This unique memoir weaves the story of a personal revolution—set against the backdrop of the 1990 Mills Student Strike—through the collected cartoons of one free-thinking (and very funny) woman.
"You will love Kristen Caven's book, Perfectly Revolting, if you:
a) ever attended a women's college,
b) are or ever have been a feminist,
c) are or ever have been a 'women's libber,'
d) are or ever have been a cartoonist,
e) are or ever have been a woman,
f) are or ever have been a man,
g) were born with a funnybone, or
h) all of the above."
- Trina Robbins, author of The Brinkley Girls, From Girls to Grrlz, The Great Women Cartoonists
In 1990, the Berlin Wall fell and Romanians overthrew their government. The students of Mills College in Oakland, California also staged a revolt, successfully persuading the administration to reverse their decision to admit men to the prestigious women's college. To commemorate this stirring event, former campus cartoonist Kristen Caven has compiled her award-winning (and briefly banned) "cartoon history" with over a hundred of her other comics and illustrations. Woven through the pictures is an unusual and enjoyable memoir in which the author explores her own artistic rebelliousness, and her personal revolution from a naîve student to a strong and (seemingly) wise woman.
PERFECTLY REVOLTING shares many layers of Caven's story: a girl's search to find her feminine identity in a world defined by men; the joys of an intellectual reveling in (and the frustrations of a smart-ass chafing at) the confines of academia; the challenge of finding her voice as an artist; and the quest to find her place in an industry geared toward 14-year-old boys. Caven's narrative illuminates the controversy surrounding her "Men of Mills College Pin-up Calendar," and the origins of her delightfully irreverent "Sammy Sperm and Emily Egg" paper dolls. Caven's cartoons offer a fresh take on gender politics and commentary on life in the Reagan era, as well as a peek into her teeming, twisted, but generally tasteful mind.
Excerpt
Cartooning is an amazing medium. Like fine art, it comes from a single creative mind that has somehow, miraculously, found in this world permission to express itself. Like film, it relies on both words and images to convey more subtle shades of meaning. But unlike film—which relies on chemicals, casting, collaboration and loads of cash—in cartooning, one person can be enough. The tools are low
tech; a big investment in materials set me back less than a hundred bucks.
With only a comfortable place to work and a little (well, a lot of) time, an artist can create a world. And with the unlimited potential of a blank page, the practical applications for cartooning as a communications tool are an open horizon. When I discovered Larry Gonnick’s A Cartoon History of the Universe, I found support for my theory that cartoons could be used to
explore complex ideas. When I iscovered Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, I found hope for my literary aspirations. In my ideal future, there would be as many genres of cartoon literature as there were text-only books.
Between drawing cartoons for The Weekly, I managed to find more ways to draw more cartoons. Here I was with this obscure, whimsical craft, literally at my fingertips, and a head full of serious questions, like: How does language work? We communicate in so many different ways and on so many different levels that we cannot even be aware of every message we send. Why are some things meaningful to some people and completely insignificant to others? And with such a vast code of information flowing through every mind, every second of every day, can anyone ever actually fully understand anyone
else? Our cultural assumptions are complex mythologies—evolved over centuries, or sometimes just years—that have so much power over our actions and can create such soaring good or plunging evil; how can we be aware of, or influence these mythologies?
So you see, it was not all about talking sperms.
Professional Reviews
Trina Robbins
"You will love Kristen Caven's book, Perfectly Revolting, if you:
a) ever attended a women's college,
b) are or ever have been a feminist,
c) are or ever have been a 'women's libber,'
d) are or ever have been a cartoonist,
e) are or ever have been a woman,
f) are or ever have been a man,
g) were born with a funnybone, or
h) all of the above."
- Trina Robbins, author of The Brinkley Girls, From Girls to Grrlz, The Great Women Cartoonists
Ransom Stephens
"Kristen Caven's sense of humor and compassion for humanity permeate this wonderful memoir in cartoons. Openness and honesty are the key elements to any successful memoir, what sends this one to a higher level is how her humility is expressed in humor. The result is the most endearing memoir I've read in a long long time."
—Ransom Stephens, author of The God Patent
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