Nicola Streeten

Illustrator, graphic novelist and comics scholar

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Press and media

May 2019

The Feministo Podcast guest, Episode 18
https://castbox.fm/episode/Episode-18-Nicola-Streeten-id1427609-id144952594?country=us
Authored by The Red Elephant Foundation

Thursday 20 December 2018
Nepali Times
Women’s Stories in Pictures and Words
Sewa Bhattarai

https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/womens-stories-in-pictures-and-words/

Thursday 30 August 2018
BBC Radio 4 Front Row
Drawing comic-book characters: Laydeez do comics joins Front Row presenter
Samira Ahmed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/b0bgbhbw (12 mins in)

23 June 2018
The Quietus
Behold! June’s Quietus Comics Round Up Column
Pete Redrup
http://thequietus.com/articles/24838-june-comics-nick-drnaso-tim-bird-nicola-streeten-craig-thompson-josh-simmons-laurie-halse-anderson-emily-carroll

13 May 2018
Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain
Simon Chadwick
http://ccgb.org.uk/wordpress/?p=7204 

23 April 2018
i
Beyond the wit of men

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/comment/these-eight-images-prove-political-cartooning-isnt-the-boys-club-people-think-it-is/

16 April 2018
The Herald Scotland

Graphic Content: The women cartoonists you need to know
http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/16162239.Graphic_Content__The_women_cartoonists_you_need_to_know/

31 March 2018
Morning Star
Picture This: The missing volume from the annals of British humour
Michal Boncza

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/the-missing-volume-from-the-annals-of-british-humour

29 March 2018
Page 45 Review by Stephen Holland

https://www.page45.com/store/The-Inking-Women-250-Years-Of-Women-Cartoon-And-Comic-Artists-In-Britain-hc.html

23 March 2018
BBC RADIO 4 Woman’s Hour
Female Cartoonists
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wpmym
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/embed/p04vjmys/39143726

21 March 2018
Joe Gordon, Forbidden Planet Blog
REVIEWS: THE INKING WOMAN EXPLORES 250 YEARS OF WOMEN CARTOONISTS
http://forbiddenplanet.blog/2018/reviews-inking-woman-explores-250-years-women-cartoonists/

8 March 2018
Broken Frontier
The Inking Woman – 250 Years of Women Cartoon and Comic Artists in Britain Celebrated in Myriad’s Essential Reference Collection
Andy Oliver
http://www.brokenfrontier.com/inking-woman-nicola-streeten-cath-tate-edieop-karrie-fransman-hannah-berry-myriad-editions/

2 March 2017
BBC RADIO 4 Today programe
The Today’s Comic Book Makeover
video made of my live drawing in the studio with voiceover 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-39143726/the-today-programme-s-comic-book-makeover

8 December 2017
The Bookseller, Non-Fiction Pick for March 2018

Sunday 17 January 2016
The Observer New Review
On my radar: Julie Hesmondhalgh’s cultural highlights
http://gu.com/p/4fycb/sbl

Tuesday 22 November 2016
Cambridge 105 Radio

Bookmark with Leigh Chambers,
http://cambridge105.fm/book-night-26-11-2016/

September 2013
Psychologies Magazine

Getting Graphic, Rachel Cooke
a taboo-busting and, at times, very funny graphic memoir of grief and recovery

6 February 2012
Metro
Life: Families

18 April 2012
The Guardian
Bryan and Mary Talbot’s top 10 graphic memoirs

The death of a child has to be the worst thing imaginable that could happen to parents. It’s an extraordinary subject for a graphic memoir. Streeten kept a diary after the sudden death of her two-year-old son, Billy. She has used it as the basis for her debut graphic novel, so it provides insight into surviving what for most of us hardly even bears thinking about. It is a surprise then to find it provokes laughter as well as tears. The combination of journal format and naïve artwork somehow helps to make reading about grief and loss not only bearable but entertaining.
Read full list here

20 January 2012
Ham & High
 

the book was never intended as a form of therapy. Instead it is a poignant, and at times darkly funny, look at how we deal with loss.
Read full article

9 January 2012
BBC World Service Outlook

Nicola discusses the circumstances of Billy’s death and the grieving process with Matthew Bannister – (about 15 minutes in).
Listen to the programme here

9 & 16 January 2012
Newsweek
, p50
Not Your Sunday Morning Cartoons, Maya Jaggi

10 December 2011
Irish Independent
 

Drawing the unsayable
The uncertainty of some of the drawing adds an extra layer of fragility to the story, as if you feel the drawing itself is affected by the emotions at play.
Read full article

6 December 2011
The Independent
Child bereavement may not sound like material for a comic strip, but graphic books can explore human pain with honesty and wit. A moving and often unexpectedly funny memoir
Read full article

6 November  2011
Channel 4 News
Katie Razzell report
Mother who found comic relief after toddler son’s death
https://www.channel4.com/news/mother-who-found-comic-relief-after-toddler-sons-death  

31 October 2011
Lincolnshire Echo
 

Read article

16 October 2011
Herald Scotland 

Graphic Novels Shake Off the Superheroes
Billy, Me & You comes in a plain yellow wraparound cover and, if you open it up, Nicola Streeten’s drawings are at first glance crude and unsophisticated (no borders etched out in Arabic script here). But once you start to read, you can see it’s not so much crude as raw, a red-eyed, fist-in-the-gut account of how Streeten and her partner (and their friends and family) dealt with – or didn’t – the death of their two-year-old son Billy after heart surgery.

