Carol Tyler is a Chicago-born painter, educator, comedian, and eleven-time Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist known for her autobiographical stories. She earned her BFA from Middle Tennessee State University and her MFA, in painting, from Syracuse University. She has received multiple honors for her work including the Cartoonist Studio Prize, the Ohio Arts Council Excellence Award, and was designated a Master Cartoonist at the 2016 Cartoon Crossroads Columbus Festival at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum.
Carol's first comics publication was the 1987 story "Uncovered Property", in Weirdo, Tyler's short slice-of-life stories and her distinctive artwork brought her critical attention as one of a growing number of female artists shaping the direction of underground/alternative comics in North America in the 1980s; she appeared in the influential feminist anthologies "Wimmen's Comix", and "Twisted Sisters". Her first solo book, The Job Thing, was published in 1993, followed by "Greatest Zits". She has shown her work in galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Chicago, Sacramento and San Francisco.
"Late Bloomer" (2006) This highly engaging collection is chock-a-block with great comics - over three dozen pieces in all - and Tyler's color work here has reached a new level; it's a pleasure just to look at, and a joy to read. Growing up, reminiscences of friends and family, jobs and spouses, motherhood and more - it's all here.
"She is a great storyteller." - Jim Woodring
"A crucial voice for the medium." - Craig Thompson
"This book is a revelation for me." - Chris Ware
"She's tops in my book. One of the best artists alive and working in the comics medium. Her work has the extremely rare quality of authentic HEART. Hers are the only comics that ever brought me to the verge of tears." - R. Crumb
"Soldier’s Heart: The Campaign to Understand My WWII Veteran Father: A Daughter's Memoir" (2015) In this multigenerational graphic memoir, underground cartoonist Carol Tyler examines how WWII traumatized the Greatest Generation and those that followed. "Soldier’s Heart" is a sophisticated graphic masterpiece about the damaging effects of war on soldiers and the toll it can take on families.
"Fab 4 Mania" Critically acclaimed cartoonist Carol Tyler recreates the exhilaration and excitement of Beatlemania at its height in 1965, her personal obsession with the Beatles, and her odyssey that leads her to the famous Beatles Chicago concert later that year. Told in the voice of its 13-year-old author, "Fab 4 Mania" is a facsimile of the diary that she kept throughout 1965, and is brimming with rich period details, humor, and insight.
