Bill GriffithRezensionen

A most fitting biography of cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller told in graphic novel form by a passionate fan who supplements his insights into Bushmiller's life and significance with generous portions of Bushmiller's original Nancy comic strips.

I might have preferred a smidge more history and analysis perhaps, as opposed to the many digressions and indulgences Bill Griffith allows himself, but it's all in service to his love of the material, so it's hard to complain.

I'm not a big fan of Nancy Ritz myself, but find her easy enough to enjoy in small doses. And as the many samples of Bushmiller's work show, the man would go to some bizarre lengths to get a daily chuckle from his readers. Nancy is not really comparable to Peanuts as the book suggests at one point, but you gotta respect the workmanship and polish -- and that applies to the strip and this biography, both.

graphic memoir
It's pretty rare for me to abandon a graphic novel, but even though I only had 70 pages left and was probably less than an hour away from notching another summer reading book in my log, I just couldn't bring myself to read any more. This wasn't interesting (no discernible plot or conflicts), and it wasn't informative (unless you really care about the history of cartooning, but even then I doubt you'd care about these guys). This is just scattered thoughts about a cartoonist you've never heard of, written by another cartoonist you've never heard of. Plus the cover illustration looks like a drawing of an open-eyed lady lazily edited and colored in to make one eye winking, but it doesn't look right at all. If you are a professional artist and you're going to make this your cover image, take the time to redraw it properly, or choose a different image.

I regret giving this book a chance despite the terrible cover. Hard pass.

It's really a beautiful book, so gorgeously designed, written with compassion, sympathy, and humor.

I didn't finish this book. It is a very one dimensional portrayal of "Schlitzie". I was kind of interested in the story because I read Beth Macy's Truevine, and the idea that people in the "freak shows" often had better lives than anyone else in their families, and definitely a better life than they would have had at their homes, intrigued me. But this book only superficially told the story of "Schlitzie" as the author was more interested in exploring his own interest in "freaks" based on the movie, which I do not think I have made it all the way through. I gave this book one star because actually, it's offensive. It promotes the very stereotype that it's supposed to debunk.

This gets three stars because of the ' Pindex ' ( saved me hours of looking things up )

Zippy Stories
By Bill Griffith
Last Gasp (1986)
Review by Karl Wolff

The late journalist Hunter S. Thompson once said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Among contemporary comics characters, none are weirder than Zippy the Pinhead. Zippy is the eponymous star of Bill Griffith's long-running newspaper comic. Wearing a polka dot muumuu, a bow tie in his head, and occasionally driving a Nash Metropolitan, Zippy cuts a bizarro profile across our otherwise ordinary lives. Created in 1971 by Griffith, Zippy first appeared in Real Pulp Comix #1 and then appeared regularly in The Berkeley Barb. The strip has been in weekly syndication since 1976 and has appeared daily through King Features since 1986.

Among the numerous Zippy the Pinhead collections, I would recommend Zippy Stories (Last Gasp, 1986), Are We Having Fun Yet? (Fantagraphics, 1994), and Zippy Annual No. 1 (Fantagraphics, 2000). Zippy Stories is a kind of "origin story" for Zippy. It includes a funny interview with Griffith. The comics alternate between long-form narratives that run multiple pages and the traditional three-panel comics. The material in the book runs from 1974 to 1986. Are We Having Fun Yet? is a reprint from 1985. Zippy attempts to relate to the '80s through dream sequences, parody, and self-help gurus. The Zippy Annuals collect a year's worth of strips and gags, including full-color Sunday comics.

For a strip that has run for close to four decades, Zippy the Pinhead tries to stay fresh and funny. In the 2014 documentary Stripped many cartoonists talked about the challenges of newspaper syndication. Getting syndicated is incredibly competitive and difficult, but once that goal is achieved, then the cartoonist has another set of challenges. How to be funny on a consistent basis. Once a cartoonist gets syndication, he or she won't have a day off for the next twenty years. And as the old cliche goes, "Drama is easy, comedy is hard." How does Griffith keep it fresh? One part of the answer is Zippy the Pinhead isn't your ordinary run-of-the-mill comic strip. Zippy combines a holy fool's naivete and innocence with the penchant to drop insightful one-liners. His is an American surrealism that simultaneously celebrates our fast food junk culture and pokes fun at it. To help Zippy navigate the treacherous path, Griffith has included numerous other characters, including Mr. Toad, Zippy's wife Zerbina, Zippy's kids Fuelrod and Meltdown, Griffy (the Bill Griffith stand-in), and Claude Funston, a hapless working stiff. While Griffith was inspired by famous freak show performer Zip the Pinhead, Zippy has become a cultural touchstone all his own.

The other aspect keeping the strip new and exciting is Griffith's mastery of parody. Zippy originally appeared in Griffith's true romance parody, "I Gave My Heart To A Pinhead and He Made A Fool Out Of Me." Over the years, Griffith has parodied other comics, famous artists, and subverted the comics medium itself. In a famous strip, Zippy simply shouts, "Tyvek! Tyvek! Tyvek!" over three panels. Griffith will go on riffs, making one strip after another with the same premise. Zippy will talk to roadside attractions for a week or two and then Zippy will be in a true romance magazine parody. The latest iteration, as of September 2015, is Zippy living in Dingburg, New Jersey, a wacky place full of hijinks and surrealism. But Dingburg is next to Prosaic, New Jersey, a place full of ordinary people who don't know what to make of Zippy's antics.

