'Jimbo'.
Gary Panter is a U.S. comic artist, painter and illustrator, generally hailed as the "King of Punk Art". His work forms a missing link between the 1960s underground comix movement and the punk-inspired alternative comic scene a decade later. As a comic artist, he is best-known for his signature character 'Jimbo' (1977), a dumb-founded, spiky-haired youngster who often finds himself in hilariously imbecilic, sometimes surreal situations. Panter draws in an expressive, deliberately chaotic and scratchy style, experimenting with visuals and lay-out. He elevated primitive, ugly design by mixing low with high culture. His stream of consciousness narratives often feature pop culture characters in random, bewildering cameos. His magnum opus is his 'Paradise-Purgatory-Inferno' graphic novel series, in which he reinterpreted Dante's 'The Divine Comedy' and John Milton's 'Paradise Lost'. Panter also gained fame as an album cover designer, creating striking sleeves for artists like Frank Zappa, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Residents and other punk and alternative rock artists. To mainstream audiences, he is most notable as one of the set designers for the wacky cult children's TV show 'Pee-wee's Playhouse' (1986-1990), starring Pee-wee Herman. As a polarizing "artist's artist", Panter enjoys a strong cult following to this day, influencing several graphic artists to similar bold experiments that defy the definition of what comics can be.
Early life
Gary Brad Panter was born in 1950 in Durant, Oklahoma. His father was originally active as a seismographer, a job that required the family to move around a lot. In 1954, the Panters moved to Brownsville, Texas, where Gary's father changed profession to managing dime stores. Panter's grandmother belonged to the Native American Choctaw tribe, which brought young Gary in contact with this culture. In 1959, she had a nervous breakdown and Panter's family abruptly moved to Oklahoma, to live closer to her. By the end of the year, they settled in Sulphur Springs, Texas, where Panter spent the rest of his childhood and young adult years.
Growing up in desert towns, not far from the Mexican border, Panter found escapism in both low-brow and high-brow media. He loved regular rock music, but was particularly thrilled by psychedelic rock and avant-garde acts, like Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Nurse With Wound and The Virgin Prunes. Years later, in the back pages of his books 'Jimbo's Inferno' and 'Jimbo's Purgatory', he listed 66 of his favorite musical albums, complete with a redrawn cover and one-sentence descriptions. Panter also enjoyed modern novelists and classic literature, while devouring comics and watching cartoons and B-horror movies. His favorite painters are Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Albrecht Dürer, Oyvvind Fahlstrom, Richard Lindner, Barbara Nessum, Eduardo Paolozzi, James Rosenquist, Peter Saul, H.C. Westermann, Tadanoori Yokoo and Bob Zoel. In some interviews, he claimed to have been more influenced by painters and illustrators than cartoonists, citing Heinz Edelmann, Thomas Nast, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Cal Schenkel and John Tenniel as particular strong inspirations. Nevertheless, he still admires several comic artists, including Carl Barks, Lynda Barry, Charles Burns, Robert Crumb, Jim Flora, Chester Gould, Matt Groening, George Hansen, Hergé, George Herriman, Joe Matt, Savage Pencil, E.C. Segar and Basil Wolverton.
Segment of Gary Panter's listing of his favorite music albums, published in 'Jimbo's Purgatory'. He talks, among others, about 'Aftermath' (The Rolling Stones), 'The Psychedelic Furs' (The Psychedelic Furs), 'Psychedelic Jungle' (The Cramps), 'Pet Sounds' and 'Surf's Up' (The Beach Boys), 'Brian Wilson' (Brian Wilson), 'Uncle Meat', (Frank Zappa), 'Feast of the Mau-Mau' (Screamin' Jay Hawkins), 'The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter' (Incredible String Band), 'Over Under Sideways Down' (The Yardbirds), 'Skylarking' (XTC) and 'Clear Spot' (Captain Beefheart).
