Ron Regé Jr. (born December 5, 1969, in

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county. Quincy is part of the Greater Boston area as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in ...

) is an American alternative cartoonist and musician. He has published a number of graphic novels and was a regular contributor to the ''

Kramers Ergot ''Kramers Ergot'' is a comics anthology edited by American cartoonist Sammy Harkham and featuring contributions from artists such as Daniel Clowes, Dan Clowes, Anders Nilsen (cartoonist), Anders Nilsen, Gabrielle Bell, Kevin Huizenga, Dash Shaw ...

'' anthology; his work has also been published by

McSweeney's McSweeney's Publishing is an American nonprofit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. The executive director is Amanda Uhle. McSweeney's first publication was the literary journal'' Timothy McSw ...

and in other languages by numerous European imprints. His illustrations have appeared in ''

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 ...

'' and the ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

''. As a musician, he has recorded and performed with such bands as

Swirlies Swirlies is an American indie rock band formed in Boston in 1990. Since their first records in the early 1990s, the band has released studio and home recordings that blend shoegaze and twee pop with electronica and lo-fi music. Swirlies releas ...

and

Lavender Diamond Lavender Diamond is an American, Los Angeles-based band, fronted by singer Becky Stark. History While living in Providence, Rhode Island, Stark began performing as Lavender Diamond in a play that she and puppeteer Xander Marro wrote, created ...

Biography

Early life and education

Regé grew up in Quincy and

Plymouth, Massachusetts Plymouth ( ; historically also spelled as Plimouth and Plimoth) is a town in and the county seat of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklor ...

, and attended the

Massachusetts College of Art and Design Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation's oldest art schools, and the only publicly funded independent art sch ...

. According to

Lambiek Comiclopedia Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ). His son Boris Kousemaker has been the owner since 2007. From 1968 to 2015, it was located in the Ke ...

, "after ... working in a copy shop for several years, he relocated to Northern California."

Comics

Regé first began publishing his work in

minicomics A minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term small press comic is equivalent with minicomic, reserved for those publications measuring A6 (105& ...

form in 1988 while attending college. In the early 1990s, Regé drew a comic every day, many of which he published in his annual periodical ''Yeast Hoist'' (later collected by Highwater Books in 2003). During this period, he also contributed illustrations to DIY publications, and designed posters for events, as well as various forms of apparel. Many of these pieces, as well as some of Regé's more commercial work, are anthologized in the collection ''Against Pain'' (Drawn & Quarterly 2008). By the late 1990s Regé's work was picked up by Tom Devlin of

Highwater Books Highwater Books was an independent comic book publisher based in Somerville, Massachusetts. Highwater began in 1997 and folded in November 2004 due to financial pressure. Artists published Notable artists published by Highwater Books included ...

, and when that publisher folded, moved with Devlin to

Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly (D+Q) is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic con ...

. Regé's first graphic novel, ''Skibber Bee Bye'' (Highwater Books, 1999), a surreal "...dreamscape in which a shy and lovesick elephant furtively pursues the company of two reclusive mice," was praised by

Chris Ware Franklin Christenson "Chris" Ware (born December 28, 1967) is an American cartoonist known for his ''Acme Novelty Library'' series (begun 1994) and the graphic novels ''Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth'' (2000), ''Building Stories'' (2012 ...

: "Ron Regé is one of a handful of cartoonists in the history of the medium not only to reinvent comics to suit his own idiosyncratic impulses and inspirations as an artist, but also to imbue it with his own peculiar, ever-changing emotional energy. To me, he is unquestionably one of 'the greats.'" Regé and Joan Reidy's story "Boys" was included in ''The Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories'' edited by

Ivan Brunetti Ivan Brunetti (born October 3, 1967) is an Italian and American cartoonist and comics scholar based in Chicago. Career Noted for combining blackly humorous taboo-laden subject matter with simplified and exaggerated cartoon drawing styles, Brunet ...

and published by

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

in 2006. After publishing a number of comics/graphic novels with Drawn & Quarterly, in 2008, Regé's focus changed. As he described his journey: What resulted was ''The Cartoon Utopia'', published by

Fantagraphics Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and (formerly) the Erotic comics, erotic Eros Comix imprint. They have managed sev ...

in 2012:

Music

Regé played drums and trombone in his high school band. He continued to tinker with music in college and built a variety of instruments for a course in art school. Bits of Regé's 4-track home recordings appeared on releases by the Boston indie rock band

, and more extensively in various related

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate stylistic ch ...

projects with friends. Regé appears on releases by the Yes Girls and the Mystical Unionists; he later played drums in the Los Angeles-based group

(for which he has contributed artwork to the band's various releases).

