Baker, Kyle 1965-

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BAKER, Kyle 1965-

PERSONAL:

Born 1965, in New York, NY; married; wife's name, Liz.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, DC Comics, 1700 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and illustrator; director of animated films. Founder of Kyle Baker Publishing.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Original Work, 1991, for Why I Hate Saturn, and 1999, for You Are Here; Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist, Humor, 1999, for You Are Here, and 2000, for I Die at Midnight and "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Baby Sitter" (the latter, created with Elizabeth Glass, also won Best Short Story).

WRITINGS:

GRAPHIC NOVELS; SELF-ILLUSTRATED

The Cowboy Wally Show, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1988, Sixteenth Commemorative Edition, 2003.

Why I Hate Saturn, DC Comics (New York, NY), 1993.

You Are Here, DC Comics (New York, NY), 1999.

King David, Vertigo/DC Comics (New York, NY), 2002.

Undercover Genie: The Irreverent Conjurings of an Illustrative Aladdin, DC Comics (New York, NY), 2003.

OTHER

(Illustrator) Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin, Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel, Crown (New York, NY), 2004.

Also author of I Die at Midnight, Truth, The Bakers, The New Baker, Break the Chain, and Kyle Baker, Cartoonist. Contributor of "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Baby Sitter," created with Elizabeth Glass, to Else-worlds Eighty-Page Giant. Illustrator of weekly comic strip "Bad Publicity" for New York magazine. Contributor of cartoons to newspapers and magazines, including Entertainment Weekly, ESPN, Esquire, Mad, New Yorker, New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, Vibe, and Village Voice. Director of animated music video, "Break the Chain," based on comic book of the same name illustrated by Baker. Contributor of drawings to 9-11: The World's Finest Comic Book Writers and Artists Tell Stories to Remember, edited by Paul Levitz and published by DC Comics in 2002, and to numerous other comic books. Writer and director of "Looney Tunes" animated theatrical shorts for Warner Bros., Inc.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

A graphic novel biography of Nat Turner, leader of a nineteenth-century slave rebellion; a graphic novel titled My Special Plan.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kyle Baker's graphic novels have covered subjects as diverse as an unscrupulous television performer, young New York hipsters, and the Bible's King David. His body of work includes "at least two graphic novel cult classics," according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, those being The Cowboy Wally Show and Why I Hate Saturn. He also has illustrated numerous comic books written by others and has begun writing and directing animated short films. He produced a multimedia project with the comic Break the Chain, which he illustrated while sharing writing duties with rap artist KRS-One; it was sold with an audiocassette of KRS-One's music, and Baker directed a companion music video.

The Cowboy Wally Show, Baker's first graphic novel, is a send-up of the television industry. Cowboy Wally is an obnoxious, not-very-bright entertainer who nevertheless rises to fame and power as a TV host and executive, thanks to some underhanded schemes. Quill and Quire critic Paul Stuewe found the story only "intermittently effective," but Booklist contributor Ray Olson deemed it "desperately, mordantly, stomping-and-crying-ly funny."

Why I Hate Saturn takes a satirical look at the culture of young, trendy New Yorkers. The main character, Anne, is a gifted writer but is also maladjusted and misanthropic. The shooting of Anne's sister, by a former lover, sets in motion a series of bizarre experiences. This "clever" book "became an underground comics classic," reported a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

Baker's next graphic novel, You Are Here, is also set in New York City. Its protagonist, Noel Coleman, is a man with a lengthy criminal record, but he is being pursued by someone with a much worse record—a serial murderer—whose wife once had an affair with Noel. While trying to elude his would-be killer, Noel carries on a romance with an unconventional, free-spirited woman named Helen. Baker's drawings portray New York with "virtuoso comics draftsmanship," observed a Publishers Weekly commentator, adding that his story is "rip-roaringly entertaining."

The humor that some critics found in those titles is evident even in Baker's Bible-inspired effort, King David. His retelling of the tale of the shepherd who rose to become king of Israel "is funny and irreverent, and Bible study has never been so hip" a Publishers Weekly reviewer remarked. Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker, meanwhile, noted that the novel is "sometimes slapstick-silly but always true to biblical narrative." It also remains true to its source by featuring frank portrayals of violence and sexuality; to Bible Review contributor Michael M. Homan, "This is precisely why Baker's King David succeeds where so many artistic re-creations (especially movies) of the Bible have failed." Homan called the novel "a hit of epic proportions" that will "help bring back the Bible—the uncut version—to pop culture."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Bible Review, December, 2002, Michael M. Homan, "Truth, Justice and the Judean Way," pp. 50-51.

Booklist, June 1, 1988, Ray Olson, review of The Cowboy Wally Show, p. 1635; October 1, 2003, Gordon Flagg, review of Undercover Genie: The Irreverent Conjurings of an Illustrative Aladdin, p. 309.

Entertainment Weekly, April 12, 2002, Ken Tucker, review of King David, p. 70; June 27, 2003, Tom Sinclair, review of Undercover Genie, p. 145.

Publishers Weekly, January 25, 1999, review of You Are Here, p. 74; September 9, 2002, review of King David, p. 45.

Quill and Quire, May, 1988, Paul Stuewe, review of The Cowboy Wally Show, p. 29.