Underground Comix Artist BILL GRIFFITH ZIPPY THE PIN HEAD ORIGINAL DAILY

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US, Item: 176297368009 Underground Comix Artist BILL GRIFFITH ZIPPY THE PIN HEAD ORIGINAL DAILY. Underground Comix Artist BILL GRIFFITH ZIPPY THE PIN HEAD ORIGINAL DAILY ART OBTAINED DIRECTLY FROM THE ARTIST William Henry Jackson Griffith is an American cartoonist who signs his work Bill Griffith and Griffy. He is best known for his surreal daily comic strip Zippy. The catchphrase "Are we having fun yet?" is credited to Griffith


William Henry Jackson Griffith (born January 20, 1944) is an American cartoonist who signs his work Bill Griffith and Griffy. He is best known for his surreal daily comic strip Zippy.[3] The catchphrase "Are we having fun yet?" is credited to Griffith.[4] Over his career, which started in the underground comix era, Griffith has worked with the industry's leading underground/alternative publishers, including Print Mint, Last Gasp, Rip Off Press, Kitchen Sink, and Fantagraphics Books. He co-edited the notable comics anthologies Arcade and Young Lust, and has contributed comics and illustrations to a variety of publications, including National Lampoon, High Times, The New Yorker, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Early life, family and education Born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, Griffith grew up in Levittown on Long Island. He is the great-grandson and namesake of the photographer and artist William Henry Jackson[5][6] (Jackson died at age 99 just two years before Griffith was born). One of Griffith's neighbors was science fiction illustrator Ed Emshwiller, whom Griffith credits with pointing him toward the world of art.[7] Griffith, his father and his mother all served as models for Emshwiller at one time or another; a very young Griffith appears (along with his father) on the cover of the September 1957 issue of Science Fiction Stories.[8] For over a decade, starting in 1957, Griffith's mother Barbara had an affair with cartoonist Lawrence Lariar; this formed the basis of a 2015 graphic novel by Griffith.[6] While attending Brooklyn's Pratt Institute in 1963, Griffith saw a screening of the 1932 Tod Browning film Freaks. As he said in a later interview, "I was fascinated by the pinheads in the introductory scene and asked the projectionist (who I knew) if he could slow down the film so I could hear what they were saying better. He did and I loved the poetic, random dialog. Little did I know that Zippy was being planted in my fevered brain."[9] Griffith graduated with an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Graphic Design from Pratt in 1964.[10][11] Career Underground comix For a short period in the late 1960s, Griffith joined a team of artists that included Kim Deitch, Drew Friedman, Jay Lynch, Norman Saunders, Art Spiegelman, Bhob Stewart and Tom Sutton,[12] who designed Wacky Packages trading cards for the Topps Company. Later, Griffith drew new "Wacky Packages Old School Sketch Cards" for Topps.[citation needed] In 1969, Griffith began making underground comix,[3] first in New York City.[13] His first comic strips, which appeared in the East Village Other and Screw magazine, featured an angry amphibian named Mr. The Toad,[3] who showed up later in a solo comics series and then as a recurring character in Zippy. Griffith ventured to San Francisco, California in 1970[3] to join its burgeoning underground comix movement.[13] He quickly gained a reputation for his willingness to collaborate and organize: one of his first acts upon arriving in San Francisco was to help form the United Cartoon Workers of America,[14] along with Robert Crumb, Justin Green, Art Spiegelman, Spain Rodriguez, Roger Brand, Michele Brand, and Griffith's sister Nancy.[15] (The U.C.W. of A. brand appeared on a number of comix from that era.) Young Lust, an "X-rated parody of girl's romance comics"[16] that Griffith co-founded and edited with cartoonist Jay Kinney, was a huge hit upon its 1970 debut,[17] with the first issue enjoying multiple printings.[18] The title eventually published eight issues, with the last one appearing in 1993 (with a ten-year gap between issues #6 and #7). In 1973, Griffith was one of the founding members of Cartoonists' Co-op Press, along with Kim Deitch, Jerry Lane, Jay Lynch, Willy Murphy, Diane Noomin, and Spiegelman.[19] The press was a short-lived self-publishing cooperative that operated out of Griffith's apartment.[20] It was founded as an alternative to the existing underground presses, which were perceived as not being honest with their accounting practices.[21] (For example, Griffith's popular anthology, Young Lust, ran through three publishers — Company & Sons, Print Mint, and Last Gasp — in its first three issues.) Griffith's solo title, Tales of Toad, had a three-issue run from 1970 to 1973, published first by the Print Mint and then Cartoonists' Co-op Press. The main character, Mr. Toad, is a humanoid toad who embodies blind greed and selfishness.[22] Griffith's weekly comic strip Griffith Observatory (a play on the tourist attraction of the same name) was distributed by the Rip Off Press Syndicate in the late 1970s.[23] Material from the strip was published in Rip Off Comix (Rip Off Press) and Arcade, and then collected, first by Rip Off Press in 1979,[24] and then in an expanded edition by Fantagraphics in 1993. Arcade In 1975, after many years of gestation,[25] Griffith and Spiegelman debuted the magazine-sized anthology Arcade, the Comics Revue, published by the Print Mint. Arriving late in the underground era, Arcade stood out from similar publications by having an ambitious editorial plan, in which Spiegelman and Griffith attempted to show how comics connected to the broader realms of artistic and literary culture.[26][27] Arcade also introduced comic strips from ages past, as well as contemporary literary pieces by writers such as William S. Burroughs and Charles Bukowski,[28] and illustrated nonfiction pieces by writers like Paul Krassner and J. Hoberman. Soon after the magazine's debut, however, co-editor Spiegelman moved back to his original home of New York City,[29] which put most of the editorial work for Arcade on the shoulders of Griffith and his new partner (later wife), Diane Noomin. This, combined with distribution problems, retailer indifference, and a general failure to find a devoted audience,[27] led to the magazine's 1976 demise after seven issues. Nonetheless, many observers credit Arcade with paving the way for the Spiegelman-edited anthology Raw, the flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement.[27] Zippy Main article: Zippy the Pinhead The first Zippy story appeared in the underground comic Real Pulp #1 (Print Mint) in 1971.[30] As Griffith said of that story, "I was asked to contribute a few pages to Real Pulp Comics #1, edited by Roger Brand. His only guideline was to say 'Maybe do some kind of love story, but with really weird people.' I never imagined I'd still be putting words into Zippy's fast-moving mouth some 38 years later."[9] Zippy's original appearance was partly inspired by the microcephalic Schlitzie, from the film Freaks, which was enjoying something of a cult revival at the time; as well as the P. T. Barnum sideshow performer Zip the Pinhead, who may not have been a microcephalic but was nevertheless billed as one.[31] The Zippy strip went weekly in 1976, first in the underground newspaper the Berkeley Barb and then syndicated nationally through the Rip Off Press Syndicate.[32][3] At this point, Zippy strips began appearing regularly in High Times magazine . In 1979, Griffith added his alter ego character, Griffy,[16] to the strip. He describes Griffy as "neurotic, self-righteous and opinionated, someone with whom Zippy would certainly contrast. I brought the two characters together around 1979, perhaps symbolically bringing together the two halves of my personality. It worked. Their relationship seemed to make Zippy's random nuttiness more directed and Griffy's cranky, critical persona had his foil, someone to bounce happily off of his constant analysis of everything and everyone around him."[33] In 1979–1980, Last Gasp published a three-issue Zippy comics series, with much of the material made up of strips that had appeared in High Times. At first titled Yow[34] (which is Zippy's exclamation when he is surprised), the title was changed to Zippy for the final issue.[35] The first full-length Zippy collection, Zippy Stories, was published in 1981 by And/Or Press. The collection was brought back to print by Last Gasp in 1984, and had multiple printings (up through 1995).[36] In 1986, the "Zippy Theme Song" was composed and performed, with lyrics by The B-52s' Fred Schneider and vocals by The Manhattan Transfer's Janis Siegel.[37] Also on the cut are singers Phoebe Snow and Jon Hendricks.[38] The daily Zippy strip (syndicated by King Features Syndicate to over 200[3] newspapers worldwide) started in 1986. Griffith compares the creation of the strip to jazz: "When I'm doing a Zippy strip, I'm aware that I'm weaving elements together, almost improvising, as if I were all the instruments in a little jazz combo, then stepping back constantly to edit and fine-tune. Playing with language is what delights Zippy the most."[39] In October 1994 Griffith toured Cuba for two weeks, during a period of mass exodus, as thousands of Cubans took advantage of President Fidel Castro's decision to permit emigration for a limited time. In early 1995, Griffith published a six-week series of "comics journalism" stories about Cuban culture and politics in Zippy. The Cuba series included transcripts of conversations Griffith had conducted with various Cubans, including artists, government officials, and a Yoruba priestess.[40] Years ago, as continuity comic strips gave way to humor strips, typeset episode subtitles vanished from strips. Griffith keeps the tradition alive by always centering a hand-lettered subtitle above each Zippy strip.[citation needed] In 2007, Griffith began to focus his daily strip on Zippy's "birthplace," Dingburg.[16] In 2008, Griffith presented a talk on Zippy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In it, he laid out his "Top 40 List on Comics and their Creation,” which has been reposted on numerous comics blog posts.[citation needed] Personal life Griffith's younger sister, Nancy,[6] was also involved in the underground comix community.[41] His wife was cartoonist Diane Noomin, whom he began dating in 1973 and married in 1980.[42] They lived together in San Francisco from 1972 to 1998, first in an apartment on Fair Oaks Street, and then in their own house on 25th Street in Diamond Heights.[43] They moved to Hadlyme, Connecticut, in 1998.[13][40] Noomin died of uterine cancer in 2022.[42] Bibliography In January 2012, Fantagraphics published Bill Griffith: Lost and Found, Comics 1969-2003, a 392-page collection of Griffith's early work in underground comics from the East Village Other to his pages for The New Yorker and the National Lampoon in the 1980s and 1990s. Griffith's mother's affair with cartoonist Lawrence Lariar formed the basis of Griffith's 2015 graphic novel memoir, Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Secret Love Affair with a Famous Cartoonist, published by Fantagraphics.[6] Invisible Ink depicts various other details and incidents involving Griffith's family, including his father's physical and psychological abuse of his family members.[44] In 2019, Griffith's graphic biography of Schlitzie, Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Schlitzie the Pinhead, was published by Abrams ComicArts. Griffith revealed in the August 19, 2020, Zippy strip that he was writing and drawing a graphic biography of Nancy cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller. The book, Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller: The Man Who Created Nancy, was published by Harry N. Abrams August 2023. In 2023, Griffith produced a comic book memoir of Diane Noomin and their marriage together, titled The Buildings Are Barking.