Panter grew up in a Mormon community, where his eccentric and sometimes macabre taste wasn't appreciated. His church didn't even allow dancing. As a teenager, Panter's father made his son work in a funeral home "to get an idea of the reality behind the things he portrayed." The youngster had to drive accident victims to hospitals, dress up corpses and clean up their oozing body fluids. In 1969, Panter worked as a missionary in Belfast, right around the time terrorism in this Northern-Irish capital increased. Interviewed by the Danish magazine Rackham ('On the Mount', 2004), he emphasized that his family and their Christian friends were nice people, "but their thinking is kind of clannish. You have all these churches that all profess to offer the Truth (…) and I'm thinking that if Jesus had any real message it would be to break down all these clans. I suppose the churches provide a sense of local community, but they also isolate themselves from each other and the rest of the world.(…) they go: 'We can't pray with these people, because they're going to burn in Hell.'" While Panter became an atheist, he always kept a fascination for religion. His training in public speeches also helped him later in his career, whenever he had to hold a lecture.
In the early 1970s, Panter took a lot of LSD. In 1972, he experienced a bad trip, during which he saw "composite creatures made of vacuum cleaners, all kinds of devices, covered with thousands of roach clips, each holding a butterfly wing or a playing card, chanting to joint hem." It frightened him so much that he left school for a year, falling into depression. In hindsight, he saw it as beneficial experience: "It reinvests you in this reality (…) which is a very interesting place."
Between 1974 and 1976, Panter studied painting at the East Texas State University (nowadays Texas A&M University-Commerce), where he met Jay Cotton and Ric Heitzman, who later became frequent creative collaborators. Together they developed the performance art group Apeweek, getting gigs on public access radio and during gallery exhibitions. They presented themselves as a musical band, but in reality their act was more like a puppet show with light and shadow effects. They also made some unreleased comics together. After graduation, Panter worked as a color separator and as a janitor at an insurance building. He tried to exhibit his paintings, but they didn't make an impression.
Poster art by Gary Panter for The Germs and The Screamers.
Punk scene in L.A.
In 1976, Panter's first marriage fell apart. Since his art didn't find an audience in Texas, he decided to explore new horizons. He spent his last savings to travel to Los Angeles, California, already falling out of gas and money in the town Cabazon, 75 miles away from his destination. Panter sold his truck to a local junkyard, bought a bus ticket to L.A. and moved in with a friend. In L.A., Panter visited Jack Kirby at his house and met Frank Zappa's album cover designer Cal Schenkel. He asked Schenkel to show his work to Zappa, but the musician took no interest. In 1978-1979, Panter did illustrate three album covers for Zappa: 'Orchestral Favorites' (1978), 'Studio Tan' (1978) and 'Sleep Dirt' (1979), but these records were released by the Warner Brothers record label without Zappa's permission. Nevertheless, they did increase Panter's notability within the alternative scene. Panter also developed friendships with painters Mike Kelley, Ed Ruscha and Paul Ruscha. His first illustrations ran in Wet Magazine, while he also designed T-shirts for Billy Shire at the Soap Plant store.
Around this time, punk became a thriving subculture. One night, Panter walked down the intersection of Sunset and Gower in Hollywood, where he spotted the first issue of the punk monthly Slash on a newsstand. As he paged through it, he realized that punk perfectly matched his art style. Their musicians and graphic artists had a D.I.Y. approach, putting personality and attitude over professional skills. These artists made photo collages and gritty drawings that confused and shocked the establishment. Most importantly, they worked independently. Panter soon became one of the house cartoonists of Slash, while his illustrations and comics also found their way to Coolest Retard, Hoo Be Boo and Fool's Mate, eventually moving to more mainstream publications like New West Magazine (later California Magazine), Women's Wear Daily and Mother Jones. Panter got involved in the punk scene, attending concerts and designing posters, flyers and sleeves for various groups. His stark, black-and-white portrait of The Screamers' vocalist Tomata du Plenty (April 1978) became one of the icons of the U.S. punk movement. The band adapted it as their official logo. Between 1978 and 1986, Panter was married to Nicole Olivieri, manager of the punk band The Germs.
