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

Self-published book Sorry for the Inconvenience, We Are Trying To Save The World was shortlisted for a Broken Frontier Award 2022.
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. That year it won the Broken Frontier award for Best Web Comic. 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

Procreate Project display, Lewisham shopping centre (displaying work by artists who are mothers, 2023)
Pen and Ink Comic and Book Arts Festival (talk, Newton Abbot, 2023)
Workers Gallery Ynyshir, South Wales (Word on the Street exhibition, 2022)
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 (talks, 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)