Ragged Line DIY - Panter, Pettibon, Chantry

February 18, 2005 3:09 PM

We all seem to know about Gary Panter: set designer for Pee-Wee's play house and author of the JIMBO comics. His site archives an increasing radius: see his comics, for instance, some Jimbo covers: 1, 2, 3. Or his custom drawings, which are done based on one to three words you supply. The ink drawings: 1, 2, 3 and the sketchbooks are nice, too: 1, 2, 3, 4. Seems like he's everywhere: writing on his blog or that oft remembered manifesto, sometimes being taught or written about. And, as connective tissue, his Screamers design is one of the more well regarded punk images out there. When I think of Panter, I also think of Raymond Pettibon, brother of Greg Ginn (Black Flag/SST). Featured in PBS ART 21 (check out the multi-media), his work graced numerous Black Flag and Minutemen album covers and flyers. Zines also played an early role in his development. Mike Watt's own Hootpage documents some of Ray's art from the summer of 2003. Known for his interplay of image and word, some pieces seem to be in process, but all are still striking. More pieces can be seen at tractor.com. When I think of Pettibon, I sometimes think of Art Chantry. His posters (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) are inspirational and his logos ain't too shabby either. Mr. Chantry has been known to debate the rise and fall of rock and roll graphic design, speak up on issues of the state of graphic design today (as well as Seattle). Some people can't surf, indeed.
posted by safetyfork (30 comments total)

this post hurts my brain.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 3:11 PM on February 18, 2005

[more inside?]
posted by mrgrimm at 3:11 PM on February 18, 2005

Hell of a first FPP.
posted by fatllama at 3:15 PM on February 18, 2005

I think I sprained my clicking finger.
posted by lobstah at 3:17 PM on February 18, 2005

all those links! all those links!
posted by wessatong at 3:22 PM on February 18, 2005

Yea yea, huge post. But I like the content. I've been a fan of Pettibone and all of the SST guys since the mid 80s. It's gonna take all night to read this stuff. But hell, it's good.

I've been wanting to post about Pettibone for a while. Thanks for doing the work for me. I'll just read and ENJOY! (Descendents/ALL)
posted by snsranch at 3:24 PM on February 18, 2005

I had nested it all in a set of small tags, but they seemed to have escaped me. There's always a gotcha lurkin' to getcha.

FWIW, here are some links I pruned: Joe Clark on Panter, Watt's page on Ray's videos/films, a short critical appraisal of Pettibon, and, a review of the Chantry book (that would've landed on "indeed" if the eye magazine server wasn't misbehaving).
posted by safetyfork at 3:36 PM on February 18, 2005

Don't let the nay sayers get you down. This post is hard core wonderful.
posted by absalom at 3:39 PM on February 18, 2005

The Minutemen were asskickers in their day. Alot of pissed off social and political commentary. Just replace "Reagan" with "Bush" and the songs are valid today. (Yea, I know your talking art here, but I'm just excited to read about something so seemingly obscure and yet so close to my personal experience.)
posted by snsranch at 4:04 PM on February 18, 2005

Pettibon is Ginn's brother!? Holy shit. All these years and I never knew that.
posted by davebush at 4:11 PM on February 18, 2005

Way to school the people!

You didn't mention Panter's early collaboration with Matt Groening, though, unless I missed it in the profusion.

I miss Art Chantry's stuff around town a great deal. He is unfairly thought of as primarily regional, I think, when his material is clearly better than simply the work of a regional designer.
posted by mwhybark at 4:18 PM on February 18, 2005

Hey Mike. You beautiful bastard. Guess who?

You said it. Chantry ain't regional - he's ripped off everywhere!

Wendy Q saw Art at the last big AIGA conference in St. Louis he looked actually... happy in his now opulent digs where he maintains a palatial studio one tenth of the cost of our rat infested West Seattle post war groove shack.

