Zippy: The Dingburg Diaries

It is easy to assume that in an era of cutbacks and shrinking space, most newspaper strips have been reduced to stale humor and uninteresting artwork. Bill Griffith proves otherwise. In this latest collection of the last two and a half years of Zippy strips, Griffith has brought forth a further expansion of his pinhead world, with subjects ranging wide and far. It covers Zippy’s hometown Dingburg and its many unique pinhead denizens, the Dingburg Zombies and their obsession with Hostess treats, and even reintroduces the hilarious swindler Mr. The Toad, one of Griffith’s early counterculture characters. Panels are loaded with cackle-worthy comments, such as when a Dingburg Beatnik discovers that William S. Burroughs is dead: “I knew th’ cat was gone... but I didn’t know he was that gone!” There are worlds within each of these strips, and Griffith does not hesitate to cram each with his own mix of rich and detailed drawings and absurd dialogue delivered with a straight face. Griffith is like Ben Katchor—both are masters of creating places that are familiar but undeniably off-kilter, and Griffith’s storytelling remains as strange and delightful as ever. (July)