Swaab, Neil 1978–

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Swaab, Neil 1978–

Personal

Born January 2, 1978, in West Bloomfield, MI. Education: Syracuse University, B.F.A., 2000.

Addresses

Home and office—Astoria, NY. Office—Illustration Department, Parsons the New School for Design, 2 W. 13th, Rm. 806, New York, NY 10011. E-mail—mail@neilswaab.com.

Career

Illustrator, writer, artist, and designer. Creator of Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles (comic strip), 1999—. TimeOut NY, New York, NY, ad designer, 2000-01; HarperCollins, New York, NY, senior designer, 2001-06; Parsons the New School for Design, New York, NY, instructor in illustration, 2004—. Guest lecturer at Syracuse University and School of Visual Arts. Exhibitions: Work included in solo exhibitions at Dabora Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2002, 2005. Work also exhibited at Livonia Arts Commission, Livonia, MI, 1997; Creative Art Center, Pontiac, MI, 1998; Chicago, IL, 1999; Utica Art Center, Utica, NY, 1999; Lowe Gallery, Syracuse, NY, 1999; Spark Gallery, Syracuse, NY, 2002; Dabora Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2002; Zero to One Studios, Canada, 2004; Local 138, New York, NY, 2004; Human Rights Festival, Mantova, Italy, 2004; and RKL Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2004; Society of Illustrators, New York, NY, 2004-07.

Awards, Honors

Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant, 1996; first prize, Color Pencil Society of America Midwest Color Exhibition, 1997; Windberg Award, Color Pencil Society of America Midwest Color Exhibition, 1999; selected among Top Twenty Cutting-edge Illustrators under Age Thirty, Print magazine, 2003; Best Comics of 2005 selection, Comics Journal, for Attitude Featuring Neil Swaab: Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles.

Writings

(Self-illustrated) Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, Volume One, Neil Swaab, 2003.

(Self-illustrated) Attitude Featuring Neil Swaab: Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, introduction by Ted Rall, NBM (New York, NY), 2005.

(Illustrator) Barry Yourgrau, Yet Another Nastybook: Mininasties, Joanna Cotler Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Author and illustrator of single-page comics, including Happy Birthday, The Secret Language of Women, and Jimmy, and multi-page comics, including The Joy of Christmas. Contributor of illustrations to periodicals, including Archetype, New York Times, Razor, Utne Reader, and Village Voice.

Sidelights

Illustrator, designer, and writer Neil Swaab is best known as the creator of Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, a subversive comic strip featuring a perverse, drug-addicted teddy bear and his balding, insecure owner. In an interview with Ted Rall in Attitude Two: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists, Swaab observed that "Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles is a comic about laughing at the darker aspects of life, finding humor in the sickest regions of the human psyche. There are so many comics out there that only want to show the lighter side of things and steer away from the negative and Mr. Wiggles is the complete opposite of those. I'm also somewhat fascinated with the concept of cute things being ultimately evil."

In Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, Volume One, a collection of 140 strips, Swaab displays "a relentless dedication to plunging into material far beyond the pale of even his most provocative peers," remarked Columbus Alive reviewer J. Caleb Mozzocco. A second collection, Attitude Featuring Neil Swaab: Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, features more of his depraved duo's misadventures. "Swaab suggests that his strip exercises the honored strategy of laughing the devil to scorn," noted Ray Olson in Booklist. According to a contributor in Publishers Weekly, "Some of the pieces … are grossly offensive, while some are hilarious—and they're frequently the same ones."

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Rall, Ted, Attitude Two: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists, NBM (New York, NY), 2004.

PERIODICALS

Ann Arbor Paper, September, 2005, Ari Paul, "It's Not Easy Being a Perverted Teddy Bear: Neil Swaab's Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles Will Make You Laugh and Squirm at the Same Time."

Booklist, September 1, 2005, Ray Olson, review of Attitude Featuring Neil Swaab: Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, p. 77.

Columbus Alive, April 10, 2003, J. Caleb Mozzocco, "Pop Schmear: Comics," review of Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, Volume One; September, 2005, J. Caleb Mozzocco, "Bear with Him," review of Attitude Featuring Neil Swaab: Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles.

Gear, March, 2001, Michael Martin, "Drawn to the Deep End: Inside the Supercute, Sociopathic World of Mr. Wiggles."

Print, March-April, 2003, Andrew Yang, "Neil Swaab: Impolitically Correct."

Publishers Weekly, August 19, 2005, review of Attitude Featuring Neil Swaab: Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, p. 40.

Real Detroit Weekly, November 12, 2002, B.J. Hammerstein, "Kingdom: Neil Swaab Brings Mr. Wiggles to Life."