Bob Fingerman

Last updated
Bob Fingerman
BornRobert Fingerman
(1964-08-25) August 25, 1964 (age 59)
Queens, New York
NationalityAmerican
Area(s) Cartoonist, Writer, Artist
Notable works
Minimum Wage / Beg the Question
www.bobfingerman.com

Bob Fingerman (born August 25, 1964) is an American comic book writer/artist born in Queens, New York, who is best known for his comic series Minimum Wage (Fantagraphics Books). [1]

Contents

Career

In 1984, while still a student at New York City’s School of Visual Arts, he produced work for Harvey Kurtzman's short-lived young readers anthology Nuts! and signed a contract to produce a series of comical parodies of the Italian comic series RanXerox exclusively for the European market, including France’s L'Écho des savanes and Comics USA and Spain’s El Vibora. After he made friends with guys working at Forbidden Planet who were forming a ska band, The Toasters, he drew the front and back cover for their first LP in 1985. Fingerman worked in the disparate fields of children's satire, pornography and illustration, producing work regularly for Cracked magazine, Screw , Penthouse , Hot Talk, Heavy Metal , National Lampoon , High Times , the Village Voice and other periodicals.

In 1990, he decided to focus on comics. He did a year-long stint on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , as well as several titles for the Eros Comix line of adult comics, including Skinheads in Love (which drew praise from The Village Voice Literary Supplement) and Bloodsucker, a collaboration with punk icon Lydia Lunch. He also created covers and short stories for Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint. [2]

In 1993, Fingerman wrote and drew his first graphic novel, White Like She, a science fiction social satire about a middle-aged black man whose brain is transplanted into a white teenage girl's head. [3]

Upon completion of this purely fictional work, Fingerman decided to turn his attention inward. The result was the semi-autobiographical series, Minimum Wage (Fantagraphics Books), which in 2002 was collected and extensively reworked as the Fantagraphics graphic novel, Beg the Question (and which was nominated for both an Ignatz Award as well as two Eisner Awards). [4] Minimum Wage Book 2: Tales of Hoffman won the 1998 Firecracker Alternative Book Award in the Graphic Novel category. [5]

Fingerman has broadened his palette, turning to prose, and continuing to work in comics. [6] His books include the humor collection You Deserved It; Zombie World: Winter’s Dregs & Other Stories, the zombie graphic novel; Recess Pieces (described on Fangoria's website as " The Little Rascals meets Dawn of the Dead "); and his debut prose novel, Bottomfeeder. [7] In 2009, his releases included the trippy illustrated novella Connective Tissue.

In March 2010, his satirical post-apocalyptic "speculative memoir" From the Ashes was released as a graphic novel. In August 2010, Pariah, a dark comedic look at people surviving a zombie onslaught, was published by Tor Books. [8] Pariah is the second of Fingerman's prose novels. In April 2013, the definitive "Maximum Minimum Wage" was released from Image Comics. Work on that collection reignited Fingerman's desire to continue that story. In 2014, after a fifteen-year hiatus, two new arcs of Minimum Wage were published by Image Comics, "Focus on the Strange" and "So Many Bad Decisions". Both were collected in trade paperbacks. 2014 also saw the release of the 20th anniversary edition of Fingerman's first graphic novel, White Like She.

In 2018 Fingerman started working for MAD magazine, creating two character-driven strips for their new Potrzebie Comics section. The first was "Boonies Burbs and Burgs," which featured three cousins' adventures. The second, MAD's first serial strip, was "Lukey and Mukey," about a dimwitted child and his errant mucus-based clone. In 2020, Heavy Metal released Dotty's Inferno, through their new Virus imprint.

In January 2022, a heavily revised edition of the novel Pariah was released as Pariah: Redux, also through Heavy Metal.

Bibliography

Comics and graphic novels

Novels

Illustrated novellas

Related Research Articles

<i>Usagi Yojimbo</i> Comic book series by Stan Sakai

Usagi Yojimbo is a comic book series created by Stan Sakai. It is set primarily at the beginning of the Edo period of Japanese history and features anthropomorphic animals replacing humans. The main character is a rabbit rōnin, Miyamoto Usagi, whom Sakai based partially on the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. Usagi wanders the land on a musha shugyō, occasionally selling his services as a bodyguard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Gibbons</span> English comics artist and writer

David Chester Gibbons is an English comics artist, writer and sometimes letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything". He was an artist for 2000 AD, for which he contributed a large body of work from its first issue in 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Pope</span> American cartoonist (born 1970)

Paul Pope is an American alternative cartoonist. Pope's work combines the precision and romance of European comics artists with the energy and page design of the manga tradition. Pope's two protagonist types are the silent, lanky outsider male of The One Trick Rip-Off, Escapo, and Heavy Liquid; or the resourceful, aggressive, humorous young teenage girls of THB. He has self-published some of his work, most notably THB, through his own Horse Press, with other work for such publishers as DC Comics/Vertigo and First Second Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IDW Publishing</span> American comic book publishing company

IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW) and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic book publisher in the United States, behind Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Image Comics, ahead of other comic book publishers such as Archie, Boom!, Dynamite, Valiant, and Oni Press. The company is known for its licensed comic book adaptations of films, television shows, video games, and cartoons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geof Darrow</span> American comic artist (born 1955)

Geofrey "Geof" Darrow is an American comic book artist, best known for his work on comic series Shaolin Cowboy, Hard Boiled and The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, which was adapted into an animated television series of the same name. He worked as a concept artist and storyboarder for The Matrix series of films. Darrow's approach to comics and art has been cited as an influence by a multitude of artists including Peter Chung, Frank Quitely, Seth Fisher, Eric Powell, Frank Cho, Juan José Ryp, James Stokoe, Chris Burnham, Aaron Kuder, Nick Pitarra,

Stuart Moore is an American writer and editor of comic books and novels.

Ian Edginton is a British comic book writer, known for his work on such titles as X-Force, Scarlet Traces, H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and Leviathan.

Jeff Mariotte is an American author who lives in Arizona. As well as his own original work, he is best known for writing novels and comic books based on licensed properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Niles</span> American comic book author and novelist (born 1965)

Steve Niles is an American comic book author and novelist, known for works such as 30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre: A Cal McDonald Mystery, Simon Dark, Mystery Society, Batman: Gotham County Line, Kick-Ass – The New Girl, and Kick-Ass vs Hit-Girl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Erskine</span> Scottish comic book artist

Gary Erskine is a Scottish comic book artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Maberry</span> American author (born 1958)

Jonathan Maberry is an American suspense author, anthology editor, comic book writer, magazine feature writer, playwright, content creator and writing teacher/lecturer. He was named one of the Today's Top Ten Horror Writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Becky Cloonan</span> American comic book creator

Becky Cloonan is an American comic book creator, known for work published by Tokyopop and Vertigo. In 2012 she became the first female artist to draw the main Batman title for DC Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rick Remender</span> America comic writer

Rick Remender is an American animator, comic book writer and television producer who resides in Los Angeles, California. As a comic book creator, he is best known for his work on Uncanny X-Force, Venom, Captain America and Uncanny Avengers, published by Marvel, as well as his creator-owned series Fear Agent, Deadly Class, Black Science and Low, published by Image. In video games, he wrote EA's Dead Space and Epic Games' Bulletstorm.

Mark Schultz is an American writer and illustrator of books and comics. His most widely recognized work is the creator-owned comic book series Xenozoic Tales, which describes a post-apocalyptic world where dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures coexist with humans. In 1993, Xenozoic Tales was adapted into an animated series titled Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and a video game of the same name. Schultz's other notable works include various Aliens comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse and a four-year run on the DC Comics series Superman: The Man of Steel. In 2004, Schultz took over the scripting duties of the Prince Valiant comic strip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tommy Lee Edwards</span> American illustrator

Tommy Lee Edwards is an American illustrator. Edwards's varied portfolio includes works created in the realm of comics, video games, books, advertising, film, and animation.

<i>Minimum Wage</i> (comics) Comics by Bob Fingerman

Minimum Wage is the name of a number of comic book series and original graphic novels by Bob Fingerman. The stories follow the life of Rob Hoffman, a young comics artist in New York City in the mid-1990s.

James Stokoe is a Canadian comic book artist who is known for his work on such titles as Wonton Soup, Orc Stain and Godzilla: The Half-Century War.
Along with Corey Lewis, Brandon Graham and Marley Zarcone, he's a part of a studio/collective called "Yosh Comics".

The Legend of Korra comics are a continuation of the Nickelodeon animated television series The Legend of Korra, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. It is set after the series finale, and follows Avatar Korra and Asami Sato on their relationship. The comics are published by Dark Horse Comics, alongside Avatar: The Last Airbender.

References

  1. ↑ "Bob Fingerman". Fantagraphics. Archived from the original on March 21, 2006.
  2. ↑ KROSS, KARIN L. (July 2003). "BOB FINGERMAN'S BEG THE QUESTION AND WHY INDIE COMICS MATTER". COMICBOOKSLUT. Bookslut. Archived from the original on Mar 4, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Artist Bio – Bob Fingerman". Fantagraphics Blog. Fantagraphics. Dec 12, 2007.
  4. ↑ MacDonald, Heidi (Mar 22, 2013). "Interview: Bob Fingerman on remaking Minimum Wage and making a career". The Beat.
  5. ↑ "Fingerman Collection Wins Book Award". News Watch. The Comics Journal. No. 205. June 1998. p. 27.
  6. ↑ "Review of Fingerman's Recess Pieces, Daily Cross Hatch, February 26, 2007". Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved March 18, 2007.
  7. ↑ "Bob Fingerman". SuicideGirls. Interviewed by Daniel Robert Epstein. Oct 21, 2005.
  8. ↑ "Pariah". BobFingerman.com. Archived from the original on Jul 21, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.