The Comics Journal

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Gary Groth Interviews Harvey Pekar (1984) Part Two of Two

Posted by Gary Groth on July 15th, 2010 at 5:57 PM

In Part Two, Pekar rates world literature, discusses how different artists interpret his writing and generally
champions the underdog.

Gary Groth interviews Harvey Pekar (1993)

Posted by Gary Groth on July 12th, 2010 at 5:00 PM
This interview is reprinted from TCJ #162, October 1993, the autobio-cartoonist issue. In this interview, Groth
and Pekar talk about literary values, evaluate other autobio cartoonists, and ponder how to grow a lit-comics
readership. Upcoming: Gary Groth's 1985 interview with Harvey Pekar.

Frank Frazetta Interview

Posted by Gary Groth on May 10th, 2010 at 5:57 PM
I met Frank Frazetta in the summer of ’71 when he and his wife Ellie drove to a convention I organized in
Washington, DC, to exhibit his paintings. This was something of a coup at the time, since Frazetta rarely
appeared publicly and even more rarely exhibited his original paintings; no one to this day, including myself,
quite knows how I pulled it off. I only remember having the chutzpah to call him up and invite him, and that he
accepted on the spot.
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The Dick Giordano Interview (Part Three of Three)

Posted by Gary Groth on April 2nd, 2010 at 4:35 PM
In the conclusion of this three-part interview, Groth and Giordano ponder comics as an artform, consider the
strengths and weaknesses of comics creators circa 1980, and discuss the joy of comics.

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Pages: 1 2 3

The Dick Giordano Interview (Part Two of Three)

Posted by Gary Groth on April 1st, 2010 at 2:13 PM
In the second portion of a three-part interview, Giordano discusses cartoonists' attempts to organize, Neal
Adams, Alex Toth, inking, and "that prostitution mentality."

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Pages: 1 2

The Dick Giordano Interview (Part One of Three)

Posted by Gary Groth on March 31st, 2010 at 11:35 PM
tcj.com reprints Gary Groth's 1980 interview with editor, inker and penciler Dick Giordano — who passed
away March, 27, 2010 — from TCJ #62. At the time of the interview, Giordano had been editor in chief at
Charlton, and would become an executive editor and vice president at DC.

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Pages: 1 2 3

Norman Pettingill: His Life

Posted by Gary Groth on March 9th, 2010 at 12:01 AM
In June, Fantagraphics Books will publish a collection of Norman Pettingill’s work. Comic fans may remember
that Robert Crumb published some of Pettingill’s cartoon drawings in Weirdo in the mid-’80s. The idea of
publishing an entire book collecting Pettingill’s work was first broached to me by Johnny Ryan, a Pettingill fan
(and the cartoonist behind Angry Youth Comics and Prison Pit), a few years ago. The John Michael Kohler
Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, is the repository for most of Pettingill’s work, and agreed to help us put
together a book. Johnny wrote a brief appreciation; R. Crumb loved Pettingill’s work and wrote a brief
introduction. But, so little is known about Pettingill himself that I felt the book required a short biography of the
man — so I wrote one. There has been very little written about Pettingill, making it difficult to put together a
story of his life. I had only previously read “A Visit with Norman Pettingill” by Rodney Shroeter from Comic Art
# 3 (2003), which was useful but also problematic: it charted the broad arc of Pettingill’s life in desultory
fashion, but also contained inaccuracies and internal discrepancies. I was able to separate fact from fiction by
interviewing Pettingill’s sons, Bud and Jack, and by consulting a lifelong friend of Pettingill’s, Jim Pink, all of
whom proved generous with their time and helpful. *This is the latest draft, which may be slightly revised for
publication.
Pages: 1 2 3

Mid-Life Creative Imperatives Part 3 (of 3)

Posted by Gary Groth on February 26th, 2010 at 12:01 AM
The Journal began publishing almost the same month that Art Spiegelman and Bill Griffith’s underground
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comix anthology Arcade ended — as good an event as any to signal the last whimper of the underground
movement.

Mid-Life Creative Imperatives Part 2 (of 3)

Posted by Gary Groth on February 25th, 2010 at 12:01 AM
The writer Benjamin Peret once raged that the United States represented “the most emphatic garbage, the
ignoble sense of money, the indigence of ideas, the savage hypocrisy in morals, and altogether ... a
loathsome swinishness pushed to the point of paroxysm.”
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