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Michael Kupperman: A Comics Voice That Defies Categorization

By Matt D. Wilson

“WTF? I guess I don’t count, again.”

That was cartoonist Michael Kupperman’s tweeted response a few weeks ago to an exhaustive article in The Comics Journal about one-man anthologies. Well, it was almost exhaustive. It didn’t include Kupperman, whose Tales Designed to Thrizzle has been the most consistently funny comic series on shelves since its start in 2005. Following comments by Kupperman and others, TCJ added a mention of Kupperman to the piece.

On the one hand, it was a surprising omission. Kupperman’s work is unique, absurd, and constantly evolving in new and hilarious ways. More people should be reading it. On the other hand, it’s not really fair to categorize Kupperman with other cartoonists because there’s nobody else like him.

You can apply some vague labels to what Kupperman does; the Thrizzle series from Fantagraphics and his 2000 HarperCollins book Snake ‘n’ Bacon’s Cartoon Cabaret both fit neatly under the banner of “anthology,” as they change gears from one scene and character to the next every few pages. You could also probably apply the label of “indie” to Kupperman’s comics. Up through the fifth issue of Thrizzle, it was all black-and-white, and Kupperman handles every aspect of their creation himself (though he does have an editor). And perhaps the easiest label to apply is “humor.”

But that handful of classifications doesn’t come close to really describing what reading Kupperman’s comics is like.

Read More.

(via turner-d-century)