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| - Zippy the Pinhead (or Zippy th' Pinhead) is a syndicated comic strip written by Bill Griffith. Zippy first appeared in "Real Pulp Comix" #1 (March, 1971) and went on to appear in Underground Comics. Then was adapted to a comic strip in 1976. In 1986, a deal between Griffith and King Features ensured much greater distribution than before.
- Zippy made his first appearance in Real Pulp Comix #1 in March 1971. The strip began in The Berkeley Barb in 1976 and was syndicated nationally soon after, originally as a weekly strip. In a 2008 interview with Alex Dueben, Griffith recalled how it all began: The strip is unique among syndicated multi-panel dailies for its characteristics of literary nonsense, including a near-absence of either straightforward gags or continuous narrative, and for its unusually intricate artwork, which is reminiscent of the style of Griffith's 1970s underground comics.
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| abstract
| - Zippy made his first appearance in Real Pulp Comix #1 in March 1971. The strip began in The Berkeley Barb in 1976 and was syndicated nationally soon after, originally as a weekly strip. In a 2008 interview with Alex Dueben, Griffith recalled how it all began: I first saw the 1932 Tod Browning film Freaks in 1963 at a screening at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where I was attending art school. I was fascinated by the pinheads in the introductory scene and asked the projectionist (who I knew) if he could slow down the film so I could hear what they were saying better. He did and I loved the poetic, random dialog. Little did I know that Zippy was being planted in my fevered brain. Later, in San Francisco in 1970, I was asked to contribute a few pages to Real Pulp Comics #1, edited by cartoonist Roger Brand. His only guideline was to say "Maybe do some kind of love story, but with really weird people." I never imagined I'd still be putting words into Zippy's fast-moving mouth some 38 years later. Zippy has a cult following, but some other readers remain confused, prompting the official Zippy website to feature a tutorial on understanding the strip. When William Randolph Hearst III took over the San Francisco Examiner in 1985, he offered Griffith an opportunity to do Zippy as a daily strip. Several months later it was picked up for worldwide daily distribution by King Features Syndicate in 1986. The Sunday Zippy debuted in 1990. When the San Francisco Chronicle canceled Zippy briefly in 2002, the newspaper received thousands of letters of protest, including one from Robert Crumb, who called Zippy "by far the very best daily comic strip that exists in America." The Chronicle quickly restored the strip but dropped it again in 2004, leading to more protests as well as grateful letters from non-fans. The strip continues to be syndicated in many newspapers but often ranks at or near the bottom of reader polls. The strip is unique among syndicated multi-panel dailies for its characteristics of literary nonsense, including a near-absence of either straightforward gags or continuous narrative, and for its unusually intricate artwork, which is reminiscent of the style of Griffith's 1970s underground comics.
- Zippy the Pinhead (or Zippy th' Pinhead) is a syndicated comic strip written by Bill Griffith. Zippy first appeared in "Real Pulp Comix" #1 (March, 1971) and went on to appear in Underground Comics. Then was adapted to a comic strip in 1976. In 1986, a deal between Griffith and King Features ensured much greater distribution than before. It might be the strangest comic strip ever published in newspapers, and that's saying a lot for a medium that gave birth to Krazy Kat, The Far Side (and its various copycats), and more recently, Lio. Its drawing style, realistic and intricate and yet otherworldly, would not have been out of place in the early days of Newspaper Comics. The writing itself is a string of non sequiturs and dreamlike scenarios, with no real punchlines in the traditional sense.
* Author Appeal - diners and roadside memorabilia.
* Author Avatar - Griffy, a very nervous and self-deprecating example.
* Catch Phrase: Zippy has several, including "Are we having fun yet?" and "Yow!"
* Cloudcuckooland - Dingburg, the strip's setting.
* Cloudcuckoolander - Zippy, of course.
* Companion Cube: Zippy talks to the above roadside memorabilia. It talks back to him.
* One particular statue, the muffler-holding Muffler Man, was a major recurring character.
* Dada Comic
* Eenie Meenie Miny Moai - Zippy has conversations with numerous odd statues. Some of which look like him.
* Evil Twin - Zippy's cynical, business-suited doppelganger, Lippy.
* Gag Nose: Griffy.
* God: A floating head with a mustache and a bad attitude... or a cheerful retro-styled imp. The two are presented as being two sides of the same coin, each equally valid.
* Gonk: The San Francisco Doggie Diner; Zippy himself (partly inspired by a microcephalic character from Freaks).
* Greasy Spoon - an increasing number of strips have occured in diners. Griffith even sponsored a few color Sunday strips devoted to saving various diners and roadside ornaments from demolition.
* Leaning on the Fourth Wall
* Limited Wardrobe - Zippy and the other Dingburgers all wear the same style of muu-muu.
* Non Sequitur Humor
* Obfuscating Insanity / Hidden Depths: Zippy.
* Painting the Fourth Wall
* Recursive Canon - The Dingburg strips are revealed to be the fictional creation of the in-universe Griffy, as a result of his obsession with Zippy and the other pinheads. God has referred to it as real, but he has been explicitly stated as being an idea. Mr. The Toad has also managed to worm his way into Griffy's work, and thus into Dingburg.
* Shout-Out - to Garfield Minus Garfield, here.
* Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Zippy wears a bow on his head, but his wife Zerbina's bow is outrageously bigger.
* Strong Family Resemblance: Zippy's two identical children, Fuelrod and Meltdown.
* Uncanny Family Resemblance: Zippy, Zerbina, his Evil Twin, and his numerous relatives who all dress or look almost exactly like Zippy, despite having completely different personalities from the lackadaisical Zippy, with a few tertiary sexual characteristics and Limited Wardrobe accessories to tell them apart.
* Underground Comics: Originally an underground comic strip before being syndicated to mainstream newspapers.
* Widget Series
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