Jennifer Camper

Jennifer Camper
Born	1957
Nationality	Lebanese-American
Area(s)	LGBT comics
Notable works	Rude Girls and Dangerous Women Juicy Mother Qu33r
https://www.jennifercamper.com

Jennifer Camper is an American comics artist and graphic artist whose work is inspired by her own experiences as a Lebanese-American lesbian. Her work has been included in various outlets such as newspapers and magazines since the 1990s, as well as in exhibits in Europe and the United States. Furthermore, Camper is the creator and director of the biennial Queers and Comics conference.

Career

Camper, at right with other LGBT comics creators at a February 28, 2014 signing at Jim Hanley's Universe in Manhattan for the LGBT anthology Qu33r.

Camper, who is openly lesbian,^[1] has been producing comics since the 1980s. Her work has appeared in many publications. Jennifer Camper is also the editor of the famous comic book called Juicy Mother. Her editing of this book is very significant due to it being the first anthology of queer comics to have appeared since the release of Gay Comix. Not only has her work been seen in different comic books, she also has published two comic books of her own. Camper has been successful on paper, however, she has also been a huge influence in the queer community. With being openly gay and writing about the experiences queer females go through in their day to day lives, she has shed light on serious topics. In an interview with Camper in 2018, she talks about the impact that different LGBTQ cartoonists have on the community. Camper likes to explore and write about tough topics such as gender, race, class, and politics. Her openness has allowed other cartoonist, such as MC Czerwiec, to write about tough topics of their own. MC has written about the AIDS based on her own personal experiences as a AIDS/HIV nurse. MC Czerwiec’s mentions that Campers, “Bearing Angry Witness” was a huge influence on her work.

In 2015, Camper launched the biennnial Queers & Comics conference, an international and inter-generational gathering of queer cartoonists. The first conference was held under the auspices of the Center for LGBT Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City, with keynote speakers Howard Cruse and Alison Bechdel.

Influences

Jennifer Camper explains in an interview with Rob Kirby that being a cartoonist was not something she decided to become. Jennifer Camper says that she fell into comics and art. She began with comics and illustrated stories and used these in school and just for pure entertainment for the people around her. She discovered Underground Comics when she was a teen ager and then went on to read comics written about the LGBTQ community such as, Wimmen's Comix, Tits & Clits, Girl Blimp, and Gay Comix. Once she got into reading these comics she says that, "i never doubted that there was room for my own voice in comics." Following her teenage years she began to draw comics for the Gay Community News in Boston. She then submitted her work to Gay Comix and with that she developed an audience and the outlets gave her assignments and deadlines. She was able to develop her drawing skills due to the lack of money and the use of cheap-paper.

After she established herself in the comics world, she began drawing comics based on her personal life. She was inspired to show queer women has being adventurous, sexy, dangerous, and victorious. Her characters are mostly multi-racial, street smart, wild women who made it a point to go against social norms and are proud of this.

Publications

Publications her work has appeared in:

• The Village Voice
• San Francisco Bay Times
• Ms. Magazine
• Curve
• On Our Backs
• Washington Blade
• The Advocate
• Out Magazine
• Girlfriends

Anthologies

• Boy Trouble, edited by Robert Kirby
• Gay Comix
• The Great Women Cartoonists and A Century of Women Cartoonists, both edited by Trina Robbins.
• Two Volumes of Juicy Mother
  • Juicy Mother: Celebration, edited by Jennifer Camper, Soft Skull Press, 2005
  • Juicy Mother:How They Met, edited by Jennifer Camper, Manic D Press, 2007

Books

• Rude Girls and Dangerous Women, published by Laugh Lines Press in 1994
• SubGURLZ, published by Cleis Press in 1999.^[2]

Contributions

• A Century of Women Cartoonists, edited by Trina Robbins, Kitchen Sink Press, 1993,

• The Great Women Cartoonists, edited by Trina Robbins, Kitchen Sink Press, 1997,
• "A Day In The Life...Reference Librarian", Cathy and Jennifer Camper, Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out, edited by Katia Roberts and Jessamyn West, McFarland and Company, Inc., 2003,
• Boy Trouble, edited by Robert Kirby and David Kelly, Boy Trouble Books, 2004
• Dead High Yearbook, edited by Ivan Velez Jr., Dutton Books, (a division of Penguin Group (USA) 2007
• The Book of Boy Trouble 2: Born to Trouble, edited by Robert Kirby and David Kelly, Green Candy Press, 2008

External links

• Jennifer Camper's Website
• "Drawing Diversity": A Discussion with Jennifer Camper
• Interview with Jennifer Camper on "Bookslut" (scroll down)
• Review of Juicy Mother 2 from "The Gay Comics List"
• Review of Juicy Mother 2 from "Our Chart"
• Review of Juicy Mother from "Gaydar Nation"