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Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons
Before she became a literary legend, she wanted to be a cartoonist. Flannery O’Connor was among the greatest American writers of the second half of the 20th century; she was a writer in the Southern tradition of Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, and Carson McCullers, who wrote such classic novels and short stories as Wise Blood, The Violent Bear It Away , and “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” She is perhaps as well known for her tantalizing brand of Southern Gothic humor as she is for her Catholicism. That these tendencies should be so happily married in her fiction is no longer a surprise. The real surprise is learning that this much beloved icon of American literature did not set out to be a fiction writer, but a cartoonist. This seems to be the last well-kept secret of her creative life.
Flannery O’ The Cartoons , the first book devoted to the author’s work in the visual arts, emphasizes O’Connor’s most prolific period as a cartoonist, drawing for her high school and college publications in the early 1940s. While many of these images lampoon student life and the impact of World War II on the home front, something much more is happening. Her cartoons are a creative threshing floor for experimenting and trying out techniques that are deployed later with such great success in her fiction.
O’Connor learns how to set up and carry a joke visually, how to write a good one-liner and set it off against a background of complex visual narration. She develops and asserts her taste for a stock set of character types, attitudes, situations, exaggerations, and grotesques, and she learns how to present them not to distort the truth, but to expose her vision of it.
She worked in both pen & ink and linoleum cuts, and her rough-hewn technique combined with her acidic observations to form a visual precursor to her prose. Fantagraphics is honored to bring the early cartoons of this American literary treasure to a 21st century readership.
For an audience resistant to your views, O’Connor once wrote, “draw large and startling figures.” In her fiction, as in her cartoons, these shocks to the system never come without a laugh. 120 pages of full-color comics
Flannery O’ The Cartoons , the first book devoted to the author’s work in the visual arts, emphasizes O’Connor’s most prolific period as a cartoonist, drawing for her high school and college publications in the early 1940s. While many of these images lampoon student life and the impact of World War II on the home front, something much more is happening. Her cartoons are a creative threshing floor for experimenting and trying out techniques that are deployed later with such great success in her fiction.
O’Connor learns how to set up and carry a joke visually, how to write a good one-liner and set it off against a background of complex visual narration. She develops and asserts her taste for a stock set of character types, attitudes, situations, exaggerations, and grotesques, and she learns how to present them not to distort the truth, but to expose her vision of it.
She worked in both pen & ink and linoleum cuts, and her rough-hewn technique combined with her acidic observations to form a visual precursor to her prose. Fantagraphics is honored to bring the early cartoons of this American literary treasure to a 21st century readership.
For an audience resistant to your views, O’Connor once wrote, “draw large and startling figures.” In her fiction, as in her cartoons, these shocks to the system never come without a laugh. 120 pages of full-color comics
144 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2012
10 people are currently reading
344 people want to read
About the author
Flannery O'Connor
211 books5,371 followersCritics note novels
Wise Blood
(1952) and
The Violent Bear It Away
(1960) and short stories, collected in such works as
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
(1955), of American writer Mary Flannery O'Connor for their explorations of religious faith and a spare literary style.
The Georgia state college for women educated O’Connor, who then studied writing at the Iowa writers' workshop and wrote much of Wise Blood at the colony of artists at Yaddo in upstate New York. She lived most of her adult life on Andalusia, ancestral farm of her family outside Milledgeville, Georgia.
O’Connor wrote Everything That Rises Must Converge (1964). When she died at the age of 39 years, America lost one of its most gifted writers at the height of her powers.
Survivors published her essays were published in Mystery and Manners (1969). Her Complete Stories , published posthumously in 1972, won the national book award for that year. Survivors published her letters in The Habit of Being (1979). In 1988, the Library of America published Collected Works of Flannery O'Connor, the first so honored postwar writer.
People in an online poll in 2009 voted her Complete Stories as the best book to win the national book award in the six-decade history of the contest.
The Georgia state college for women educated O’Connor, who then studied writing at the Iowa writers' workshop and wrote much of Wise Blood at the colony of artists at Yaddo in upstate New York. She lived most of her adult life on Andalusia, ancestral farm of her family outside Milledgeville, Georgia.
O’Connor wrote Everything That Rises Must Converge (1964). When she died at the age of 39 years, America lost one of its most gifted writers at the height of her powers.
Survivors published her essays were published in Mystery and Manners (1969). Her Complete Stories , published posthumously in 1972, won the national book award for that year. Survivors published her letters in The Habit of Being (1979). In 1988, the Library of America published Collected Works of Flannery O'Connor, the first so honored postwar writer.
People in an online poll in 2009 voted her Complete Stories as the best book to win the national book award in the six-decade history of the contest.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 59 reviews
April 8, 2019
I have to thank Kelly Gerald and Fantagraphics for linking several of my continuing interests in humor, schooling, literary fiction and cartoons in this book. I give three stars alone for getting this book published of and about Flannery O’ Connor’s cartoons! Yes, Flannery O’Connor. I have read and reread all of her fiction, I have read her collected letters and at least one biography of her, but for the life of me I can’t recall knowing she had ever drawn cartoons. This was an early goal, and all we have here is her work from high school and college, cartoons, linocuts, and in the manner of James Thurber and Ogden Nash, capturing her droll, sarcastic and occasionally absurd sense of humor in the observation of every day life. As an O’Connor fan, I was astonished to find it, and I zoomed through it. But if you are not a fan of hers, you would not have much interest in it, frankly.
One features a coed asleep in her chair with the caption, “Music Appreciation Has its Charms.” Okay, that’s not that funny, but as a teacher, I smiled. Another school one features two jitter-bugging students, with the caption, “These Two Express the Universal Feeling of Heart-Brokenness at School Closing.”
But of course I must have known of her interest in cartoons, because Gerald’s essays reminds me that O’Connor studied art. And then, all of her essays based in talks about writing: What helps you as a writer? “Anything that helps you to see.” As he fine essays from Gerald and Barry Moser make clear, there is a clear link between the powers of observation in her college cartoons and her fiction.
Here’s some:
https://www.google.com/search?client=...
And some from her inspiration, James Thurber, who was probably the most influential humorist in the country after Mark Twain:
https://www.pinterest.com/bernardmacl...
And I am forever indebted to Barry Moser whose introduction mentions this film which included Flannery O’Connor who, as a young girl, taught a chicken how to walk backwards. She said at one point the accomplishment was the high point of her life, and everything after was anti-climax. The rest of the film would seem to call into question that she had actually accomplished this, because the rest of the goofy film just shows other animals with the film in reverse, but she did it, she really did it (the film is about a minute, and the chicken walking backwards is in the beginning; you can skip the rest of it):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtnV-...
One features a coed asleep in her chair with the caption, “Music Appreciation Has its Charms.” Okay, that’s not that funny, but as a teacher, I smiled. Another school one features two jitter-bugging students, with the caption, “These Two Express the Universal Feeling of Heart-Brokenness at School Closing.”
But of course I must have known of her interest in cartoons, because Gerald’s essays reminds me that O’Connor studied art. And then, all of her essays based in talks about writing: What helps you as a writer? “Anything that helps you to see.” As he fine essays from Gerald and Barry Moser make clear, there is a clear link between the powers of observation in her college cartoons and her fiction.
Here’s some:
https://www.google.com/search?client=...
And some from her inspiration, James Thurber, who was probably the most influential humorist in the country after Mark Twain:
https://www.pinterest.com/bernardmacl...
And I am forever indebted to Barry Moser whose introduction mentions this film which included Flannery O’Connor who, as a young girl, taught a chicken how to walk backwards. She said at one point the accomplishment was the high point of her life, and everything after was anti-climax. The rest of the film would seem to call into question that she had actually accomplished this, because the rest of the goofy film just shows other animals with the film in reverse, but she did it, she really did it (the film is about a minute, and the chicken walking backwards is in the beginning; you can skip the rest of it):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtnV-...
August 2, 2012
I happened o see this book on the new book display during my most recent visit to the library and couldn't resist borrowing it. O'Connor is high on my list of authors I really want to read and Southern authors I've missed completely.
This was an interesting and fun find. The cartoons date from the early 1940s when O'Connor was in high school and college and express her general and specific observations of life. Having also attended a small woman's college, though in the late 1960s, I was amused and a bit astonished at similarities between our college worlds (at least my first 2 years before the walls began to fall).
In addition to the cartoons themselves, there is discussion of their place in her general story and as a precursor to and part of her developing fiction.
I did enjoy this, especially the cartoon, though I must confess to occasional skimming of the analysis for the "good parts." After reading this, I have a feeling that O'Connor would have absolutely no problem with that.
Recommended for those interested in Flannery O'Connor. Rating 3.5.
