Hrag Vartanian

Lawrence Swan, who you’ll remember as the creator of ArtBum Comix, has been posting Art Bum’s latest hijinx on his own blog, NEWCLEANWARS.

He’s up’d the ante by professionalizing the drawings of his odd-ball cast of characters (he’s thankfully started using blank acid-free paper) and evolving his drawing style, which vacillates between the pop aesthetic of graphic novels and the more painterly feel of artist drawings.

Lawrence does for the downtown art scene (which nowadays essentially means Brooklyn) what Art Spiegelman did for the Holocaust…how’s that for hyperbole? Ok, it’s not exactly true, but Lawrence’s perception of the Art World from the margins (truthfully, 90% of artists, critics, bloggers, etc. would qualify as marginal figures in the “Art World”) is filled with insightful references to fairy tales, art jokes and the anxieties of an middle-aged artist.

I personally find his less verbose and more narrative comics his most successful.

Also:

• My interview with Lawrence Swan (April 27, 2009)