[45] Zippy comics and books are now published by Fantagraphics Books. Zippy titles (selected) Zippy Stories. Berkeley: And/Or Press, 1981. ISBN 0-915904-58-6. San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1984. ISBN 0-86719-325-5 Nation of Pinheads. Berkeley: And/Or Press, 1982. ISBN 0-915904-71-3 Reprinted, San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1987. ISBN 0-86719-365-4 Zippy strips, 1979–1982. Pointed Behavior. San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1984. ISBN 0-86719-315-8 Zippy strips, 1983–1984. Are We Having Fun Yet? Zippy the Pinhead's 29-Day Guide to Random Activities and Arbitrary Donuts. New York: Dutton, 1985. ISBN 0-525-48184-2 Reprinted, Seattle: Fantagraphics, 1994. ISBN 1-56097-149-5 Pindemonium. San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1986. ISBN 0-86719-348-4 Zippy strips, 1985–1986. King Pin: New Zippy Strips. New York: Dutton, 1987. ISBN 0-525-48330-6 Zippy strips, 1986–7. Pinhead's Progress: More Zippy Strips. New York: Dutton, 1989. ISBN 0-525-48468-X Zippy strips, 1987–8. From A to Zippy: Getting There Is All the Fun. New York: Penguin Books, 1991. ISBN 0-14-014988-0 Zippy strips, 1988–90. Zippy's House of Fun: 54 Months of Sundays. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 1995. ISBN 1-56097-162-2 (Color strips, May 1990 - September 1994) Zippy and beyond: A Pinhead's Progress - Comic Strips, Stories, Travel Sketches and Animation Material. San Francisco: Cartoon Art Museum, 1997. Zippy Quarterly (eighteen collections, published from January, 1993 until March, 1998) - no ISBN identification for these publications Zippy Annual: A millennial melange of microcephalic malapropisms and metaphysical muzak. ("Vol. 1", "Impressions based on random data".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2000. ISBN 1-56097-351-X Zippy Annual 2001. ("Vol. 2", "April 2001 - September 2001".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2001. ISBN 1-56097-472-9 Zippy Annual 2002. ("Vol. 3", "September 2001 - October 2002".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2002. ISBN 1-56097-505-9 Zippy Annual 2003. ("Vol. 4", "October 2002 - October 2003".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2003. ISBN 1-56097-563-6 Zippy: From Here to Absurdity. ("Vol. 5", "November 2003 - November 2004".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2004. ISBN 1-56097-618-7 Type Z Personality. ("Vol. 6", "December 2004 - December 2005".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2005, ISBN 1-56097-698-5 Connect the Polka Dots. ("Vol. 7", December 2005 - August 2006".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2006. ISBN 978-1-56097-777-3 Walk a Mile in My Muu-Muu. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2007. ISBN 978-1-56097-877-0 Welcome to Dingburg. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2008. ISBN 978-1-56097-963-0 Ding Dong Daddy from Dingburg. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2010. ISBN 978-1-60699-389-7 Zippy the Pinhead: The Dingburg Diaries. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2013. ISBN 978-1606996416 Zippy the Pinhead is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Zippy, an American comic strip created by Bill Griffith. Zippy's most famous quotation, "Are we having fun yet?", appears in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and became a catchphrase. He almost always wears a yellow muumuu/clown suit[1] with large red polka dots, and puffy, white clown shoes.[2] (Other forms of attire may be seen when appropriate to the context, e.g. a toga.) Although in name and appearance, Zippy is a microcephalic, he is distinctive not so much for his skull shape, or for any identifiable form of brain damage, but for his enthusiasm for philosophical non sequiturs ("All life is a blur of Republicans and meat!"), verbal free association, and pursuit of popular culture ephemera. His wholehearted devotion to random artifacts satirizes the excesses of consumerism. The character of Zippy the Pinhead initially appeared in underground publications during the 1970s.[3] The Zippy comic is distributed by King Features Syndicate to more than 100 newspapers, and Griffith self-syndicates strips to college newspapers and alternative weeklies. The strip is unique among syndicated multi-panel dailies for its characteristics of literary nonsense, including a near-absence of either straightforward gags or continuous narrative, and for its unusually intricate artwork, which is reminiscent of the style of Griffith's 1970s underground comix. Origin Zippy made his first appearance in Real Pulp Comics #1 in March 1971, published by Print Mint.[4] In a 2008 interview with Alex Dueben, Griffith recalled how it all began: I first saw the 1932 Tod Browning film Freaks in 1963 at a screening at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where I was attending art school. I was fascinated by the pinheads in the introductory scene and asked the projectionist (who I knew) if he could slow down the film so I could hear what they were saying better. He did and I loved the poetic, random dialog. Little did I know that Zippy was being planted in my fevered brain. Later, in San Francisco in 1970, I was asked to contribute a few pages to Real Pulp Comics #1, edited by cartoonist Roger Brand. His only guideline was to say "Maybe do some kind of love story, but with really weird people." I never imagined I'd still be putting words into Zippy's fast-moving mouth some 38 years later.[5] The strip began in the Berkeley Barb in 1976 and was syndicated nationally soon after (by Rip Off Press),[6] originally as a weekly strip. When William Randolph Hearst III took over the San Francisco Examiner in 1985, he offered Griffith an opportunity to do Zippy as a daily strip. Several months later it was picked up for worldwide daily distribution by King Features Syndicate in 1986, appearing in 60 daily papers by 1988.[6] The Sunday Zippy debuted in 1990. When the San Francisco Chronicle canceled Zippy briefly in 2002, the newspaper received thousands of letters of protest, including one from Robert Crumb, who called Zippy "by far the very best daily comic strip that exists in America."[citation needed] The Chronicle quickly restored the strip but dropped it again in 2004, leading to more protests as well as grateful letters from non-fans.[citation needed] The strip has developed a cult following[7] and continues to be syndicated in many newspapers. Characters and story Zippy's original appearance was partly inspired by the microcephalic Schlitzie, from the film Freaks, which was enjoying something of a cult revival at the time, and P. T. Barnum's sideshow performer Zip the Pinhead, who may not have been a microcephalic but was nevertheless billed as one.[8] Griffith has never committed himself to a set origin story for Zippy; no fewer than five have appeared: a strange visitor from another planet a pinhead who wandered away from the circus an android whose inventor didn't live to see its imperfections the secret identity of a jaded heir to a fortune who decided to apply Zen to everyday life a college student who inexplicably turned into a pinhead Griffith also never committed himself to any set time period or home location for Zippy. Griffith compares the creation of the strip to jazz: "When I'm doing a Zippy strip, I'm aware that I'm weaving elements together, almost improvising, as if I were all the instruments in a little jazz combo, then stepping back constantly to edit and fine-tune. Playing with language is what delights Zippy the most."[9] Zippy's favorite foods are taco sauce and Ding Dongs.[10] He sometimes snacks on Polysorbate 80. Zippy's signature expression of surprise is "Yow!" Zippy's unpredictable behavior sometimes causes severe difficulty for others, but never for himself. (For example, drug dealers tried to use him as a drug mule, but lost their stash or were jailed.) He is married to a nearly identical pinhead named Zerbina, has two children, Fuelrod (a boy) and Meltdown (a girl), both apparently in their early teens, and owns a cat named Dingy. His parents, Ebb and Flo, originally from Kansas, live in Florida. Zippy's angst-ridden twin brother Lippy also frequently appears. He is portrayed as Zippy's total opposite, often dressed in a conservative suit, thinking sequentially, and avoiding his brother's penchant for non-sequiturs. In a daily strip dated 8 March 2005, he is depicted as being deeply moved by the poetry of Leonard Cohen, the landscape paintings of Maxfield Parrish, and the music of John Tesh.[11] He has four close friends: Claude Funston, a hapless working man Griffy, a stand-in for Bill Griffith, who often appears in the strip to complain about various aspects of modern life to Zippy, who encourages him to mellow out Shelf-Life, a fast-talking schemer always looking for "the next big thing" Vizeen Nurney, a 20-something lounge singer who, despite her rebellious image, has an optimistic and sympathetic nature A humanoid toad, Mr. Toad (less commonly "Mr. the Toad") who embodies blind greed and selfishness, appears occasionally (along with his wife, Mrs. Toad, and their children, Mustang and Blazer), as do The Toadettes, a group of mindless and interchangeable amphibians, who pop up here and there; and the Stupidity Patrol, described by Bill Griffith as "cruising the streets of L.A., correcting the behavior of insensitive louts".[12] (Mr. Toad first appeared in underground strips done by Griffith in 1969.)[13] The actual sign for the San Francisco Doggie Diner, commonly portrayed in the comic strip as one of Zippy's conversational foils Another occasionally occurring character is God, appearing either as a disembodied head or a head superimposed on various peoples' bodies. He is depicted as either conversing with Zippy on various philosophical topics, or commenting on humanity in general.[14] In his daily-strip incarnation, Zippy spends much of his time traveling and commenting on interesting places; recent strips focus on his fascination with roadside icons featuring giant beings; Zippy also frequently participates in his long-running conversation with the giant fiberglass doggie mascot of San Francisco's Doggie Diner chain (later, the Carousel diner near the San Francisco Zoo). For a while the Zippy website encouraged people to send photos of interesting places for Zippy to visit in the strip. In 2007, Griffith began to focus his daily strip on the fictional city of Dingburg, Maryland, Zippy's "birthplace" which, according to the cartoonist, is located "17 miles west of Baltimore."[15] Griffith said: "Over the years, I began to expand Zippy's circle of friends beyond my usual cast of characters to a wider world of people like Zippy--other pinheads. I kept this up for a few months, happily adding more and more muumuu-clad men and women until one day the whole thing just reached critical mass. The thought then occurred, 'Where do all these friends of Zippy live? Do they live in the real world which Zippy has been seen escaping for years—or do they live apart, in a pinhead world of their own?' Thus Dingburg, 'The City Inhabited Entirely by Pinheads' was born. It even had a motto: 'Going too far is half the pleasure of not getting anywhere'. The logical next step was to imagine Dingburg streets and neighborhoods—to create a place where Zippy's wacky rules would be the norm and everyone would play 24-hour Skeeball and worship at the feet of the giant Muffler Man. Zippy had, at last, found his hometown." In regard to Zippy's famous catchphrase, at the 2003 University of Florida Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels, Griffith recalled the phone call from Bartlett's: "When Bartlett's approached me ... five or six years ago, I got a call from the editor. And he was going to give me credit for the 'Are we having fun yet' saying, but he wanted to know exactly where Zippy had first said it. I did some research (I had no idea), and I eventually found... the strip 'Back to Pinhead, the Punks and the Monks,' from Yow #2[a] in 1979... That's the first time he said, 'Are we having fun yet?' Certainly not intended by me to be anything more than another non sequitur coming out of Zippy's mind."