Phoebe Gloeckner

Phoebe Louise Adams Gloeckner (born December 22, 1960) is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, and novelist.

Early life Gloeckner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her mother was a librarian She has a younger sister. She attended several Bay Area schools, including The Urban School of San Francisco and Lick-Wilmerding High School. She was a boarding student at Castilleja (in Palo Alto) for a year, but returned to San Francisco to live with her mother, her mother's boyfriend, and her sister, when she was 14. in which she studies narrative devices used in medical and surgical illustration.

Career Gloeckner worked prolifically as a medical illustrator from 1988, and her training is evident in her paintings and comics art, which are highly detailed and often prominently feature the human body. Her first prominent work in fiction publishing, a series of illustrations for the RE/Search edition of J. G. Ballard's novel The Atrocity Exhibition, used clinical images of internal anatomy, sex, and physical trauma in ambiguous and evocative combinations.

Her early comics work, in the form of short stories published in a variety of underground anthologies including Wimmen's Comix, Weirdo, Young Lust, and Twisted Sisters, and in the tabloid zine, RE/Search (numbered volumes), was sporadic and rarely seen until the 1998 release of the collection A Child's Life and Other Stories. This was followed by her 2002 graphic novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures, which revisited the troubled life of the young character (usually referred to as "Minnie Goetze") previously featured in some of her comics, this time in an unusual combination of prose, illustration, and short comics scenes.

Her novel and many of her short stories are semi-autobiographical, a frequent cause of comment due to their depiction of sex, drug use, and childhood traumas; however, Gloeckner has stated that she regards them as fiction. Sexual content led to A Child's Life and Other Stories being banned from the public library in Stockton, California, after it was checked out by an 11-year-old reader. The mayor of Stockton called the book "a how-to book for pedophiles." The graphic novel was also classified as pornography and refused entry by customs officials in both France and England. Adapted and directed by Marielle Heller, it is based on Heller's earlier stage adaptation. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård as Monroe, Kristen Wiig as Charlotte, and Bel Powley as the main character, Minnie Goetze. Heller developed the script at the Sundance Institute's Sundance Feature Film Program Lab.

Gloeckner briefly taught courses at Suffolk Community College and Stony Brook University.

In recognition of her contributions to the comic art form, ComicsAlliance listed Gloeckner as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition.

Personal life In 1986, Gloeckner married Czech artist Jakub Kalousek. They later divorced. She has two daughters, Audrey "Fina" Gloeckner-Kalousek and Persephone Gloeckner-Kalousek.

Awards 2000: Inkpot Award 2008: Guggenheim fellowship working on research for a graphic novel about families living in Ciudad Juárez; project inspired by experiences in Ciudad Juarez while researching her story in the 2008 book, I Live Here 2015-2016: Faculty Fellow in the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities working on “The Return of Maldoror” 2025: Inducted into The Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame

Works and publications

Monographs Gloeckner, Phoebe, and Robert Crumb (introduction). A Child's Life and Other Stories. Berkeley, CA: Frog (imprint of North Atlantic Books), 1998. Revised edition, 2000. Gloeckner, Phoebe. The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures. Berkeley, Calif: Frog (imprint of North Atlantic Books), 2002. Revised edition, 2015.

As contributing author/artist "RE/Search" tabloid zine #2 and #3. San Francisco: RE/Search Publications, 1980–81. Kirshner, Mia, Mike Simons, and Paul Shoebridge. "I Live Here." NY: Pantheon Graphic Novels, 2008.

Journals Gloeckner, Phoebe. "Autobiography: The Process Negates the Term." Chaney, Michael A. Graphic Subjects: Critical Essays on Autobiography and Graphic Novels. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2011. Gloeckner, Phoebe, Justin Green, Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Carol Tyler. 2014. "Panel: Comics and Autobiography". Critical Inquiry. 40, no. 3: Comics & Media. The University of Chicago Press. Edited by Hillary Chute and Patrick Jagoda: Spring 2014. pp. 86–103. ] Gloeckner, Phoebe. 2014. "Valiente and Arpía". Critical Inquiry. 40, no. 3: Comics & Media. The University of Chicago Press. Edited by Hillary Chute and Patrick Jagoda: Spring 2014. pp. 182–186. Gloeckner, Phoebe. Author Guillermo Paxton: An Interview with "El Guëro de Juárez". 2015.

Children's books Goldenberg, Janet, and Phoebe Gloeckner. Weird Things You Can Grow. New York: Random House, 1994. Goldenberg, Janet, and Phoebe Gloeckner. Weird But True: A Cartoon Encyclopedia of Incredibly Strange Things. New York: HarperTrophy, 1997. Daly-Weir, Catherine, and Phoebe Gloeckner. The Exploding Toilet and Other Tales Too Funny to Be True. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. Busby, Cylin, and Phoebe Gloeckner. The Chicken-Fried Rat: Tales Too Gross to Be True. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. Gilson, Kristin, and Phoebe Gloeckner. The Baby-Sitter's Nightmare: Tales Too Scary to Be True. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

Illustration work Ballard, J. G. The Atrocity Exhibition. San Francisco, CA: RE/Search Publications, 1990. Juno, Andrea, and V. Vale, editors. Angry Women. San Francisco, CA: RE/Search Publications, 1991. 13. Revised edition. New York, NY: Juno Books, 1999. Spinrad, Paul. The RE/Search Guide to Bodily Fluids. San Francisco, CA: RE/Search Publications, 1999. Winks, Cathy, Anne Semans, and Cathy Winks. The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex: The Most Complete Sex Manual Ever Written. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2002.