This was an interesting and fun find. The cartoons date from the early 1940s when O'Connor was in high school and college and express her general and specific observations of life. Having also attended a small woman's college, though in the late 1960s, I was amused and a bit astonished at similarities between our college worlds (at least my first 2 years before the walls began to fall).
In addition to the cartoons themselves, there is discussion of their place in her general story and as a precursor to and part of her developing fiction.
I did enjoy this, especially the cartoon, though I must confess to occasional skimming of the analysis for the "good parts." After reading this, I have a feeling that O'Connor would have absolutely no problem with that.
Recommended for those interested in Flannery O'Connor. Rating 3.5.
July 6, 2024
This was a fun book that introduces Flannery O'Connor's love for cartooning, her life and writing was influenced by "looking". Her visual art is a great companion to her fiction. Many would differ on her greatest contribution. She would say teaching her chicken to walk backward was her greatest accomplishment and everything after was anticlimactic.
January 2, 2016
Flannery Connor cartoons...she drew them...need I say more?
January 30, 2025
A curio from Flannery O'Connor's high school and college days when she was known as Mary O'Connor and was an aspiring cartoonist and artist. Working with linoleum blocks (which can be difficult), her cartoons are engaging and amusing while indebted to James Thurber. Focused on school life, many of the cartoons are difficult to appreciate without context, which is helpfully supplied for each. The book also contains two essays, one focusing on her art (by Barry Moser) and the other more generally about her college years. Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons may not be essential for an understanding of O'Connor's novels and short stories, but can certainly serve as a valuable footnote to the career of writer known for her intense use of color. Given how short her life was, any addition to her work is precious. O'Connor is quoted as noting the value for a writer of "Anything that helps you to see. Anything that makes you look." This is especially poignant given the role of blindness in her novel Wise Blood (1952). In her fiction O'Connor was relentless as she "searched human experience for a more mysterious and profound spiritual meaning" (from the closing essay by Kelly Gerald). The lighter work presented here gives a broader and more complete view of the artist as a young woman. [3★]
April 15, 2015
Flannery O'Connor was a terrific cartoonist, similar to James Thurber in style.
In 1998 I visited the O'Connor library at Milledgeville and acquired photocopies of these cartoons. I hoped to publish them as a book, but was told the estate held the rights. It took a while, but someone else finally had the same idea and did a great job with the design and presentation of this hardcover volume.
In 1998 I visited the O'Connor library at Milledgeville and acquired photocopies of these cartoons. I hoped to publish them as a book, but was told the estate held the rights. It took a while, but someone else finally had the same idea and did a great job with the design and presentation of this hardcover volume.
March 6, 2017
The charicatures and cartoons were kinda cool. I liked how many of their faces looked annoyed.
Their style was something that appeals to me: pretty simple but has an idea.
I was initially delighted that at the end of the book there was a part about O'Connor herself.
It turned out to be a drag since there really isn't much to say about her and it went on for about 30 pages.
The two stars are for the cartoons.
Their style was something that appeals to me: pretty simple but has an idea.
I was initially delighted that at the end of the book there was a part about O'Connor herself.
It turned out to be a drag since there really isn't much to say about her and it went on for about 30 pages.
The two stars are for the cartoons.
January 30, 2020
Though I think the cartoons were too dependent on time and place for me to make such sense of them out of context, the back matter in this book provides valuable insight into Flannery's early years as an artist and author. The insights into human nature that made her such a successful cartoonist among her college classmates very obviously prefigure the exaggerated and grotesque figures that populate her novels and short stories. Interestingly, there isn't much about her Catholic faith reflected in her cartoons, as they were mostly social commentaries on things she saw happening around campus, but the editor of this collection draws a number of interesting parallels between her cartoons and certain short stories that show how her style remained the same even as the content changed. The back matter also includes a number of photos of Flannery that I had never seen before, which were also very interesting and helped me connect with her a bit more. I wish this book had existed when I was an undergrad writing my thesis on Wise Blood. It would have been valuable, I think, to know more about what Flannery was like as a student herself.
May 1, 2023
FOC produced over 100 linoleum block-print cartons for her high school and college papers. These have been collected and published along with two excellent essays - one by professor Kelly Gerald and the other by art critic, Barry Moser. Taken together with FOC’s letters and essays, and Brad Gouch’s biography, this book offers an excellent insight into how O’Connor morphed from a teenage campus comic into a mature author of Southern gothic fiction. It’s a must study for anyone wanting to observe how visual art can lead to fine fiction.