[16] Appearances elsewhere Following rumors of a Zippy movie project that was never consummated, Griffith devoted dozens of strips to his real and imagined dealings with Hollywood. An animated television series, to be produced by Film Roman and co-written by Diane Noomin, was in negotiations from 1996 to 2001. On July 9, 2004, Zippy made his stage debut in San Francisco in Fun: The Concept at the Dark Room Theatre. Bill Griffith approved of the adaptation, though he did not work on the project. Fun: The Concept was adapted by Denzil J. Meyers with Jim Fourniadis.[17] A collection of about 1,000 Zippy quotes was formerly packaged and distributed with the Emacs text editor. Some installations of the "fortune" command, available on most Unix-type systems, also contain this collection. This gives Zippy a very wide audience, since most Emacs users can have a random Zippy quote printed on their screen by typing "M-x yow" and most Linux or BSD users can get a random quote by typing "fortune zippy" in a shell. However, as a result of a decision by Richard Stallman prompted by FSF lawyer Eben Moglen, motivated by copyright concerns,[18] these quotes were erased in GNU Emacs 22.[19] Zippy under emacs now will only say "Yow! Legally-imposed CULTURE-reduction is CABBAGE-BRAINED!".[20] Zippy can be restored by replacing the yow file with one from an older Emacs. After Griffith criticized Scott Adams' comic Dilbert for being "a kind of childish, depleted shell of a once-vibrant medium,"[21] Adams responded a year and half later on May 18, 1998, with a comic strip called Pippy the Ziphead, "cramming as much artwork in as possible so no one will notice there's only one joke... [and] it's on the reader."[22] Dilbert notes that the strip is "nothing but a clown with a small head who says random things" and Dogbert responds that he is "maintaining his artistic integrity by creating a comic that no one will enjoy."[23] Zippy also makes an appearance in the 1995 round-robin work The Narrative Corpse where he takes the stick figure protagonist to Croatia for "peace and quiet". Another appearance can be found in the Ramones' comic book-themed 2005 compilation Weird Tales of the Ramones, consisting of Zippy asking to play "air glockenspiel" for the band. Books Zippy Stories. Berkeley: And/Or Press, 1981. ISBN 0-915904-58-6. San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1986. ISBN 0-86719-325-5. Nation of Pinheads. Berkeley: And/Or Press, 1982. ISBN 0-915904-71-3. Reprinted, San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1987. ISBN 0-86719-365-4. Zippy strips, 1979–1982. Pointed Behavior. San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1984. ISBN 0-86719-315-8. Zippy strips, 1983–1984. Are We Having Fun Yet? Zippy the Pinhead's 29 Day Guide to Random Activities and Arbitrary Donuts. New York: Dutton, 1985. ISBN 0-525-48184-2. Reprinted, Seattle: Fantagraphics, 1994. ISBN 1-56097-149-5. Pindemonium. San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1986. ISBN 0-86719-348-4. Zippy strips, 1985–1986. King Pin: New Zippy Strips. New York: Dutton, 1987. ISBN 0-525-48330-6. Zippy strips, 1986–7. Pinhead's Progress: More Zippy Strips. New York: Dutton, 1989. ISBN 0-525-48468-X. Zippy strips, 1987–8. From A to Zippy: Getting There Is All the Fun. New York: Penguin Books, 1991. ISBN 0-14-014988-0. Zippy strips, 1988–90. Zippy's House of Fun: 54 Months of Sundays. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 1995. ISBN 1-56097-162-2. (Color strips, May 1990 – September 1994.) Zippy and Beyond: A Pinhead's Progress—Comic Strips, Stories, Travel Sketches and Animation Material. San Francisco: Cartoon Art Museum, 1997. Zippy Quarterly (eighteen collections, published from January, 1993 until March, 1998)—no ISBN identification for these publications. Zippy Annual: A Millennial Melange of Microcephalic Malapropisms and Metaphysical Muzak. ("Vol. 1", "Impressions Based on Random Data".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2000. ISBN 1-56097-351-X. Zippy Annual 2001. ("Vol. 2", "April 2001 – September 2001".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2001. ISBN 1-56097-472-9. Zippy Annual 2002. ("Vol. 3", "September 2001 – October 2002".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2002. ISBN 1-56097-505-9. Zippy Annual 2003. ("Vol. 4", "October 2002 – October 2003".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2003. ISBN 1-56097-563-6. Zippy: From Here to Absurdity. ("Vol. 5", "November 2003 – November 2004".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2004. ISBN 1-56097-618-7. Type Z Personality. ("Vol. 6", "December 2004 – December 2005".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2005, ISBN 1-56097-698-5. Connect the Polka Dots. ("Vol. 7", December 2005 – August 2006".) Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2006. ISBN 978-1-56097-777-3. Walk a Mile in My Muu-Muu. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2007. ISBN 978-1-56097-877-0. Welcome to Dingburg. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2008. ISBN 978-1-56097-963-0. Ding Dong Daddy from Dingburg. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2010. ISBN 978-1-60699-389-7. Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality, and violence. They were most popular in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s, and in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Barbara "Willy" Mendes, Trina Robbins and numerous other cartoonists created underground titles that were popular with readers within the counterculture scene. Punk had its own comic artists like Gary Panter. Long after their heyday, underground comix gained prominence with films and television shows influenced by the movement and with mainstream comic books, but their legacy is most obvious with alternative comics. History United States The United States underground comics scene emerged in the 1960s, focusing on subjects dear to the counterculture: recreational drug use, politics, rock music, and free love. The underground comix scene had its strongest success in the United States between 1968 and 1975,[1] with titles initially distributed primarily though head shops.[2] Underground comix often featured covers intended to appeal to the drug culture, and imitated LSD-inspired posters to increase sales.[1] These titles were termed "comix" in order to differentiate them from mainstream publications. The "X" also emphasized the X-rated contents of the publications.[1] Many of the common aspects of the underground comix scene were in response to the strong restrictions forced upon mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, which refused publications featuring depictions of violence, sexuality, drug use, and socially relevant content, all of which appeared in greater levels in underground comix.[1] Robert Crumb stated that the appeal of underground comix was their lack of censorship: "People forget that that was what it was all about. That was why we did it. We didn't have anybody standing over us saying 'No, you can't draw this' or 'You can't show that'. We could do whatever we wanted".[1] Antecedents Between the late 1920s and late 1940s, anonymous underground artists produced counterfeit pornographic comic books featuring unauthorized depictions of popular comic strip characters engaging in sexual activities. Often referred to as Tijuana bibles, these books are often considered the predecessors of the underground comix scene.[3][4] American comix were strongly influenced by 1950s EC Comics and especially magazines edited by Harvey Kurtzman, including Mad (which first appeared in 1952).[1] Kurtzman's Help! magazine, published from 1960 to 1965, featured the works of artists who would later become well known in the underground comix scene, including R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton.[1] Other artists published work in college magazines before becoming known in the underground scene.[1] 1962–1968: Early history Early underground comix appeared sporadically in the early- and mid-1960s, but did not begin to appear frequently until after 1967. The first underground comix were personal works produced for friends of the artists. Perhaps the earliest of the underground comic strips was Frank Stack's (under the pseudonym Foolbert Sturgeon)[5][6] The Adventures of Jesus, begun in 1962 and compiled in photocopied zine form by Gilbert Shelton in 1964. It has been credited as the first underground comic.[5][6] Shelton's own Wonder Wart-Hog appeared in the college humor magazine Bacchanal #1-2 in 1962. Jack Jackson's God Nose, published in Texas in 1964,[7][8] has also been given that title. One guide lists two other underground comix from that year, Vaughn Bodē's Das Kampf and Charles Plymell's Robert Ronnie Branaman.[9] Joel Beck began contributing a full-page comic each week to the underground newspaper the Berkeley Barb and his full-length comic Lenny of Laredo was published in 1965.[10] Another underground paper, the East Village Other, was an important precursor to the underground comix movement, featuring comic strips by artists including Crumb, Shelton, Kim Deitch, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, and Art Spiegelman before true underground comix emerged from San Francisco with the first issue of Zap Comix. Zap and many of the first true underground comix publications began with reprints of comic strip pages which first appeared in underground papers like the East Village Other, the Berkeley Barb, and Yarrowstalks.[1][a] 1968–1972: Underground's "Golden Age" In February 1968, in San Francisco, Robert Crumb published (with the help of poet Charles Plymell and Don Donahue of Apex Novelties)[11] his first solo comic, Zap Comix. The title was financially successful and almost single-handedly developed a market for underground comix. Within a few issues, Zap began to feature other cartoonists — including S. Clay Wilson, Robert Williams, Spain Rodriguez, and Gilbert Shelton — and Crumb launched a series of solo titles, including Despair, Uneeda (both published by Print Mint in 1969), Big Ass Comics, R. Crumb's Comics and Stories, Motor City Comics (all published by Rip Off Press in 1969), Home Grown Funnies (Kitchen Sink Press, 1971) and Hytone Comix (Apex Novelties, 1971), in addition to founding the pornographic anthologies Jiz and Snatch (both Apex Novelties, 1969).[1] The San Francisco Bay Area was an epicenter of the underground comix movement; Crumb and many other underground cartoonists lived in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in the mid-to-late 1960s.[12] Just as importantly, the major underground publishers were all based in the area: Don Donahue's Apex Novelties, Gary Arlington's San Francisco Comic Book Company, and Rip Off Press were all headquartered in the city, with Ron Turner's Last Gasp and the Print Mint based in Berkeley.[13] Last Gasp later moved to San Francisco. By the end of the 1960s, there was recognition of the movement by a major American museum when the Corcoran Gallery of Art staged an exhibition, The Phonus Balonus Show (May 20-June 15, 1969). Curated by Bhob Stewart for famed museum director Walter Hopps, it included work by Crumb, Shelton, Vaughn Bodé, Kim Deitch, Jay Lynch and others.[14][15] Crumb's best known underground features included Whiteman, Angelfood McSpade, Fritz the Cat, and Mr. Natural. Crumb also drew himself as a character, caricaturing himself as a self-loathing, sex-obsessed intellectual.