Bill Griffith

Last updated

Bill Griffith
Billgriffith.jpg
Griffith in 2012
BornWilliam Henry Jackson Griffith
(1944-01-20) January 20, 1944 (age 80)
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.
Area(s) Cartoonist
Pseudonym(s)Griffy
Notable works
Young Lust
Arcade
Zippy the Pinhead
Invisible Ink
Nobody's Fool
Awards Inkpot Award (1992) [1] Reuben Award (2023) [2]
Spouse(s)
(m. 1980;died 2022)
Signature
BillGriffith.png

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]

Contents

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

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)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zippy the Pinhead</span> Fictional character in an American comic strip

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 with large red polka dots, and puffy, white clown shoes. 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, verbal free association, and pursuit of popular culture ephemera. His wholehearted devotion to random artifacts satirizes the excesses of consumerism.

<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.

Manuel Rodriguez, better known as Spain or Spain Rodriguez, was an American underground cartoonist who created the character Trashman. His experiences on the road with the motorcycle club, the Road Vultures M.C., provided inspiration for his work, as did his left-wing politics. Strongly influenced by 1950s EC Comics illustrator Wally Wood, Spain pushed Wood's sharp, crisp black shadows and hard-edged black outlines into a more simplified, stylized direction. His work also extended the eroticism of Wood's female characters.

Justin Considine Green was an American cartoonist who is known as the "father of autobiographical comics." A key figure and pioneer in the 1970s generation of underground comics artists, he is best known for his 1972 comic book Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary.

<i>Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary</i> 1972 graphic novel written by Justin Green

Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary is an autobiographical comic by American cartoonist Justin Green, published in 1972. Green takes the persona of Binky Brown to tell of the "compulsive neurosis" with which he struggled in his youth and which he blamed on his strict Roman Catholic upbringing. Green was later diagnosed with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and came to see his problems in that light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Last Gasp (publisher)</span> American publishing company

Last Gasp is a San Francisco–based book publisher with a lowbrow art and counterculture focus. Owned and operated by Ron Turner, for most of its existence Last Gasp was a publisher, distributor, and wholesaler of underground comix and books of all types.

<i>Wimmens Comix</i> All-female underground comics anthology

Wimmen's Comix, later retitled (respelled) as Wimmin's Comix, is an influential all-female underground comics anthology published from 1972 to 1992. Though it covered a wide range of genres and subject matters, Wimmen's Comix focused more than other anthologies of the time on feminist concerns, homosexuality, sex and politics in general, and autobiographical comics. Wimmen's Comix was a launching pad for many cartoonists' careers, and it inspired other small-press and self-published titles like Twisted Sisters, Dyke Shorts, and Dynamite Damsels.

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

Trina Robbins is an American cartoonist. She was an early participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the first female artists in that movement. She is a member of the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rip Off Press</span> Comic book mail order retailer and distributor

Rip Off Press Inc. is a comic book mail order retailer and distributor, better known as the former publisher of adult-themed series like The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Rip Off Comix, as well as many other seminal publications from the underground comix era. Founded in 1969 in San Francisco by four friends from Austin, Texas — cartoonists Gilbert Shelton and Jack Jackson, and Fred Todd and Dave Moriaty — Rip Off Press is now run in Auburn, California, by Todd.

<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.

<i>Arcade</i> (comics magazine)

Arcade: The Comics Revue is a magazine-sized comics anthology created and edited by cartoonists Art Spiegelman and Bill Griffith to showcase underground comix. Published quarterly by the Print Mint, it ran for seven issues between 1975 and 1976. Arriving late in the underground era, Arcade "was conceived as a 'comics magazine for adults' that would showcase the 'best of the old and the best of the new comics'". Many observers credit it with paving the way for the Spiegelman-edited anthology Raw, the flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane Noomin</span> American comics artist (1947–2022)

Diane Robin Noomin was an American comics artist associated with the underground comics movement. She is best known for her character DiDi Glitz, who addresses transgressive social issues such as feminism, female masturbation, body image, and miscarriages.

Robert Triptow is an American writer and artist. He is known primarily for creating gay- and bisexual-themed comics and for editing Gay Comix in the 1980s, and he was identified by underground comix pioneer Lee Marrs as "the last of the underground cartoonists."

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">Don Donahue</span> Publisher associated with the underground comix movement

Donald Richard Donahue was a comic book publisher, operating under the name Apex Novelties, one of the instigators of the underground comix movement in the 1960s.

<i>Young Lust</i> (comics) Underground comix anthology

Young Lust was an underground comix anthology published sporadically from 1970 to 1993. The title, which parodied 1950s romance comics such as Young Love, was noted for its explicit depictions of sex. Unlike many other sex-fueled underground comix, Young Lust was generally not perceived as misogynistic. Founding editors Bill Griffith and Jay Kinney gradually morphed the title into a satire of societal mores. According to Kinney, Young Lust "became one of the top three best-selling underground comix, along with Zap Comix and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers".

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cartoonists' Co-op Press</span> Comics publishing cooperative

Cartoonists Co-op Press was an underground comix publishing cooperative based in San Francisco that operated from 1973 to 1974. It was a self-publishing venture by cartoonists Kim Deitch, Bill Griffith, Jerry Lane, Jay Lynch, Willy Murphy, Diane Noomin, and Art Spiegelman. Cartoonist Justin Green's brother Keith acted as salesman/distributor, and the operation was run out of Griffith's apartment.

