Background
Larmee was born in New York City to the artist Kevin Larmee and grew up in Chicago, Illinois.
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Blaise Larmee
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He is a graduate of Colorado College and a former fellow at CCS. His time at CCS resulted in a public apology. Larmee"s work tends to polarize his viewers insofar as it is considered an extension of his critical writing and online performance. Sean T. Collins called Larmee"s comics "beautiful, thoughtful, and unique enough to get by on their own" but lamented Larmee"s "deeply unfortunate internet persona." In a review of Young Lions, Dan Nadel wrote, lieutenant is also, most obviously, the work of a young man (born in 1985) trying to understand the mythologies he’s constructed for himself.
That is the second, and for me, most intriguing narrative here, and one inseparable from Larmee’s writing on art and comics." Writing for The Comics Journal, Rob Clough noted, "lieutenant is difficult to separate Larmee’s theories from his actual work," and called Larmee "an artist obsessed with the underpinnings of art and a hyperacute awareness of an artist’s relationship with both one’s peers and the culture at large." In 2009 Larmee was included alongside fellow cartoonist Jason Overby in Abstract Comics: The Anthology (Fantagraphics).
Leading up to the book"s release, the two founded the blog Comets Comets, which became known for polemic essays and an embrace of troll culture. Larmee"s writing for this blog established the atmosphere in which Young Lions was received.
In April 2010 Larmee"s first book, Young Lions, was published. The book garnered a Xeric grant and an Ignatz nomination for Promising New Talent.
In the book"s sole blurb, David Heatley wrote, "Blaise Larmee is making thoughtful, refreshing, beautiful comics that you can drink with your eyes." While reviews of the book tended to be positive, the subject of the author himself was polarizing.
Larmee repeatedly described his creative process as "sarcastic" and agreed that "public discourse is inseparable from the book itself." In 2011 The Canada Border Services Agency seized copies of Young Lions in Buffalo, New York on suspicion of obscenity. After reviewing the book, the agency declared Young Lions to be legally obscene and banned its importation into Canada. 2001 Larmee began serializing the webcomic 2001 on his personal website in 2011.
In 2013 new versions of the characters began to appear in gifs and circulated web imagery.
Comets Comets 2dcloud published the comic Comets Comets as a zine in 2014. lieutenant was reprinted in The Best American Comics 2015.
3 Books 2dcloud appointed Larmee as marketing director in 2015 and published 3 Books as part of their Spring Collection. The omnibus comprises Nudes (2012), Amateurs (2014), and Ice Cream Kisses (2015).
Within months of releasing Young Lions, Larmee founded the publishing company and announced The Whale by Aidan Koch as its first publication.
2001 New York City Walking Notes usart.