Artwork from Gary Panter's sketchbook.
Style
Panter developed his trademark style as early as 1972, but it only caught on during the punk era of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Village Voice even named it "the only punk art there is." His drawings are loose, with little regard for smoothness. Some are very detailed and complex. Many are uncompromisingly raw and ratty, to the point of looking primitive. Characters look stiff and sometimes frozen in one expression. Their poses and movements are clumsy. Dialogue can be clunky and not necessarily related to the imagery. The lettering is deliberately crude, full with scribbles and mistakes. Lay-outs are jumbled, while colors often flow over. Panter frequently changes graphic styles within one and the same story. Plot is usually not the focus, his stream-of-consciousness tales ought to be experienced rather than followed.
In his own work, Panter regurgitates every artform he likes or remembers. His father made western-themed landscape paintings and, in a sense, he also delved into this artform. During Panter's younger years, the hot, isolated deserts of Texas and neighboring country Mexico sometimes felt like a post-apocalyptic wasteland. There was a strange contrast between the rigid atmosphere of his Mormon community and the giant wooden cut-outs of cartoon characters standing next to the highway, promoting orange groves. In his comics, Panter often recreates similar bewildering landscapes. As a young boy, his father allowed him to play with the toys, comics and books in his dime store, but only after hours. Most of these books were cheap pulp and the toys badly manufactured. The books contained men's adventure stories, of which the images of brutish men or "severed heads on bamboo poles" scared him. Especially since they appeared next to nicer images, like girls in bikinis or Japanese robots. The comics were low-brow funny animal stories by Al Fago and Vincent Fago that didn't entertain Panter at all. Across his Brownsville house was a drive-in theater, where the boy saw several B-monster movies. 'The Land Unknown' (1957), about a lost dinosaur civilization in Antarctica, made a huge impression, as did Japanese kaiju films, like 'Godzilla' and 'Gamera'. But even at a young age, he felt the special effects looked fake.
Gary Panter art featuring E.C. Segar's Popeye (1980).
In Panter's art, pop culture characters like Walt Disney's Goofy, Paul Terry's Mighty Mouse or Godzilla often have random cameos, mixed in with abstract-expressionist backgrounds. He also throws in elements from classic high-brow art and Japanese culture. Panter has always been fascinated with traditional kabuki and bunraku plays, painters like Hokusai and Utamaro, but also kaiju films and manga. Sometimes, his favorite rock musicians make appearances too. Curator John Carlin once described Panter's work as "bringing a sense of what it is like living in a culture full of amusing signs that make less and less sense the more you stare at them." In a statement for PrintMag (14 April 2020), Panter expressed joy and a sense of meaning to make things, "even pointless things. Maybe especially pointless things (…) contain unconscious truths, or questions. Who knows?". In his opinion "trying" is the most important aspect of art. "Art is time spent doing some little thing that tells you something about yourself. Maybe something very quiet and maybe a revelation, and maybe only quiet. The thing you make may have some value to others for some reason or another, but that is a secondary issue. You spent time trying. The secondary issues come secondarily."
Above all, Panter acknowledged an appeal for crudely designed media. In his opinion, primitive art is more natural, direct and contains more emotion. He developed a lifelong fascination for graffiti, children's drawings, sloppily drawn comics, limited animation, crummy toys, corny candy wrappers, Mexican figurines and monster movies with laughable special effects. While general audiences often dismiss this as "ugly" or "amateurish", Panter felt it had a certain beauty and edginess. As a teenager, he often redrew images, letting the shapes reform and degrade, leading to new, more abstract and bizarre forms. In his professional career, he imitated clumsy drawings and designs, complete with misprinted lettering, half-deteriorated, sun-burnt images and splashed-out colors. Fellow artists admire Panter's audacity to push the boundaries of what is considered "good art", or "good comics" for that matter. But it does make his work an acquired taste for general readers.
'The Rozz Tox Manifesto', 1979.
