Justin Green 1945- 2022

 

Underground Comix cartoonist Justin Green, best known for his Binky Brown series, passed away on April 23, 2022. He was 76. 

A pioneer in the field of autobiographical comics, Green suffered from undiagnosed OCD, which he felt that the Catholic Church exacerbated. He attended RISD, where he discovered Robert Crumb's comix work, calling it "harsh drawing stuffed into crookedly-drawn panels." Dropping out of a Master's program at Syracuse University, he moved to San Francisco. He said he felt "a call to arms" to be part of the alternative lifestyle and the emerging Underground Comix scene. 

Via Wikipedia:

"Green's short comics pieces appeared in various titles and anthologies including Art Spiegelman's and Bill Griffith's anthologies Arcade and Young Lust. But in 1972, he was overwhelmed by an urgent desire to tell the story of his personal anxieties.^[11][12][13] Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary is a solo comic book that details Green's struggle with a form of OCD known as scrupulosity, within the framework of growing up Catholic in 1950s Chicago. Intense graphic depiction of personal torment had never appeared in comic book form before, and it had a profound effect on other cartoonists and the future direction of comics as literature. Green's roommate at the time, Art Spiegelman, was so inspired by Binky Brown that he thought he'd try his own memoir-type story, a strip he called "Maus" which some years later became the seed of Maus.^[14]"

More at The Daily Cartoonist.

From his wife, fellow cartoonist Carol Tyler's Instagram:

April blooms in pastel beauty, showy, fragrant, everything rife with pure poetry. Even the most beleaguered, broken-down empty lot looks pretty good.
Except on this exceedingly warm night, as warm as any you’d find in his favorite month July, the brilliant gentleman rolled off the edge.
The creative genius fell off the ledge, that crazy fellow. That marvelous, rolling magnet accumulating,
fueled by compulsions, and rituals, guilt, and rage . . . hobbled by disease of late,
The ever-vigilant dot connector slipped on the path of his illusions, tumbled down the magnificent facade of everything his life, and crash landed on the comfortable old mattress we had prepared for him months ago.
We, his loved ones, prepared but not prepared for the putty-dry voice on the phone in the wee hours, stating flatly: “I’m sorry, he’s gone.”
And that was it.
So we, his loved ones, hurry-assembled, in body and in spirit, at his place of care one last time, to abide with him
finally released.
Finally released.
In the still warm night, his widow flung open the window there.
Then, as if it were a bugle, this bird, in the dead of darkness, began calling out, cutting through the 3am murk like a machete clears a path - -
It went something like this:
Hark! Ages! Prepare to Receive a Great One in Glory!
And we understood that a coterie of plaid-clad brooding angels had set an infinitely long table to showcase his brilliance:
Drawn pages, pens, inks, brushes, paints, signs, his gold leaf kit (as the pearly gates apparently need a touch-up). There are scripts, notebooks, guitars, sheet music, coffee making supplies (essential), mystical talismans, books, correspondence, empty jars, receipts, stir sticks, and
all those things that say ‘I built a life. I loved my family. I valued my friends. I did quality work and shared my gifts, and, of course, (using his words) — (how often we’d heard him say):
“I’ll be in touch.”
____________________________________
Justin Green, 1945 - 2022.
Please share. I have no contact info for many of Jud's friends because he changed passwords often, and left his phone in his pocket when doing laundry a few weeks ago. Memorial being planned.