February 24, 2024
Rating: g
Recommend: interested in FOs life and connection between her art and her experiences.
Really enjoyed this - she was a snarky woman! The biographical elements were excellent, and the extra information about the prints was so helpful, to know the news article that accompanied the art. Good stuff.
Recommend: interested in FOs life and connection between her art and her experiences.
Really enjoyed this - she was a snarky woman! The biographical elements were excellent, and the extra information about the prints was so helpful, to know the news article that accompanied the art. Good stuff.
July 8, 2015
I have to give this book a 4; it's an average of a five and a three.
Five-- The cartoons in this collection are charming, intelligent, and important to a community that was, in many ways, defined by war. World War II hit Flannery O'Connor's college, Georgia State College for Women, hard. Not only were rations severe (paper and certain foods were sent to the troops fighting in Europe before colleges, especially women's colleges), but the college was the base for thousands of women training for the war abroad. These cartoons depict the ambiance-- the zietgiest if you will-- of a community shaken by the sudden changes that war warrants. Brilliant work by an incredibly talented woman. The book's introduction and afterword focus in part on how O'Connor was nowhere near an expert in her cartooning, and it also emphasizes that these pictures add to her aura: here was a woman who was not only gifted in writing but artistry as well. (I know, of course, that writing itself is an art, but in this sense I use "artistry" to refer to drawing skills.) What these cartoons prove is the genius of Flannery O'Connor.
The structure of this collection bothered me a bit. The descriptions of the cartoons-- the largest portion of the book-- were in the back. It would be much easier if the blurb about each picture were NEXT to the picture, especially considering every even number page for a considerable section of the book was blank. Also, the afterword written by O'Connor scholar Kelly Gerald didn't focus on the cartoons as much as I wished. Though these problems are slight and can ultimately be seen as inconsequential (for the book DOES accomplish its goal of presenting the cartoons in a manner that is both informative and whimsical), they did bog it down a little.
Overall, this book is a nice collection of art that should in fact be studied along with O'Connor's fiction. Not only did the author use the same source material in some of her fiction, but she also used her artwork as a basis for her prose. Flannery O'Connor achieved with her writing what she did with her drawings: she showed what she believed and what she thought needed to be told.
Five-- The cartoons in this collection are charming, intelligent, and important to a community that was, in many ways, defined by war. World War II hit Flannery O'Connor's college, Georgia State College for Women, hard. Not only were rations severe (paper and certain foods were sent to the troops fighting in Europe before colleges, especially women's colleges), but the college was the base for thousands of women training for the war abroad. These cartoons depict the ambiance-- the zietgiest if you will-- of a community shaken by the sudden changes that war warrants. Brilliant work by an incredibly talented woman. The book's introduction and afterword focus in part on how O'Connor was nowhere near an expert in her cartooning, and it also emphasizes that these pictures add to her aura: here was a woman who was not only gifted in writing but artistry as well. (I know, of course, that writing itself is an art, but in this sense I use "artistry" to refer to drawing skills.) What these cartoons prove is the genius of Flannery O'Connor.
The structure of this collection bothered me a bit. The descriptions of the cartoons-- the largest portion of the book-- were in the back. It would be much easier if the blurb about each picture were NEXT to the picture, especially considering every even number page for a considerable section of the book was blank. Also, the afterword written by O'Connor scholar Kelly Gerald didn't focus on the cartoons as much as I wished. Though these problems are slight and can ultimately be seen as inconsequential (for the book DOES accomplish its goal of presenting the cartoons in a manner that is both informative and whimsical), they did bog it down a little.
Overall, this book is a nice collection of art that should in fact be studied along with O'Connor's fiction. Not only did the author use the same source material in some of her fiction, but she also used her artwork as a basis for her prose. Flannery O'Connor achieved with her writing what she did with her drawings: she showed what she believed and what she thought needed to be told.
August 17, 2018
There's a lot to like and learn here, and in the process I did develop a mad, posthumous crush on Flannery O'Connor. However, I have to classify this one as an exceedingly rare formatting FAIL from the good people at Fantagraphics Books, and that prevented this from being a fully enjoyable reading experience.
There isn't an excessive amount of O'Connor artwork (primarily linoleum cuts, but also some illustrations) in this volume, so it's necessarily padded out with appreciative essays. And here's the crux of the issue: The essay in the back, and especially an explanatory index of each image, add much needed context to the earlier cartoons. (These appeared in student publications and were often in response to current events on campus.) So why not incorporate that context on the earlier pages with the artwork? There's plenty of room, what with blank pages before every image. It would've really helped understand some of the jokes the first time through.
I wouldn't have minded at least a sample of O'Connor's original captions, in addition to the standardized type and punctuation that's presented.
All that being said, I was so impressed with the young O'Connor. I already knew her love of chickens, but I was so pleased to learn she was so smart, funny, sarcastic, and weird. A mousy dream girl! Forever thankful to Professor Sharon Dilworth at Carnegie Mellon University for assigning us to read "Good Country People," and I think it's high time for me to delve into O'Connor's fiction again. The cartoons left me wanting more.
There isn't an excessive amount of O'Connor artwork (primarily linoleum cuts, but also some illustrations) in this volume, so it's necessarily padded out with appreciative essays. And here's the crux of the issue: The essay in the back, and especially an explanatory index of each image, add much needed context to the earlier cartoons. (These appeared in student publications and were often in response to current events on campus.) So why not incorporate that context on the earlier pages with the artwork? There's plenty of room, what with blank pages before every image. It would've really helped understand some of the jokes the first time through.
I wouldn't have minded at least a sample of O'Connor's original captions, in addition to the standardized type and punctuation that's presented.
All that being said, I was so impressed with the young O'Connor. I already knew her love of chickens, but I was so pleased to learn she was so smart, funny, sarcastic, and weird. A mousy dream girl! Forever thankful to Professor Sharon Dilworth at Carnegie Mellon University for assigning us to read "Good Country People," and I think it's high time for me to delve into O'Connor's fiction again. The cartoons left me wanting more.
January 8, 2013
I have been a huge fan of Flannery O'Connor's literary output for a long time, but somehow it escaped my knowledge that she was, in and around her prose scribblings, also a practiced cartoonist. She did drawings for publications in her high school and college careers and became well-known among her peers for doing so. Her characters are a bit grotesque, fat and skinny in excess, bending at impossible angles, and all saying wry and ironic things to each other. Even if you don't care for comics, if you love O'Connor's work you will recognize her point of view immediately.
Having said that, the way this book is set up is extremely weird. It presents all the cartoons, one per page with zero explanation, and then ends on a lengthy, dry epilogue with all the contextual information the reader lacked before. It will even refer to specific drawings that the author feels were particularly skilled or notably autobiographical, and then not reprint the drawing next to the reference, or even give a page number so you can glance back. Wouldn't the entire biographical section have been better implemented as a companion to the drawings instead?
Having said that, the way this book is set up is extremely weird. It presents all the cartoons, one per page with zero explanation, and then ends on a lengthy, dry epilogue with all the contextual information the reader lacked before. It will even refer to specific drawings that the author feels were particularly skilled or notably autobiographical, and then not reprint the drawing next to the reference, or even give a page number so you can glance back. Wouldn't the entire biographical section have been better implemented as a companion to the drawings instead?
December 21, 2012
Not really much to "read" in this book as it's mostly her cartoons, but I learned a few things about O'Connor in this short, interesting history. I had no idea how much she was into visual art, but I also learned about her lifelong love for feathered friends of all kinds, beyond the peacocks in her menagerie. One of my favorite pieces of trivia: She was quite fond of chickens. (I love chickens.) Admittedly somewhat self-deprecating, O'Connor called the fact that she taught a chicken to walk backward when she was five "the high point of her life." Seems that to understand this comment is to understand her sense of humor and fondness for the absurd. An enjoyable little day trip.
Want to read
July 12, 2011Who knew?
August 22, 2012
Do you like Flannery O'Connor? Do you like comix? Then you probably won't give a shit about this book.
December 30, 2014
It's O'Connor, of course it gets five stars!
June 8, 2015
Really interesting insights into an unfamiliar aspect of a favorite author. I didn't know anything about O'Connor's work as a cartoonist and printmaker before stumbling upon this little gem.
September 25, 2020
As soon as I found out on the first page that O'Connor had trained her pet chicken, (a bantam! I love bantams,) to walk backwards when she was a kid, I knew it was going to be a great book.
Actually, this book is literally my idea of non-fiction, on brand. It has a person I'm interested in learning about, Flannery O'Connor, as well as a subject I'm interested in learning about, cartoons. It was chock full of great facts and quotes, and even had many references of pet chickens, which is of course the cherry on top.
Also, I'm 100% sure O'Connor was the origin of the term "plot bunny." I've heard it going around in fanfiction but her descriptions of "catching a rabbit (an idea)" and tying it down to an event or setting was what set me off.
