Bill Griffith

"The story of Schlitzie's long career--from Coney Island and the Ringling Bros. Circus to small town carnivals and big city sideshows--is one of legend. Today, Schlitzie is most well-known for his appearance in the cult classic Freaks (produced by MGM of all studios in 1932 and directed by Tod Browning, his first feature after the horror classic Dracula), in which all of the sideshow performers were real, not actors. The making of Freaks and Schlitzie's role in the film is a centerpiece of the book. Freaks was also the inspiration for Zippy the Pinhead, now in its 31st year of newspaper syndication via King Features, and led to Griffith's 50-year cartooning career. In researching Schlitzie's life (1901-1971), Griffith has tracked down primary sources and archives throughout the country, including conducting interviews with those who worked with him and had intimate knowledge of his personality, his likes and dislikes, how he responded to being a sideshow "freak," and much more. This graphic novel biography is not exploitative, but instead humanizes Schlitzie by providing never-before revealed details of his life, offering a unique look into his world and restoring some dignity to his life and recognizing his contributions to popular culture"--

The Life and Times of Schlitzie the Pinhead

Nobody's Fool

Underground and Zippy the Pinhead cartoonist Bill Griffith uncovers his mother’s hidden past in his first graphic memoir. This is the renowned cartoonist's first long-form graphic work ― a 200-page memoir that poignantly recounts his mother’s secret life, which included an affair with a cartoonist and crime novelist in the 1950s and ’60s. Invisible Ink unfolds like a detective story, alternating between past and present, as Griffith recreates the quotidian habits of suburban Levittown and the professional and cultural life of mid-century Manhattan in the 1950s and ’60s as seen through his mother’s and his own then-teenage eyes. Griffith puts the pieces together and reveals a mother he never knew.

My Mother's Love Affair with a Famous Cartoonist

Invisible Ink

From Bill Griffith, the acclaimed creator of Zippy the Pinhead, comes a history of comics as told through the life story of Ernie Bushmiller and his iconic comic strip Nancy “As the widest-ranging cartoon chronicler of American absurdity in our time, Bill Griffith has topped himself. This is an instant comic-strip classic!” —Matt Groening “For many years, I’ve devoured Bill Griffith’s work. It’s always inspiring and engrossing. As it never fails to do, Griffith’s brilliance and consummate drawing chops shine through. Three Rocks is amazing!” —Emil Ferris “A page-turning, standard-setting, must-have work of biographical art.” —Chris Ware From Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead and Nobody’s Fool, comes Three Rocks, a biography of cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller, creator of the iconic comic strip Nancy. But this graphic novel is about more than a single comic book artist. It is the story of this American art form, tracing its inception in 1895 with the Yellow Kid, the creation of Nancy in 1933, and all the strips that followed, including Peanuts and The Far Side. When Bushmiller died in 1982, Nancy was running in almost 900 daily newspapers—a number few syndicated cartoonists ever achieve. Nancy is hailed as the “perfect” comic strip by fans and cartoonists alike. The title Three Rocks refers to the trope of three hemispherical rocks often seen in a Bushmiller landscape—just enough to communicate environment to the reader. This distillation is exemplary of the iconic, diagrammatic look of Nancy, a comic strip about the nature of what it means to be a comic strip—the perfect avatar for Griffith to expand upon his philosophy of creating comics.

Bill Griffith

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