“I have pencils and pens everywhere on my person,” Joe Ollmann tells me.
One of Ollmann’s cartoons features a guy with a pencil behind one ear. So there is a link of sorts between real life and cartoon life. But the line between the two is a wonderfully complex one.
Joe Ollmann, “My body is falling apart,” page from “Midlife,” a graphic novel, 2011. India ink on paper, $150.
Joe Ollmann, page from “Fictional Father,” a graphic novel, 2021. Ink and watercolour on paper, $200.