The cartoons themselves- The art style was really pretty interesting. Print making has always kind of stumped me, as many middle school art teachers can attest to, and so I was really impressed at all the prints she made. The way she carves out her figures just leaves a kind of strange impression. It was great. Her signature, a symbol of a chicken made up of her initials, also delighted me.
The subject matter really reminded me of this weird book my dad has- Another collection of college comics, published by the college paper, this time UVA 1987-89. This aspect was nice because I got to see what college was like back then where she was. The presence of all the WAVES and their interaction with the students also gave it a really interesting historical aspect that was really cool to consider.
The second part of the book was even better- Like an early life/college life mini biography. It was really informative while still being engrossing- The editor, Kerry Gerald, is a great writer and came across many really interesting ideas about O'Connor's early work and life. One part that dragged, though, were some of the cartoon analysis. Honestly, while I really like the art, most of the comics were just comical situations and not that deep. Maybe Gerald was heaping her with too much praise, or analysis, or something, but even if I didn't agree all the way it was nice to read about art.
Another interesting fact, Hardy of the legendary comic duo Laurel and Hardy was born somewhere around her town! I can't remember exactly but I think her aunt knew him a bit.
O'Connor had alot of great ideas about visual art and the world of fiction writing- I read this line saying graphic novels weren't really a thing back then, and got really disappointing because oh my god a Flannery O'Connor graphic novel would have been epic. I don't even know if she ever did illustrations for her books, but knowing she was also a visual artist besides an author was a nice fact to learn, and as I read the rest of her stuff I'll keep it in mind.
I also learned more about her sense of humor in her writing- Ol' Kelly Gerald really hammered in O'Connor's "one tall, one short, one smart, one dumb" character models, using the characters Hazel Motes and Enoch Emery from Wise Blood as an example, which was a really neat fact. Hazel would be Hardy, all annoyed and smarter while still not knowing what he's doing, then Enoch being Laurel, some whimpery fella running around after him.
I'd never really thought about it, honestly, but here it is making sense. I learned that O'Connor would frequently laugh outloud while writing her stuff- Going in I figured, heavy themes, southern gothic, better treat it seriously, eh? But the humor of her writing spawns from the humor she cultivated writing her cartoons- Observational, sometimes violent, always exaggerated. Comical or grotesque? Both fit.
Overall, pretty fascinating stuff.
Luckily my school library happened to have this book, though it's literally the only work they have by her there, which is pretty odd. Still, lucky.
Actually, this book is literally my idea of non-fiction, on brand. It has a person I'm interested in learning about, Flannery O'Connor, as well as a subject I'm interested in learning about, cartoons. It was chock full of great facts and quotes, and even had many references of pet chickens, which is of course the cherry on top.
Also, I'm 100% sure O'Connor was the origin of the term "plot bunny." I've heard it going around in fanfiction but her descriptions of "catching a rabbit (an idea)" and tying it down to an event or setting was what set me off.
The cartoons themselves- The art style was really pretty interesting. Print making has always kind of stumped me, as many middle school art teachers can attest to, and so I was really impressed at all the prints she made. The way she carves out her figures just leaves a kind of strange impression. It was great. Her signature, a symbol of a chicken made up of her initials, also delighted me.
The subject matter really reminded me of this weird book my dad has- Another collection of college comics, published by the college paper, this time UVA 1987-89. This aspect was nice because I got to see what college was like back then where she was. The presence of all the WAVES and their interaction with the students also gave it a really interesting historical aspect that was really cool to consider.
The second part of the book was even better- Like an early life/college life mini biography. It was really informative while still being engrossing- The editor, Kerry Gerald, is a great writer and came across many really interesting ideas about O'Connor's early work and life. One part that dragged, though, were some of the cartoon analysis. Honestly, while I really like the art, most of the comics were just comical situations and not that deep. Maybe Gerald was heaping her with too much praise, or analysis, or something, but even if I didn't agree all the way it was nice to read about art.
Another interesting fact, Hardy of the legendary comic duo Laurel and Hardy was born somewhere around her town! I can't remember exactly but I think her aunt knew him a bit.
O'Connor had alot of great ideas about visual art and the world of fiction writing- I read this line saying graphic novels weren't really a thing back then, and got really disappointing because oh my god a Flannery O'Connor graphic novel would have been epic. I don't even know if she ever did illustrations for her books, but knowing she was also a visual artist besides an author was a nice fact to learn, and as I read the rest of her stuff I'll keep it in mind.
