A young woman orphaned in tragic circumstances (by a pair of copulating circus elephants) rises to become the foremost burlesque performer of her era: Scarlett O'Herring. Mentored by the mysterious D'Lovely, Scarlett is a fire-breather, courtesan, and the heroine of Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School founder Molly Crabapple's first graphic novel. "Scarlett Takes Manhattan" is a delightful erotic romp through the exotic world of Gilded Age New York!
Molly Crabapple's hyper-detailed compositions are something akin to a Where's Waldo diptych--on a 7-day bender. If Dr. Seuss backtracked through the time-space continuum and commissioned Toulouse-Lautrec to reimagine his storybooks, the resulting mayhem would approximate Crabapple's spiraling scenes of sex, ambition and artifice.
From her auto-didactical beginnings in a Parisian bookstore--where she cultivated her signature aesthetic by copying pages from A Tart's Progress--Molly sketched her way through Morocco and Kurdistan...and once into a Turkish jail.
Spurred by a desire to de-sterilize the buttoned-up art school scene, Molly founded Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, a celebratory mash-up of cabaret and live drawing. Now in its 6th year--with branches in over a hundred cities--Dr. Sketchy's global trajectory continues to accelerate. Molly's brand of off-grid entrepreneurship caught the attention of major media outlets, securing cover stories and featured profiles in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, Playboy, AP Wire, NPR, and hundreds of other media outlets around the world.
No stranger to nightlife (or notoriety), Molly collaborates with avant-garde performers and underground theatrical venues across the globe, occupying the enviable post of House Artist for The Box, one of the world's most infamous nightclubs. Her latest contribution to The Box--a 90-foot mural for the club's London branch--required a painstaking application of graffiti, sandpaper, and splattered burnt sienna paint, on surfaces ranging from enamel tiles to raw linen.
Molly's first graphic novel, the steampunk saga Puppet Makers, was released electronically by DC Comics in 2011, and her forthcoming Straw House will be issued by First Second Books in 2013. With close-woven ties to comic book sub-culture, it comes as no surprise that Crabapple's celebrity fans include Hugo Award-winning graphic novelist Neil Gaiman--as well as musician Moby and comedian Margaret Cho.
At 28, the New York City-based artist has spoken to throngs of admirers at the Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, and heavyweight galleries and universities from Helsinki to Sao Paulo. Her client roster includes The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Red Bull, Marvel Comics, and a few less-respectable patrons.
Molly adores absinthe, circus performers, leather-bound books and crowquill pens. She is deeply entrenched in plots of world domination, but will (temporarily) set aside her stratagems for commissioned projects...and impromptu trips to Paris.