Rozz Tox Manifesto
In 1979, inspired by the Futurist Manifesto, Panter made his own written statement about art, titled the 'Rozz Tox Manifesto'. The word "rozzes" ("police") was lifted from Anthony Burgess' novel 'A Clockwork Orange', while the "-ox" sound was derived from a series of paintings titled 'Pox', made by Panter's teacher Lee Baxter Davis. The "-z" and "-x" sounds gave everything a futuristic ring. The Rozz Tox Manifesto lists 18 statements, with an epilogue, claiming that the avant-garde hasn't been defeated by the mainstream. It condemns awful Saturday Morning cartoons, game shows, sitcoms with laugh tracks, advertisements and consumer culture. At the same time, the text also attacks self-righteous snobs who reject anything popular as a "sell-out" or "rip-off". Panter discourages aspiring artists by telling them bluntly to "not wait for talent scouts", since there "aren't any and no one gives a shit." It acknowledges a grim reality that "capitalism, good or ill, is the river in which we sink or swim. Inspiration has always been born of recombination". Instead or rejecting it, or complaining about it, Panter proposes a law: "If you want better media, go make it." The manifesto concludes with the uplifting message to let counterculture infiltrate the mainstream.
Interviewed by Dale Luciano in The Comics Journal (issue #100, July 1985), Panter said that the manifesto was intended as a parody, though semi-serious at the same time: "It's a call to try and use the vehicles of communication that do exist and reach a bigger audience than an elitist or gallery audience. I was railing at both art marketing, 'fine art' marketing, and what passes for creativity in media, which at the time I wrote that was pretty horrible." The Rozz Tox Manifesto was first serialized in The Los Angeles Reader in separate weekly items, mostly to get it in type for free. It had a wider impact when it appeared as a full text in alternative magazines like Stuff, New West, Boulevards and the sleeves of records released by Ralph Records in their 'Buy or Die' (April 1980) series. Various artists in the early 1980s took it to heart and made it a prime objective.
'The Rooster's Curse' (1995), published in Jimbo #2.
Comics
While living in L.A. in the late 1970s, Panter produced several photocopied comic books, which he put on display in local book, record and art stores. Even if they didn't sell, they were at least visible. He self-published 'Hup' (1977), a comic about a samurai, and 'A Night at Alamo Courts' (1977), a written text with an illustrated font. The latter book is a love story between two rednecks in an extraterrestrial universe. Panter followed it up with 'The Asshole' (1979) and 'Views of The Asshole' (1979), in which his character Henry Webb made his debut. Henry is a careless sociopathic who is obsessed with using his knife. 'Okupant X' (1979) was the first Panter book to be published under an actual imprint, Diana's Bimonthly Press. The loose plot revolves around a man who is attacked by a 1950s B-movie monster, while the style mimicks a Japanese Kabuki play. In the early 1980s, Panter's comic 'William and Percy' ran in the L.A. Reader. His story 'Freaks' Amour', scripted by novelist Tom De Haven, ran in Young Lust issue #6 (December 1980).
In L.A., Panter also discovered the satirical comic 'Life in Hell', drawn by a yet unknown cartoonist, Matt Groening. Since his address was printed in his comics, Panter found out that Groening lived in the same city and wrote him a fan letter. Groening was already familiar with Panter's work, but on basis of his scribbly handwriting he assumed his first name was "Garz" and, given the many 'Godzilla' references in his work, Japanese. After arranging a meeting, the struggling cartoonists realized they were kindred spirits, with similar interests and ambitions. Under pseudonyms like the Fuk Boys or The Shit Generation, they drew a couple of comics together, printed in punk zines like Chemical Imbalance and Flipside. In the latter magazine, for instance, they made the two-page comic 'Ocurence at Oki Dog' (1982). The title referred to a cheap fast food restaurant at Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, where many punks hung out.
'Ocurence at Oki Dog', collaborative strip with Matt Groening, published in Flipside #33 (1982) under the pseudonym "The Fuk Boys". Note how Groening already draws an embryonal version of Bart Simpson.
