978-1-4197-4655-0

We come together to feed our own in this upbeat picture book.

Tamaki’s latest is a delight for the senses, bursting with bright colors, enticing scents, and effervescent prose. There’s not really a story here, nor much gastronomic wisdom—and that’s precisely the point. Instead, readers shadow a diverse group of people who come together every Wednesday to prepare a meal for their neighbors using whatever materials are at hand. Their garden is far from perfect, but it yields plenty of produce; leftovers and community contributions fill in the gaps. Whether donated, grown, or saved from the fridge, all foodstuffs are welcome—this is no place for premium ingredients or brand names! The kitchen’s warmth emanates not only from the oven, but from the cacophony of voices and cascade of culinary noises sustaining it. It’s a place for gratitude and camaraderie, not gripes and complaints—a disposition evident in Tamaki’s singsong, occasionally rhyming first-person plural prose. Onomatopoeic actions—“glug glug glug / CHOPCHOPCHOP / Sizzzzzzzzle”—and volunteers’ hearty exclamations pop in spreads characterized by Tamaki’s trademark fluidity and playfulness. Nib-and-ink linework swooshes across the pages, emulating the controlled frenzy and depicting a thoughtfully diverse cast of warmhearted people. Endpapers offer simple recipes for vegetable soup and apple crumble; adults familiar with Lucy Knisley and Samin Nosrat will swoon at the sight of these graphically rendered recipes. An author’s note explains the real-life experience that inspired the project. (This book was reviewed digitally with 8-by-21-inch double-page spreads viewed at 53% of actual size.)

Simply delectable! (Picture book. 4-8)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Tamaki, Jillian: OUR LITTLE KITCHEN." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2020, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A629261434/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0fce84ec. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.

"Tamaki, Jillian: THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2019." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A597739580/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cd21dbaf. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020. Hunter, Sarah. "My Best Friend." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 9-10, 1 Jan. 2020, p. 102. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613203113/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=66942ff4. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020. Lanni, Mary. "FOGLIANO, Julie. My Best Friend." School Library Journal, vol. 66, no. 1, Jan. 2020, p. 52+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A610418379/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ecaea3cc. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020. "Tamaki, Jillian: OUR LITTLE KITCHEN." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2020, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A629261434/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0fce84ec. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020. "Our Little Kitchen." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 29, 20 July 2020, p. 158. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632367720/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bcf6cec5. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.

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