Rikke Villadsen is a comic book artist living and working in Copenhagen. Since her 2011 debut, she has been defying artistic conventions and surprising readers with her stories’ surreal twists. Her work questions gender as a social construct, embracing the complexity of being feminist and human.
The Sea is Rikke Villadsen’s English-language debut graphic novel, released January 2019 by Fantagraphics Books. The tale of a sailor lost at sea is full of evocative symbolism that doesn’t just bubble beneath the surface of the water, but drenches the sailor—and reader—like a tidal wave.
“Elegant and evocative. … Villadsen sails on a surrealist tide in this wispy ode to the unknowable depths of the ocean.” — Publishers Weekly
“A mesmerizing read.” — New York Journal of Books
“Villadsen’s cartooning is as lush as it is strange. With the first page turn you can see the power in it; her graphite illustrations are stunning.” — Comics MNT
See her at SPX in the White Oak Room on Sunday, September 15th at 12:30 pm in a panel titled “Hard Thoughts And Visual Metaphors.”