Bill Griffith – författare

Nobody’s Fool follows the story of Schlitzie’s long career—from Coney Island and the Ringling Bros. Circus to small-town carnivals and big-city sideshows—which is one of legend. Today, Schlitzie is most well-known for his appearance in the cult classic Freaks. The making of Freaks and Schlitzie’s role in the film is a centerpiece of the book. 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 provides never-before-revealed details of his life, offering a unique look into his world and restoring dignity to his life by recognizing his contributions to popular culture.

From Bill Griffith, the acclaimed creator of Zippy the Pinhead, comes the story of Ernie Bushmiller and his iconic comic strip Nancy, told in an original graphic novel that recounts the history of comics and the secrets of comic book storytellingFrom 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 more than just the bio of 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—and today it is experiencing a resurgence thanks to the work of new writer/artist Olivia Jaimes.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—enough to communicate environment to the reader (two wouldn’t read properly, and four is one too many). This distillation helped contribute to the iconic, diagrammatic look of Nancy, making it a comic strip not about childhood, like Peanuts, but 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, specifically humorous comics.

Don't miss this timely read, an NPR “Books We Love”: “Deeply researched biography told in sharply attentive black-and-white comics.”Legendary cartoonist Bill Griffith brings a personal touch to this illustrated history of his great-grandfather, William Henry Jackson—a pioneering photographer of the American West whose work led to Yellowstone becoming the first National Park and was a major influence on Ansel Adams.In his new graphic biography, legendary cartoonist Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead, tells the story of his namesake and great-grandfather, William Henry Jackson, who was one of the first photographers of the American West.Jackson’s photography spurred Americans to move westward, inspiring photographers such as Ansel Adams, and playing a role in the creation of our national parks, including Yellowstone.Using his unique approach to graphic novel biography, which Kirkus hails as setting a “standard” for the medium, Griffith explores every aspect of his great-grandfather’s life and legacy, which he pulls from family letters, diaries, and anecdotes, primary sources, and the archives of the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress, as well as from the more than 25 books written about Jackson and his work.Like all of Griffith’s biographies, Photographic Memory is a thoroughly researched, sharply observant character study written from a place of love, which explores photography in an illustrated medium. Not an easy trick to pull off—unless you are Bill Griffith.