{"id":54363,"date":"2016-03-01T01:12:41","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T06:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/upstater.com\/?p=54363"},"modified":"2016-02-29T13:05:24","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T18:05:24","slug":"will-lytle-comic-artist-illustrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upstater.com\/will-lytle-comic-artist-illustrator\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Lytle: Comic Artist and Illustrator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>HOMETOWN:<\/strong> West Hurley<br \/>\n<strong>LIVES AND WORKS IN:<\/strong> West Hurley<br \/>\n<strong>HUDSON VALLEY RESIDENT SINCE:<\/strong> Birth (1986)<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Will Lytle hasn\u2019t seen his chin for two years. He stopped shaving while traveling with friends in backcountry Alaska, and now sports a wizardly bush of chest-length red beard. His head is shaved clean. The visual contrast of smooth pate and intricate textures is striking. He looks like a Will Lytle drawing.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Lytle\u2019s Thorneater Comics often feature a bearded voyager-wizard who lives in a tall narrow house in the woods. Approaching Lytle\u2019s actual house for the first time, someone who reads Thorneater may feel a thrill of recognition, coupled with the sensation that she really should be arriving on owl\u2019s back.<\/p>\n<p>Lytle was born here. His parents came to Woodstock for the concert (though his father arrived three days late), loved the local vibe, and stayed. In 1971, they bought a small plot of land to homestead, building a house from hand-milled wood and growing most of their food. The youngest of three siblings, Lytle reports, \u201cBy the time I was born, they were good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They also encouraged young Will\u2019s love of drawing. At Onteora High School, he joined the groundbreaking Indie film program, staying on after graduation to work with teen filmmakers. He attended New York\u2019s School of Visual Arts for a year, but urban life and commercial art made him restless. He dropped out, alternating a day job at Woodstock\u2019s Sunfrost farm stand with trips to New Zealand, Europe, and the American West, often hitchhiking or riding the rails. But the Hudson Valley always lured him back, and eventually he built his own house on a wooded corner of his parents\u2019 land so he could live rent-free; he heats with wood and has no phone.<\/p>\n<p>Inspired by Adrian Tomine\u2019s guerrilla comics, Lytle started printing zine-style chapbooks in 2011, leaving free copies in locations ranging from local libraries to the beer fridge at Cumberland Farms (the franchise was not amused). For the past few years, he\u2019s supported himself entirely with his art. Though he still prints hand-sewn chapbooks at \u201cprices my peeps can afford,\u201d he also drew a weekly Woodstock Times comic for two years, illustrated Clark Strand\u2019s acclaimed book Waking Up to the Dark for Random House, and created logos and murals for Woodstock General Supply, Overlook Mountain Bikes, Phoenicia Flea, Ghent\u2019s Ironwood Farm, Kingston\u2019s Grounded Cafe and O+ Festival, and Paris\u2019s Catskill-chic Colette boutique.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo much of his work reflects the magical essence of the Catskills, and it is that magic that\u2019s finding its way onto the pages of newspapers, books, and even the streets of Paris,\u201d says Jackie Kellachan, owner of Woodstock\u2019s Golden Notebook bookstore, which hosts launch parties for Lytle\u2019s DIY publications. The New York Times recently described his work as \u201cfairytale-like comics that evoke the dark humor of Maurice Sendak and Edward Gorey,\u201d influences he cites alongside Animalia\u2019s Graeme Base, filmmakers Stan Brakhage and Andrei Tarkovsky, The Lord of the Rings author J. R. R. Tolkien, and tarot artist Pamela Colman Smith. But like the granola served as \u201cbreakfast in bed for 400,000\u201d at That Concert, the mix is homemade and uniquely his own. <a href=\"http:\/\/thorneater.tumblr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Grab a sample on his tumblr<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HOMETOWN: West Hurley LIVES AND WORKS IN: West Hurley HUDSON VALLEY RESIDENT SINCE: Birth (1986) Will Lytle hasn\u2019t seen his chin for two years. He stopped shaving while traveling with friends in backcountry Alaska, and now sports a wizardly bush of chest-length red beard. His head is shaved clean. The visual contrast of smooth pate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":54366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1476,102],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Will Lytle: Comic Artist and Illustrator - Upstater<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/upstater.com\/will-lytle-comic-artist-illustrator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will Lytle: Comic Artist and Illustrator - Upstater\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"HOMETOWN: West Hurley LIVES AND WORKS IN: West Hurley HUDSON VALLEY RESIDENT SINCE: Birth (1986) Will Lytle hasn\u2019t seen his chin for two years. He stopped shaving while traveling with friends in backcountry Alaska, and now sports a wizardly bush of chest-length red beard. His head is shaved clean. 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