Myfanwy Tristram

Born in Devon in 1968 and now living in Brighton on the south coast of England, I have drawn comics all my life. I fit my practice around a fulltime job at a digital democracy NGO; each side of my life inspiring and informing the other. 

I am interested in the power of comics to educate, enrage and create change in the world. As well as the small inequities of everyday life, I tackle global systemic issues, always with some humour and the aim of also putting visually appealing artwork into the world.

Awards and achievements

• My work in progress Satin and Tat was longlisted for the 2019 Laydeez Do Comics award and shortlisted for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Prize.
• 2017 saw the launch of my Draw The Line project website, bringing together more than 100 artists, each depicting a positive political action that anyone can take. In 2020 it became a self-printed book, which sold out within days of its first print run; in 2021 it was published by Street Noise Books.
• In 2016, I successfully crowdfunded to bring a couple of Finnish artists to the UK, to give talks about Freedom of Information and comics to the Civic Tech and arts communities.
• My one-page strip Underdog won second prize in the Thought Bubble comic art competition in 2015.
• My comic about visiting Sweden as a very unconventional model for the clothing brand Gudrun Sjoden was given to every customer on International Women’s Day 2015.

Publications

Contributor to:

• The Nib (‘Nature’ print edition, 2021)
• Longreads (website for in-depth essays, 2019)
• The Inking Woman (book, Myriad, 2018)
• Draw The Line (online project, worldwide, 2017)
• Illustrated Women In History (zine, UK, 2017)
• Salon of Rejects (zine, UK, 2016)
• Girlfrenzy (zine, UK, 1990s)
• Oh… comics (comic, Canada, 90s)

Self-published:

• Sorry For The Inconvenience, We Are Trying To Save The World (book, 2022)
• Ladies of the Lakes (comic, 2017)
• Two Birds (comic, collaboration with Zara Slattery, 2016)
• Everything My Ten Year-Old Daughter Wore in November (comic, 2016)
• Hello World (comic, 2016)
• Dumb Meets Stoopid (zine, 1993)

Exhibitions, talks and activities

• Cartoon Museum (panel event to launch Draw the Line’s publication, London, 2022)
• LDComics (panel event to launch Draw the Line’s publication, online, 2022)
• Comics Up Close (conference, Kendal, 2021)
• Leeds University (lecture, 2019)
• Panel Show (exhibition, Sunnybank Mills, 2019)
• Panel Borders (podcast interview) (2019)
• The Inking Woman (exhibition, House of Illustration, London, 2018)
• Finnish Feminist Comics Residence (event/talk, Helsinki, 2018)
• LDComics presentations (talsk, London, 2018 and 2020)
• Caption (talk, Brighton, 2017)
• Gosh Comics (talk, London, 2016)
• In store event painting customers (Gudrun Sjoden 2015)
• Freedom of Information and Comics – I organised and chaired a series of four talks (Brighton, London and Hastings, 2016)
• Organised and ran the first few Brighton Sketchcrawls (2009)
• Mistresses of Line (exhibition, Brighton, 1996?)
• Cartoon County (exhibition, Sussex, 1993)

Festivals and conventions

Tabled at:

• Lakes International Comics Arts Festival (Kendal, 2016, 2017, 2018)
• Rose Tinted Spectacular Zine Fair (Brighton, 2017)
• Thought Bubble (Leeds, 2016)
• Comica (London, 2016)

Social

• Instagram: @myfanwytristram
• Twitter: @mockduck
• Facebook: Myfanwy Tristram Illustrator
• WordPress (this site):  over 8,000 subscribers; featured twice on Freshly Pressed

Get in touch