Comics In Wisconsin Author To Visit Kenosha, Dec. 1 at Southwest Library

Comics have been an important part of Wisconsin life for more than a century. Several of the most important comic artists in the U.S. have been from Wisconsin or moved here to live and work. Princeton, Wisconsin, a key comic production center in the 1970s-80s, was a powerful source of historic comic art reproduction as well as publication of avant-garde comics.
Learn more by visiting Southwest Library, 7979 38th Avenue, on Tuesday, December 1st at 7:00 p.m. when Kenosha welcomes Paul Buhle, retired senior lecturer at Brown University and author of “Comics In Wisconsin”, and many other volumes on comics and their impact on society.

Harvey Pekar of the “American Splendor” series writes, “Comics In Wisconsin recovers the history of an important center of comic art experimentation, and offers readers a four-color glimpse at the richness of a neglected political and artistic counterculture.”

Sharon Ruhdal, author-artist, also comments, “In 1970, after art school in NYC, I landed in Madison, thinking it would be like living on Pluto. Instead I discovered the ‘Athens of the Midwest’. All hip radicals passing between California and New York stopped off to exchange cultural DNA. From pre-WW1 Hearst newspaper strips to contemporary ‘art comics’, Paul Buhle uncovers the development of Wisconsin as a center of creative and radical cartooning.”

Wisconsin’s own Lynda Barry says of Buhle, “He’s tasted the wine of the East Coast and came back for more beer and cheese curds.”

“Comics In Wisconsin” book features the work of Art Young, Frank O. King, Sidney Smith, Harvey Kurtzman, Bill Griffith, Sharon Rudahl, Gilbert Shelton, Howard Cruse, Alison Bechdel, Trina Robbins, Art Spiegelman, Mike Konopacki, James Sturm, and Lynda Barry. Cover image is by R. Crumb.

Buhle has also written, co-authored, or edited books on Harvey Kurtzman, creator of MAD; Studs Terkel (a comic book adaptation of Terkel’s “Working”); “The Beats: A Graphic History”; “Che: A Graphic Biography” and many more.

This event is free. It is intended for an audience of teens and adults.