[1] While Crumb's work was often praised for its social commentary, he was also criticized for the misogyny that appeared within his comics. Trina Robbins said: "It's weird to me how willing people are to overlook the hideous darkness in Crumb's work... What the hell is funny about rape and murder?"[1] Because of his popularity, many underground cartoonists tried to imitate Crumb's work.[1] While Zap was the best-known anthology of the scene, other anthologies appeared, including Bijou Funnies, a Chicago publication edited by Jay Lynch and heavily influenced by Mad.[1] The San Francisco anthology Young Lust (Company & Sons, 1970), which parodied the 1950s romance genre, featured works by Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman. Another anthology, Bizarre Sex (Kitchen Sink, 1972), was influenced by science fiction comics and included art by Denis Kitchen and Richard "Grass" Green, one of the few African-American comix creators.[1] Other important underground cartoonists of the era included Shelton, Wilson, Deitch, Rodriguez, Skip Williamson, Rick Griffin, George Metzger, and Victor Moscoso. Shelton became famous for his characters Wonder Wart-Hog, a superhero parody, and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, a strip about a trio of "freaks" whose time is spent attempting to acquire drugs and avoid the police, both of which first appeared in the self-published Feds 'N' Heads in 1968.[1] Wilson's work is permeated by shocking violence and ugly sex; he contributed to Zap and created the infamous The Checkered Demon,[1] a portly, shirtless being who is frequently called upon to kill the various demented bikers, pirates, and rapists who populate Wilson's universe. Spain worked for the East Village Other before becoming known within underground comix for Trashman and his solo titles Zodiac Mindwarp and Subvert.[1] Williamson created his character Snappy Sammy Smoot, appearing in several titles. Underground horror comics also became popular, with titles such as Skull (Rip Off Press, 1970), Bogeyman (San Francisco Comic Book Company, 1969), Fantagor (Richard Corben, 1970), Insect Fear (Print Mint, 1970), Up From the Deep (Rip Off Press, 1971), Death Rattle (Kitchen Sink, 1972), Gory Stories (Shroud, 1972), Deviant Slice (Print Mint, 1972) and Two Fisted Zombies (Last Gasp, 1973). Many of these were strongly influenced by 1950s EC Comics like Tales from the Crypt.[1] The male-dominated scene produced many blatantly misogynistic works, but female underground cartoonists made strong marks as well. Edited by Trina Robbins, It Ain't Me, Babe, published by Last Gasp in 1970, was the first all-female underground comic;[1] followed in 1972 by Wimmen's Comix (Last Gasp), an anthology series founded by cartoonist Patrica Moodian that featured (among others) Melinda Gebbie, Lynda Barry, Aline Kominsky, and Shary Flenniken. Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli's Tits & Clits Comix all-female anthology debuted in 1972 as well. 1972–1975: Controversy and recognition By 1972–1973, the city's Mission District was "underground headquarters": living and operating out of The Mission in that period were Gary Arlington, Roger Brand, Kim Deitch, Don Donahue, Shary Flenniken, Justin Green, Bill Griffith & Diane Noomin, Rory Hayes, Jay Kinney, Bobby London, Ted Richards, Trina Robbins, Joe Schenkman, Larry Todd, Patricia Moodian and Art Spiegelman.[16] Mainstream publications such as Playboy and National Lampoon began to publish comics and art similar to that of underground comix.[1] The underground movement also prompted older professional comic book artists to try their hand in the alternate press. Wally Wood published witzend in 1966, soon passing the title on to artist-editor Bill Pearson. In 1969, Wood created Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon, intended for distribution to armed forces bases. Steve Ditko gave full vent to his Ayn Rand-inspired philosophy in Mr. A and Avenging World (1973). In 1975, Flo Steinberg, Stan Lee's former secretary at Marvel Comics, published Big Apple Comix, featuring underground work by ostensibly "mainstream" artists she knew from Marvel. Film and television began to reflect the influence of underground comix in the 1970s, starting with the release of Ralph Bakshi's Crumb adaptation, Fritz the Cat, the first animated film to receive an X rating from the MPAA.[2] Further adult-oriented animated films based on or influenced by underground comix followed, including The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat and Down and Dirty Duck.[2] The influence of underground comix has also been attributed to films such as The Lord of the Rings (1978) and Forbidden Zone (1980).[2] The animation sequences – created by Help! contributor Terry Gilliam – and surrealistic humor of Monty Python's Flying Circus have also been partly attributed to the influence of the underground comix scene.[1][2] Despite the form's influence on the culture at large, however, by 1972 only four major underground publishers remained in operation: the Print Mint, Rip Off Press, Last Gasp, and Krupp Comic Works (Kitchen Sink Press).[17] For much of the 1970s, Rip Off Press operated a syndication service, managed by cartoonist and co-owner Gilbert Shelton, that sold weekly comix content to alternative newspapers and student publications.[18] Each Friday, the company sent out a distribution sheet with the strips it was selling, by such cartoonists as Shelton, Joel Beck, Dave Sheridan, Ted Richards, Bill Griffith, and Harry Driggs (as R. Diggs). The syndicate petered out by 1979; much of the material produced for it was eventually published in the company's long-running anthology Rip Off Comix, which had debuted in 1977. Griffith's strip, Zippy, which had debuted in 1976 as a weekly strip with the syndicate,[19] was eventually picked up for daily syndication by King Features Syndicate in 1986. Critics of the underground comix scene claimed that the publications were socially irresponsible, and glorified violence, sex and drug use.[1] In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Miller v. California, ruled that local communities could decide their own First Amendment standards with reference to obscenity. In the mid-1970s, sale of drug paraphernalia was outlawed in many places, and the distribution network for these comics (and the underground newspapers) dried up, leaving mail order as the only commercial outlet for underground titles.[2] In 1974, Marvel launched Comix Book, requesting that underground artists submit significantly less explicit work appropriate for newsstands sales.[1] A number of underground artists agreed to contribute work, including Spiegelman, Robbins and S. Clay Wilson, but Comix Book did not sell well and lasted only five issues.[1][20] In 1976, Marvel achieved success with Howard the Duck, a satirical comic aimed at adult audiences that was inspired by the underground comix scene. While it did not depict the explicit content that was often featured in underground comix, it was more socially relevant than anything Marvel had previously published.[1] By the mid-1970s, independent publishers began to release book-length collections of underground comics. Quick Fox/Links Books released two important collections, The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics, published in 1974, and The Best of Bijou Funnies, released in 1975. The Apex Treasury featured work by Crumb, Deitch, Griffith, Spain, Shelton, Spiegelman, Lynch, Shary Flenniken, Justin Green, Bobby London, and Willy Murphy;[21] while the Bijou Funnies book highlighted comics by Lynch, Green, Crumb, Shelton, Spiegelman, Deitch, Skip Williamson, Jay Kinney, Evert Geradts, Rory Hayes, Dan Clyne, and Jim Osborne.[22] Similarly, and around this time, the publishing cooperative And/Or Press published The Young Lust Reader (1974), a "best-of" collection from Griffith and Kinney's Young Lust anthology, and Dave Sheridan and Fred Schrier's The Overland Vegetable Stagecoach presents Mindwarp: An Anthology (1975). And/Or Press later published the first paperback collections of Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead comics. 1975–1982: The underground era comes to a close By this time, some artists, including Art Spiegelman, felt that the underground comix scene had become less creative than it had been in the past. According to Spiegelman: "What had seemed like a revolution simply deflated into a lifestyle. Underground comics were stereotyped as dealing only with Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills. They got stuffed back into the closet, along with bong pipes and love beads, as Things Started To Get Uglier".[1] One of the last major underground titles was Arcade: The Comics Revue, co-edited by Spiegelman and Bill Griffith. With the underground movement encountering a slowdown, Spiegelman and Griffith conceived of Arcade as a "safe berth", featuring contributions from such major underground figures as Robert Armstrong, Robert Crumb, Justin Green, Aline Kominsky, Jay Lynch, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, and S. Clay Wilson (as well as Griffith and Spiegelman). Arcade stood out from similar publications by having an editorial plan, in which Spiegelman and Griffith attempted to show how comics connected to the broader realms of artistic and literary culture.[23] Arcade lasted seven issues, from 1975 to 1976. Autobiographical comics began to come into prominence in 1976, with the premiere of Harvey Pekar's self-published comic American Splendor, which featured art by several cartoonists associated with the underground, including Crumb.[1] Comics critic Jared Gardner asserts that, while underground comix was associated with countercultural iconoclasm, the movement's most enduring legacy was to be autobiography.[24] In the late 1970s, Marvel and DC Comics agreed to sell their comics on a no-return basis with large discounts to comic book retailers; this led to later deals that helped underground publishers.[2] During this period, underground titles focusing on feminist and Gay Liberation themes began to appear, as well as comics associated with the environmental movement.[1] Anarchy Comics focused on left-wing politics, while Barney Steel's Armageddon focused on anarcho-capitalism.[25] British underground cartoonists also created political titles, but they did not sell as well as American political comics.[1] Artists influenced by the underground comix scene, who were unable to get work published by better-known underground publications, began self-publishing their own small press, photocopied comic books, known as minicomics.[26] The punk subculture began to influence underground comix.[27] 1982–present In 1982, the distribution of underground comix changed through the emergence of specialty stores.[2] In response to attempts by mainstream publishers to appeal to adult audiences, alternative comics emerged, focusing on many of the same themes as underground comix, as well as publishing experimental work.[27] Artists formally in the underground comix scene began to associate themselves with alternative comics, including Crumb, Deitch, Griffith, Lynda Barry, and Justin Green.[27] In the 1980s, sexual comics came into prominence, integrating sex into storylines rather than utilizing sexual explicitness for shock value.[27] The first of these features was Omaha the Cat Dancer, which made its first appearance in an issue of the zine Vootie. Inspired by Fritz the Cat, Omaha the Cat Dancer focused on an anthropomorphic feline stripper.[28] Other comix with a sexual focus included Melody, based on the life story of Sylvie Rancourt and Cherry, a comedic sex comic featuring art similar in style to that of Archie Comics.[27][28] In 1985, Griffith's comic strip Zippy the Pinhead — which originally appeared in underground titles — was syndicated as a daily feature by King Features.