Themes and art style

Regé's work is frequently engaged with themes of

spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...

and "ancient wisdom." His artwork, which is dense and deliberately childlike, has often been classified as "cute brut". According to publisher

, "Regé creates his own visual poetry that sets him apart from other cartoonists as one of the most original artists to enter the medium in the past decade. His storytelling is neither linear nor altogether accessible; however, his recognizable thin line and cute characters draw you into a dreamlike, sensitive fantasy world that, as odd as it seems, is entirely realistic." In a 2017 interview, Regé described his artistic influences and style this way: "I was probably influenced by my friends. I guess if you put Marc Bell and

John Porcellino John Porcellino (born September 18, 1968) is an American cartoonist and creator of minicomics. Porcellino's self-published, photocopied, mostly autobiographical series '' King-Cat Comics'' is among the best-known and longest-running minicomics pr ...

together it equals me."

Personal life

According to his publisher

, Regé lives in

Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake, Los Angeles, Silver Lake to the west and Chinato ...

, Los Angeles.

Exhibitions

* 2007 "''UnInked: Paintings, Sculpture and Graphic Work by Five Cartoonists''" (

Phoenix Art Museum The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest art museum, museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,0 ...

, Phoenix, Arizona) — group exhibition guest-curated by

, also featuring

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 ...

Jerry Moriarty Jerry Moriarty (born January 15, 1938, in Binghamton, New York) is an American artist and teacher at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Manhattan. He describes himself as a "paintoonist". Education and career Moriarty entered the Pratt Institu ...

Gary Panter Gary Panter (born December 1, 1950) is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post- underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of '' Arcade: The Com ...

, and

Seth Seth, in the Abrahamic religions, was the third son of Adam and Eve. The Hebrew Bible names two of his siblings (although it also states that he had others): his brothers Cain and Abel. According to , Seth was born after Abel's murder by Cain, ...

Awards

Regé's story "Silent Introduction" (translated into German as "Stumme Einleitung") was published in Reprodukt's anthology ''Orang'' #7 - ''Das Ende der Welt'', which in 2009 was given an ICOM Independent Comic Preis for Sonderpreis der Jury für eine bemerkenswerte Comicpublikation ("Special Jury Prize for a Remarkable Comic Publication"). His work was also included in ''Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels'', which won the 2016

Eisner Award for Best Anthology The Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are awards for creative achievement in American comic books. They are regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the comic indust ...

Nominations

* 1998

Ignatz Award The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a ...

for Promising New Talent (for ''Skibber Bee Bye'') * 2000 (with Joan Leidy) Ignatz Award for Outstanding Comic (for ''Boys'') * 2002 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Story (for "Wir Mussën Wissen, Wir Werden Wissen (We Must Know, We Will Know)", ''Drawn & Quarterly'' volume 4) * 2009 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Anthology or Collection (for ''Against Pain'') * 2022 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Artist (for ''Halcyon'')

Bibliography

* ''The Dum Dum Posse Reader'' (Nib Comics, 1994) * ''Skibber Bee Bye'' (self-published, 1997) ** expanded and published by

, 1999; re-released by

, 2006 ** Spanish-language edition (Apa-Apa, 2010) ** French-language edition (Delphine, 2012) * (with Joan Leidy) ''Boys'' (Highwater Books, 1999) * ''Yeast Hoist: Does Music Make You Cry?'' (Highwater Books, 2003) * ''The Awake Field'' (Drawn & Quarterly, 2006) * ''Scituate Heart'' (Drawn & Quarterly, 2007) * ''Against Pain'' (Drawn & Quarterly, 2008) * ''The Cartoon Utopia'' (

, 2012) * ''Weaver Festival Phenomenon'' (Fantagraphics, 2016) — adaptation of

Banana Yoshimoto is the pen name of Japanese writer . From 2002 to 2015, she wrote her name in hiragana (). Biography Yoshimoto was born in Tokyo on July 24, 1964, and grew up in a progressive family. Her father was the poet and critic Takaaki Yoshimoto, and he ...

's short prose story "Moonlight Shadow" * ''What Parsifal Saw'' (Fantagraphics, 2017) * ''Halcyon'' (Fantagraphics, 2022) * ''Shell Collection'' (Fantagraphics, 2024) — compendium of comics and drawings from the first 75 issues of Regé's minicomics series, ''The Shell of the Self of the Senses''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Regé Jr., Ron Artists from Massachusetts Artists from California Alternative cartoonists Living people 1969 births Writers from California Writers from Quincy, Massachusetts