Seth

Career

Seth got his start in comics in 1983 as an illustrator on Vortex Comics' Mister X series. After this he began work on his own series, Palooka-ville, which was first released in April of 1991 by Drawn and Quarterly, a Canadian publisher. Palooka-ville began as a semi-autobiographical chronicle of Seth's daily life, but soon began to pursue ambitious plot lines. Some issues in the series were later collected as a graphic novel under the title It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken. In 2000 he began work on Clyde Fans, which remains ongoing as of 2011, with two parts and a book presently released. A sketchbook of his work, Vernacular Drawings, was published in 2001. In 2005 he released a short graphic novel, Wimbledon Green, which was about an eccentric comic book collector. Between September of 2006 and March of 2007 he created the serialized story George Sprott (1894-1975) for the New York Times Magazine. In 2009 a more complete version of the story, including details that had to be left out due to the serialized magazine format, was released, again by Drawn and Quarterly. In 2011 he released The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists, about a club of Canadian cartoonists.  
  
Seth also does magazine illustration and book design, and is perhaps best known for his work designing the 25-volume Fantagraphics series, The Complete Peanuts, as well as Collected Doug Wright,  work on both of which is still ongoing. His artwork has appeared on the cover of The New Yorker three times. He has created designs, cover art and interior drawings for some CDs, books and DVDs, including Aimee Mann's Lost in Space and the Criterion Collection release of Make Way For Tomorrow. He created small models for his fictional city, Dominion, which were displayed in a Phoenix art museum in early 2007. He has also created the logos for a Guelph-based roller derby club.  
 
Seth was awarded the Ignatz Award twice in 1997, for Outstanding Artist and Outstanding Graphic Novel or Collection for It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken. In 2005 he was awarded an Eisner Award (Best Publication Design)  and a Harvey Award (Special Award for Excellence in Production/Presentation), both for his work on The Complete Peanuts. In 2011 he was awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize, the first time that prize had been awarded to a cartoonist, for "substantially contibut[ing] to the state of literature and books in Canada."

Personal Life

Seth is a pen name. He was born Gregory Gallant in Clinton, Ontario. He attended the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, Ontario, and lived in that city for some time. He currently lives in Guelph, Ontario with his wife.