Quick Facts
Biography
Matt Feazell (b. 1955) is an American cartoonist from Hamtramck, Michigan, primarily working in minicomics. He is best known for his wryly humorous The Amazing Cynicalman series and the simple “stick figure” art style he uses for it. Cynicalman appears in the introduction to Scott McCloud's book Understanding Comics, in which Feazell's work is cited as an example of “iconic” art taken to its greatest degree.
Early life and education
Feazell's comics influences included Jack Kirby, Hank Ketcham, and Will Eisner. In high school he experimented with stick-figure comics, but also developed a more traditional comics style.
He received his B.S. in Community/Fine Arts from Southern Illinois University.
Career
In addition to self-publishing Cynicalman, Feazell's work has been published by Aardvark-Vanaheim, AC Comics, Arrow Comics, Caliber Press, Fictioneer Books, Last Gasp, NBM Publishing, Eclipse Comics, and First Comics. Steeldragon Press published his series Ant-Boy from 1986–1988. From 2004–2007, he was also a regular contributor to Disney Adventures magazine with his strip "Dizzy Adventures."
A regular on the small press comics festival scene, he has appeared at multiple local comic-cons in Michigan.
The Amazing Cynicalman
In the 1980s Feazell produced short pieces entitled “The Adventures of Zot! in Dimension 10½” which appeared as backup stories in issues of Scott McCloud’s series Zot!.
Cynicalman and his supporting cast (including Antisocialman, CuteGirl, and StupidBoy) have been featured in Feazell’s minicomics, and in a weekly newspaper strip carried in a few Michigan papers from 1997–2002. Some of his work has been collected in paperbacks entitled Cynicalman, The Paperback (minicomics material), ERT! (minicomics), and The Amazing Cynicalman (the newspaper strip).
Feazell has made a graphic novel called The Death of Antisocialman featuring Antisocialman and multiple characters from the cynicalman comics. There are 12 chapters in the novel series, all of which are available on Feazell's site.
In 2012, Feazell released The Amazing Cynicalman, a feature-length film he wrote and directed, based on his comics work.