'Suzy Magoo'.
Carole Sobocinski, also known as Carol Lynch, was a US alternative comic artist, writer and editor, as well as a painter, sculptor and mixed media artist. Sobocinski wrote and drew several alternative comics and was active for publishers like Fantagraphics and Kitchen Sink Press, including a tumultuous stint as editor of The Comics Journal. During the 1990s, she drew a few stories for Harvey Pekar's 'American Splendor' series, including an odd spoof of Art Spiegelman's 'Maus'. As the second wife of underground artist Jay Lynch, she and her husband worked on several projects together.
Early life and career
Carole D. Sobocinski was born in 1952 into a family of Polish-American descent, and lived in Detroit during her childhood. At Anchor Bay Schools, she was co-editor, writer and founder of a high school magazine, which was modelled after the countercultural magazines with underground comix that were popular at the time. Sobocinski was a socially conscious person, joining protest marches in her home city. Through her efforts, the town council of the Detroit suburb of New Baltimore agreed to establish a youth center. Sobocinski later studied at Wayne State University, and worked at the promotional department of the WXYT radio station.
'The Tale of the Quivering Cactus!' (Urban Legends #1, 1992).
Comic creator
During the 1980s, Sobocinski was active as a writer, artist and editor in the Chicago small press scene, releasing the zine series 'Zabawny' (1986-1988), with each issue having a "cool guy" on the cover. She drew the mini-comic 'She-RAW' (1987), a spoof of Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman's classy comic magazine RAW, parodying the experimental styles of various regular contributors. Sobocinski also drew 'Con City Comix' (1987) and 'Con Artist' (1989), created during the Chicago Comicon. Among the further contributing creators were T.K. Atherton, Javi Soler, Mark Martin, Wayno, Mack White, Monte Beauchamp, Jim Siergey, George Hansen, Ace Backwords, Jim Conatser, Matt Feazell, Mark D. Janicko and others.
Together with Jim Siergey, Sobocinski wrote and drew the stories 'The Grateful Dead's Concert Conundrum' for Grateful Dead Comix issue #5 and 'Where's Jerry?' for issue #7 (1991), as part of Kitchen Sink Press' celebrity comic series about the rock band The Grateful Dead. In 1992, she also appeared in the second issue of the comic book International Cowgirl Magazine, edited by Mark Ricketts, writing the story 'Beauty Tips for Cowgirls' for Seattle artist Sue Nock. For the sole issue of Dark Horse Comics' 'Urban Legends' comic book (1992), she created the comic story 'The Tale of the Quivering Cactus!'.
'The Man Who Came to Dinner and Lunch and Breakfast' (American Splendor #15, June 1990).
American Splendor
As a solo comic artist, Sobocinski drew stories for Harvey Pekar's slice-of-life alternative comic book series American Splendor. In issue #15 (June 1990), she drew 'The Man Who Came to Dinner and Lunch and Breakfast', which was a notable stylistic break for the series. First of all because it was a parody of Art Spiegelman's 'Maus', and secondly because it made use of anthropomorphic animals. While Pekar liked 'Maus' as an "overall good and significant work" with a "moving and informative narrative", he was critical of some elements, on which he elaborated in issue #113 of The Comics Journal (December 1986). He disliked the way Spiegelman treated and portrayed his father in this graphic novel and also felt the use of anthropomorphic animals to represent certain people in 'Maus' was problematic since it perpetuated ethnic stereotypes. Sobocinski, on her part, had already spoofed Spiegelman's magazine RAW with the 1986 mini comic 'She-RAW'.
In 'The Man Who Came To Dinner and Lunch and Breakfast', Sobocinski imitates the graphic look of 'Maus' for a gag about the Jewish mouse Herschel, who stays at the house of a Polish pig, Ziggy, to hide from the Nazis. Herschel keeps prolonging his stay until he is still crashing at Ziggy's place half a century later. The comic surprised quite some long-time fans of 'American Splendor'. Ziggy and Herschel even ask the rhetoric questions: "Is this meant to foster Polish-Jewish solidarity? Or to ridicule? What's sacred?" In the credit byline, Pekar and Sobocinski emphasized their own respective Jewish and Polish roots by adding their very ethnic middle names.
Sobocinski also illustrated two conversations between Pekar and his autistic friend Toby Radloff, respectively titled 'Serial/Cereal' (American Splendor, issue #16) and 'The Last Word in Answers' (American Splendor, issue #17).
'Serial/Cereal' (American Splendor #16, 1991).
