Poetry Comics by Elizabeth Haidle and Gizem Vural

Poetry Comics Month Guest Artists

Elizabeth Haidle is an artist, author, and art director living in Portland, Oregon.

Her upcoming book, DRAWING IS…, talks about drawing as being, growing, and becoming inquisitive. It also speaks to the tools and craft involved on the path of being an artist.

Elizabeth on making poetry comics:

“I made poems into comics primarily because....it's really one of the hardest things I've ever tried. I notice when I get too comfortable in my art practice and go for the easily gratifying stuff ALL the time, that I'm not really growing.

“Each poem comic represents days, weeks, even months of time going by....while I try to remain patient with my mind being blank, or coming up with really trite and obvious stuff in the initial drafts, or only having 5 minutes and needing to find another time that is more spacious.”

“My explorations with this also began when I wanted to understand poetry on a deeper level, and needed something to slow me down. I wanted to pay attention to a poem in the way that such distilled language requires.

“The act of making art about it means that even if I don't feel I arrive at ‘understanding’, I'll at least comprehend a bit more than when I first read the poem.”

Follow Elizabeth on instagram @ehaidle and find more of her work at docucomix.com.

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Gizem Vural

is an award-winning illustrator from Istanbul living and working in New York. Their colorful work has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times and has been recognized with three medals from the Society of Illustrators. 

Gizem’s book of abstract comics has been a great inspiration for my own poetry comics. They combine shapes and colors within a single page grid in clever and unexpected ways. Comic Collection Book #2 is now available, featuring more inventive abstract comics.

Gizem on creating poetry comics:

It all started with the question—If I wanted to make comics, how would I do it? And after that would I add a text or not? And what kind of story I would want to tell? When you look at my editorial illustrations, I always choose to go to abstraction. Adding shapes, colors and textures, it starts to become playful, and with the playfulness comes a different storytelling. Abstraction always gives me a room for play and makes me think in different ways. I took all these choices to my comics creation.

I needed something not taking long, so I chose to keep them as one page. I don't just want to tell a story in panels but also as a whole page composition. I want them to look good as if it is a one piece drawing. I feel that I am not very good with words, and I find it distracting when they are on a picture. So I went with no words, mute comics.

All of this shaped the comics that I draw. And I love nature—nature always inspires me—so most of them are about that. Also emotions, time... hard subjects to draw, so they help me go more abstract.

Follow

Gizem Vural

on instagram @gizemvural_ and read more about their work at gizemvural.net