{"id":9075,"date":"2015-10-12T05:14:50","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T09:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=9075"},"modified":"2018-01-20T20:18:03","modified_gmt":"2018-01-21T00:18:03","slug":"episode-138-bill-griffith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-138-bill-griffith","title":{"rendered":"Episode 138 – Bill Griffith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show #138:
\nBill Griffith<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/Episode_138_-_Bill_Griffith.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“With this new book, I’m reconnecting with my earlier self from the underground era, but with all the experience and skill that I’ve gained in the last 30 years of doing a daily strip.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"517fEFCEZ1L._SX339_BO1,204,203,200_\"<\/a> Bill Griffith<\/a> is best known for nearly 30 years of daily comic strips featuring the absurd, surreal American treasure known as Zippy the Pinhead, but he’s also the author of the amazing graphic memoir, Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Love Affair With A Famous Cartoonist<\/a>\"\" (Fantagraphics). This new 200-page work chronicles Bill’s mother’s affair with the cartoonist Lawrence Lariar, and explores notions of family, infidelity, art, vanishing New York, the transience of reputation and memory, and of course, comics. The book is so significant that I decided to have two separate sessions with Bill, one to discuss his background and his comics history, and the other to focus on Invisible Ink<\/em>. In part 1, we tackle Bill’s discovery of underground comics and the scene in ’70s San Francisco, his fine art education, the inescapable importance of Robert Crumb, his collaboration with Art Spiegelman on Arcade<\/em> magazine, how he wound up with a syndicated daily Zippy comic strip, his rediscovery of diners, muffler-men, and roadside advertising icons, his surprisingly youthful audience, the responsibility of blowing up his readers’ minds, and more!\u00a0Give it a listen!<\/a>\u00a0(And go buy Invisible Ink<\/a>\"\"!)<\/p>\n

“We thought of Arcade magazine as a life-raft. We were worried that underground comics would die in two ways: economically, with the Supreme Court ruling on pornography . . . and through the limits of its own audience, which was centered around headshops. Arcade was supposed to be where underground comics went to grow up, and build a wider audience.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Part 2 of this episode takes place at the inaugural Cartoon Crossroads Columbus<\/a>, where I interviewed Bill in front of an audience that included Art Spiegelman. This section focuses on Invisible Ink<\/a>\"\", and covers Bill’s relationship with his parents, the reasons he pursued the story of his mother’s affair, the transience of fame, his need to re-draw all of Lawrence Lariar’s art in his book, how he reacted when his mother wanted to get a tattoo of Zippy, what he’s learned from teaching cartooning at SVA, and more! We had two great<\/em> conversations, so go listen to them!<\/a><\/p>\n

“Art Spiegelman told me he liked Zippy, but it was a little like being stuck in an elevator with a crazy person.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/Episode_138_-_Bill_Griffith.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

\"20177757594_2c918b00cb_z\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Enjoy the conversation!<\/a>\u00a0Then check out\u00a0the archives<\/a>\u00a0for more great episodes! You might like:<\/p>\n