Glenn Head is an American cartoonist and comic book editor living in Brooklyn, New York. His cartooning has a strong surrealist bent and is heavily influenced by 1960s underground comix.

References

  1. Inkpot Award, Comic-Con International San Diego website. Retrieved Dec. 9, 2022.
  2. "Bill Griffith Wins the Reuben Award". ComicsBeat.com. September 8, 2023. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Bill Griffith". Lambiek.net. Lambiek Encyclopedia. July 10, 2016. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
  4. "Are We Having Fun Yet?". Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (16th ed.). 1992.
  5. Griffith, Bill. Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Secret Love Affair With a Famous Cartoonist (Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2015) ISBN   978-1606998953.
  6. 1 2 3 4 “I Had Moments Where I Just Broke Down Crying”: An Interview with Bill Griffith, by Chris Mautner, in The Comics Journal ; published November 23, 2015; retrieved December 16, 2015
  7. "Bill Griffith". zippythepinhead.com.
  8. Post on Griffith's Facebook page; March 5, 2019
  9. 1 2 "Dueben, Alex. "Is Bill Griffith Having Fun Yet?", CBR, October 6, 2008". Comicbookresources.com. October 6, 2008. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
  10. Anderson, Lexi. "New and Noteworthy: Summer Reading by Pratt Alumni," Pratt Institute, Monday, June 10, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2021
  11. Bill Griffith (faculty profile) School of Visual Arts. Retrieved October 24, 2021
  12. Original art on wacky packages.org
  13. 1 2 3 Battista, Carolyn (July 11, 1999). "Q&A/Bill Griffith; Exploring The State With Zippy and Griffy". The New York Times .
  14. Goodrick, Susan. "Introduction," The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics (Links Books/Quick Fox, 1974).
  15. Young Lust #3 (Last Gasp, June 1972).
  16. 1 2 3 Heller, Steve (December 22, 2011). "Bill Griffith: The Man Who Made Zippy a Pinhead". The Atlantic . Retrieved June 7, 2017.
  17. Rosenkranz, Patrick. Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution, 1963-1975 (Fantagraphics, 200), p. 153.
  18. Young Lust entry, AtomicAvenue.com. Accessed Sept. 6, 2016.
  19. "Aline and Bob's Dirty Laundry Comics Lot #1 #2 Comix R. Crumb Aline Kominsky | #1975257675". Worthpoint. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
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  21. Estren, Mark. A History of Underground Comics: 20th Anniversary Edition (Ronin Publishing, 2012), pp. 251-253.
  22. "Cast of Characters". Zippythepinhead.com. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
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  24. "Griffith Observatory #1 (1979), Rip Off Press, 1979 Series," Grand Comics Database. Retrieved Dec. 9, 2022.
  25. "Bill Griffith: Politics, Pinheads, and Post-Modernism," The Comics Journal #157 (Mar. 1993), p. 73.
  26. Grishakova, Marina; Ryan, Marie-Laure (2010). Intermediality and Storytelling. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN   978-3-11-023774-0,pp=67–68.
  27. 1 2 3 Fox, M. Steven. "Arcade, The Comics Revue," ComixJoint. Accessed June 19, 2018.
  28. Buhle, Paul (2004). From the Lower East Side to Hollywood: Jews in American Popular Culture. Verso. ISBN   978-1-85984-598-1, p. 252.
  29. Witek, Joseph, ed. (2007). "Chronology". Art Spiegelman: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi. pp. xvii–xiii. ISBN   978-1-934110-12-6, p. xix.
  30. Sacks, Jason; Dallas, Keith (2014). American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1970s. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 59. ISBN   978-1605490564.
  31. "Are We Having Fun Yet?". Zippythepinhead.com. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
  32. "Zippy Congratulates Rip-Off Press," Rip Off Comix #21 (Winter 1988), p. 50.
  33. Dooley, Michael Patrick; Heller, Stephen (2005). The Education of a Comics Artist. Allworth Press. p. 43. ISBN   9781581154085.
  34. "Yow, Last Gasp, 1978 Series," Grand Comics Database. Retrieved Dec. 9, 2022.
  35. "Zippy, Last Gasp, 1980 Series," Grand Comics Database. Retrieved Dec. 9, 2022.
  36. "Zippy Stories, (March 1984), Last Gasp, 1984 Series," Grand Comics Database. Retrieved Dec. 9, 2022.
  37. "Zippy Theme Song". zippythepinhead.com.
  38. Griffith, Bill (2012). Lost and Found: Comics 1969-2003. Fantagraphic Books. p. xxi. ISBN   978-1606994825.
  39. "Is he having fun yet?". zippythepinhead.com.
  40. 1 2 "About Bill Griffith," Current Biography (2001). Archived at Zippy the Pinhead official Website. Accessed Dec. 11, 2019.
  41. Fox, M. Steven. "Fits #2". ComixJoint.com. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  42. 1 2 Green, Penelope (September 11, 2022). "Diane Noomin, Who Helped Bring Feminism to Underground Comics, Dies at 75". The New York Times. Retrieved September 11, 2022.
  43. Griffith, The Buildings Are Barking, p. 15.
  44. "Ask A Cartoonist: Sibling Revelry," Comics Kingdom (May 2, 2018).
  45. Griffith, Bill (June 2023). The Buildings Are Barking: Diane Noomin in Memoriam. F.U. Press.

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