Editor and writer
In the late 1980s, Sobocinski co-created the political satire tabloid The Chicago Spitune with Jay Lynch and Jim Siergey. Releasing the title anonymously, the creators could viciously mock everybody and everything without fear of reprisals. In a way, it preceded the satirical news weekly The Onion, launched in August 1988 in Madison, Wisconsin. In the early 1990s, she was managing editor of the free monthly Chicago newspaper Planet, where she turned the paper's comics pages into a showcare for area cartoonists like Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Skip Williamson, Jay Lynch, Tom Roberts, Jim Siergey, Gary Leib, Terry LaBan, and Larry Marder. By 1992, she was also contributing to the new Chicago-based humor magazine Bonus!.
The Comics Journal controversy
In 1993, Sobocinski had a short but tumultuous stint as managing editor of The Comics Journal at Fantagraphics, leaving after a widely covered fall-out with director Gary Groth about her journalistic ethics. Controversy arose about the way she had her journalist Doug Ogg cover the take-over of Kevin Eastman's Tundra Press by Denis Kitchen's Kitchen Sink Press, without being too critical or investigative. On top of that, Sobocinski allegedly returned internal documents to Denis Kitchen that The Comics Journal had received under the table, and tried to pit her co-workers against the Fantagraphics management. In his editorial for TCJ #161, Gary Groth fumed about how Sobocinski was immediately offered a job at Kitchen Sink Press, speculating that she had been a mole for the company all along. However, Denis Kitchen strongly refuted this allegation, saying that he had only asked her to join his company after she was let go. In her final editorial in The Comics Journal #160, Sobocinski herself painted a picture of The Comics Journal an "old boys network", where polarization arose over a new feminist perspective and ingrained racist views. Following her discharge, Sobocinski was sued by Fantagraphics Books for "misappropriation of trade secrets, monies owed and for injunctive relief".
In the months that followed the in-depth report of Carole Sobocinski's dismissal, The Comics Journal received many critical letters, mostly because the magazine had used so many pages to smear one of their former co-workers. In addition, the Fantagraphics offices were plagued by pranks and other harassment. These included posters on Seattle telephone poles with a high school era picture of Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thomson, fake calls to local comic collectives of a supposed Fantagraphics Promotions Manager and several of the Fantagraphics entourage being sent tiny rubber penises which were supposed to represent Gary Groth's. In issue #165, The Comics Journal even printed a critical letter by comic writer Peter David, followed by a fierce reply by Gary Groth, which a month later turned out to be fake.
The perpetrator of these pranks was never revealed, and by the time they happened, Carole Sobicinski herself had already relocated to Northampton, Massachusetts, to become the personal assistant of Denis Kitchen at Kitchen Sink Press. However, her stint there was also short-lived, as she resigned from her position in 1994 to pursue a career outside comics, relocating to Michigan. In 1996, Sobocinski interviewed Robert Crumb for the newly-founded magazine Shake.
Carol Lynch
Because of her work, Sobocinski spent periods of time in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, the Pacific Northwest and Chicago, where in the 1980s she met the underground comix artist Jay Lynch. At the time, she was working as a programming assistant for ABC television, while taking some cartooning classes from Jay Lynch at the Chicago Art Institute. For a while, they were only friends, but later romance blossomed and the two got married - for Lynch this was his second marriage. Due to an error on their marriage certificate, she was listed as "Carol" instead of "Carole". The couple often collaborated, with Sobocinski doing mostly inking, lettering or coloring jobs, for instance on Topps Chewing Gum's 'Wacky Packages', and particularly the 'Garbage Pail Kids' trading cards series.
At the suggestion of cartoonist Art Spiegelman, Jay and Carol Lynch moved to Binghampton, New York in 2000, and subsequently relocated to Candor in 2005. During the early 2000s, the couple collaborated on the creation of fine art paintings, which they signed with "Kringo". For many years, it was unknown who was behind the Kringo identity, until a 2012 auction revealed Jay Lynch's involvement. During this period, Carol was active with designing websites. After about 20 years of marriage, Lynch and Sobocinski divorced.
Later life and death
Moving to Albany, New York, Sobocinski began producing work under the pseudonym ArtQueen. She was active as a painter, sculptor and mixed media artist. Recurring themes in her work were urban landscapes, tributes to indigenous people's works, Eastern religions, portraits, and watercolors of flora and fauna. In addition, she created, produced, and hosted an audio livestream on DLive that celebrated the ukulele. For years, she also participated in National Novel Writing Month, and later in life, she was invested in natural gardening.
Her ex-husband Jay Lynch passed away in 2017. Carole Sobocinski survived him for almost nine years and died from cancer in 2026 at age 73.
'The Last Word in Answers' (American Splendor #17, July 1993).