Synopses & Reviews
Norman Pettingill is a true underground cartoonist, known and admired by a small coterie of cartooning connoisseurs, but completely unknown in the wider world.
Norman Pettingill was an avid trapper and fisherman from Northern Wisconsin, and a self-taught artist. In 1947, at the age of 51, he created hundreds of pen-and-ink drawings and marketed many of them as postcards, printing and distributing them himself. His cartoon drawings were relatively huge and his postcards, therefore, had to be uniquely over-sized at 7' x 10'. He combined a gift for the fine detail and verisimilitude of illustration with the visual exaggeration and outrageous wit of cartooning.
By merging his fascination with nature and backwoods culture with his wild sense of humor, he depicted an out-ofcontrol hillbilly wonderland of talking grizzlies, dancing morons, nightclubs, giant mosquitoes, tumble-down shacks, pipe smoking grannies, flying skunk fur, google-eyed drunks, hilarious hunting mishaps and moonshine soaked fishermen! Pettingill"s world is reminiscent of Al Capp"s Li"l Abnercomic strip, but Pettingill"s hillbilly heaven is made grittier and more tangible by his obsessive penwork and the attention he gives to each teetering outhouse, every overflowing spittoon and each wiry hair growing out of a mountain man"s warty face. He reveled in exposing the commercialization of outdoor activities, debunking the romance of a woodsman"s life, and de-mythologizing the expertise of the outdoors-man. His landscapes and drawings of wild animals could be breathtakingly wondrous, and even his most grotesque depictions of hillbillies were fused with a love and respect for the rituals of a primitive life in the boondocks.
This book is the first published retrospective of Pettingill"s work, containing over a hundred of the artist"s best and rarely seen drawings, printed in an oversized format.
Synopsis
A true outsider great, collected for the first time.
Synopsis
Norman Pettingill was an avid trapper and fisherman from Northern Wisconsin, and a self-taught artist. In 1947, at the age of 51, he created hundreds of pen-and-ink drawings and marketed many of them as postcards, printing and distributing them himself. His cartoon drawings were relatively huge and his postcards, therefore, had to be uniquely over-sized at 7 x 10 . He combined a gift for the fine detail and verisimilitude of illustration with the visual exaggeration and outrageous wit of cartooning By merging his fascination with nature and backwoods culture with his wild sense of humor, he depicted an out-of-control hillbilly wonderland of talking grizzlies, dancing morons, nightclubs, giant mosquitoes, tumble-down shacks, pipe smoking grannies, flying skunk fur, google-eyed drunks, hilarious hunting mishaps and moonshine soaked fishermen Pettingill s world is reminiscent of Al Capp sLi l Abner comic strip, but Pettingill s hillbilly heaven is made grittier and more tangible by his obsessive penwork and the attention he gives to each teetering outhouse, every overflowing spittoon and each wiry hair growing out of a mountain man s warty face. He reveled in exposing the commercialization of outdoor activities, debunking the romance of a woodsman s life, and de-mythologizing the expertise of the outdoors-man. His landscapes and drawings of wild animals could be breathtakingly wondrous, and even his most grotesque depictions of hillbillies were fused with a love and respect for the rituals of a primitive life in the boondocks. This book is the first published retrospective of Pettingill s work, containing over a hundred of the artist s best and rarely seen drawings, printed in an oversized format. "
Synopsis
Norman Pettingill is a true underground cartoonist, known and admired by a small coterie of cartooning connoisseurs, but completely unknown in the wider world. Norman Pettingill was an avid trapper and fisherman from Northern Wisconsin, and a self-taught artist. In 1947, at the age of 51, he created hundreds of pen-and-ink drawings and marketed many of them as postcards, printing and distributing them himself. His cartoon drawings were relatively huge and his postcards, therefore, had to be uniquely over-sized at 7" x 10". He combined a gift for the fine detail and verisimilitude of illustration with the visual exaggeration and outrageous wit of cartooning. By merging his fascination with nature and backwoods culture with his wild sense of humor, he depicted an out-of¬control hillbilly wonderland of talking grizzlies, dancing morons, nightclubs, giant mosquitoes, tumble-down shacks, pipe smoking grannies, flying skunk fur, google-eyed drunks, hilarious hunting mishaps and moonshine soaked fishermen! Pettingill's world is reminiscent of Al Capp's comic strip, but Pettingill's hillbilly heaven is made grittier and more tangible by his obsessive penwork and the attention he gives to each teetering outhouse, every overflowing spittoon and each wiry hair growing out of a mountain man's warty face. He reveled in exposing the commercialization of outdoor activities, debunking the romance of a woodsman's life, and de-mythologizing the expertise of the outdoors-man. His landscapes and drawings of wild animals could be breathtakingly wondrous, and even his most grotesque depictions of hillbillies were fused with a love and respect for the rituals of a primitive life in the boondocks. This book is the first published retrospective of Pettingill's work, containing over a hundred of the artist's best and rarely seen drawings, printed in an oversized format.
Synopsis
This book is the first published retrospective of Pettingill"s work, containing 100s of the artist"s best and rarely seen drawings.
About the Author
Gary Groth is the co-founder of The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books. He lives in Seattle.Johnny Ryan lives in Los Angeles, CA, with his wife and his daughter, where he creates the ongoing Angry Youth Comix series. His books include The Comic Book Holocaust, Johnny Ryan’s XXX Scumbag Party, The Klassic Komics Klub, What’re You Lookin’ At?!, Portajohnny, two books (so far) in the Prison Pit series, and four books (Blecky Yuckerella, Back in Bleck, Comics Are for Idiots, "Fuc- --u, -ss --le") in the Blecky Yuckerella series.Born in Philadelphia, R. Crumb is the author of numerous comic works and one of the pioneers of underground comics. His books include Kafka, The Complete Crumb Comics (17 volumes), The R. Crumb Sketchbook (10 volumes), R. Crumb Draws the Blues, The Book of Mr. Natural, The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, and many more. He lives in the south of France with his wife, the artist Aline Kominsky-Crumb.