Check 7 Buk related Zippy comics over at Issa's Untidy Hut (blog for Lilliput Review).
Don @ Lilliput Review
Don @ Lilliput Review
Bill Griffith's Bukowski ...
- Thread starter Lilliput Review
- Start date
Gerard K H Love
Appreciate your friends
Okay, I liked that.
Hmmm... maybe it's some sort of pomo humor that I don't understand.
mjp
Founding member
Griffith is weird. Zippy (or Zippy-fied Bukowski) is only one aspect of his weirdness. I remember buying a comic in the late 70s/early 80s called Griffith's Observatory that was pretty cool. At least I thought it was cool when I was 19.
Not sure what to make of him using Bukowski so much. I don't think he would do it as criticism, but who knows.
Not sure what to make of him using Bukowski so much. I don't think he would do it as criticism, but who knows.
DirtyJersey13
The Cruelty of Loveless Love
Zippy always reminded me of Pinhead from those freak shows years ago, and then I realized that they actually referred to Pinhead as Zip, thus the inspiration of Zippy from the comic books. Needless to say, these strips portraying Bukowski are not my favorite.
Griffith on Zippy two ....
Hmn, Griffith seems always to evoke a mixed response. He is a big fan of Buk ... it's exactly what Buk portrays that Griffy is trying to capture. All comics aren't, well, funny.
That may seem counter-intuitive but then again all poems ain't roses and caramels. The strip is all about the human condition, that which Buk captures so well. That's were the connect between them is, that's what Griffith is after.
Two more Buk related comics have been posted over the last two days ... one (click image to enlarge b & w strip) and then click previous for the second.
Throw away the words and look closely at the face ...
w/respect,
Don
Hmn, Griffith seems always to evoke a mixed response. He is a big fan of Buk ... it's exactly what Buk portrays that Griffy is trying to capture. All comics aren't, well, funny.
That may seem counter-intuitive but then again all poems ain't roses and caramels. The strip is all about the human condition, that which Buk captures so well. That's were the connect between them is, that's what Griffith is after.
Two more Buk related comics have been posted over the last two days ... one (click image to enlarge b & w strip) and then click previous for the second.
Throw away the words and look closely at the face ...
w/respect,
Don
Yes in the others from your blog you can see that the images are closely based on well known (around here at least) photos of Bukowski. No problem there.
They just seem a bit sneering to me. Is it pastiche? Is it satire? Caricature? I don't know.
They just seem a bit sneering to me. Is it pastiche? Is it satire? Caricature? I don't know.
mjp
Founding member
Maybe it isn't any of those things. Or maybe it's all of them. ;)
Remembering the old Griffith's stuff, it seems to have a lot in common with much of Bukowski's later poetry, actually. In as much as both were retelling little everyday episodes they witnessed. I'm thinking of bits from Griffith's Observatory. But you know, that's a memory through 30 years of fog and Cheetos.
But in these strips he's "doing" Bukowski in Zippy form, so you really have to look at them in that context. And if you haven't seen Zippy before or don't like it, then these are probably going to fall flat.
But in the Zippy non sequitur world, I think the Slouch Gavitsky strips are funny. "When I go out to Denny's I always buy a Wall Street Journal to hide behind." That's spot-on satire of Bukowski tucked inside a Zippy-style random non sequitur.
Or something.
Hammer it down!
Remembering the old Griffith's stuff, it seems to have a lot in common with much of Bukowski's later poetry, actually. In as much as both were retelling little everyday episodes they witnessed. I'm thinking of bits from Griffith's Observatory. But you know, that's a memory through 30 years of fog and Cheetos.
But in these strips he's "doing" Bukowski in Zippy form, so you really have to look at them in that context. And if you haven't seen Zippy before or don't like it, then these are probably going to fall flat.
But in the Zippy non sequitur world, I think the Slouch Gavitsky strips are funny. "When I go out to Denny's I always buy a Wall Street Journal to hide behind." That's spot-on satire of Bukowski tucked inside a Zippy-style random non sequitur.
Or something.
Hammer it down!
Gerard K H Love
Appreciate your friends
Maybe nothing to do with Bukowski, but I liked the one that mentions Sara Palin. You click his link and click on the black & white cartoon then hit next.
The cartoon is titled "Pronounced Difficulty" April 2010.
I see how most of the images are using poses of famous photos- I like that too.
The cartoon is titled "Pronounced Difficulty" April 2010.
I see how most of the images are using poses of famous photos- I like that too.
number6horse
okyoutwopixiesoutyougo
Yeah, I also discovered Zippy in the mid-to-late 70's and embraced the strip just for the sake of weirdness, if nothing else. It ran in an underground free music paper called "The Prairie Sun" that was available in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri (and maybe Minnesota mjp ?)
The character was - imo - a cultural satire of anything and everything all at once. Zippy was the clueless but lovable schlub trying to fit in and saying whatever it took to accomplish that. He was naive and desperate to look cool, but too much his own person to succeed at fitting in. Sometimes the joke was on him, sometimes it was on society.
If that makes sense.
And I can't believe that 30-plus years after discovering him, I am contributing to a conversation about him to people I have never met in person.
Hey....ARE WE HAVING FUN YET ?
The character was - imo - a cultural satire of anything and everything all at once. Zippy was the clueless but lovable schlub trying to fit in and saying whatever it took to accomplish that. He was naive and desperate to look cool, but too much his own person to succeed at fitting in. Sometimes the joke was on him, sometimes it was on society.
If that makes sense.
And I can't believe that 30-plus years after discovering him, I am contributing to a conversation about him to people I have never met in person.
Hey....ARE WE HAVING FUN YET ?
LickTheStar
Sad Flower in the Sand
I... still don't get or like Zippy. Maybe in another 10 years...
mjp
Founding member
No Zippy in the weeklies in Minneapolis or St. Paul. I bought the comics at Schinders, a great old magazine shop that used to have their downtown St. Paul branch in the building I lived in. Schinders had all the underground comics (I mean, comix) and was conveniently located next to Candyland, Musicland and between two bars. One bar per block may be enough where you live, but we're talking about St. Paul. People are thirsty there. God damn, downtown St. Paul was a lot of fun in those days. Like London after the Blitz.
I see now that they closed a few years ago after a 91 year run.
In related news, someone dumped hundreds of filleted Walleye carcasses, and the perpetrators remain at large.
Maybe Michigan? Somehow this sounds familiar. I can't remember where I first ran into zippy. I used to read alot of the "underground" stuff so it may have been some other place too. I must admit though, I do remember it being funnier then. But maybe life was just funnier then....
Zippy is actually a pretty traditional-type strip, with a punchline and everything...but in a traditional joke, the punchline imposes order on the absurdity of the setup - and in Zippy, it's always the reverse: the punchline's invariably more absurd than the setup.
That's sort of the charm of Zippy, though...that bit of absurdity can be like a ray of sunshine when you're really bored.
That's sort of the charm of Zippy, though...that bit of absurdity can be like a ray of sunshine when you're really bored.