Kris Dresen

Kris Dresen is an openly queer, illustrator and writer for a variety of mediums: comics, graphic novels, poems, textbook illustrations, and greeting cards. She began publishing in the mid to late 1990s. She first gained notoriety for her collaboration on the self-published Manya mini-comic book series, which received several nominations and won a grant. All the while, Dresen maintained a popular comic strip and published a few standalone comics, now found in her collection books.. After Manya, she created more solo works, expanding her comic mediums to web series, graphic novels, and other visual arts. She still makes these types of comics but also illustrates textbooks.

Artistry

According to an interview conducted by Alex Odom for literary blog Spaces, Kris Dresen considers herself an artist first and a writer second. Her creative process involves writing a script for a story with some visual description ideas alongside it. She usually draws in pencil and digitally with rapidographs. Dresen sketches in three drafts leading to the final print-sized illustrations and text. She prefers to edit as she works through the story, and most of her final drawings are what she drew the first round. Between paper and online publishing, Dresen has no preference; however, she notes that online publishing makes her work more widely available than on paper. In a different interview, Dresen acknowledges the importance for LGBTQIA+ representation, like her work, to be easily accessed, which is why most of her work is posted online for free.

List of works

Harsh

Dresen put out Harsh, a series of mini comics similar to the way Manya was distributed. Other co-contributors are Mark Jones and Nate Lily. Action Girl Comics advertised these minis in issues two, four, and five as part of the artist profiles.

Manya series by Jen Benka (illustrator, Books 1-5) (1995-2001)

All of the Manya books were published by Vagabond Press. Jen Benka served as the writer, and Kris Dresen illustrated the stories. Book one is called Manya: 3 and 1/2 Hours & 5 Cups of Coffee; it was published in 1995. In 1996, Benka and Dresen published two Manya books. One is named Poetry, Prose, and Mosquitos. The other book is Falling, where Manya grieves the loss of her friend Paul to AIDS. Marie was published in 1997; Manya seeks inspiration from Marie Curie. According to the “Mindless Filler Page,” Benka hoped to bring the story to life in a live performance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin under the name Manya and Marie. In 1998, they published Manya in The Meantime or Manyalogues. Most of the book is created by the collaboration of Benka and Dresen. However, Dresen has a few solo strips in the book, including “Orion,” “pale,” “Bitter,” “broken,” and “Queen of Trees.” Additionally, Dresen illustrated a strip written by then Vagabond publisher, Toby Georgiou, called “Conversations.” After a brief hiatus, Benka and Dresen joined forces in 2001 to release the final Manya book called Map to the Moon.

Grace (online graphic novel)

Grace is Dresen's first sole-authored and illustrated graphic novel. It is also the first of her work to be available online. Scott McCloud, a notable comic artist, mentioned his anticipation for Grace on his blog on June 2, 2004. It is currently in the process of being developed into an adaptation film called Her Curve, not to be confused with Dresen's later comic collection. J.D. Glass wrote the screen play.

“she’s in the trees” (short comic)

Dresen's short comic is a story told only using pictures.

she said (graphic novel) (2012) (online 2021)

In a 2010 interview, Dresen explained how this novel tells a story through single-moment panels. Dresen wanted to tell a story using changes in background details as much as in the text. It was inspired by a Chinese film with a similar concept. The title highlights the common occurrence of telling one's friends a story and constantly saying "then she said this" or "then he said that." The illustrations are drawn using mechanical graphite pencil.

“Gone” poem

This is a visual poem. The creators of anthology The Best American Comics 2013 made a Notable Comics of 2013 list, which acknowledges important American comic artists who did not make it into the anthology but have noteworthy talent. Dresen’s “Gone” is featured on this list.

Punk Like Me (illustrated version) by J.D. Glass (illustrator, graphic novel)

Dresen is currently in progress of illustrating the graphic novel version of Punk Like Me. It is a fictional lesbian romance book written by Lambda Literary Award nominated J.D. Glass.