PS. How the hell are you?
posted by tkchrist at 4:25 PM on February 18, 2005

It's pretty rude to devote that much front page space to one subject. A [more inside] was definitely in order.
posted by Doohickie at 4:39 PM on February 18, 2005

Doohickie: He/she said she had the thing couched in small tags, which seem to have escaped. There was no intent to take up that amount of space. Honest mistake.
posted by Bugbread at 4:49 PM on February 18, 2005

When I first saw Gary Panter, I was about to pass this post up (don't much like his stuff, nope)... then I saw Pettibon's name. I looove his work. The retrospective partially organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art was Pettibon heaven ^_^
posted by May Kasahara at 5:29 PM on February 18, 2005

Thank you Safetyfork.
posted by R. Mutt at 5:43 PM on February 18, 2005

Good god almighty! Todd: March 5. How the hell are ya, et cetry. I suppose old home day should be offline, like.
posted by mwhybark at 6:57 PM on February 18, 2005

Big, but great post.
posted by interrobang at 7:24 PM on February 18, 2005

Pettibon is Ginn's brother!? Holy shit. All these years and I never knew that.
posted by davebush at 4:11 PM PST on February 18


No shit, how crazy is that?

It's pretty rude to devote that much front page space to one subject. A [more inside] was definitely in order.
posted by Doohickie at 4:39 PM PST on February 18


Would it be rude if I punched you up and puked my Pabst Blue Ribbon on you? (kidding) Your opinion is highly valued, and then tossed. (also kidding) Just reminds me of those good old days drinking crappy beer smoking crappy weed, and fighting people for no apparent reason, Black Flag can do that to a guy.
posted by snsranch at 7:31 PM on February 18, 2005

Someone mentioned an early collaboration of Gary Panter and Matt Groening? That was probably "Ocurence At Oki Dog", which I published in a ratty underground comic called Hoo-Be-Boo, in 1983.
I scanned that strip, as well as a swell collaboration between Gary and Rick Potts, and Gary's inside cover, and posted them here .
Enjoy!
posted by yakcat01 at 7:36 PM on February 18, 2005

Genius, yakcat01! I was indeed thinking of the Fuk Boys. My impression is that they did multiple stories, but I've only ever heard of them from interviews with one or another - Panter in the CJ, I think. Whatever it was, they ran a couple frames but not enough of to really get the idea.

I love how Groening's stuff is identifiable amidst the ink riot. I'm pretty sure that's a Black Flag tee in frame one.
posted by mwhybark at 7:53 PM on February 18, 2005

Oh, and welcome to MeFi!
posted by mwhybark at 7:54 PM on February 18, 2005

bugbread:

Grumble grumble grumble.

</curmudgeon>
posted by Doohickie at 7:58 PM on February 18, 2005

Wow. Whadda post. I mean to say, WHADDA POST!

matteo is now officially pwned.

But in a good way...
posted by soyjoy at 9:29 PM on February 18, 2005

Not such a big fan of Chantry's 40's clipart finds. But, that's what makes horse races...
posted by mania at 9:46 PM on February 18, 2005

[RAD]
posted by drpynchon at 10:14 PM on February 18, 2005

I'm gonna have a clicky linky party tonight! Allright!

This post is a thing of absolute beauty. Thank you ever so much, safetyfork!
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:58 AM on February 19, 2005

Thanks for pointing to the Groening/Panter collab, yakcat01! That one slipped by as well as my own personal poland, ArtChantry.com (store/posters). Imagine walking down the street at night after posting this and remembering that, there's a genuine d'oh right there.
posted by safetyfork at 6:02 AM on February 19, 2005

Awesome post. I know I've mentioned this before in other poster-related posts here, but anyone with so much as an inkling of interest in the current state of rock poster art needs to check out The Art of Modern Rock, an absolutely gorgeous coffee table book with tons of images from Chantry, Ames bros, Lindesey Kuhn, Frank Kozik and others.
posted by Atom12 at 8:06 AM on February 21, 2005

Panter told me once that Conky's head was made from an old IBM adding machine case. He's a nice guy. His homewrecker wife, however, is one of the meanest people I have ever met.
posted by y2karl at 11:07 AM on February 21, 2005