Joe Brainard, New York School cartoonist

October 8, 2007 10:54 PM

Did the New York School invent alternative comics? Joe Brainard, more often recognized as an artist and poet in the second-generation New York School, produced several comics in the 1960s, collaborating with Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Ron Padgett, Robert Creeley, and many others. This series of blog posts by Gary Sulllivan (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8) examines Brainard's comics in the context of American poetry and underground comics.

Related:
Kristin Prevallet on Brainard's art
Joe: A Memoir of Joe Brainard by Ron Padgett (previously)
Ted Berrigan's Sonnet 15 (mp3)

posted by roll truck roll (13 comments total)

Wow. Timing. I just read I Remember by Joe Brainard for a poetry writing class, and finished up writing a response for it.
posted by SansPoint at 11:07 PM on October 8, 2007

POETRY COMICALS FOREVER
posted by Powerful Religious Baby at 12:25 AM on October 9, 2007

No, Harvey Kurtzman invented alternative comics.
posted by doctor_negative at 1:13 AM on October 9, 2007

Oops, make that, Harvey Kurtzman invented alternative comics.
posted by doctor_negative at 1:15 AM on October 9, 2007

I've always been told that New York invented everything.
posted by i_cola at 4:47 AM on October 9, 2007

No it was Goya, "Asta su Abuelo." And so was his grandfather
posted by CaptMcalister at 5:27 AM on October 9, 2007

Great stuff, thanks!
posted by mediareport at 6:07 AM on October 9, 2007

Don't the "Tijuana Bibles" go back to the 1930s?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:16 AM on October 9, 2007

Don't forget Frank Stack...he wrote the New Adventures of Jesus...
posted by schyler523 at 10:00 AM on October 9, 2007

According to the article, C Comics probably predates Jesus by a month or so.

But anyway, I started the FPP with that question just to get your attention. Please don't let it detract from your enjoyment of these cool drawings.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:10 AM on October 9, 2007

Thank you for this, roll. I'm a huge Brainard fan. I will read Sullivan's posts later today, but I hope he mentions the brilliant San Francisco collage artist Jess, lover of poet Robert Duncan, who was doing mash-up Dick Tracy comics called "Tricky Cad" in the 1950s. I couldn't find a really good "Tricky Cad" image on the Web, but get a load of this.
posted by digaman at 10:20 AM on October 9, 2007

That's really cool, digaman. Didn't Jess also work with Jack Spicer, or am I thinking of someone different?
posted by roll truck roll at 10:42 AM on October 10, 2007

That was a great essay. Eye opening. This will roll around in my brain for weeks.
posted by Kattullus at 8:07 PM on October 11, 2007