In this long-awaited graphic comedy from an esteemed illustrator and storyteller, three bohemians struggle to answer the question: “Is it possible for an artist to survive in the 21st Century?”
A young singer poses for a painter who has shifted from landscapes to nudes, and both of them learn a thing or two about the purpose of art and the meaning of success. The original graphic novel Naked City takes us inside the head of native New York artist, Eric Drooker (frequent cover artist for The New Yorker). His award-winning graphic novels—beginning with Flood—have charted new terrain for the form, and Blood Song is soon to be a major motion picture. Don’t miss this epic meditation on art and life.
Eric Drooker's drawings and posters are a familiar sight in the global street art movement, and his paintings appear frequently on covers of the New Yorker.
Born and raised in New York City, he began to slap his images on the streets as a teenager. Since then, Drooker's reputation as a social critic has grown, and has led to countless editorial illustrations for the Nation, the New York Times, the Progressive, etc.
His first book, Flood! A Novel in Pictures won the American Book Award, followed by Blood Song (soon to be a major motion picture). His graphic novels have been translated into French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish. After designing the animation for the film Howl, he was hired by DreamWorks Animation.
Drooker’s art is in the permanent collections of many museums including the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Library of Congress. He is available for speaking engagements and frequently gives slide lectures at colleges and universities. Drooker is represented by the Wylie Agency.
"[Flood is] a complex, dream-charged vision of alienation in the wet, mean streets of New York City, where primal, natural urges are suppressed in the lonely isolation of crowds. It's a picture of a soulless civilization headed toward the apocalypse. It's a poetic and lyrical novel - told virtually without words...Mr. Drooker has discovered the magic of pulling light and life out of an inky sea of darkness."—Art Spiegelman, The New York Times Book Review
"Strong black-and-white artwork, bent to strange purpose"—Frank Miller
"Mr. Drooker is a true successor to Lynd Ward and Frans Masereel: his New York is the New York of nightmare, a wordless metropolis of ever looming disaster. Flood is a powerful vision, scraped with care on the backs of our eyeballs."—Neil Gaiman
"Drooker's old Poe hallucinations of beauteous deathly reality transcend political hang-up and fix our present American dreams."—Allen Ginsberg
“Elegiac, spiritual, and political . . . written in a language that anyone can understand, exploring themes of universal interest, Drooker continues Masereel's profoundly democratic artwork.”—Time “With Blood Song, Drooker has not only exhibited his growing skill as a scratchboard artist but has contributed another important work in the genre of wordless comics. Blood Song will shake up readers with a strong social statement in a fine-crafted tale.”—The Comics Journal
In this long-awaited graphic comedy from an esteemed illustrator and storyteller, three bohemians struggle to answer the question: “Is it possible for an artist to survive in the 21st Century?”
A young singer poses for a painter who has shifted from landscapes to nudes, and both of them learn a thing or two about the purpose of art and the meaning of success. The original graphic novel Naked City takes us inside the head of native New York artist, Eric Drooker (frequent cover artist for The New Yorker). His award-winning graphic novels—beginning with Flood—have charted new terrain for the form, and Blood Song is soon to be a major motion picture. Don’t miss this epic meditation on art and life.
Creators
Eric Drooker's drawings and posters are a familiar sight in the global street art movement, and his paintings appear frequently on covers of the New Yorker.
Born and raised in New York City, he began to slap his images on the streets as a teenager. Since then, Drooker's reputation as a social critic has grown, and has led to countless editorial illustrations for the Nation, the New York Times, the Progressive, etc.
His first book, Flood! A Novel in Pictures won the American Book Award, followed by Blood Song (soon to be a major motion picture). His graphic novels have been translated into French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish. After designing the animation for the film Howl, he was hired by DreamWorks Animation.
Drooker’s art is in the permanent collections of many museums including the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Library of Congress. He is available for speaking engagements and frequently gives slide lectures at colleges and universities. Drooker is represented by the Wylie Agency.
"[Flood is] a complex, dream-charged vision of alienation in the wet, mean streets of New York City, where primal, natural urges are suppressed in the lonely isolation of crowds. It's a picture of a soulless civilization headed toward the apocalypse. It's a poetic and lyrical novel - told virtually without words...Mr. Drooker has discovered the magic of pulling light and life out of an inky sea of darkness."—Art Spiegelman, The New York Times Book Review
"Strong black-and-white artwork, bent to strange purpose"—Frank Miller
"Mr. Drooker is a true successor to Lynd Ward and Frans Masereel: his New York is the New York of nightmare, a wordless metropolis of ever looming disaster. Flood is a powerful vision, scraped with care on the backs of our eyeballs."—Neil Gaiman
"Drooker's old Poe hallucinations of beauteous deathly reality transcend political hang-up and fix our present American dreams."—Allen Ginsberg
“Elegiac, spiritual, and political . . . written in a language that anyone can understand, exploring themes of universal interest, Drooker continues Masereel's profoundly democratic artwork.”—Time “With Blood Song, Drooker has not only exhibited his growing skill as a scratchboard artist but has contributed another important work in the genre of wordless comics. Blood Song will shake up readers with a strong social statement in a fine-crafted tale.”—The Comics Journal