Together with Jay Cotton, Panter made the comic book 'Pee-Dog: The Shit Generation' (Spooky Comics, New York, 1982) for the Church of the SubGenius, taking respectively the pseudonyms Eddie Nukes and Jocko Levant Brainiac 5. The story stars an over-sexed and violently aggressive dog, leading to explicit but not exactly arousing scenes. Together with Charles Burns, Panter created 'Facetasm', for which they created drawings of different heads, cutting out the pages into three parts (eyes, nose, mouth) and bind these drawings into a spiral bound book. When one flips back and forth through it, numerous different body mutations appear. The two artists collaborated again on 'Pixie Meat', a crossover comic based on a text by novelist Tom DeHaven, for which Panter and Burns took turns in inking and drawing.
Between 1993 and 1997, Panter made gag cartoons for The New Yorker, while his artwork also appeared in Money Magazine (1997) and Mother Jones (1998). Panter's work also adorned the pages of Rolling Stone, Time, Robert Crumb's Weirdo and the Japanese reggae magazine Riddim.
'Shoelaces', from Jimbo Meets Rat Boy (1978).
Jimbo
Gary Panter's best-known character is Jimbo Stark, a goofy-looking, spiky-haired, pug-nosed, muscular youngster. He debuted in 1974, taking his name from a neighborhood kid and his design from Ham Fisher's Joe Palooka, Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace and Russ Manning's Magnus. Originally, Panter drew Jimbo with a pompadour haircut, but in 1977, during the character's official print debut in punk magazine Slash, he redesigned him with a more "punky" spiky haircut. Jimbo is basically a non-entity. He has no real opinions or motivations and often finds himself in situations and locations where he just goes with the narrative flow. The comedy can be deliberately moronic. In 'Jimbo Meets Rat Boy' (1978), a character named Sloggo walks a giant lizard, when he encounters Jimbo who has trouble remembering how to tie his own shoelaces. Then it turns out only Jimbo's "pant legs" were the problem, not his actual legs. Jimbo realizes "he's not dead", making the redundant statement: "Hey… that's great!". To address potential confused readers, Panter adds the line: "If you can't stand a little emotion: go read 'Nancy'." In the next episode, Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy and Sluggo have a guest appearance, lecturing Jimbo that it is snobbish to look down on their comic, because he just doesn't understand its absurdist quality. During her talk, Nancy's face becomes skull-like, but in the end, she shows a little compassion and gives him a guitar, which the ashamed Jimbo gleefully accepts. Sluggo then wants to join his band, "or I'll kill ya!".
Jimbo #1 and #2, published by Zongo Comics.
This kind of ironic comedy appealed to Panter's target audience: young punks who disliked anything conventional. By 1983, 'Jimbo' was also published in Japanese by Shizuo Ishii. A misunderstanding between Panter and Ishii led to a graphic novel specifically intended for his Japanese fans. Ishii had phoned Panter whether he "wanted to do another 'Jimbo'" and announced that he would receive three months. Three months later, Panter hadn't reached his deadline, but it turned out that Ishii had been talking about a reprint of an earlier 'Jimbo' story, not a commission for a new book. The plot of this story, which Panter titled 'Cola Madnes', revolves around Jimbo going out to order a Moka Cola, but wandering off into a fantasy world, which is actually embedded in the hallucinations of a tribal mysic named Kokomo. Stylistically, the story is presented like a manga, with two to three panels per page. Originally, 'Cola Madnes' was serialized in the L.A. Weekly for a couple of months, until scenes featuring penises prompted the editors to abruptly discontinue it. It wasn't until two decades later before Panter completed his unfinished story and released it as 'Cola Madnes' (Funny Garbage Press, 2001).
