A free opening reception starts at 5:30 p.m. tonight at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art in Glen Ellyn, kicking off a new exhibition that traces Chicago's alternative comics scene through Linework, an anthology connected to Columbia College Chicago. Linework: Chicago Comics and Community runs through November 21 and centers on Linework, an early-2000s comics anthology that became a gathering point for voices in the city's comics scene.
The anthology's origins trace directly to Ivan Brunetti, a cartoonist, designer and longtime Columbia College professor whose own work has appeared in The New Yorker and been featured in the Chicago Reader and Spin, according to Axios. Brunetti launched Linework to showcase Columbia students and alumni. Justin Witte said Linework became a gathering point for many of the most compelling voices in Chicago's comics scene, as Axios reports, fostering a period of creative exchange among emerging and established artists that reflected the diversity, experimentation and collaborative spirit of the city's alternative comics community.
From a Classroom Anthology to a Museum Wall
The exhibition's setting carries its own history. The Cleve Carney Museum of Art occupies an 1,850-square-foot gallery inside the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage, established through a legacy gift from local art collector and philanthropist Cleve Carney. The gallery has a track record of turning a suburban campus into a regional draw, having previously mounted Frida Kahlo: Timeless in 2021, featuring 26 original works, and WARHOL in 2023, featuring 94 portfolio prints and more than 150 original photographs, according to the Cleve Carney Museum of Art.
Before guiding the Linework anthology, Brunetti edited the two-volume An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories, published by Yale University Press in 2006 and 2008.
A Booker Prize Nominee Among the Featured Artists
Among the artists featured in the exhibit is Nick Drnaso, whose 2018 graphic novel Sabrina became the first graphic novel longlisted for the Booker Prize, per Axios. Drnaso graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2011, where he studied under Brunetti. Columbia College Chicago reported that Drnaso called Brunetti an invaluable faculty member and his best teacher, and that Brunetti's visual style influenced Drnaso, according to Columbia College Chicago. Sabrina, published by Drawn & Quarterly, addressed themes of digital media paranoia and conspiracy theories on its way to that historic longlist nod.
The exhibition also features Keiler Roberts, whose comics explore everyday life through autobiographical storytelling, and Elias Gonzalez, who makes comics aimed at mature readers, Axios reports. Abby Jo Turner rounds out the featured lineup; she has contributed to animated shows including Lazor Wulf. The anthology itself kept evolving well after its early-2000s debut — a 2024 edition titled Issue Zero ran 148 pages and focused on artists who had not previously appeared in Linework, according to a report from Feridun Demir.
Part of a Larger Recognition of Chicago's Comics Roots
The Glen Ellyn show lands amid a broader pattern of institutions crediting Chicago as a longtime hub for comic art. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago hosted Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now, a survey curated by Dan Nadel featuring more than 40 artists across six decades of local cartooning history, including work by Lynda Barry and Chris Ware, per the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. That history stretches back to the early 20th century, when Chicago was the center of the U.S. color printing industry and published syndicated strips like Chester Gould's Dick Tracy and Dale Messick's Brenda Starr.
Linework: Chicago Comics and Community offers Chicagoland audiences a look at the anthology and its place in the city's alternative comics world.
