Toot Toot!
by Dan Nadel
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Here’s yet another event (Tim & Frank, can I go home yet?) for you to fathom. Come join us tomorrow. This should actually be awesome.
Join us for a book release party and panel discussion featuring:
KIM DEITCH
BILL GRIFFITH
GEOFFREY HAYES
and moderator
DAN NADEL
Listing information:
WHAT: Book Release Party for WHERE DEMENTED WENTED: THE ART AND COMICS OF RORY HAYES, with panel discussion and Q&A
WHO: Dan Nadel, Kim Deitch, Bill Griffith & Geoffrey Hayes
WHERE: DESERT ISLAND • 540 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn, NY • 718.388.5087 • desertislandbrooklyn.com
WHEN: Friday, August 8, 7PM (discussion begins at 8PM)
FREE ADMISSION
An exclusive, limited-edition Hayes silkscreen will be available for this event.
The controversial cartoonist Rory Hayes was a self-taught dynamo of the underground comics revolution. Attracting equal parts derision and praise (the latter from the likes of R. Crumb and Bill Griffith), Hayes emerged as comics’ great primitive, drawing horror comics in a genuinely horrifying and hallucinatory manner (some have called him the Fletcher Hanks of the underground). He has influenced a generation of cartoonists, from RAW to Fort Thunder and back again.
On Friday, Aug. 8, on what would have been Hayes’ 59th birthday (Hayes died of a drug overdose in 1983), Desert Island and Fantagraphics Books will celebrate the life and art of Rory Hayes with a special evening celebrating the release of WHERE DEMENTED WENTED, the first-ever collection of Hayes’ legendary comics and art. Editor Dan Nadel (Gary Panter, The Wilco Book) will moderate a discussion of Hayes’ work with three men who knew and worked with Hayes: Kim Deitch (creator of Waldo the Cat), Bill Griffith (creator of Zippy the Pinhead), and Geoffrey Hayes (brother of Rory and author of the recent Benny and Penny from Toon Books).
WHERE DEMENTED WENTED: THE ART AND COMIX OF RORY HAYES is the first retrospective of Hayes’ career ever published, and features the best of his underground comics output alongside paintings, covers, and artifacts rarely seen by human eyes — as well as astounding, previously unprinted comics from his teenage years and movie posters for his numerous homemade films. The Art and Comix of Rory Hayes also serves as a biography and critique with a memoir of growing up with Rory by his brother, the illustrator Geoffrey Hayes, and a career-spanning essay by Edward Pouncey (a.k.a. Savage Pencil). Also included is a rare interview with Hayes himself.
“Rory Hayes was the real thing; a genuine ‘outsider’ artist. His work retains its raw, primitive power to this day, teetering precariously between chaos and control, madness and oddly endearing teddy bears.” – Bill Griffith
“A great American primitive.” – R. Crumb
WHERE DEMENTED WENTED:
THE ART AND COMICS OF RORY HAYES
Edited by Dan Nadel and Glenn Bray
Essays by Geoffrey Hayes and Edwin Pouncey
$22.99 Paperback Original
144 pages, black-and-white (with 48 pp. in color), 8” x 10”
ISBN 978-1-56097-923-4
Labels: Bill Griffith, Dan Nadel, Fantagraphics, Geoffrey Hayes, Glenn Bray, Kim Deitch, R. Crumb, Rory Hayes
Man, I wish I could be there so much. This book looks to be amazing and wonderful and I would give anything to hear you guys talking about it.
a long time ago, I thought Rory Root and Rory Hayes were the same person. I know, I know. But thats what I thought.
I just read the essay by his brother Geoffrey at lunch. It’s heartbreaking and one of the best essays I’ve ever read about an artist, period.
I would actually encourage people to check out Geoffrey’s children’s comic that he did for Francoise Mouly’s Toon Books line–Benny and Penny. He’s actually a pretty great cartoonist, and it was wonderful seeing him do comics again after years of just doing illustrations for his books.
I am not actually a huge fan of many of the underground artists. Of course I love Crumb like everyone else, but I always found Gilbert Shelton’s work to be pretty hacky in terms of its humor. And while I understand and appreciate S.Clay Wilson’s influence on others to open up their ids and put it on the page (with Rory Hayes as a prime example), I’ve always found his actual output to be juvenile and tedious.
On the other hand, the first time I saw Hayes work (in a collection from Bijou Funnies), I couldn’t take my eyes off his work. This collection of his work is a gift to comics fans.
–Rob Clough