What makes Zippy the Pinhead fun to read is Griffith's anarchic blend of the highbrow and lowbrow aspects of American culture. He'll wax rhapsodic about diners, amusement parks, and roadside attractions, but then make his strip a parody of Cubism or Pop Art or Victorian lithographs. A common mistake is for critics of humorous things to explain the jokes. I'm not going to do that. Read the strips and decide for yourself. Since Zippy's default expressions are surrealistic non-sequiturs, an explanation would simply miss the point. Like The Far Side or Homestar Runner, you either "get it" or you don't. It's not a brand of humor ready-made for the masses based on focus group analysis and what's trending on Buzzfeed.

How is this American Odd? Do I really need to answer that?

http://www.cclapcenter.com/2015/09/american_odd_zippy_stories_by_.html

This gets three stars because of the ' Pindex ' ( saved me hours of looking things up )

A Quarterly Concoction of Jokes, Jingles and Joyful Jackanapes
Griff: "Shrinks call th' pandemonium 'Intrusive Thought Disorder". Do you experience intrusive thoughts, Zippy?"
Zippy: "Are there any other kinds??"

"Sonny! I just wanted you to know your Courageous Stand condemning Saddam Hussein did not go unnoticed"!!
"Yeah, this is the life...& those Mai-Tais we ordered from the Home Shopping network oughta be here within Seven working days"!!
"Until I was fourteen, I was convinced that Doris day and Rex harrison were my Birth Parents"!!

"Wow! I din't know Mr. Softee predated recorded History"!!
"No way!! What're you gonna tell me next? That Sonic Hedgehog is just a series of Binary Impulses"?
Zippy: "Was that A lull"? Griffy: "Actually, that was a pause which grew into a lull". Zippy: "If we let it go untreated, will it turn into a Hiatus"?

"Claude, if a Mobile Home becomes Immobile & it has a Mobile dangling inside, does th' Mobile also achieve a state of Immobility"?
"Why not? Last night I dreamt Cokie Roberts covered me witha thick layer of Vegitarian Chopped Liver"!
"REMOTE KEYLESS ENTRY! REMOTE KEYLESS ENTRY! REMOTE KEYLESS ENTRY"!!

"Sorry, I am not in a voice response mode"
"I put the "Size" in "Fantasize'".
"That's right...Home Shopping is th' answer to all your Deepest spiritual longings... it provides comfort, purpose & Quality Hair Care Products, all from th' safety of your own private Cult Compound".

"For books, it's a grave situation" "The Curse of the Unread"
"Your Human Potential will never be achieved until you've had your Bedspread interpreted"!!
""Want a bite of my invisible Big Mac"

"I can't decide which is my favorite...th' distant beeping of a backhoe in reverse or th' lilting rhythms of Ozzy Osbourne on a megabass boombox..."
"The Flying Nun was all about Separation Anxiety, wasn't it"?
"My mind's on Vegematic"

"Don't dimension it"
"I get the theme 'Celebrity Eggplants: staging a comeback or just vegged out' "?
"You mean my remote control device won't work in this tigers cage"?

"...maybe life is more like the instruction manual that comes with a Korean VCR, written in a language tantalizingly similar to English..."
"I don't know Sid...but, for some reason, I want to put all my Surplus Capital into high-yield Dentu-Creme Bonds and have my broker investigate Pat Benatar's bone structure"!!
"Hey!! Isn't that th' Police Sketch who robbed th' Artist's Conception of th' proposed new 7-11 out on route 128"?

"Now I need a suntan, a tennis lesson, Annette Funicello and two dozen Day-Glo Orange Paper Jumpsuits"!!
"I'm mentally here, but PHYSICALLY, I'm purchasing NAUGAHYDE furniture in the suburbs of Phoenix...or Latvia"!
"I'm on a jet plane to 53 B.C....I'm landing in ancient Rome...some gladiators are playing Scrabble...I smell PIZZA"!!

Zippy's first (and last) job- Manager: "Zippy, where's that sandwich with fries? It's been twenty minutes"! Zippy: "I'm trying Tony, but I just can't get this Tuna to Melt"!!
"My prediction calls for Mass Panic, Widespread Destruction, total Economic Collapse and light rains north of Omaha"!
"Is this where you embarrass us both by asking her to do th' "Bristol Stomp' "?

" When I watch Bilko, I AM that which is Bilko... When I see Joan Collins on the cover of the National Enquirer, I FLEE from that which is Joan Collins..."
"Oh my God... the sun just fell into Yankee Stadium"!!
"That's the beauty of being a pinhead, Zippy- you're prepared"! "I'm also pre-poured, pre-meditated and pre-Raphaelite"!!

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but onomatopoeia will never harm me"
"There's only one answer boys. We were all victims of....Transcendental vegetation"!!!
"Mentally, I'm already in a Tokyo ice cream parlor having difficulty choosing among the Blue Cheese, Basil Leaf & Sweet Potato flavors"!

"I mean, once all th' little wooden balls have gone into the little round holes, is th' corn dog still tasty"?
"Jeez Zippy, anyone can play th' kazoo". "Not th' Air Kazoo!... even more difficult, th' Electric air kazoo"!!
"I bet I'm one of the few people in the universe who knows all the words to Bobby Goldsboro's greatest hits"

"Isn't that what the U.N. Secretary-General said in "Invaders from Mars""?
"Alphonse! Grab more towels! He went in with the top down again"!
"When ambiguity is outlawed, only outlaws will be ambiguous".

"I'm concerned that Tom Cruise may be getting bad career counseling from the Pillsbury Doughboy"
"Donut King! Send out three dozen Glazed or I'll topple your autocratic rule!!"
"I want to say 'Sexauer Blue Spot Flapper Tank Ball' to someone who won't jeer at me or call 911!!"