The Pitt News
The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | april 13,2017 | Volume 107 | Issue 159
Comic culture finds home in pittsburgh When Tom Scioli visits Phantom of the Attic Comics on South Craig Street, it looks different than what he remembers 25 years ago. In the ’90s, its walls were lined with superheroes, avant-garde art and daily life comics, while now it focuses on handmade comics by local, niche artists. To some, the illustrations and stories lining Phantom’s walls in the ’90s were just pop culture and late-night casual reads. To Scioli, a Pitt student at the time, they were the inspiration for his own comics. Shops like Phantom are at the heart of Pittsburgh’s growing comic book scene, and the change to the content housed inside is a sign of how Pittsburgh’s local comic culture has expanded. The city’s combination of low-rent properties and high concentration of artists caters to the lifestyle of comic book artists and illustrators. Between the variety of storefronts as well as events and expos celebrating independent comics, artists are moving to Pittsburgh to make their comics come alive, building a tight-knit community along the
way. This year’s sixth annual Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo, a daylong expo featuring local and independent comic artists, was held at the August Wilson Center for African-American Culture in the Cultural District April 9. In addition to showcasing the work of smaller artists, the expo — which was free to the public — held panel discussions and lectures about handmade comics and illustration techniques. Comic fans could also take guided tours of the ToonSeum across the street, one of three museums in the United States committed solely to comics, illustrations and cartoons. The Pittsburgh Zine Fair, which started in 2011 and held its winter market in December, caters to a slightly wider audience. Zines, short for magazines, are self-published works, including artistcreated comics, with limited local circulation. Black-and-white zines dominated the creator-owned comic scene in the 1980s, when Phantom of the Attic sprouted up in Oakland in ’83.
by ellen kruczek and justin voelzke
Now, Pittsburgh’s comic scene has broken into artists who specialize in specific subjects — Michael Pisano’s zine about bugs and fungus, for example. Carnegie Library’s zine section in Oakland — a corner of the library’s first floor — holds local zines and comics on a smattering of topics. Among them is Jessica Earheart’s Land|Scape, a series of landscape collages juxtaposed with haikus that explore environmental crises, and Cowboy House, a Pittsburghbased art collective that addresses themes ranging from science fiction to children’s zines. Scioli, a prominent member of the comics community, came to Pitt’s art school in 1994. He and other students made content and distributed it through zines, just as students today use the rest of their Pitt printing quota to selfpublish comics, poems or even recipe books. For example, Pitt’s student radio station, WPTS puts out a zine with opinion pieces, articles and artwork about music. See Comics on page 8
Wayne Wise has been working at Phantom of the Attic Comics since 1997. Evan Meng STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER