| Intro | Artist |
| Is |
Artist Cartoonist Comics artist Penciller |
| Type |
Arts Humor |
| Gender | female |
Jennifer Camper is an American comics artist and graphic artist whose work is inspired by her own experiences as a Lebanese-American lesbian woman. Her work has been included in various outlets such as newspapers and magazines since the 1990s, as well as in exhibits in Europe and the United States. Furthermore, Camper is the creator and director of the biennial Queers and Comics conference.
Career
Camper, who is openly lesbian, has been producing comics since the 1980s. Her work has appeared in many publications including The Village Voice, San Francisco Bay Times, Ms. Magazine, Curve, On Our Backs, Washington Blade, The Advocate, Out Magazine, and Girlfriends, among many, many others. Her work has also appeared in comic anthologies such as Boy Trouble, edited by Robert Kirby; Gay Comix; and The Great Women Cartoonists and A Century of Women Cartoonists, both edited by Trina Robbins; to give just a small example. She has released two books of her comic art: Rude Girls and Dangerous Women, published by Laugh Lines Press in 1994 and SubGURLZ, published by Cleis Press in 1999.
Camper is also the editor of the important anthology of queer comics entitled Juicy Mother. It is the first anthology of queer comics to have appeared since the release of Gay Comix, edited by Howard Cruse, which was first released in 1980 and appeared throughout the 1990s. Two volumes of Juicy Mother have been released so far. The first, entitled Juicy Mother: Celebration, was published by Soft Skull Press in 2005. This anthology featured the work of the artists and writers Alison Bechdel, the aforementioned Howard Cruse, Diane DiMassa, Michael Fahy, Leanne Franson, Joan Hilty, G.B. Jones, Rupert Kinnard, Robert Kirby, Serena Pillai, Karen Platt, Ariel Schrag, Robert Triptow, Ivan Velez Jr., Stephen Winter and Camper herself. The anthology was a finalist for the 18th Annual Lambda Literary Awards in the Humor category.
The second volume appeared in 2007, published by Manic D Press and subtitled How They Met. This edition was substantially larger than the first and included even more artists and writers. Many of the contributors from the first issue were on hand again, such as Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse, Diane DiMassa, Michael Fahy, Leanne Franson, Joan Hilty, G.B. Jones, Robert Kirby, Ariel Schrag, Robert Triptow, Ivan Velez Jr., Stephen Winter and Camper. They were joined by Lawrence Ferber, Fly, Chitra Ganesh, David Kelly, Carrie McNinch, Sara Rojo Perez, Lawrence Schimel, and Scott Treleaven, among others. Juicy Mother 2 was one of the finalists for a 20th Annual Lambda Literary Award in the ‘Anthology’ category.
Camper is known to have lectured or held workshops at or for several universities:
- School of Visual Arts
- New York University
- Queens Museum of Art
- Moore College of Art and Design
- Brooklyn Public Library
- Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance
- Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
- Al-Noor School
- AWAAM
- Asian American Arts Alliance
- Hetrick-Martin Institute
- Live Out Loud
Publications
Books
- Rude Girls and Dangerous Women, Laugh Lines Press, 1994
- SubGURLZ, Cleis Press, 1999
Comic Books
- Gay Comix
- Wimmin’s Comix
- World War 3
- Young Lust
- Real Girl
- Strip AIDS USA
- Cease Fire
- Choices
- Dykes Delight (UK)
- Bubblegun (Czech)
Anthologies
- Juicy Mother: Celebration, edited by Jennifer Camper, Soft Skull Press, 2005 ISBN 1-932360-70-0
- Juicy Mother:How They Met, edited by Jennifer Camper, Manic D Press, 2007 ISBN 978-1-933149-20-2
Contributions
- A Century of Women Cartoonists, edited by Trina Robbins, Kitchen Sink Press, 1993, ISBN 0-87816-206-2
- The Great Women Cartoonists, edited by Trina Robbins, Kitchen Sink Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8230-2170-X
- “A Day In The Life…Reference Librarian”, Cathy and Jennifer Camper, Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out, edited by Katia Roberts and Jessamyn West, McFarland and Company, Inc., 2003, ISBN 0-7864-1608-4
- Boy Trouble, edited by Robert Kirby and David Kelly, Boy Trouble Books, 2004 ISBN 0-9748855-0-9
- Dead High Yearbook, edited by Ivan Velez Jr., Dutton Books, (a division of Penguin Group (USA) 2007 ISBN 0-525-47783-7
- The Book of Boy Trouble 2: Born to Trouble, edited by Robert Kirby and David Kelly, Green Candy Press, 2008 ISBN 978-1-931160-65-0