Gary Panter

It may be one of my favorite comics ever - the greatest rendition of a drug-induced hallucination I've seen in ANY medium, plus a set piece involving a horse that must be read.

COLA MADNES probably isn't the best place to start - I love it, but it most certainly is an acquired taste. Jog has good things to say about the JIMBO ongoing that Zongo released back in the mid-nineties, and I'll post those links here pretty soon.

http://joglikescomics.blogspot.com/2005/03/review-i-kept-alluding-to-when-my.html

JIMBO 3-4

http://joglikescomics.blogspot.com/2005/04/not-so-much-review-as-revisiting.html

So there.

I'd say Panter is an acquired taste no matter where you start, so Cola Madnes is as good a place as any. I like it very, very much but I would be extremely cautious in recommending it to anyone who wasn't actively seeking out Panter's stuff.

I want to be able to afford the two new Jimbo books. Very badly so.

Douglas I think you are being slightly perverse suggesting Purgatory as a place to start w/ Panter - it has to be like one of the least approachable comics of all time (apart from the page where he lists his fave albs) - myself and two of my long-time Panter-lovin pals have retired defeated and bloodied by this one - tho it is obv gorgeous as an art object/fetish - and now there is a similar sequel?? i think

but pretty much EVERYTHING else is worthy of yr time - yea that 80s Raw collection Richard mentions is as fucken tough/solid a comic ed that has ever been issued by any north americans(I used to own the first edition w/ the brown card covs but i sold it to buy 'the usual', prob) - and Invasion of the Elvis Zombies, complete with psych flexi, is another long-gone Raw bk gem that you shld kill for

i'm guessing that the Jimbo comics that Groening put out a a few years ago are mouldering in comic bk shops all over, and are prob the cheapiest-easiest find for the Panter newbie - GP invented a whole new post-pkd drugged fucko comic strip language/ratty art style, first significant 'underground' style since r.crumb poss

i also used to have (but sold for etc) his record alb, not bad even w/Residents involved, one great song abt dale evans and roy rogers

i STILL have my official Pee-Wee Herman Yo-Yo w/ a GP pic of P-W

recently on the internet i went looking for Panter's New Yorker tribute pic to Jack Kirby, but cldn't find it - Panter tells a great story abt visiting Kirby when he was living in California, abt lounge chairs floating in the Kirby family swimming pool - man's a poet (check esp. his intro to mark marek's first collection)

for $150 or so Panter was doing commissioned drawings over the internet - you supplied him with 3 words and he did the rest - my one of my panter-lovin' pal's gfs gave gp 'oily hex mutant' (sorta a private joke) and got back a SUPERB monster pic as a present for her beloved - again, i think some of these pics are collected

panter's website is v. gd

that's it

Perhaps, but I found ADVENTURES IN PARADISE to have a more accessible narrative momentuam, relative to COLA MADNES. Panter makes use every technique available and then makes some up whilst telling his story, overlaying images on images, having white bits of clarity bleed through the page when everything else is seemingly chaotic, flip-flopping between genres and always certain to keep moving...

Contrast this to CM, which maintains a deliberately primitive rhythm, not unlike a comic made by a ten year old - two stark panels per page. If you don't calibrate yourself to the almost interminable movement of the narrative, you're bound to be left wondering "what was that about?"

Zongo stuff also k-fun!

(does this mean we'll get to talk about Fort Thunder stuff, & eventually PAPER RAD?!? I've been ordering copies of BJ & Da Dawgs for every public library in New Zealand, haha)

Coming this January...

Perhaps some of you knew, but I, alas, didn't, thus making it noteworthy.

sweet! the price is right too

a little while ago i picked up a cool h/c reprint from drawn and quarterly of one of Panter's sketchbooks, lovely stuff, d+q were promising two more vols but i guess the first one sold for shit...i paid v. little for my copy

Yeah, this + Chippendale's Maggots & C.F.'s Powr Mastrs = k-rad times at the end of the year. Still need to grab a cheap (ex-library?) copy of Cola Madnes before they're all gone.

Also, Panter + Paper Rad t-shirt @ Picturebox =
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/9035/panterradbp4.jpg

http://garypanterbook.com/

yumfuckinyum

And then there's this coming out in a few months
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/wp-content/2008/01/omeg7.jpg