270

Summary

Informative, colorful mixed-media work that bridges nature science and fine art – quintessential comics with an ornithological bend.
An artist's field guide on owls and owl behavior. Maggie Umber once again takes readers into nature, showing the beauty and sophistication of animals in their natural habitats. 270° is an educational glimpse of owls found in North America and beyond.

Umber captures the spirit of nature — its glory and grace — in her beautifully crafted, mixed media comics.
— Alyssa Berg, ALPENGLOW
Maggie Umber's 270° is beautiful to experience and the narrative engrossing. I was pulled in to the reality of the Owls. A fascinating read, gorgeously depicted.
— Mike Dawson, WHY DID THEY COME?
When 270°, Maggie Umber's second beautifully illustrated book on owls reached me I could not put it down until I had absorbed all its delightful owl and other artwork from cover to cover. This book will turn heads and make the viewers turn pages. The playful layout and creative and diverse artwork seduces the reader into absorbing the subtle but factual information woven throughout these pages. The words sometimes blend into the images, like grass, twigs and branches of the owls' habitats. Maggie has created a book of owls that reminds even the most objective owl scientists like me that there are other aesthetically pleasing ways to know owls.
— Dr. James Duncan, Balmoral, Manitoba, Canada

A handspun collage of prints, pen-and-ink sketches, and thickly textured paintings that serve as an ode to the mysterious species. The bird portraits are striking and graceful—on one page, the face of an expressive, intelligent owl is juxtaposed with abstract earth-tone strokes that evoke both mottled tree bark and detailed feathers.
— Publishers Weekly
Umber wraps these styles around plain language, and while it might be tempting to err on the side of poetry with these kinds of works, I think Umber's choice is best, rendering a full experience that captures the multiple aspects of owls, both scientific and mythological.
— The Comics Beat

✍ Debuted at TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival), 2018
✍ 5/12/18 Artist Panel "Mixed Media Comics" moderated by Glenn Downey with James Kochalka, Ryan Barnet, Michael Comeau, Toronto Comics Art Festival, Toronto, Canada
✍ 5/25-6/10/18 Plants & Animals, The Learning Machine, Chicago, IL. Curated by Rebecca LADIDA
✍ 3/1-31/23 VIOLET, CPG show at The Optimist Gallery at Depression Press Mfg. & Ink, Inc., Chicago, IL. Curated by Chicago Printers Guild
✍ original art held in several private collections

Credits: video and 270° art by Maggie Umber.

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