Max & Lily: The Complete Collected Strips

This is Dresen’s collection of strips from her series Max & Lily. With gender-bent names, Max is a lesbian and Lily is her gay best friend. One of these strips called “Bodyology” was featured in the 1995 anthology Action Girl No. 4.

Her Curve comic collection (2019)

Dresen put together a full collection of her standalone comics.

Textbooks and Educational books (illustrated only):

Dresen illustrated a series of children's board books in 2021 through Sunbird Books publishing.

• A Book in Four Languages- English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese- My Emotions written by Claire Winslow
• A Book in Four Languages- English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese- My Animals written by Kathy Broderick
• A Book in Four Languages- English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese- My Colors written by Kathy Broderick, later published again as a Kindle book
• A Book in Four Languages- English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese- My Numbers written by Claire Winslow, later published again as a Kindle book

Dresen also illustrated several mathematics work books, which were published by Learning Resource in the early 2000s.

• Using Cuisenaire Rods: Multiplication & Division, Grades 2-4 by Rachel Winstead in 2000
• Using Cuisenaire Rods: Geometry & Measurement, Grades 3-6 by Merle Silverman in 2001

Other educational materials

• illustrated a song and activity book called Take-Along Learning: Silly Stuff by Patrick Girouard and Steve Boulter, published by Active Minds in 2006
• illustrated ABC Fun by Patrick Merrill and co-illustrator, Kathleen McCord, published by Ltd. Publications International in 2006
• co-illustrated English-Spanish Wipe-Off Talking Activity Book with Henry Ng and Patrick Merrill, published by Play-A-Sound in 2002
• illustrated Math Trailblazers: Grade 5: Teacher Implementation Guide with Jay Becker and Lynelle Morgenthaler, published by Kendal Hunt Publishing in 1998

Anthology or collection mentions

“My Greatest Creation” featured in Naughty Bits No. 13 (1991)

“Don’t” (1994) featured in Action Girl No. 2 (1995)

“Bodyology” (1995) featured in Action Girl No. 4 (1995)

Mention in Action Girl No. 5 (1995)

Out in Comics (2002)

“In Common” featured in No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics (2012)

QU33R (2014)

Awards

1. Xeric Grant Award (1995)
2. Friends of Lulu Awards nomination (1997)
3. Eisner Awards (2002)
4. Ignatz Award nomination (2007)

Dresen and writer Jen Benka won the Xeric Grant Award for Manya in March of 1995.

Dresen and Benka again received a nomination by the Eisner Awards in 2002 for Manya in the category of Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.

In 1997, Dresen was nominated for the Kimberly Yale Best New Talent Award in the Friends of Lulu Awards for her illustrating Manya and comics featured in Action Girl.

In 2007, her webcomic Grace was nominated for an Ignatz Award in the category Outstanding Online Comic. In 2011, Dresen served as a panelist for that year’s awards. To be a panelist, the Small Press Expo selects who they deem the “best” that year in the comic book world.

Personal life

According to the 1997 “Mindless Filler Page” of Marie, Dresen held a job as a telemarketer while working on the Manya stories. Also the “Manya: Unplugged” blurb of the first Manya book notes that Kris Dresen had a cat named Bat. Dresen lives in Chicago. In 2012, she spoke at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in her guest lecture called "Shut Up and Draw," encouraging the school's artists to conquer their fear of starting their work. One of Dresen's current projects is illustrating the graphic novel version of J.D. Glass's book, Punk Like Me. Both Dresen and Glass are represented by Art House Literary Agency as of September, 2022 according to their twitter accounts.

Other accomplishments

Dresen co-founded Vagabond Press, also known as VP Books. It was based in Palos Park, Illinois. Go Mag web magazine listed Kris Dresen on their annual 100 Women We Love for 2018 alongside Jen Benka and other famous names like Emma Gonzáles, Janelle Monáe, Kehlani, and Stephanie Beatriz. The list honors women who made excellent LGBTQIA+ role models that year.

References

This article "Kris Dresen" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Kris Dresen. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---