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Brian Ralph (1973- ) attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) between 1992 and 1996 and graduated with a BA in Illustration. While at college he began producing his mini-comic, Fireball, which he published for 7 issues and which ultimately won him two Ignatz Awards at the Small Press Expo (SPX) in 1999 for Outstanding New Talent and Outstanding Mini-Comic. After graduation he moved into Fort Thunder, an art-collective housed in a warehouse in Providence, New York founded by fellow cartoonists Mat Brinkman and Brian Chippendale. "It's a big place and always had ten or so people living there. I don't know how to really do it justice. It is the most insane place, constant chaos, floor to ceiling garbage and art, and bats and rats, everywhere. I was there for three years, no heat in the place, I had to sleep in a sleeping bag for all those years. It wasn't intended to be an arts commune or anything like that, it just so happened that most of the people there drew comics, and those who didn't just started drawing them." While at Fort Thunder, Brian produced his first book, Cave-In. "I can't imagine what else I would do... Now I'm thinking I should just do what I do, which is comics, and wait for the rest of the world to catch up to what I'm doing with comics, instead of drawing a children's book and not being happy with what I'm doing." When not working on his comics, Brian teaches comics to children and produces commercial illustrations for a number of publications including Wired, New York Post and Nickelodeon. He currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland, USA with his wife, Megan, and their cat, Mambo. Interviews: Resources: Reviews: |
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ESSENTIAL READING: |
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"Brian takes us places; I wish I'd had this book when I
was a kid, so that I could have studied and pondered it, over
and over again, to find the secrets it seems to contain." "Cave-In has what it takes to stand up as really solid work
of art - it thrives at many levels of comprehension. From the
eyes of a child, Cave-In's accessible, streamlined drawings
tell a strange and intriguing story that clicks from the first
page. From the eyes of a cynical observer of culture and literature,
the book has a smooth, minimalist and cyclical narrative that
effectively depicts the impact of a single determined organism
on a carefully balanced and complicated ecosystem. From the eyes
of a human being, the damn thing is a lot of fun." |
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"Hypnotic and tremendously fun, Climbing
Out is another
bright spot on Ralph's already shining
CV. Curious readers looking for tomorrow's fairy tales would
do well to start right here." "It didn't start as a metaphor.; it developed as I started
to see things in myself. I started to embody certain characters
and people in my life started to become other characters. I slowly
started to figure out what I was doing and it dawned on me what
this story was about. It was a metaphor for my own life, so finally
that's what it turned into. Having these different layers." |
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Books: Short Stories in... Mini-comics: |
