Thursday, October 17, 2013

Video Preview: VIP: THE MAD WORLD OF VIRGIL PARTCH by Jonathan Barli

Here's a typical Fantagraphics preview: someone's hands slowly page through a book. I like their previews a lot. No jazzy music, no wild camera angles; just the book.

And what a book VIP: THE MAD WORLD OF VIRGIL PARTCH looks like! Full of images, originals, photos. And author Jonathan Barli fills us in on who this VIP fellow was.

Consider buying this. Or consider talking a loved one into buying it for you.




VIP: The Mad World of Virgil Partch
by Jonathan Barli
http://www.fantagraphics.com/vipmadworld
208-page full-color 10.25" x 12.25" hardcover • $49.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-664-5
Only a few months after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor and the same year that Albert Camus offered the world his bleak vision of man's existence by introducing his philosophical dictum of The Absurd, Virgil Partch burst onto the scene with his own twist on the phrase. Partch was a cartoonist who offered comic counterpoint to the grim headlines and a unique perspective on human nature in the pages of the nation's most popular magazines.
Known to millions by his jazzy signature, VIP, this comic genius ushered in a new era of the gag cartoon — zany, sometimes surreal, always hilarious — that inspired a generation of fellow cartoonists starting in the 1940s and '50s. His madcap style of humor was reflected in the cutting-edge comedic sensibilities of Burns & Allen, Jack Benny, Ernie Kovacs, Bob & Ray, Stan Freberg, and Jean Shepherd, and would position Partch as one of the most prolific "gag-men" of his day. VIP contributed to an astonishing array of magazines, wrote gags for other cartoonists, illustrated books, album covers, and advertisements, and adorned merchandise including, appropriately, cocktail glasses.
VIP: The Mad World of Virgil Partch is the first time Partch's life and career has been treated in full, collecting amazing artwork from the entire range of his inspired career — reprinted from original art, primary-source publications, and collectors' and family archives — and featuring his own writings. VIP's place in the world of cartooning and humor can finally be fully appreciated in this beautiful coffee-table volume.


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