The Winner

By Karl Stevens. Published by Retrofit.

Softcover, 104 pages, Colour, 2018. 

Karl Stevens uses the graphic novel to dissect the line between the worlds of high and low art. While working as a museum guard he contemplates the plight of his aesthetic choices, and how they have affected his life thus far. Where is his place as an artist? How has his world changed since he met his wife and muse Alex? Has he become boring since he quit drinking? Painted visions of autobiographical reality swing into experiments with fantasy and science fiction.

Karl Stevens is a graphic novelist and painter. His first book, Guilty, was published in 2004 with a grant from the Xeric Foundation. He is also the author of Whatever (2008), The Lodger (A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, 2010), and Failure (2013). His comic strips appeared in The Boston Phoenix between 2005 and 2012 until an incident with an advertiser resulted in the strip’s cancellation. The realist comic artist has also co-produced the Phoenix comic “Succe$$” with Gustavo Turner. In 2016 the Village Voice began running his cat comic strip "Penny". Stevens’s work appears in select art galleries.