Carol Lay (born 1952) is an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
alternative
Alternative or alternate may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Alternative (Kamen Rider), Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki''
* Alternative comics, or independent comics are an altern ...
cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...
best known for her weekly comic strip, ''Story Minute'' (later to evolve into the strip ''Way Lay''), which ran for almost 20 years in such US papers as the ''
LA Weekly
''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...
'', the ''
NY Press
''New York Press'' was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011.
The ''Press'' strove to create a rivalry with the '' Village Voice''. ''Press'' editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat He ...
'', and on
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon
A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...
. Lay has been drawing professionally for over 30 years. Based in Los Angeles, Lay's strips and illustrations have appeared in ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'', ''
Mad'', ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'', ''
Worth Magazine
''Worth'' is an American financial, wealth management, and life-style magazine founded in 1986 and purchased by Clarim Holdings in 2019. The magazine addresses financial, legal and life-style issues for high-net-worth individual
In the finan ...
'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'', and ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
''.
Biography
Early life
Lay was born in
Whittier,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. In 1975 she graduated with a B.F.A. in Fine Arts from
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
.
["Talking to Carol Lay - Irene and More"]
. Newsarama
''Newsarama'' is an American website that publishes news, interviews, and essays about the American comic book industry. It is owned by Future US. In June 2020, Newsarama was merged with the website ''GamesRadar+'', also owned by Future US.
Hi ...
. July 19, 2007
Career
After graduating from UCLA, Lay entered the comics industry at
DC Comics
DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...
,
Western Publishing
Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company, was an American company founded in 1907 in Racine, Wisconsin, best known for publishing the Little Golden Books. Its Golden Books Family Entertainment division also ...
, and
Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book store, comic book specialty stor ...
, while simultaneously writing and drawing underground comics for titles such as ''
Weirdo'' and her own ''
Good Girls'' #1–6.
[
Lay's work, including "Story Minute" appeared in alternative newsweeklies during the 1990s.
She is the author of ''Mythos'', a prose novel featuring ]Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...
( DC/Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.
History
Pocket Books produced the first Paperback#Mass market paperback, mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and ...
, 2003), ''Goodnight, Irene: The Collected Stories of Irene Van de Kamp'' (Last Gasp
(The) Last Gasp may refer to
* Last Gasp (publisher)
Last Gasp is a San Francisco–based book publisher with a lowbrow art and counterculture focus. Owned and operated by Ron Turner, for most of its existence Last Gasp was a publisher, dis ...
, 2007), and ''The Big Skinny: How I Changed My Fattitude, a Memoir'' (Villard
Villard may refer to:
People
*Villard (surname)
Places France
* Villard, Creuse
*Villard, Haute-Savoie
* Villard-Bonnot, in the Isère department
*Villard-de-Lans, in the Isère department
* Villard-d'Héry, in the Savoie department
*Villard-Lé ...
, 2008).
From 2010 to 2013, Lay wrote and drew '' Simpsons'' stories for Bongo Comics
Bongo Comics Group was a comic book publishing company founded in 1993 by Matt Groening along with Steve & Cindy Vance and Bill Morrison. It published comics related to the animated television series ''The Simpsons'' and ''Futurama'', as well a ...
.
In 2013, Lay created ''Murderville'' #1: "A Farewell to Armories", a self-published, small-print-run, Kickstarter-funded comic featuring twenty-four pages of story plus four front & back, outside & inside cover pages.
On January 26, 2015, Carol Lay's ''Lay Lines'' page began on GoComics with a week-long serialization of her story "The Thing Under the Futon" (January 26–30, 2015), followed by serializations of "Now, Endsville" (February 3–10, 2015) and "Invisible City" (April 12–June 26, 2015). ''Lay Lines'' has also reprinted pages from Lay's weekly newspaper comic ''Story Minutes'', in color for the first time. New ''Lay Lines'' comics feature followups to ''Murderville''.
Bibliography
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* ''Wonder Woman: Mythos'', Pocket Star, 2003. . (prose novel)
* ''Goodnight, Irene: The Collected Stories of Irene Van de Kamp'', Last Gasp
(The) Last Gasp may refer to
* Last Gasp (publisher)
Last Gasp is a San Francisco–based book publisher with a lowbrow art and counterculture focus. Owned and operated by Ron Turner, for most of its existence Last Gasp was a publisher, dis ...
, 2007. . (collects the Irene Van de Camp stories from Good Girls plus a cover gallery and "About Face" (2006), a new 18-page story drawn for the collection)
* ''The Big Skinny: How I Changed My Fattitude, A Memoir'', Random House
Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
, 2008. . (graphic novel/memoir/diet book, with recipes)
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* ''Simpsons Comics Get Some Fancy Book Learnin, Bongo Entertainment, 2010. . (5-page story, new for the collection, Lisa and Maggie Simpson in "Pandora, Jr.")
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*''CAROL LAY'S ILLITERATURE: STORY MINUTES Volume One'', Boom! Town, 2012. . (Contains 103 STORY MINUTE strips from 1997 to 1999, plus an Introduction by Kim Deitch.)
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*''BART SIMPSON TO THE RESCUE'', Harper, 2014. . (Includes reprints of Carol Lay's SIMPSONS stories "The Mystery of the Pesky Desk", "Fortunate Son", "A Tomb With a View", and "Pranks a Lot".)
*''BART SIMPSON BLASTOFF'', Harper, 2015. . (Includes reprints of Carol Lay's SIMPSONS stories "Sleepless in Springfield", "The Princess Principle", and "The Planet of the Plants".)
*''SIMPSONS COMIC CLUBHOUSE'', Harper, 2015, . (Includes reprints of Carol Lay's SIMPSONS stories "Dirty Laundry", and "Fur 'n' Hate 451".)
References
External links
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Interviews
''Scene Missing Magazine'' (Nov. 2004)
''Comics Journal'' (June 1999)
(Contains two interviews with Carol Lay. The first, with Kent Worcester, covers her early biography, influences, and stylistic development. The second, with Kim Deitch
Kim Deitch (born May 21, 1944 in Los Angeles, California) is an American cartoonist who was an important figure in the underground comix movement of the 1960s, remaining active in the decades that followed with a variety of books and comics, somet ...
, with whom she worked on the comic adaptation of the film '' Eating Raoul'', is more personal.)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lay, Carol
1952 births
Living people
American comic strip cartoonists
American female comics artists
American female comics writers
American satirists
American women satirists
American parodists
American satirical comics writers
American satirical comics artists
People from Whittier, California
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Inkpot Award winners