With his pencil as his witness — Warren Craghead III, part one
Since his 1996 Xeric Grant-winning zine Speedy, Warren Craghead III has been at the forefront of North American avantgarde comics. Whether he is chronicling his daughters growing up, witnessing atrocities (or presidencies) play out on his TV screen, or reporting World War I and the Armenian genocide at a century’s delay, his work is a radically open, unflinching engagement with the world.
This 2018 interview is the first of two talks Uncomics host Allan Haverholm had with Craghead. An edited transcript is available here. The next part, recorded in our pandemic year of 2020, is out tomorrow!
Warren Craghead is a featured artist in the Uncomics anthology, out now!
The galleries below only cover the works discussed in this artist talk. You are strongly encouraged to visit the artist’s website, which contains links to his multitude of project sites and very active social accounts. Warren’s books and zines are available from his own site, as well as from Leaf & Signal.
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Credits
The Uncomics podcast is edited and produced by Allan Haverholm. Music by Allan Grønvall Pedersen. All content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license.
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Works discussed
Seed Toss (1998–)
Using the world as a publication platform.
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- A drawing left in public space, 2021
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- A drawing left in public space, 2021
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- A drawing left in public space, 2021
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- Mail art, 2015
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- Post-it art, exhibition view
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- Post-it art, exhibition view
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- Participatory mail art, exhibition view
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- Participatory mail art, exhibition view
Fauves (2012–)
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- *Fauves* 90
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- *Fauves* 92
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- *Fauves* 96
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- *Fauves* 100
Ladyh8rs, USAh8rs (2012–2021)
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- Ladyh8r — Montana District Judge G. Todd Baugh: Suspended all but 31 days of a 47 years old man’s 15-year sentence for raping a 14-year old.
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- Ladyh8r — Jay Townsend, a campaign spokesman for Republican Rep. Nan Hayworth: "Let’s hurl some acid at those female democratic Senators".
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- USAh8r —Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, president of Alabama’s Public Service Commission, called for God’s intervention in regulations on coal.
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- USAh8r — Sen. Ted Cruz filed to force the federal government to sell off a significant portion of the country’s most prized lands in the West.
Medz Yeghern (2015–2019)
Daily drawings to memorialise the Armenian genocide.
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- The Armenians' escape through the desert to Aleppo is a recurring motif throughout Craghead's *Medz Yeghern*
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- Knives, half moons, smoke, pebbles --
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- -- and more concrete symbols of the Ottoman persecution of the Armenians appear throughout.
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- Another recurring motif: Images of those perished in the Armenian genocide, reduced to ashes.
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- Woman with dead child outside Aleppo, one in a year long series of drawings
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- Woman with dead child outside Aleppo
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- Woman with dead child outside Aleppo
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- Woman with dead child outside Aleppo
La Grande Guerre (2014–)
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- June 28, 1914 --- Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are assassinated in Sarajevo by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip.
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- November 22, 1914 --- Trench fighting
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- April 13, 1915 ---Germans decide to focus on eastern front as key to victory (though some think they should be focusing on the west). Apollinaire writes to Lou.
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- October 20, 1916 --- A glove shrunken by poison gas
Trump Trump (2015–2019)
Daily drawings of Donald Trump’s presidency, from nomination through his defeat.
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- cover of the first *Trump Trump* collection
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- cover of the second *Trump Trump* collection
untitled (2014)
Drawn from images of victims of a gas attack in Ghouta, Syria
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- cover
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- interior art
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- interior art
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- interior art
Suggested reading
- Warren Craghead, How to be everywhere
- Warren Craghead (ed.), Double Nickels Forever, a tribute to The Minutemen
- Warren Craghead, #drawnwhile on Twitter and Instagram
- Andrei Molotiu (ed.), Abstract Comics.
- Austin Kleon, Steal like an artist
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