I also learned more about her sense of humor in her writing- Ol' Kelly Gerald really hammered in O'Connor's "one tall, one short, one smart, one dumb" character models, using the characters Hazel Motes and Enoch Emery from Wise Blood as an example, which was a really neat fact. Hazel would be Hardy, all annoyed and smarter while still not knowing what he's doing, then Enoch being Laurel, some whimpery fella running around after him.
I'd never really thought about it, honestly, but here it is making sense. I learned that O'Connor would frequently laugh outloud while writing her stuff- Going in I figured, heavy themes, southern gothic, better treat it seriously, eh? But the humor of her writing spawns from the humor she cultivated writing her cartoons- Observational, sometimes violent, always exaggerated. Comical or grotesque? Both fit.
Overall, pretty fascinating stuff.
Luckily my school library happened to have this book, though it's literally the only work they have by her there, which is pretty odd. Still, lucky.
December 29, 2021
I have read several of the literary classics from the late Flannery O’Connor over the last two years and each volume, including a textbook containing some of her short stories, had a short biographical synopsis of her life. Several of these biographical sketches mentioned her love of cartooning as part of her high school and college years, but I had never actually seen her linoleum cuts (for such was the cartoon style used for school newspapers, magazines, books, and yearbooks in which she was published) until I saw Flannery O’ Connor: The Cartoons, edited by Kelly Gerald.
Flannery O’ Connor: The Cartoons is a delightful compendium of her artistic endeavors in cartooning in which Barry Moser’s introduction talks about her style and artistic approach while Kelly Gerald concludes with an outstanding biographical chapter in which he observes the influence of James Thurber’s New Yorker cartoons, John Held (preeminent artist/illustrator/cartoonist in the early 20th century and artist-in-residence at the nearby University of Georgia when O’ Connor was in college), Matisse’s 1910 “Dance,” and, of course, Picasso’s classic “Guernica.” Comparisons to illustrator/cartoonist George Price considered and rejected, but literary similarities with Ogden Nash when considering her more whimsical animal story books were noted with some favor.
It seems extra sad that this lupus-shortened life should have aspired to publish her cartoons in venues such as the New Yorker which were rejected when these cartoons have so much to offer. Yet, as Gerald’s biographical sketch indicates, perhaps she would not have been taken as seriously for her literary endeavors if she had been successful as a cartoonist. Flannery O’ Connor: The Cartoons was one of those pleasant surprises one often discovers in one’s local library and it was able to fill in a gap in my knowledge and appreciation of this worthy talent—including her predilection for keeping rejection slips. I’m so glad I discovered this book when I was looking for something in the comic or science-fiction art tradition.
Flannery O’ Connor: The Cartoons is a delightful compendium of her artistic endeavors in cartooning in which Barry Moser’s introduction talks about her style and artistic approach while Kelly Gerald concludes with an outstanding biographical chapter in which he observes the influence of James Thurber’s New Yorker cartoons, John Held (preeminent artist/illustrator/cartoonist in the early 20th century and artist-in-residence at the nearby University of Georgia when O’ Connor was in college), Matisse’s 1910 “Dance,” and, of course, Picasso’s classic “Guernica.” Comparisons to illustrator/cartoonist George Price considered and rejected, but literary similarities with Ogden Nash when considering her more whimsical animal story books were noted with some favor.
It seems extra sad that this lupus-shortened life should have aspired to publish her cartoons in venues such as the New Yorker which were rejected when these cartoons have so much to offer. Yet, as Gerald’s biographical sketch indicates, perhaps she would not have been taken as seriously for her literary endeavors if she had been successful as a cartoonist. Flannery O’ Connor: The Cartoons was one of those pleasant surprises one often discovers in one’s local library and it was able to fill in a gap in my knowledge and appreciation of this worthy talent—including her predilection for keeping rejection slips. I’m so glad I discovered this book when I was looking for something in the comic or science-fiction art tradition.
July 17, 2021
Probably only for O'Connor completists, but an interesting book nevertheless, compiling her high school and college work as a cartoonist for school newspapers and the like. While I was looking through the illustrations, I found myself wishing for more context about their creation, as the majority of them appeared to be in-jokes particular to the milleu of Milledgeville's female students in the early 1940s. Fortunately there are endnotes and an essay providing just that context, though why they couldn't have been incorporated into the book next to or opposite the illustrations is beyond me. I read this as an ecomic through Hoopla, and ebooks are absolutely horrible at dealing with endnotes or anything where the reader has to flip back and forth repeatedly between different sections of a book. O'Connor is certainly a much better writer than cartoonist, and we can all be thankful that she ultimately chose the direction she chose for her creative expression, but it's nice to have these available regardless.
