Keiler Roberts

autobiographical comics

 

BOOKS
Powdered Milk
Happy Happy Baby Baby
Miseryland
Sunburning
Chlorine Gardens
Rat Time
My Begging Chart
 
paintings
 
 
Resume & Contact
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Please see Drawn & Quarterly's website  for 2021 and beyond!  

 
Keiler rhymes with Tyler 

Education

2002 MFA, Northwestern University

2000 BFA, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Teaching

2013-2021  School of the Art Institute of Chicago

2005-2018 DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois

Books 

2021 My Begging Chart, Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly.

2020 Isolada, Barcelona: Alpha Decay. (A Spanish translation of Sunburning)

2019 Rat Time, Toronto: Koyama Press.

2018 Chlorine Gardens, Toronto: Koyama Press.

2017 Sunburning, Toronto: Koyama Press.

2017 Happy Happy, Baby Baby, Evanston: self-published. (This is a new edition of Powdered Milk vol.6 from 2012).

2015 Miseryland, Evanston: self-published.

2012 Powdered Milk: Collected Stories, Evanston: self-published.

Other Publications

š! #40 'The Very End', December 2020.

The Best American Comics, 2018
. Guest editor, Phoebe Gloeckner, series editor, Bill Kartalopoulos, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Pen America
, 17 May 2017. Edited by Robert Kirby

The Best American Comics, 2016
. Guest editor, Roz Chast, series editor, Bill Kartalopoulos, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Nat. Brut, fifth issue, Early Edition, 2015. Curated by Kayla E. and Bill Kartalopoulos

Darling Sleeper, 2015. Edited by Jesse Lucas

“Treats for Dogs.” Chicago Reader Comics Issue, 25 Feb. 2014

MUTHA Magazine regular contributor since Sept. 2013

Linework: “Individually Wrapped Snacks.” Newcity, 10 Jan. 2014. Edited by Ivan Brunetti and Aaron Renier.

Nashville Review, Vanderbilt University, summer 2011 and spring 2010 issues

Press

Sava, Oliver. "Rat Time cements Keiler Roberts as one of comics' preeminent humorists" A.V. Club, 14 September 2019

Gavaler, Chris. "Keiler Roberts Creates a Gently Comic, Low-Suspense Universe in Graphic Memior, Rat Time" PopMatters, 3 September 2019

Turner, Edwin. "A Review of Keiler Roberts' Rat Time" Biblioklept, 3 September 2019

Clough, Rob. "Tears of a Clown: Rob Clough Reviews Rat Time by Keiler Roberts" Your Chicken Enemy, 5 September 2019

Seven, John. "Indie View: Rat Time and Motherhood" The Beat, 16 September 2019

Oliver, Andy. "Rat Time - The Profound and the Ephemeral Are Bound Up in Unlikely Union in Another Remarkable Compilation of Keiler Roberts' Autobio Comics" Broken Frontier, 19 September 2019

"Rat Time" review, Publishers Weekly, September 2019

C. Ryan. “Life’s Rich Pageant: Keiler Roberts’ Chlorine Gardens Four Color Apocalypse, 8 March 2019

Sava, Oliver. “A Cartoonist Offers an Unvarnished Look at Childbirth in this Chlorine Gardens Exclusive” A.V. Club, 21 August 2018

Clough, Rob. “The Laughter Is On Her Side: Rob Clough reviews Chlorine Gardens by Keiler Roberts” Your Chicken Enemy, 15 October 2018

Figa, Alenka. “Chlorine Gardens is a Hilarious Memoir about Memory and Illness” Women Write About Comics, 3 December 2018

Oliver, Andy. “Chlorine Gardens – Another Collection of Incisive Short Strips from Keiler Roberts, One of the Finest Slice-of-Life Practitioners in Comics” Broken Frontier, 9 January 2019

Gavaler, Chris. "Laughing on the Inside with Graphic Memoir Chlorine Gardens" PopMatters, 28 September 2018

