Zippy: From Here to Absurdity (Zippy the Pinhead)

by Bill Griffith
This new Zippy collection features approximately a year's worth of strips, from November 2003 through November 2004, including full-color Sundays. Follow Zippy as he weaves in and out of "Bushmiller Country" and, he suddenly begins spouting Japanese, French, Russian, Farsi, Hungarian, Greek, Finnish, and Latin! Zippy meets aliens, revisits Levittown with Griffy, confronts the evil "Ziggy," and frolics with advertising icons like Reddy Kilowatt, Mr. Bubble, Colonel Sanders, and the long-forgotten Unifax Astroboy. Oh, yeah, and he takes a long, hot bath (without Mr. Bubble). Also features a three-page series of Zippyesque "art history lessons." Each strip shows the work of different well-known fine artistes of the recent past depicted on banners in a circus sideshow. Various customers contemplate the displays, a little unsure about whether or not to enter the tent. The series ends with Zippy and Griffy finally going in to "expose the con game," only to confront a guy who convinces them he's George Herriman! New Sunday strips include visits to other comics genres, including '50s sci-fi, romance comics ("Young Lust" redux!) and Irving Tripp's Little Lulu.
SC, 9x11, 128pg, PC

Bill Griffith is the artist behind the legendary weekly comic Zippy. Griffith's prolific output has been included in such publications as the Village Voice, National Lampoon, and the New Yorker. Along with Art Spiegelman, Griffith co-founded the influential anthology Arcade and is credited for coining the popular phrase, "Are we Having Fun Yet?" He currently lives in Connecticut with his wife, the cartoonist Diane Noomin.