January 11, 2019
If these weren't by one of the most lionized American writers of the twentieth century, I doubt we'd be looking at them today. They are accomplished juvenalia, well enough conceived and rendered, but they are not exceptional. Many are so topical that any relevance they had has long faded (O'Conner produced these in high school and college, often taking as topics contemporary campus events). The project is not helped by its design: blank verso pages with two cartoons on the recto, and then notes at the end--wasteful of space and inconvenient for the reader. The biographical essay would have been more useful at the front of the book as well, I think, as it provides helpful context better known before seeing the cartoons. Inessential, except for O'Connor completists.
October 22, 2024
One of my favorite classes I took in college was called Journal & Sketchbook. We explored the potential synergies of visual art and writing. We looked at authors that painted and painters that wrote, and what we could learn from them. I had missed that Flannery O'Connor was engaged in visual art. "The Cartoons" shows her work for various student newspapers. There's an extensive essay at the end of the images with some interesting thoughts. She's compared to her pretty obvious inspiration James Thurber, who suffered visual loss and therefore had to adapt to drawing his cartoons in 'large and startling figures.' It also noted how well her woodcuts used and captured gesture and that connection to her fiction. Inspiring!
November 12, 2020
Un libro profundo, estéticamente bello y ricamente detallado. A las ilustraciones ingeniosas y destacables de Flannery se suman dos ensayos, uno introductorio sobre el aspecto técnico de sus grabados, y otro extenso en el epílogo. Este último sirve mucho para contextualizar los dibujos en la vida universitaria de Flannery pero también en su psicología personal. Se destaca la continuidad entre su ojo observador, irónico y mordaz y sus relatos profundos, simbólicos y grotescos. Un paso más para entender al fenómeno complejo detrás de algunos de los mejores cuentos del siglo XX.
January 12, 2025
First of all, any new Flannery find feels like adding another piece to the mosaic of my favorite author. I had no idea she was a cartoonist in high school and college before she took on writing as her creative priority. But, as soon as you see her drawings and start reading about this part of her creative life, it’s an “of COURSE she was a cartoonist first” moment. The quips, the exaggerations, the attention to expression, the caricatures, the wit, the noticing. It’s all there. It was always there. Just looking for the form that would best fit.
November 24, 2025
Very cool book. I was stunned to learn that Flannery O’Connor was a cartoonist! She provided cartoons for weekly publications throughout her high school and college studies.
In this book, the art is fun and funny. The essays are really helpful in understanding the process and the provenance for the cartoons - the way they are made physically and the way O’Connor may have come to the creatively.
I have a much greater appreciation for O’Connor’s writing, having seen the cartoons and read the essays.
In this book, the art is fun and funny. The essays are really helpful in understanding the process and the provenance for the cartoons - the way they are made physically and the way O’Connor may have come to the creatively.
I have a much greater appreciation for O’Connor’s writing, having seen the cartoons and read the essays.
November 9, 2023
I give up. Like everyone else, she liked to draw and write as a child. She was prolific and talented and her early work demonstrates similarities with her later work. Maybe read all the other O'Connor criticism first. This feels like grasping at straws.
Why do I feel that harsh critique is my duty?
I did learn that Faulkner was also a cartoonist and Eudora Welty tried her hand as well.
Why do I feel that harsh critique is my duty?
I did learn that Faulkner was also a cartoonist and Eudora Welty tried her hand as well.
April 30, 2025
Es interesante el desentrañamiento y narrativa de las imágenes además de sacarte una carcajada por la parquedad del comentario expuesto, además de esa alegoría feminista a lo largo de las mismas imágenes. Se me acaba de abrir el hambre por leer los cuentos. No cualquiera es comparada con McCullers y Faulkner.
"¿Tiene libros que los profesores no recomienden especialmente?
"¿Tiene libros que los profesores no recomienden especialmente?
March 20, 2021
I enjoyed seeing these cartoons by Flannery O'Connor, but the format was confusing. Perhaps it's because I read the ebook vs a hard copy, but having all the cartoons featured first and then all of the discussion coming afterward was odd.
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