Publishers Weekly starred review. "Chlorine Gardens" July 2018

Liberty, Megan N. "Two Comics Artists Draw Their Ways Through Depression" Hyperallergic, 23 August 2017

Gearino, Dan. "Sunburning Explores Life with Dark Humor." The Columbus Dispatch, 4 June 2017

Clough, Robert. "Sunburning" The Comics Journal, 1 June 2017

DiFonzo, Krystal. "Bad at Sports Sunday Comics with Keiler Roberts" Bad at Sports, 7 May 2017

Riesman, Abraham. "8 Comics You Need to Read This May" Vulture, 1 May 2017

Rogers, Sean. "Review: David Collier's Morton, Guy Delisle's Hostage and Keiler Roberts's Sunburning" The Globe and Mail, 19 May 2017

Sava, Oliver. "Koyama Press' decade of excellence continues with 6 outstanding new titles" A.V. Club, 19 May 2017

MacDonald, Heidi. "A Year of Free Comics: Powdered Milk by Keiler Roberts, a painfully honest look at family life" The Beat, 27 March 2017

McIntosh, Justin. “The List: 12 essential graphic novels by women, from the last year (or so)” Columbusalive.com, 14 January 2016

Umile, Dominic. “Architecture and comics unite at the Biennial with 'Imaginary Worlds'” Chicago Reader, 10 November 2015

Waxman, Lori. “Critics' picks for the biennial” Chicago Tribune, 1 October 2015

Wawrzaszek, John. Newcity, “Newcity’s Top Five of Everything 2015, Top Five Chicago Comics artists”, 17 December 2015

Kirby, Robert. "Miseryland" The Comics Journal, 6 May 2015

Cremins, Brian. "Keiler Roberts' Miseryland and Gaston Bachelard's 'Poetics of Space.'" "Not Building a Wall but Making a Brick." 29 June 2015

Booklife, Publishers Weekly. "Miseryland" May 2015

Oliver, Andy. "Miseryland Parenthood Examined in Keiler Roberts Appealingly Candid Autobio Offering" Broken Frontier, 22 May 2015

Hoffman, Alex. "Review: Miseryland" Sequential State, 5 June 2015

Rogers, Benjamin. “CAKE Report: Indie Comics go to Chicago,” The Beat, 4 June 2014

Clough, Rob. “Life and Death: Keiler Roberts and Jason Walz,” High-Low, 19 June 2013

Nicole, Laneia. “Zine Machine: Put A Egg On It, Geeked and More Things You'll Like’” Autostraddle, 18 March 2013

Fiffer, Sharon. “Keiler Sensenbrenner’s Simple Wardrobe,” FiberArts, January/February 2009

Rosenfeld, Kathryn. “That Kind of Fall,” Artnet Magazine, 2004

Exhibitions

2019 Sex, Death, and Visceral Honesty: Artworks and Publications by Independent Women’s Comic Artists from the 1960s Underground Movement to Today, The Front, New Orleans, Louisianna, curated by Leela Corman and Layet Johnson, presented by Good Weather

2018 Koyama And Friends: Publishing, Patronage, and The New Alternative Press, Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum, Columbus, Ohio

2017 The Best American Comics Selections 2014-2017, South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, Indiana, curated by Bill Kartalopoulos

2017 Mirrorface, Cleve Carney Art Gallery, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, curated by Justin Witte

2016 Powdered Milk, The Naughton Gallery at Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland solo show curated by Ben Crothers

2015-2018 SPX - Small Press Expo, Bethesda, Maryland

2015, 2016, 2018 CXC - Cartoons Crossroads Columbus, Columbus, Ohio 

2014, 2017 TCAF - Toronto Comics Arts Festival, Toronto, Canada

2014 Division of Labor, Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, IL

2013 Autoptic, Minneapolis, MN

2012-2017 CAKE - Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, Chicago, IL

2010, 2013 The Faculty Show, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL

