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- Donna Barr
- 1318 North Montgomery
- Brenerton, WA 98321-3056
-
- Phone: (360) 377-0121
- E-mail: dbarr@linknet.kitsap.lib.wa.us
- Web site: http://www.tooluser.com/barr
-
-
- Since 1986, Donna Barr has been drawing and writing two Drawn Book series, THE DESERT PEACH,
- and STINZ, among others.
-
- As the author of THE DESERT PEACH -- a history of the Desert Fox's Pretty Brother -- she is able to
- give the 20th century the treatment it deserves. STINZ is a fantasy based on a turn-of-the-century, central
- European farming Catholic Half-Horse stallion. This series seems to be about a centaur, but is really
- about all us two-leggers. She recently finished "Hader and the Colonel" in a series of short stories to be in
- MU Press's"ZU" through 1996 and 1997 (and which is available in its entirety on her website).
-
- The three years she spent in the U.S. Army and a BA in German Language and Literature guarantee the
- factual background of her fictional characters. Her work has been recognized by The WASHINGTON
- POST, and by the New York Public Library, which featured THE DESERT PEACH in its 1996 centennial
- exhibition. She has been interviewed by America's COMICS JOURNAL and Britain's COMICS FORUM.
- In 1996, she received the Inkpot Award at the San Diego Comicon International, and in 1997, Seattle's
- Cartoonist Northwest's TOONIE award. A musical based on THE DESERT PEACH ran through
- November 1992 in Seattle's Empty Space Theater.
-
- Her latest book, STINZ's "A Stranger to Our Kind," appeared in January of 1997. Further issues will be
- serialized in Labor of Love's "Glyph." Her next book, "Miki," named after the female lead, is presently in
- progress; it takes place in 1945, and is brutally frank. The original, unpublished STINZ novel (1981) will
- be serialized in Great Britain's "Comics Forum."
-
- She is campaigning to establish the term "Drawn Book" to replace "comic book." "Drawn Book" is being
- adopted all over the publishing industry, and is being used by reviewers and newspapers as a perfect
- solution for the terminology bugaboo that had so long haunted comics. Under this broad, plain, simple
- title -- which means nothing more nor less than "a form of literature in which the art and the writing are
- equally important and perfectly balanced" -- no new terminologies need be learned by those unfamiliar
- with the field. Clumsy industry jargon terms like "graphic novel" and "sequential art" may be disposed of,
- replaced by the recognized terms of the libraries and bookstores -- "novel," "periodical, "magazine,"
- "humor," even "cookbook" and "poetry." The civilian need only learn "Drawn Book," and be perfectly at
- home in the medium.
-
- Her web-page was declared by the NEW YORK TIMES to be "one of the premier sites in comics."
-