[2] Between 1980 and 1991 Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus was serialized in Raw, and published in two volumes in 1986 and 1991. It was followed by an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art and a Pulitzer Prize for Spiegelman in 1992. The novel originated from a three-page story first published in an underground comic, Funny Aminals [sic], (Apex Novelties, 1972).[2] Alternative cartoonist Peter Bagge was strongly influenced by underground comics,[27] and was reciprocally admired by Crumb, for whom Bagge edited Weirdo magazine in the 1980s; he could be considered part of a "second generation" of underground-type cartoonists, including such notables as Mike Diana, Johnny Ryan, Bob Fingerman, David Heatley, Danny Hellman, Julie Doucet, Jim Woodring, Ivan Brunetti, Gary Leib, Doug Allen, and Ed Piskor. Many of these artists were published by Fantagraphics Books, which was founded in 1977 and through the 1980s and '90s became a major publisher of alternative and underground cartoonists' work. As of the 2010s, reprints of early underground comix continue to sell alongside modern underground publications.[2] The 2010s Foreskin Man, a comic book published to protest against circumcision, has been referred to as "comix" by some reviewers.[29] United Kingdom OZ London, No.33, February 1971; art by Norman Lindsay British cartoonists were introduced in the underground publications International Times (IT), founded in 1966, and Oz founded in 1967, which reprinted some American material.[1] During a visit to London, American comics artist Larry Hama created original material for IT.[30] The first UK comix mag was Cyclops, started in July 1970 by IT staff members. In a bid to alleviate its ongoing financial problems, IT brought out Nasty Tales (1971), which was soon prosecuted for obscenity. Despite appearing before the censorious Old Bailey Judge Alan King-Hamilton, the publishers were acquitted by the jury.[31][32] In the wake of its own high-profile obscenity trial, Oz launched cOZmic Comics in 1972, printing a mixture of new British underground strips and old American work. When Oz closed down the following year cOZmic Comics was continued by fledgling media tycoon Felix Dennis and his company, Cozmic Comics/H. Bunch Associates, which published from 1972 to 1975.[33] While the American underground comix scene was beginning to decline, the British scene came into prominence between 1973 and 1974, but soon faced the same kind of criticism that American underground comix received.[1] UK-based underground cartoonists included Chris Welch, Edward Barker, Michael J. Weller, Malcolm Livingstone, William Rankin (aka Wyndham Raine), Dave Gibbons, Joe Petagno, Bryan Talbot, and the team of Martin Sudden, Jay Jeff Jones and Brian Bolland.[1] The last UK underground comix series of note was Brainstorm Comix (1975–1978), which featured only original British strips (mostly by Bryan Talbot). Hassle Free Press was founded in London in 1975 by Tony and Carol Bennett as a publisher and distributor of underground books and comics. Now known as Knockabout Comics, the company has a long-standing relationship with underground comix pioneers Gilbert Shelton and Robert Crumb, as well as British creators like Hunt Emerson and Bryan Talbot. Knockabout has frequently suffered from prosecutions from U.K. customs, who have seized work by creators such as Crumb and Melinda Gebbie, claiming it to be obscene.[34][35] The 1990s witnessed a renaissance in the genre in the United Kingdom, through titles like Brain Damage, Viz, and others. Archives After the death of King Features Syndicate editor Jay Kennedy, his personal underground comix collection was acquired by the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Ohio. The University of California, Berkeley's Bancroft Library has a large underground comix collection, especially related to Bay Area publications; much of it was built by a deposit account at Gary Arlington's San Francisco Comic Book Store. The collection also includes titles from New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. The Rhode Island School of Design's Fleet Library acquired a thousand-item collection of underground comix through a donation by Bill Adler in 2021.[36] See also Keep On Truckin' Doujinshi, self-published manga Silver Age of Comic Books Bronze Age of Comic Books Alternative comics or independent comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which in the past have dominated the American comic book industry. Alternative comic books span a wide range of genres, artistic styles, and subjects. Alternative comics are often published in small numbers with less regard for regular distribution schedules. Many alternative comics have variously been labelled post-underground comics, independent comics, indie comics, auteur comics, small press comics, new wave comics, creator-owned comics, art comics,[1] or literary comics.[2][3] Many self-published "minicomics" also fall under the "alternative" umbrella. From underground to alternative By the mid-1970s, artists within the underground comix scene felt that it had become less creative than it had been in the past. According to Art Spiegelman, "What had seemed like a revolution simply deflated into a lifestyle. Underground comics were stereotyped as dealing only with sex, dope and cheap thrills. They got stuffed back into the closet, along with bong pipes and love beads, as things started to get uglier."[4] In an attempt to address this, underground cartoonists moved to start magazines that anthologized new, artistically ambitious comics in the 1980s. RAW, a lavishly produced, large format anthology that was clearly intended to be seen as a work of art was founded by Spiegelman and his wife Françoise Mouly in 1980. Another magazine, Weirdo, was started by the leading figure in underground comix, Robert Crumb, in 1981. These magazines reflected changes from the days of the underground comix. They had different formats from the old comix, and the selection of artists differed, too. RAW featured many European artists, Weirdo included photo-funnies and strange outsider art-type documents. Elfquest was based on a science fiction/fantasy theme with powerful female and male characters of varied races and cultures, and done in a bright and colourful manga-like style. The underground staples of sex, drugs and revolution were much less in evidence. More emphasis was placed on developing the craft of comics drawing and storytelling, with many artists aiming for work that was both subtler and more complex than was typical in the underground. This was true of much of the new work done by the established comix artists as well as the newcomers: Art Spiegelman's Maus, much celebrated for bringing a new seriousness to comics, was serialized in RAW. While fans debate the origins of self-publishing in the comics industry, many consider Dave Sim an early leader in this area. Starting in 1977, he primarily wrote, drew and published Cerebus the Aardvark, on his own under the "Aardvark-Vanaheim Inc." imprint and announcing he would publish 300 issues of the series consecutively, something unheard of at the time for a self-published book. Sim is known for his activism in favor of creators' rights and his outspoken nature in regards to the industry. He often used the back of his comic to deliver "messages from the President", which were sometimes editorials concerning the comics industry and self-publishing. Wendy and Richard Pini founded WaRP Graphics, one of the early American independent comics publishers, in 1977 and released the first issues of their long-running series, Elfquest, in February 1978. They followed with titles such as MythAdventures and related titles by Robert Asprin; and Thunder Bunny, created by Martin Greim. WaRP was also the original publisher of A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran. As an alternative to most of the masculine-themed comics of its time – and even to this day – Elfquest became enormously popular among female comic book fans around the world, while also drawing a solid male fan base. WaRP Graphics paved the way for many independent and alternative comic book creators who came after them. At its peak in the mid-1980s, Elfquest was selling 100,000 copies per issue in the initial print run, attracting one of the largest followings of any direct-sale comic.[5] Most issues up to No. 9 saw multiple printings. It was the visible success of Elfquest that inspired many other writers and artists to try their own hand at self-publishing.[6] Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a series by Mirage Studios, was very influential on a new generation of creators and became a huge success story of self publishing. Jeff Smith, a friend of Dave Sim, was also very influential in self-published comics, creating the highly popular and long-lived Bone. As with Sim with Cerebus and unlike mainstream comic books stories with their spontaneously generated and rambling narratives, Smith produced Bone as a story with a planned end. The publishing house Fantagraphics published the work of a new generation of artists, notably Love and Rockets by the brothers Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez.[7] Dan DeBono published Indy – The Independent Comic Guide, a magazine covering only independent comics starting in 1994. It ran for 18 issues and featured covers by Daniel Clowes, Tim Vigil, Drew Hayes, William Tucci, Jeff Smith and Wendy and Richard Pini.[8] Alternative comics have increasingly established themselves within the larger culture, as evidenced by the success of the feature film Ghost World based on one of the best selling alternative titles, Eightball, by Daniel Clowes and the cross-genre success of the book Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, by Chris Ware, a story that was serialized in Ware's comic, Acme Novelty Library. Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics publish many alternative comics. Notable examples include Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, Sergio Aragonés's Groo the Wanderer, and James O'Barr's The Crow. Oni Press used the term "real mainstream", coined by Stephen Holland of the UK comic shop Page 45, to describe its output.[9] Traditional American comic books regard superhero titles as "mainstream" and all other genres as "non-mainstream", a reversal of the perception in other countries. Oni Press therefore adopted the "real mainstream" term to suggest that it publishes comic books and graphic novels whose subject matter is more in line with the popular genres of other media: thrillers, romances, realistic drama and so on. Oni Press avoids publishing superhero, fantasy and science fiction titles, unless interesting creators approach these concepts from an unusual angle. Top Shelf Productions has published many notable alternative comics such as Craig Thompson's Blankets and Alex Robinson's Box Office Poison. In 2010 they branched out into unusual Japanese manga, with the release of AX:alternative manga (edited by Sean Michael Wilson). This 400-page collection received a high level of critical praise. List of publishers Though categories might overlap, this list makes a division between more strictly "alternative" comics and independent publishers operating primarily in the action-adventure, crime, horror and movie/TV-tie in genres. Alternative comics Alternative Comics (1993–present) L'Association (France) (1990–present) Black Eye Productions (1992–1998) Buenaventura Press/Pigeon Press (2004–2010; 2010–2016) Callworks Inc. (2009–present) Cat-Head Comics (1980–1998) Conundrum Press (Canada) (1995–present) Drawn & Quarterly (Canada) (1991–present) Fantagraphics Books (1976–present) First Second Books (2006–present); division of Holtzbrinck Highwater Books (1997–2004) Kitchen Sink Press (1970–1999) Koyama Press (2007–present) Last Gasp (1970–present); originally an underground publisher; hasn't published original comics since c. 2005 Gator Graphix (1986-1988) Mineshaft Magazine (1999–present) MU Press (1990–c. 2006) NBM Publishing (1984–present) Neoglyphic Media (2012–present) Pantheon Books graphic novel division (1978–present); subsidiary of Random House Sacred Mountain (1998–present) Silver Sprocket (2012–present) Slave Labor Graphics/Amaze Ink (1986–present) Space Face Books (2011–present) Sparkplug Comics (2002–2016) Starhead Comix (1984–c. 1999) Top Shelf Productions (1997–present) Township Comics (2016–present) Vortex Comics (Canada) (1982–1994) World War 3 Illustrated (1980–present) Independent A Wave Blue World (????–present) Aardvark-Vanaheim (1977–present) Abrams ComicArts (????–present); Imprint of Abrams Books Action Lab Comics (2010–present) AfterShock Comics (2015–present) Albatross Funnybooks (????–present) Alterna Comics (2006– present) Amulet Books (????–present); Imprint of Abrams Books Antarctic Press (1984–present) Apollo Comics (2016–present) Apple Comics (1986–1994) Attaboy Funny Books (2014–present) Aspen Comics (2003–present) Asylum Press (1999–present) Avatar Press (1996–present) Arcana Comics (2004–present) Ark Vindicta Development & Publishing, LLC (2012–present )[10] Bedside Press (2014–present) Beyond Comics (????–present) Black Mask Studios (2012–present) Blackthorne Publishing (1985–1990) Blue Juice Comics (2012–present) Boom! Studios (2005–present) Caliber Comics (1989–2000) Class Comics (1995–present) Comico (1982–1997) Continüm Comics (1988–1994) Creative Impulse Entertainment (????–present) CrossGen (Cross Generation Entertainment) (1998–2004) Darby Pop Publishing (2013–present) Dark Horse Comics (1986–present) Desperado Publishing (2005–present); IDW Publishing imprint since 2009 Devil's Due Publishing (1999–present) Diego Comics Publishing (2012–present) Drawn & Quarterly (1990–present) Dynamite Entertainment (2005–present) Eclipse Comics (1978–1994) Emerald Star Comics (2013–present) Event Comics (1994–1999); absorbed by Marvel Comics FantaCo Enterprises (1978–1998) Fierce Comics (2005–present) First Comics (1983–1991) The Fourth Age (2021-present) Harrier Comics (U.K.) (1984–1989) Harris Comics (1985–2008) Hyperwerks (1997–present) IDW Publishing (2000–present) Image Comics (1992–present) In Planet Studio (2010–present) Iron Circus Comics (2007-present) keenspot (2000–present) Lion Forge Comics (2011–present) Malibu Comics (1986–1994); absorbed by Marvel Comics Markosia (2005–present) Millennium Publications (1990–2000) MonkeyBrain Books (????–present) Moonstone Books (1995–present) NBM Publishing (1976, 1984–present) NOW Comics (1985–2006) Oni Press (1997–present) Papercutz (2005–present) Pendulum Press (1970–1994) Personality Comics (1991–1993) Radical Comics (2007–present) Raw Studios (????–present) Raytoons Comics (2007–present) Red 5 Comics (2007–present) Revolutionary Comics (1989–1994) Rippaverse (2022-present) Shadowline (1993–present) SketchBoox Entertainment (2015–present) Slave Labor Graphics (1986–present) So Cherry Studios (2014–present) So What? Press (2011–present) TidalWave Productions (2007–present) Udon Entertainment (2000–present) Un Faulduo (2005–present) Urban Comics (2012–present) Valiant Comics (1989–1996, 2012–present) Viper Comics (????–present) Wanga Comics (2005–present) WaRP Graphics (1977–present) Zenescope Entertainment (2005–present) See also Abstract comics Alternative manga Fumetti d'autore A BILL GRIFFITH BIO "Are we having fun yet?" This non sequitur utterance by the clown-suited philosopher/media star Zippy the Pinhead has become so oft-quoted that it is now in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Zippy has in fact become an international icon, even appearing on the (former) Berlin Wall. Zippy's creator, Bill Griffith, began his comics career in New York City in 1969. His first strips were published in the East Village Other and Screw Magazine and featured an angry amphibian named Mr. The Toad. He ventured to San Francisco in 1970 to join the burgeoning underground comics movement and made his home there until 1998. His first major comic book titles included Tales of Toad and Young Lust, a best-selling series parodying romance comics of the time.He was co-editor of Arcade, The Comics Revue for its seven issue run in the mid-70s and worked with the important underground publishers throughout the seventies and up to the present: Print Mint, Last Gasp, Rip Off Press, Kitchen Sink and Fantagraphics Books. The first Zippy strip appeared in Real Pulp #1 (Print Mint) in 1970. The strip went weekly in 1976, first in the Berkeley Barb and then syndicated nationally through Rip Off Press. In 1980 weekly syndication was taken over by Zipsynd (later Pinhead Productions), owned and operated by the artist. Zippy also appeared in the pages of the National Lampoon and High Times from 1977 to 1984. In 1985 the San Francisco Examiner asked Griffith to do Zippy six days a week, and in 1986 he was approached by King Features Syndicate to take the daily strip to a national audience.Sunday color strips began running in 1990. Today Zippy appears in over 200 newspapers worldwide. There have been over a dozen paperback collections of Griffith's work and numerous comic book and magazine appearances, both here and abroad. He became an irregular contributor to The New Yorker in 1994. Griffith's inspiration for Zippy came from several sources, among them the sideshow "pinheads" in Tod Browning's 1932 film Freaks. The name "Zippy" springs from "Zip the What-Is-It?" a "freak" exhibited by P.T. Barnum from 1864 to 1926. Zip's real name was William Henry Jackson (below), born in 1842. Coincidentally, Griffith (as he discovered in 1975, five years after creating Zippy) bears the same name. He was born William Henry Jackson Griffith (in 1944), named after his great-grandfather, well-known photographer of the Old West William H. Jackson (1842-1941). Griffith presently lives and works in East Haddam, Connecticut with his wife, cartoonist Diane Noomin. Photo below from 1985. Griffith shown with longtime Zippy stand-in Ron Brannan. Below: Griffith's illustrious Great-Grandfather, William Henry Jackson, at the Treasure Island World's Fair in San Francisco, 1939 (age 97). Below: Bill Griffith in his studio, May 31, 2008. ANOTHER BILL GRIFFITH BIO (from "Current Biography", 2001) Zippy the Pinhead, a comic strip by the cartoonist Bill Griffith, features a demented microcephalic in a polka-dotted muumuu who spouts surreal aphorisms. The strip is, according to some, a delightfully bizarre social commentary; it appears daily in more than 200 newspapers nationwide, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe. Griffith's strips are collected in the Zippy Quarterly, as well as a number of books, including Kingpin, Zippy's House of Fun. His work has also been reprinted in German, French, Swedish, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Finnish, and Spanish, and it has been featured in the New Yorker, National Lampoon, and various comics magazines, such as Arcade, Yow, and Weirdo. Griffith, a member of the San Francisco underground art scene, appeared in John O'Hagan's 1997 documentary Wonderland, a hilarious look at the suburban development in Levittown, Long Island, where the cartoonist was raised. Zippy has been the subject of at least two doctoral dissertations and has also been cited as the inspiration for Saturday Night Live's popular recurring characters the Coneheads. "A lot of people write angry letters saying Zippy is stupid," Griffith told Mark Anderson for the Monthly (February 2000). "And that's why they don't get it: because it is stupid." Initially referred to as Danny, Zippy is a microcephalic clown based in part on the "pinheads" who appeared in Tod Browning's classic 1932 horror film, Freaks. In addition to the uncommon shape of their heads, microcephalics are known for their childlike personalities and rapid-fire speech. "Their scrambled attention spans struck me as a metaphor for the way we get our doses of reality these days," Griffith told Jon Randall and Wesley Joost for an interview in Goblin Magazine that was reprinted on Zippy the Pinhead's official home page. "The kind of fractured, short term information overload that we're all exposed to every day." Griffith was also inspired by old posters of Zip the What-Is-It?, an actual microcephalic who was featured in the Barnum & Bailey sideshow from 1864 to 1926. (In 1975 Griffith became aware of a remarkable coincidence--he and Zip the What-Is-It? shared the same name. Griffith was named William Henry Jackson after his great-grandfather, the old West photographer William H. Jackson; Zip the What-Is-It? was born William Henry Jackson, in 1842.) Griffith also had the good fortune to meet Dooley, an actual "pinhead" whom a friend in Connecticut drove to work every day. The cartoonist took notes as Dooley explained why Walter Cronkite was God and uttered a dizzying stream of non sequiturs such as "Are you still an alcoholic?" Similarly, Zippy responds to most situations with seemingly out-of-context phrases including: "I just accepted provolone into my life," "I just became one with my browser software," "Frivolity is a stern taskmaster," and "All life is a blur of Republicans and meat." Although several people, including the comedienne Carol Burnett, claimed to have created it, the phrase "Are we having fun yet?" was in fact first uttered by Zippy in the mid-70s and has been immortalized in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. "It is an expression of the American existential dilemma, of anxiousness," Griffith explained to John Marshall for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (July 1, 1992). "The phrase is supposed to be satirical, but lots of people don't see the subtext." Griffith tolerated the line's appearance on countless bootleg T-shirts and bumper stickers, but was particularly disturbed when it began to be repeated by such mainstream cartoon characters as Garfield, Dennis the Menace, and Ziggy. Griffith described Zippy to Carolyn Baptista for the New York Times (July 11, 1999) as a "walking subconscious." Zippy behaves like a Zen master engaged in a gleeful exploration of pop culture. "Zippy is living in the moment," Griffith explained to Baptista. "He's at peace with himself because he's out of step with everyone; he doesn't know it, and he doesn't care. . . . Zippy has no problem with the irrationality of the universe, whereas most of us are desperately trying to make order out of the universe, and our lives. Zippy accepts chaos as what it is, which is the real order of everything." Zippy enjoys ding dongs and taco sauce, and can often be found meditating about the washer at his local laundromat. Most strips consist of a dialogue between Zippy and Griffy, the cartoonist's neurotic alter ego, a judgmental type who comments on the inescapable vapidity of consumer culture. In a conversation with Gary Groth for the Comics Journal (March 1993), Griffith described their relationship as the "manifestation of an inner dialogue" between "the critic and the fool." "I think Zippy is part of me, but I'm not Zippy. Whereas I'm more Griffy than I am not Griffy. . . . Without that dialogue, the strip would probably sink into surrealism, or, in Griffy's case, mere ranting and raving." Other characters include the lovesick barroom philosopher Claude Funston; Zippy's wife, Zerbina; and their children, Fuelrod and Meltdown. Although he admires the work of many of his contemporaries, including Ben Katchor, Matt Groening, and Mike Judge, Griffith has often lamented the dumbing down of popular comic strips. He longs for the days when newspapers printed graphically compelling and well-written stories, such as Chester Gould's Dick Tracy and George Herriman's Krazy Kat. In an article celebrating the 100th anniversary of the comic strip, which appeared in the Boston Globe on November 10, 1996 and was reprinted on Zippy's home page, Griffith explained that the shrinking space allotted for comics has led to a dulling of certain artists' ambitions. "In this Darwinian set-up, what thrives are simply drawn panels, minimal dialogue, and a lot of head-and-shoulder shots. Anything more complicated is deemed 'too hard to read.' A full, rich drawing style is a drawback. Simplicity, even crudity, rules. . . . What we're left with is a kind of childish, depleted shell of a once-vibrant medium. Comics is a language. It's a language most people understand intuitively. If cartoonists use a large and varied 'vocabulary' to entertain their readers, those readers will usually come along for the ride." Bill Griffith was born on January 20, 1944 in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. He became interested in comics as a boy, reading MAD magazine and following the adventures of Uncle Scrooge, Little Lulu, and Plastic Man, but abandoned them for fine art in his teenage years. His father was a career army man, whom Griffith described to Jon Randall and Wesley Joost as a "completely frustrated, miserable human being"; his mother was a science-fiction writer who later wrote for True Confessions. "She encouraged any artistic impulse I had, and my father discouraged any artistic impulse I had," Griffith recalled to Randall and Joost. "I had a very diametrically opposite set of parents," he told Gary Groth. "Very understanding, hip, smart, creative mother, and a very authoritarian, screwed-up, angry father." Encouraged along with many other World War II veterans to retire, Griffith's father left the army; he later reluctantly accepted a demotion to return to military service as an ROTC instructor. In 1955 Griffith's family moved to a ranch house in Levittown, New York, where scores of identical homes had been quickly constructed for World War II veterans by the developer William Levitt. "I always thought of Levittown as a joke," he told Keith Bearden for Lowest Common Denominator (Summer 1999), a print and on-line magazine from the producers of the New Jersey radio station WFMU. "But it wasn't a joke to my parents. Levittown was a dream come true. They never thought in a million years they'd ever be able to own a house. But if you were a GI, coming back from the war--no money down. Unfortunately what came out of it was also kind of an imitation community with a lot of mindless conformity." Griffith found the atmosphere of 1950s suburban America stifling. "There was a deep sense of absurdity in Levittown, this kind of self-conscious striving to be the ideal suburb, the ideal American Leave-It-to-Beaver-Land," he was quoted as saying by Manuel Mendoza in the Dallas Morning News (July 7, 1997, on-line). "It had kind of a stage set quality to me, like we were all acting out some kind of TV sitcom and everybody was reading lines and there was a laugh track in the background." Griffith took solace in his developing friendship with one Levittown neighbor, the illustrator Ed Emshwiller, who designed covers for many science-fiction and mystery books and magazines. "He didn't point me to cartooning, but he pointed me into art in general and showed me a way of understanding how within one artist, there could exist this pop culture impulse and a fine art impulse," Griffith told Gary Groth. Emshwiller recruited Griffith's parents as models on several occasions, but Griffith was most proud when he himself appeared on the cover of the September 1957 issue of Original Science Fiction. Emshwiller depicted the 13-year-old Griffith riding a rocket ship to the moon as his father yelled at him from a video screen. Griffith first encountered the bohemian utopia that was Greenwich Village when he accompanied Emshwiller into New York City for film screenings at Cinema 16, an experimental film group that counted Emshwiller among its members. At 16 Griffith had a few poems published in local literary journals and attended performances by Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan. (In 1978 Griffith chronicled his years living next door to Emshwiller in a strip entitled "Is There Life After Levittown?") Hoping "to become Jackson Pollock Jr." as he put it to Carolyn Baptista, Griffith studied fine art at the Pratt Institute of Technology, in Brooklyn. He met cartoonist Kim Deitch, who introduced him to such work as Little Nemo and Krazy Kat. Griffith was soon drawn to the counterculture comics of R. Crumb and others, and he began to draw again. "My first character was Mr. Toad," he told The World Encyclopedia of Comics (1999), "a mean-spirited amphibian dressed in a tight-fitting tweed suit." Mr. Toad appeared in such underground magazines as Screw and the East Village Other. (It was not until 1992, while working on a series about his father, that the cartoonist realized that his father had been the inspiration for Mr. Toad.) Griffith told Baptista that from the moment that he published his first comic strip, "the wise guy inside me triumphed over the artiste. Of course it took me years and years to realize that it was a demanding craft." In 1970 Griffith moved to San Francisco, which had become a haven for underground artists. Shortly after arriving, he created Young Lust, a parody of 1950s romance comics that featured the adventures of Randy and Cherisse, shopping-mall dwellers who spent a lot of time in therapy; the series was published in 1970. Zippy the Pinhead made his debut in a strip entitled "I Gave My Heart to a Pinhead and He Made a Fool Out of Me," in the first issue of Real Pulp Comics, in 1970. Zippy began as a comic foil for Mr. Toad but quickly superseded the egocentric amphibian. By 1976 Griffith's strips ran weekly in the Berkeley Barb, and his work also appeared in High Times. Arcade was a short-lived magazine that he co-edited with Art Spiegelman, a cartoonist now well known for Maus, his two-volume Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip about the Holocaust. From 1973 to 1974, Griffith also worked with Spiegelman on Topps' Wacky Packages, trading cards with parodies of everyday supermarket products. From 1976 to 1980 he syndicated Zippy through Rip Off Press, a publisher of predominately underground comics; for the next six years, he syndicated the strip himself. For three years, beginning in 1977, Griffith created Griffith Observatory, a satiric look at the people and places he encountered in his daily life. In 1985 William Hearst III took over the San Francisco Examiner, hiring both Griffith and the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. The following year Zippy the Pinhead was picked up for syndication by King Features. Griffith never imagined that he would have the opportunity to create a daily strip; he later discovered that the person who had brought the strip to King Features had been unhappy with his job and intended to use its acquisition as a form of revenge. "He told me he took Zippy because to him, Zippy was like leaving a ticking time bomb on the doorstep of King Features," Griffith told Gary Groth. "Plus he was a big Zippy fan. So he was indulging his taste, and thumbing his nose at his boss as he left." In October 1994 Griffith toured Cuba for two weeks, traveling on a cultural-exchange visa, one of the only legal ways to circumvent the United States' ban on commerce with that nation. He arrived during the final days of a mass exodus, as thousands took advantage of Castro's decision to permit emigration for a limited time and left the island on rafts. Griffith's detailed observations of Cuban culture and politics were published in a six-week series of strips during early 1995. In the strips, in a style Griffith has called "cartoon-o-journalism," Zippy's observations were combined with verbatim transcripts of conversations Griffith had conducted with various Cubans, including artists, government officials, and a Yoruba priestess. In October 1998 Griffith and his wife, the cartoonist Diane Noomin, left San Francisco, as chain stores such as Starbucks began to proliferate and the character of the city changed. They moved to East Haddam, Connecticut, a picturesque town on the banks of the Connecticut River. Griffith's strips have always had a diarylike quality, and Connecticut has provided the artist with plenty of material. "In a movie theater a few days ago, I go to the candy counter, and there's this huge menu--candy, popcorn, ice cream, pickles," he told Carolyn Baptista. "They're selling individual pickles. How does this happen? Where am I? So of course I came home and did a Zippy strip about it. It was too surreal not too." Griffith and Noomin have collaborated on nine drafts of a screenplay for a live-action version of Zippy that has yet to be produced. They have also attempted to develop an animated series. A proposed series for the Showtime cable network came to naught because of budget conflicts, and Griffith has turned down MTV twice because the network insisted on owning the character. Not everyone is amused by Zippy; editors frequently receive angry letters from readers who find the strip incomprehensible. "Suddenly, I'm talking to people in trailer camps in Memphis who say Zippy promotes communism and masturbation," Griffith told James Kindall for New York Newsday (December 11, 1988). Many are baffled by such scenarios as the one in 1998 in which Zippy repeated the phrase "Kaczynski Lewinsky Lipinski Lebowski" in four successive panels; its publication inspired a number of e-mails from distressed readers. The cartoonist told Mark K. Anderson that those who were confused by the strip were most likely unfamiliar with jazz and therefore did not "understand the musicality of language." Griffith believes that it is the nature of satire to be limitless in scope, and that sometimes readers just get lost. "I tend to just go all over the map; satire one day, a surrealist gag the next and a political strip the day after that," he explained to Kindall. "That's one of the reasons Zippy has lasted so long. He can pretty much say or do what he wants. It's almost like he has super powers, but all between his ears. He can't fly but he can move pretty quickly on the ground." The strip can be ambiguous and challenging and has often broached such heady subject matter as existentialism and quantum physics. But Griffith has insisted that he does not intend to be obscure. "I ask the audience to meet it halfway," he told Bob Andelman for Mr. Media (February 17, 1997, on-line). "As a result, I'm self-limiting it to the audience it has. But the 200 papers it's in are 185 more papers than I ever thought it would be in. So I'm happy." Griffith is acutely aware that his brand of satire is not in great demand at present. "People are pretty complacent, but I think we're headed for another big shakeup," he told Keith Bearden. "It's like the '50s, where things were pretty bland, you also got Harvey Kurtzman and Mad and the Beats. But the problem is that business and media [are] incredibly savvy about co-opting rebellion at this point. They own it before it ever has the chance to gel and mature into anything powerful or threatening. It's to the point where you can convince a 30-year-old that it's a form of individuality or rebellion to wear a logo or buy a certain car." Although Zippy's proclamations might seem incoherent at first, Griffith maintains that most of what he says can be decoded with effort. "He may be a pinhead," the cartoonist commented to James Kindall, "but he's not without a point." Griffith sees Zippy's growing cult following as a direct result of the American populace's shortened attention span. "The greatest boon to Zippy has been the remote control devices on TV," he told Kindall. "Zippy's attention span is limited to a 15-second TV commercial. I was doing Zippy way back when people were still having to get up and change the channel. Their attention spans were shrinking but it was still a stretch to get into Zippy's fast-paced, channel-changing mentality. Now they're sitting there going click, click, click. I think there's a price to pay when your brain cells get used to that all