What’s most remarkable is that it will make you laugh. And then there are moments that will tear your heart open.
Read full article

15 October 2011
The Guardian
 

A remarkable book…it is searchingly honest, and desperately sad at times. At others, it is genuinely very funny. Quite a feat.
Read full review

Blog reviews of Billy Me & You

For Books Sake 8 April 2014
This début graphic novel is a groundbreaking and moving memoir dealing
with the death of a child

Read review here

Psychologies Magazine March 2012
Write up of the Names Not Numbers event organised by Editorial Intelligence
Read article

Parliament of Dreams 19 April 2012
The only thing that matters is whether an artist has something worth saying and the ability to say it well. In Billy, Me & You, Nicola Streeten has both. Given its subject, the book is naturally moving, but its humour, honesty and insight are certainly not inevitable. They are the result of artistry – the alchemy of turning the lead of everyday lives into the gold of art.
Read review here

Page 45 October 2011
The most profoundly moving graphic novel I personally have ever read bar none.

[Nicola Streeten’s] clarity in explaining the sequence of events and her initial emotional turmoil is just astonishing and so very touching…there is actually also a considerable amount of humour in this section of the work, as we are frequently treated to her thoughts in response to the comments of others, which range from the truly caring to the completely unhelpful, and indeed the occasionally utterly bizarre and inane.

This is probably one of the very few works out there that not only has the power to heal, but also the power to inform people how best to practically help and support someone suffering such from overwhelming emotional trauma.
Read full review

Its all about the comics 17 November 2011
Nicola’s background may be academic (she self-referentially quotes Freud and Foucalt and talks about her and her husband’s unshakable belief in ‘the talking cure’ but she is by no means stilted or boring.
Read full post

Pamreader
I’ve read this book repeatedly since it landed through my letter box. I’ve cried, laughed and often found myself nodding in agreement while thinking ‘that’s so true’. Billy, Me & You is extraordinarily unflinching and honest as Nicola reflects on the grieving process with compassion, humour and humility. This is a novel that will resonate with anyone who has experienced the devastating loss of someone they love.
Read full review

Forbidden Planet 25 October 2011
This has a universal, empathetic appeal…To say it’s moving really undervalues Billy, Me & You. It is, of course, how could it not be, given the subject matter. But it’s so much more than that. For a start it’s a page turner, a single sitting read, a truly satisfying journey undertaken with the author. The emotional intensity comes through her art, and its openess and roughness is endearing, welcoming, personal and real.

This is a hugely personal memoir that serves so many purposes…This is entertaining, original, thought provoking stuff.
Read full review

Broken Frontier 24 October 2011
In just the first few pages…Streeten establishes a rapport with the readership that is never lost throughout the entirety of this graphic diary. Every so often a graphic novel comes along that shakes you up from a jaded malaise and makes you remember that comics are a medium that has the power to share experience and express emotion like no other. Incisively perceptive, uncompromisingly observant and keenly insightful, Billy, Me & You is not just an astonishing piece of comics material in its own right but also an ambassador for the criminally overlooked work of the small press.
Read full review

Fabtoons 21 October 2011
Streeten’s honesty at revealing some of her less generous thoughts, along with her sense of humour, manage to keep this sensitive material far from grim, while remaining extremely moving. I see this book in the same revolutionary vein [as punk rock], its artwork not seeking to soothe the reader with beautiful images, but rewarding with its raw emotion, and an ultimately uplifting message, those who can look beyond aesthetic orthodoxy .
Read full post

Interviews, conversations, podcasts

18 August 2016
Make it then Tell Everybody

Podcast Conversation with Dan Berry
http://makeitthentelleverybody.com/2016/08/nicola-streeten/

The Latest TV 7 April 2014
Brighton woman stroke recovery turned into comic strip
Interview about contribution to Sick! Festival, Brighton 2014

Conversation at Orbital Comics10 December 2013
Julie Maroh in conversation with Nicola Streeten, moderated by Chris Thompson
Listen to interview

ABC (Australian Broadcasting Coroporation) Melbourne, 4 December 2013
Coping With The Loss Of A Child, Penny Johnston
Listen to interview

Strange Alliances, Interview by Elaine Aldred, 5 July 2013
Read interview

Sequential Highway, Interview by Julinda Morrow, 11 October 2012
Read interview

Graphic Medicine Podcast, Inverview by Comic Nurse 19 September 2012
Listen to the podcast

The Comics Bureau, by Dan Berry 18 December 2010
Read interview

20 Questions from Jane Heinrichs, 4 June 2010
Read interview

Comica Conversation at Orbital Comics 26 November 2011
A Comica conversation between graphic novelists Nicola Streeten and Sarah Leavitt.

Awards

Highly commended in the British Medical Association Book Awards, 2012
in the Popular Medicine category

This book is for all of us who have suffered bereavement or witnessed the grief of others. This is an easy-to-read book which gives bereaved families ‘permission’ to feel different emotions at different times…it would be good to keep in a public library for people to access if they feel they are ready.

 

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Cake and tulips with ❤️ thanks to dear baking daughter @s__plowman

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