We’d say we are excited for our friend Molly Crabapple, but she doesn’t need our excitement. She is now officially an international global force of nature. Some people just tap into SOMETHING. It would be remarkable if she were just ONE of the many things that she is one of: an illustrator of genius; a visionary entrepreneur (whose franchise of burlesque drawing salons Dr. Sketchys swept the country like wildfire); and then a globe-trotting activist of a new kind. Who would think of attending earth-shaking historical events (e.g. the trial of Khalid Shiekh Mohammed) and drawing them in this day and age?

• In Drawing Blood, Crabapple describes her first art project, Week in Hell, in 2010. Born of a discontent with the art world and the sense that she was being artistically complacent, the idea behind Week in Hell was to lock herself in a hotel room, cover it with paper, and draw until she broke.
• Contents Dedication Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11.
• Drawing, Molly Crabapple writes in her new memoir, Drawing Blood, is “exposure, confrontation, or reckoning. Every line a weapon.” Not every artist would agree, but Crabapple is not “every.
• In the hands of artist and journalist Molly Crabapple, drawing is a powerful and flexible political tool. She’s used it to document some of the most signific.

Her new memoir Drawing Blood (brilliant title) was released yesterday, and there is a launch event tonight at the Slipper Room.

Molly Crabapple Vice

Now, I often like to gloat that she is a fan of No Applause and she had even drawn me, as a character in her 2009 graphic novel Scarlet Takes Manhattan. The original is framed and hangs in our house:

Molly Crabapple, born 1983 as Jennifer Caban, is an artist and writer living in New York. She is a contributing editor for VICE and has written for a variety of other outlets, as well publishing books including an illustrated memoir Drawing Blood (2015), Discordia (with Laurie Penny) on the Greek economic crisis, and the art books Devil in the Details and Week in Hell (2012).

As part of the launch for that book, she and I and her collaborator John Leavitt did a joint event at the Museum of Sex.

Molly Crabapple Arrest

So tonight, we will be going to the Slipper Room — I hope we can even get in! If we can’t (I tend not to be assertive about such things, because, who wants to be one of those people? I never do)…but if we can’t get in, the Marchioness has already acquired the book and we’ll review it here in a few days. Congratulations, Molly. You’re an astounding person.