57/150: Seth is a graphic novelist & celebrated cartoonist

Canadian artist Gregory “Seth” Gallant (1962) is a writer, illustrator and critically acclaimed cartoonist whose endless creativity captivates galleries, publishers, magazine art directors and, most important, fans of graphic novels and comics.

Gallant (who goes only by the name Seth) has a global reputation and a huge fan base for his graphic novels. He has done covers for The New Yorker, created a model city now in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario and, among other things, illustrated the latest Lemony Snicket series.

The National Film Board of Canada produced a film to showcase his work (trailer below)

Seth captures the highlights of his life in sketchbooks, scrapbooks, cardboard maquettes, ceramics, and dioramas, including his model Dominion City (video later in the post). The artist has a cult following for his 1990s comic book series Palookaville and his retro drawing style. His other work includes Clyde Fans, which was longlisted for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Dominion City was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, which showcased the first public display of the model city and it is now in the AGO’s permanent collection. Dominion toured galleries across Canada, including the one featured in the video below.

He is a gifted storyteller and his fans love him

Seth is a gifted storyteller, especially his graphic novels:  ‘Wimbledon Green‘ is about an eccentric comic book collector. ‘George Sprott (1894-1975)’ was serialized in New York Times Magazine, later published as a book. In 2011 he released the’Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists‘, companion to Wimbledon Green, about a fictional Canadian comics organization.

The Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip titled a song after Seth’s award winning mock-autobiographical graphic novel ‘It’s a Good Life, if You Don’t Weaken,’ on their In Violet Light album, here:

Seth’s partnership with Lemony Snicket was for the Young Readers series, All the Wrong Questions. He has also illustrated and designed a new, deluxe edition of Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a little Town. This is an artist who regularly stretches, for example creating murals: below, Civic Dreamscape in Guelph, the Ontario city where he lives.

Recently, he also had a solo exhibition, Postcardsl, Guelph’s Renann Isaacs Contemporary Art here.

Seth at publisher Drawn & Quarterly, here.

The art gallery that represents him, here.

At Comiclopedia, here.

A guide to his work (bibliography) at University of Michigan, here.

A long video interview re Seth’s style and process, here.

(Image at top of post: From Art Gallery of Hamilton, here)

This is No. 57 in the series 150 Artists, an ongoing feature on Canadian artists you should know.