2009 A Dog’s Life, Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN (curated by Elizabeth Edwards) (catalogue)

2007 if that was all i needed i'd be fine, Kavi Gupta Gallery (curated by Danielle Gustafson-Sundell), Chicago, IL

2007 Girl on Guy: the Object of My Desire, A + D Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, IL (curated by Marci Rae McDade) (catalogue)

2004 Scope Art Fair, Wendy Cooper Gallery, Miami Beach, FL

2003, 2004 Art Chicago, Wendy Cooper Gallery, Chicago, IL

2003 Drop in Mercury: The Anthropomorphizing of Snow, The Bower Gallery, San Antonio, TX (curated by Michelle Grabner) (catalogue)

2002 Affordable Art Fair New York, Wendy Cooper Gallery, New York City

2002 M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition, Block Museum of Art, Evanston, Illinois

2001 Subject Matters, Standard Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, (co-curated by Dan Devening), (catalogue)

Other Professional Activities

"Smash Pages Q&A: Keiler Roberts on 'Sunburning,'" Interview by Alex Dueben.
Smash Pages. 10 July 2017.

2017 Artist talk, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

"Keiler Roberts." Interview with Robin McConnell. Inkstuds. 9 August 2017.

"Episode 219 - Keiler Roberts." Interview by Gil Roth. Virtual Memories. 22 May 2017.

""Why Draw Comics About Anything Else?": The Keiler Roberts Interview." Interview by Rob Clough. The Comics Journal. 17 Novermber 2016.

2016 Ignatz Juror

"Episode Forty-Two: Keiler Roberts." Interview by Kevin Budnick. Tight Pencils. 26 September 2016.

2016 Artist talk, Cleve Carney Art Gallery, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL

2016 Zine Not Dead, Chicago, IL. Benefit comics performance for Chicago Zine Fest

2016 Panelist, The Personal and the Political in Graphic Books, with Anne Elizabeth Moore and Ozge Samanci, moderated by Brian Cremins, Evanston Literary Festival, Evanston, IL

2015 Panelist, Imaginary Worlds, presented by The Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago Cultural Center

2015 Panelist, In conversation with John Porcellino, Eleanor Davis, and Keiler Roberts, moderator Hillary Chute, CAKE, Chicago, IL

2015 Panelist, The Honest Truth, with Derf Backderf and Sarah Becan, moderator Amy Peltz, CAKE, Chicago, IL

2014 Co-occupations, Sector 2337, Chicago IL, Comics Performance

2014 Chicago Zine Fest, Chicago, IL. Comics Performance

2014 Two Cookie Minimum, M.C. Johnny Misfit. Chicago, IL. Comics Performance

2013 Brain Frame 14, Dir. Lyra Hill. Chicago, IL. 20 Sept. 2013. Comics Performance

2012 Panelist, CAKE, Real Life: A Round Table on Women and Graphic Autobiography
with Rina Ayuyang, Julia Wertz, Leslie Stein, Marian Runk, and Lucy Knisley

2011 Panelist, One Book, One Chicago --Turning the Page: The Rise of the Graphic Novel
with Zac Mucha and Geof Darrow

2010 Artist talk, Super R-Type #2, Green Lantern Gallery, Chicago

2006 Illustrations for McDougal Littell (a division of Houghton Mifflin Company)


Awards and Recognitions


2019 Slate's Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of 2018, selected by The Slate Book Review and The Center for Cartoon Studies

2018 nomination for 3Arts Award

2017 Ignatz Award nomination - Outstanding Comic for Sunburning

2016 Ignatz Award - Outstanding Series for Powdered Milk

2015 Special Guest, CAKE - Chicago Alternative Comics Expo

2014, 2015 The Best American Comics 2014, Notables List

2014 Ignatz Award nominations in two categories – Outstanding Series and Promising New Talent

2014 Special Guest, Chicago Zine Fest

2013 Ignatz Award nomination – Best Minicomic  

2000 Northwestern University Fellowship