Crying inside: The darker side of comic art

Beneath the super-heroes and speech bubbles, comic artists often tell a tragic story.
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Detail of Tommi Parrish’s gouache, ‘I was just trying to be alive’ (2014); Collection the artist, supplied

The usual upbeat banter of escapades in Lycra is strikingly absent from a new exhibition of comic book images at the Art Gallery of WA (AGWA).

Comic Tragics: the exploding language of contemporary comic art explores the inner lives of artists who created comics, revealing a shadow self in an art form often associated with childhood trivia.

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Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina