George Metzger

Last updated
George Metzger
Born1939 (age 8485)
Illinois, U.S.
Area(s) Cartoonist
Notable works
Moondog

George Metzger (born 1939) is an American cartoonist and animator. He was an underground comics artist during the mid-1960s and early 1970s in California, eventually relocating to Canada, where he worked in animation. [1]

Contents

Biography

Born in rural Illinois, Metzger moved with his family to northern California when he was six years old. As a youth, he collected comic strips and read such authors as H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Herbert Asbury. He studied the work of such book illustrators as Fritz Eichenberg, and Lynd Ward. His later work was influenced by his interest in Maxfield Parrish, Hannes Bok, EC Comics, and various science fiction illustrators. [2]

After graduating from high school in 1957, he attended a two-year junior college, worked in forestry for two years and then returned to college. In the early 1960s, he contributed to fanzines and an underground newspaper, followed by a period in the National Guard. [2]

Later, he lived in Santa Cruz, California and moved to San Jose, California, where he resided for many years near the San Jose State University campus. In the mid-to-late 1960s, he worked at Santa Clara's Hambley Studios, where he was a production serigraph printer for fine art print production of such artists as Corita Kent.

Metzger contributed to such publications as Gothic Blimp Works and Bill Spicer's Graphic Story Magazine . He eliminated dialogue balloons in "Mal-Ig" ( Gothic Blimp Works #7); reprinted in Graphic Story Magazine , "Mal-Ig" was a strong influence on Paul Chadwick's The World Below . [3]

Obsessively drawing every night, Metzger could be found at his drawing board while friends gathered and talked around him. In the early days of the original Star Trek , Metzger and several friends would gather every Wednesday evening to watch. Always a guest at the hippest parties in the Bay Area, he often carried a flask of brandy in his back pocket for all to share. He was friendly with the underground artists of the day, plus many Bay Area bluegrass and country musicians, as well as the Grateful Dead. [4]

His best known creation is Moondog, a science-fantasy series notable for its sophisticated art and elaborate imaginative framework. Published by the Print Mint, it ran from 1969 until 1973. It has no connection with the character Moondog in the comic strip Monty .

His story "Routine" was published in Graphic Story Magazine #16. The cover of Metzger's comic book Truckin (Print Mint, 1972) includes a self-portrait in the truck's mirror. In 1978, Kitchen Sink Press published Metzger's Mu, the Land that Never Was. That same year he was a guest at San Diego Comic-Con.

Metzger later worked for several animation studios in Vancouver, including Marv Newland's International Rocketship Limited. [1]

In 2016, Fantagraphics Books re-issued Metzger's graphic novel, Beyond Time and Again. [5] In 2024, they released The Lost Worlds of George Metzger, a collection of Metzger's comics work including rediscovered stories. [6]

Awards

Metzger was the Artist Guest of Honor at Vancouver's Vcon 8 in 1980, invited back as the Artist GoH Emeritus in 2010. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Crumb</span> American illustrator and cartoonist (b. 1943)

Robert Dennis Crumb is an American cartoonist who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contemporary American culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underground comix</span> Comics genre

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Deitch</span> American cartoonist

Kim Deitch is an American cartoonist who was an important figure in the underground comix movement of the 1960s, remaining active in the decades that followed with a variety of books and comics, sometimes using the pseudonym Fowlton Means.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Clowes</span> American cartoonist and writer

Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter. Most of Clowes's work first appeared in Eightball, a solo anthology comic book series. An Eightball issue typically contained several short pieces and a chapter of a longer narrative that was later collected and published as a graphic novel, such as Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (1993), Ghost World (1997), David Boring (2000) and Patience (2016). Clowes's illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, Newsweek, Vogue, The Village Voice, and elsewhere. With filmmaker Terry Zwigoff, Clowes adapted Ghost World into a 2001 film and another Eightball story into the 2006 film, Art School Confidential. Clowes's comics, graphic novels, and films have received numerous awards, including a Pen Award for Outstanding Work in Graphic Literature, over a dozen Harvey and Eisner Awards, and an Academy Award nomination.

Manuel Rodriguez, better known as Spain or Spain Rodriguez, was an American underground cartoonist who created the character Trashman.

<i>East Village Other</i> Former underground newspaper in New York City

The East Village Other was an American underground newspaper in New York City, issued biweekly during the 1960s. It was described by The New York Times as "a New York newspaper so countercultural that it made The Village Voice look like a church circular".

<i>Gothic Blimp Works</i> Comics tabloid

Gothic Blimp Works, an all-comics tabloid published in 1969 by Peter Leggieri and the East Village Other, was billed as "the first Sunday underground comic paper". During its eight-issue run, the publication displayed comics in both color and black-and-white. The first issue was titled Gothic Blimp Works Presents: Jive Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaughn Bodē</span> American underground cartoonist and illustrator (1941–1975)

Vaughn Bodē was an American underground cartoonist and illustrator known for his character Cheech Wizard and his artwork depicting voluptuous women. A contemporary of Ralph Bakshi, Bodē has been credited as an influence on Bakshi's animated films Wizards and The Lord of the Rings. Bodē has a huge following among graffiti artists, with his characters remaining a popular subject.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Griffith</span> American cartoonist (born 1944)

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.

Roberta Gregory is an American comic book writer and artist best known for the character Bitchy Bitch from her Fantagraphics Books series Naughty Bits. She is a prolific contributor to many feminist and underground anthologies, such as Wimmen's Comix and Gay Comix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trina Robbins</span> American cartoonist and writer (1938–2024)

Trina Robbins was an American cartoonist. She was an early participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the first women in the movement. She co-produced the 1970 underground comic It Ain't Me, Babe, which was the first comic book entirely created by women. She co-founded the Wimmen's Comix collective, wrote for Wonder Woman, and produced adaptations of Dope and The Silver Metal Lover. She was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013 and received Eisner Awards in 2017 and 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Lynch</span> American cartoonist

Jay Patrick Lynch was an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his Bijou Funnies and other titles. He is best known for his comic strip Nard n' Pat and the running gag Um tut sut. His work is sometimes signed Jayzey Lynch. Lynch was the main writer for Bazooka Joe comics from 1967 to 1990; he contributed to Mad, and in the 2000s expanded into the children's book field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Marrs</span> American cartoonist and animator

Lee Marrs is an American cartoonist and animator, and one of the first female underground comix creators. She is best known for her comic book series The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp, which lasted from 1973 to 1977.

Colin Upton is a Canadian cartoonist and artist who was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. Many of his comics are self-published in the minicomic format, although he has also had his work issued by commercial publishers such as Fantagraphics Books and included in anthology collections such as Drippytown Comics & Stories. He is a co-host of the Inkstuds radio program, broadcast on CITR-FM at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Collier (cartoonist)</span> Canadian alternative cartoonist

David Collier is a Canadian alternative cartoonist best known for his fact-based "comic strip essays."

<i>Graphic Story Magazine</i>

Graphic Story Magazine was an American magazine edited and published by Bill Spicer in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Attempting to find a new direction for narrative art and a point of departure from commercial comic book stories, this journal of criticism and artwork evolved from Spicer's previous magazine, Fantasy Illustrated.

Roger Brand was an American cartoonist who created stories for both mainstream and underground comic books. His work showed a fascination with horror and eroticism, often combining the two.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Lawrence</span>

Julian Lawrence is a Canadian cartoonist, educator and comics scholar. A longtime member of Vancouver's DIY independent art scene, Lawrence is also an arts educator and researcher, with a specialization in using hand drawn comics as a tool to improve literacy, develop storytelling techniques and form identity. He currently resides in Middlesbrough, England, where he is a Senior Lecturer in the Comics and Graphic Novels B.A. Honours program at Teesside University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Hensley</span> American cartoonist

Tim Hensley is an American alternative cartoonist. Hensley's most notable works are Wally Gropius published by Fantagraphics Books in 2010 and Sir Alfred No. 3 published by Pigeon Press in 2016. Hensley has been published in numerous anthologies, such as Smoke Signal, Dirty Stories, The Believer, Comic Art, Duplex Planet Illustrated, and special editions of The Comics Journal.

Willy Murphy was an American underground cartoonist. Murphy's humor focused on hippies and the counterculture. His signature character was Arnold Peck the Human Wreck, "a mid-30s beanpole with wry observations about his own life and the community around him." Murphy's solo title was called Flamed-Out Funnies; in addition, he contributed to such seminal underground anthologies as Arcade, Bijou Funnies, and San Francisco Comic Book, as well as the National Lampoon.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Vcon 35, October 2010". Archived from the original on 2010-08-17. Retrieved 2010-11-22.
  2. 1 2 Estren, Mark James. A History of Underground Comics. Straight Arrow, 1974.
  3. Chadwick, Paul. The World Below .
  4. Gothic Blimp Works
  5. Conner, Shawn (2016-04-15). "FANTAGRAPHICS REISSUES ONE OF THE FIRST GRAPHIC NOVELS, CREATED BY VANCOUVER COMICS PIONEER". The Snipe News. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  6. Degg, D.D. (June 15, 2024). "Hey Kids! Comics! For Summer Reading". The Daily Cartoonist. Retrieved August 26, 2024.