Bill Griffith's Bukowski; or Why Rex Morgan Doesn't Cut the Cheese

Click on images to enlarge

If ever there was a poet's comic, aka cerebral as all get-out, it's Bill Griffith. Griffith is so good that, a number of years back, he got run out of my hometown newspaper during one of their dismal annual polls in which Rex Morgan, Cathy, Marmaduke, and unending, sadly shrunken reruns of Peanuts somehow continue to cut the mustard.

I'm sure Griffith considers it a badge of honor. His local fans are reduced to electronic subscriptions to keep up with the zany Zippy's hip happenings. Above is a small collection of strips that are Charles Bukowski related. His work is endlessly rewarding, the artwork the finest of any daily strip comic being done today .

He has a sensational, subversive sense of humor; check out his 6 part "Understanding Zippy in 6 Easy Lessons." Still not sure? Perhaps "The Heideggerian Disruptions of Zippy the Pinhead" by Ellen Grabiner will convince you.

Then again, there is always Rex Morgan.

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in ceremonial robe
he's fallen down drunk...
blossom shade

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

A Comic Interlude (plus Issa)

Some things, of course, are just too good not to share. Above was Friday's clever Pearls Before Swine newspaper strip. For more clarity, since it is small, just click on the image.

Which brought to mind another daily comics crossover from a few years back:





The Family Circus crew, particularly Jeffy, has made a number of appearances in Zippy, but this one of Zippy in Family Circus takes the cake.

Now, you say, back to the poetry? Well, we never left ...


Don


A PS from the Issa archive, to perfectly capture the season and the vision of cherry blossoms this week (everywhere) ... and in case everywhere doesn't include you, check out the photos at f/k/a of cherry blossoms and other flowering trees. And grab a couple of haiku to go while you're there.


a corrupt world
in its later days...
but cherry blossoms!

- translated by David G. Lanoue