Mollie Cronin
MA Student
Gender Studies
Supervisor: Jane Tolmie
Research interests: Comics and Sequential Art; Fat Studies; Art History
Mollie Cronin is a cartoonist, illustrator, arts writer, and educator from Kjipuktuk (Halifax, NS). She received a BA in Art History from NSCAD University in 2015 before accidentally becoming a cartoonist that same year. Under the pen-name "Art Brat Comics", Cronin creates comics and illustrations celebrating fat bodies, cleverly clawing at systems that uphold fatphobia and intolerance. Her work also uses humour to explore gendered dynamics in relationships, grief and loss, and the realities and particularities of living in a small town/city. Her work has appeared on television shows, in books, as tattoos, and as a monthly strip comic in an Alt-Weekly newspaper. Cronin has taught several comic courses in the extended studies program at NSCAD and has lectured at Dalhousie and U of T on the same topics. Her thesis will focus on the representations of fat femininity in comics, exploring depictions of fat feminized characters such as Cathy, Marvel's Big Bertha, Lee Marrs' "Pudge: Girl Blimp" and more.