night long. They're getting up to Zippy's speed." --C.L. Works by subject Selected Books: Nation of Pinheads, 1982; Pointed Behavior, 1984; Zippy Stories, 1984; Pindemonium, 1986; Pinhead's Progress, 1989; Get Me a Table Without Flies, Harry, 1990; From A to Zippy, 1991; Griffith Observatory, 1993; Zippy's House of Fun, 1995; Zippy Annual, 2000 Works about subject Suggested Reading: Comics Journal p50+ Mar. 1993, with photos; Lowest Common Denominator p8+ Summer 1999; Monthly p5+ February 2000, with photo; New York Times (Connecticut edition) p13 July 11, 1999, with photo; Official Zippy the Pinhead home page; Seattle Post-Intelligencer C p1+ July 1, 1992, with photo; Washington Post B p1 Apr. 8, 1995 Above: "Schlitzie", a.k.a. "The Missing Link", "Monkey Girl" and "The Last Of The Incas", born Simon Metz c. 1892. Died c. 1972. Had parts in two movies; "Freaks" (1932, Tod Browning, dir.) and as "Princess Betsy" in "Meet Boston Blackie" (1941). Shown here in a 1929 San Francisco press release. BELOW: "Schlitzie" Zippy daily from 5/2/02. (NOTE: It was conformed recently in an email from a reader who knew Schlitzie in his later years that Schlitzie was, indeed, a "he"). Below: Introduction to "Nancy Eats Food", 1989, Kitchen Sink Press artoonist Bill Griffith has been a part of the comic counterculture since his childhood, growing up in Brooklyn and Levittown, Long Island in the 1950s. Now a resident of East Haddam and creator of the comic strip Zippy the Pinhead, he celebrates his 80th birthday this January. At 80, Griffith still works full-time. He draws a daily Zippy the Pinhead strip for national syndication, works on graphic novel projects like his latest, Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, The Man Who Created Nancy, and teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. In a recent interview with CT Examiner he reflected on his early path towards a career spent unpacking the subconscious thoughts of a nation via Zippy, a clown-robed microcephalic. January 7, 2024 comic (Courtesy of Bill Griffith) What are your earliest memories of making art? There’s a photograph of me at the age of four, at an artists’ easel, with a brush in my hand. It’s a photograph that my mother took of me, I’m sure. And I’m wearing an artist’s smock. It’s like I’m an official artist. I think she took the picture before I’d created anything on the canvas. I’m dressed up in the costume of an artist, and I have a big smile on my face. Beyond that: when I was in sixth grade, I started doing caricatures of my teachers in school. I remember doing that. And it was gratifying to get a reaction right there in the classroom, in the moment — something that I don’t get with a comic strip. When a girl would laugh, that was the best. I used to spend summers on Cape Cod, and my first attempts to do a watercolor were there, probably at around 7 or 8 years old. But I always felt more confident with a pencil or pen than with a brush. I went to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn not to be a commercial artist, but to be a better painter. But it never quite felt like my medium. All that time I was also doing drawing. It just felt more connected to whatever impulses I had. Painting was a daunting discipline, especially oil paint. Drawing felt totally natural. When I discovered comics, I happily abandoned the brush to do what felt natural. What kinds of art, what artists first inspired you? As a kid from age of 7 until maybe 14, the art I was most attracted to were comics. When I was 7 years old, I discovered Uncle $crooge Comics. These were monthly comics books — one long story, 25-30 page of adventure. Like, Donald Duck and his friends would go on a trip, and Uncle $crooge would get involved. He would get in their way. I paid a subscription to that comic book, 1 dollar for a year. I got into Little Lulu, too. I was aware but it was a girl’s comic, but I still loved it. Little Lulu was also about long narratives. Then when I was about 10 or 11 discovered MAD Magazine. That permanently warped my brain. It told me there was a world outside of my average suburban family, there was a world outside of what I was inhabiting. That was the purpose of MAD. It was designed to shake you up. Tell you, “Your parents are lying to you, the government is lying to you, advertising is lying to you.” The thing is, they were right.  Their response to the world was to take this alternate view of things, to poke fun at things. One of the most powerful tools a cartoonist has is to make fun of things, but you must be aware of punching up and not punching down. When you do satire, you are mocking — you are making fun. If you poke fun at something that is below your station in life — like, if I were to poke fun at homeless people — that would be called punching down. There are some stand-up comedians who do that, and they usually take on a persona to do it. Talk about the cast of personas that you have created in Zippy the Pinhead. First there is Zippy, the multi-layered character you developed based on a circus act. But Zippy has a lot of supporting roles around him. Once you have been doing a comic strip for long enough, you develop a cast of characters. They come into being over time. You start with one of two characters, and over years of constructing narratives, those characters evolve. I have 8 or 9 of them, by now. There’s Zippy, and Griffy, and others: Claude, too. I thought it would be fun if Zippy had a wife, and if Zippy didn’t quite remember they were married, and they would have two children who were more normal than they were. Claude is currently disenchanted with Trump, but he was a Trump supporter for a couple of years. I think that there is a kind of malleability to personality. You can say you are a person with certain views, but you are making that up for yourself. There are Trump supporters — people who are amused by him, people who believe in him — they might have very different takes on Trump. There is no one take on Trump. We all have lots of personas inside. Nobody has just one. It’s fun to play with all these characters. The ones I come back to, they are all aspects of my actual personality. There’s nothing more boring that a character who has only one side to them. What is your weekly work routine to create a comic strip? How long a time from inception to publishing? There are the things that have deadlines. I do 7 strips a week for the national syndication of Zippy the Pinhead. I draw them, scan them, send them. Now it’s all digitalized. They take the weekly batch of strips and send them out to all the newspapers that have subscribed. It takes me between 2-4 days to do the 7 strips a week. Doing a daily strip, you have a license to not be great every day. And I get much more response to my daily strip now than I ever did, because so much of the readership is online now. Newspapers are dying. I hope that I die before the last newspaper dies, but it seems to be happening in slow motion. I have a notebook that I always keep in my pocket, because I never know when an idea will come up, a punchline, an idea. I try to never censor myself. I write it down immediately in my notebook. I sometimes wake up in a twilight zone between sleeping and waking and have an idea. I write it down. Once in a while, I’ll think of an entire strip of panels that way. It’ll happen all of a sudden.  Mostly it isn’t good, but every once in a while, it is good, and I can use it. If I don’t write it down right in the moment, it disappears. But usually, I sit down, and I know I have to do a strip, in which Zippy and one of my other characters — say, Mr. Toad — are going to interact. That is often the inspiration, two characters. That’s where it starts. It tends to have a diary-like quality. It is what I am ruminating on at the current time. Then, there are the things that have no deadlines. There’s no precise rhythm to it, but I always like to have 2 days of the week devoted to my graphic novel output. The latest one is Three Rocks. It’s a graphic biography of the man who created the comic strip Nancy, Ernie Bushmiller. It’s really the story of newspaper comics, from 1920s on through today. He was a part of that story all along. What are the challenges you run into? I don’t have writer’s block but sometimes I have the problem with the wording of a punchline. Punchlines have to work, and they have pacing and rhythm. Literally the way the words come out. I don’t speak my strips out loud, but I do speak them in my head out loud. I try to have a slightly objective view of it. It helps if I pick it up and hold it away from me. And then I can feel if a rhythm is off. Sometimes that involves butting my head against whatever other creative forces are in play. There is no good or bad, but there is a successful delivery or unsuccessful delivery of an idea. Zippy is not a coherently speaking character. People write to me and say, “When I started reading Zippy, I didn’t like it. It didn’t seem like all the other strips. But after six months I started to like it.” Zippy’s wavelength is not the same wavelength as the other comics. They are not doing what I am doing. They are doing something else. The Daily Comics used to be full of innovative work. When I see my strip, it still doesn’t make any sense to me. A cartoonist friend of mine saw Zippy with all the other current comics, and he said it looked like a “gaudy sailboat swimming against the tide.” I thought that was an accurate description. Tell me a little about your teaching at School of Visual Arts. Cartoons are a marriage of drawing and writing. What I find is that students don’t know how to tell a coherent story. You can’t follow it. They are leaving out important things that are under the category of “continuity.” I lobbied successfully for my students to have to take one semester of creative writing. It’s important, to know how to write. Where do my own feelings of rhythm and pacing come from? My mother was a writer. I grew up reading everything. You absorb all kinds of stuff. Without anybody teaching it to you. This is about 25 years ago: I was involved in a Zippy TV show, and I got partnered with a few other writers. They were writers for Seinfeld. I asked one of them, “What did you do, did you write the scripts?” He said, “No, I was the architect.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “The script would be written by other writers, and then I would find out where the pacing and rhythm were off, and I would communicate it to the actors.” A good chunk of Kramer’s one-liners are not all that funny, but his delivery does make it funny. The facial expression, the body movement. Kramer is a great example of how pacing and rhythm make things funny. The essence of a sitcom is not making punchlines that are funny, but having characters that are inherently funny. You can translate that into comics. What are the rewards for you, in your work? My biggest satisfaction in the daily strip is making people laugh. I feel rewarded and I feel successful when that happens. I get much more response to my daily strip now than I ever did, because so much of the readership is online now. But for me, nowadays, the response comes indirectly — it comes through email. It doesn’t come through as instantaneous laughter, like an actor receives it. I’m an introvert, not an actor. I found the profession that makes sense for me. But I remember there was a comedy group of 4 or 5 men, back when I was living in San Francisco. They asked me to write sketches of my comic strips for them to perform. So I did that, I wrote sketches for them. The first time I went to see them, in a small coffee house with about 25 or 30 people — that was a real endorphin rush. I saw people right there, laughing at the lines I wrote.
  • Condition: Used
  • Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
  • Illustrator: BILL GRIFFITH
  • Character: ZIPPY THE PINHEAD

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