COMICS IN WISCONSIN by Paul Buhle

COMICS IN WISCONSIN by Paul Buhle.

Wisconsin –for whatever reason--- has produced a disproportionate number of cartoonists: “classic” comic strip creators like Frank King (Gasoline Alley), Sidney Smith (The Gumps), Claire Briggs (Casper Milquetoast), Carl Anderson (Henry) are among those born in the Dairy State or who spent considerable time there. Wisconsin was also a hotbed of underground comix activity: cartoonist/publisher Denis Kitchen (Mom’s Homemade Comics, Kitchen Sink Press, Krupp Comic Works), Jim Mitchell (Smile), Don Glassford (Deep 3-D), Bruce Walthers (OK Comics), Wendel Pugh (Googiewaumer), Sharon Rudahl (Snarf, Wimmens Comix), and others. Even R. Crumb (Zap, Mr. Natural) came within a whisker of moving there. Contemporary comics creators include Lynda Barry (What It Is and many others), Mike Baron & Steve Rude (Nexus), P.S. Mueller (New Yorker), Don Simpson (Megaton Man), James Sturm (Golem’s Mighty Swing), Peter Poplaski (Superman, Batman), Mike Konpacki (Howard Zinn graphic novel) and British native Neil Gaiman.

Milwaukee and Princeton-based Kitchen Sink Press published top underground cartoonists like R. Crumb (the cover to Comics In Wisconsin), Art Spiegelman, Charles Burns, Howard Cruse, and countless others, along with Mark Schultz (Xenozoic), definitive collections of Flash Gordon, Li’l Abner, Nancy & Sluggo, Steve Canyon, Alley Oop and other famous strips. Meanwhile the Iola-based Comics Buyers’ Guide for many years covered the comics industry journalistically via Don & Maggie Thompson. Paul Buhle himself produced graphic histories of SDS and the IWW and co-authored a Harvey Kurtzman monograph. And for generations Dell Comics (Little Lulu, Walt Disney and countless other titles) were printed in Racine, along with Big Little Books. And while the most famous cartoonist of his era, Al Capp (Li’l Abner, Tonight Show, etc.), was not a Wisconsin native or resident, his sudden downfall and disgrace was thanks to a late 1970s sex scandal in Eau Claire.

Author Paul Buhle (a Madisonian, professor, and comics historian) weaves together the disparate cartoon elements above to create a fascinating tapestry of talents linked by a singularly comical Midwest state.

“Comics in Wisconsin recovers the history of an important center of comic art experimentation, and offers readers a four-color glimpse at the richness of a neglected political and artistic counterculture.” ---Harvey Pekar.

Product Details:

Cover art: Robert Crumb

Softcover: 118 pages

Publisher: Borderland Books; 1^st printing (2009)

Language: English

ISBN-13: 9780981562032

Product Dimensions: 8 x 10 inches