Between 1995 and 1997, Matt Groening established Bongo Comics, which distributed comic books based on his animated TV shows 'The Simpsons' and 'Futurama'. A second imprint, Zongo Comics, focused on alternative comics for adult readers, including Gary Panter's 'Jimbo' (of which the first seven issues were re-released), Mary Fleener's comics and John Callahan's cartoons. The company was deliberately founded to help these artists, even if sales remained low.
'Jimbo: Adventures in Paradise' (1988). Smoggo is a reference to the Smog Monster from the monster film 'Godzilla vs. Hedorah' (1971).
Paradise/Purgatory/Inferno graphic novels
In 1988, Panter released the graphic novel 'Jimbo: Adventures in Paradise' (Pantheon Books, 1988), loosely inspired by Dante Alighieri's medieval narrative poem 'The Divine Comedy', which Panter hadn't read at the time. The title is a retroactive addition, since Panter's book is simply a compilation of previous 'Jimbo' stories in which his anti-hero has a series of wild encounters in a futuristic, run-down cityscape. The "paradise" is quite the opposite, as Jimbo's world has more in common with a fever nightmare. Some scenes are inspired by Panter's personal passions, like the giant monster movie-like cockroaches that threaten the city. Another scene, involving a horse's corpse, is a nod to Panter's father, who always got upset whenever horses were harmed or died in novels or films.
After completing 'Jimbo: Adventures in Paradise', Panter liked the idea of having his main hero enter Purgatory and Hell too. But this time, he actually took the effort of reading and carefully studying 'The Divine Comedy'. The medieval poem features Dante visiting the afterlife, respectively accompanied by his platonic love interest Beatrice and ancient Roman poet Virgil. Dante had a lot of fun imagining what Heaven, Purgatory and especially Hell would be like. He thought up fitting eternal punishments for sinners, while encountering various historical figures, biblical characters, Greek-Roman mythological characters and contemporary people. Modern-day reprints of 'The Divine Comedy' therefore come with a lot of footnotes to help readers understand the references. Panter liked the satirical aspect of Dante's masterpiece. He got away with portraying several corrupt popes, bishops, priests and many of his political enemies being tortured in Hell. Above all, Panter liked how Dante gave famous characters from history, religion and mythology cameos. As an additional inspiration, Panter also read other works of classic literature that require footnotes, namely James Joyce's 'Finnegan's Wake', Giovannio Boccaccio's 'Decamerone', Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales', Voltaire's 'Candide' and John Milton's 'Paradise Lost'.
'Jimbo in Purgatory', featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono, as portrayed on their album cover for 'Two Virgins'.
In 'Jimbo in Purgatory' (Fantagraphics, 2004) and 'Jimbo's Inferno' (Fantagraphics, 2006), Panter framed every page with decorated borders, to give the story the appearance of a medieval illuminated manuscript. He mimicked the pace of the original books, down to the word count. Jimbo and his sidekick, Valise the robot, travel through strange landscapes, full of odd shapes, patterns and optical illusions. Some dialogue quotes from Ben Johnson, François Rabelais and Jean-Paul Sartre's writings, but also Beatles lyrics and Gershon Legman's dirty limericks. In 'Purgatory', Jimbo encounters famous fashion models (Twiggy), actors (Bruce Lee, Raquel Welch) and pop musicians (Boy George, Frank Zappa, Tiny Tim, Alice Cooper, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart…). Imagery from B-movies also appears in view, like 'King Kong', 'Westworld', 'The Cyclops', 'Night of the Demon' and the female robot from 'Metropolis'. Panter also references real-life events, like the Yugoslavian Civil War (1991-1995) and the death of Princess Diana.
Just like modern-day publications of 'The Divine Comedy', Panter added explanatory footnotes to give context. Interviewed by Daniel Robert Epstein (1 February 2005), Panter acknowledged that his Dante-esque stories are almost impossible to understand for most readers: " (…) But on the other hand I'm not a smart enough person to totally understand [James Joyce's novel] 'Finnegan's Wake', but I read it three or four times and part of what I could get out of it is just the strange feeling it gives me. In a way this is supposed to be a comic like that." Thanks to a repackaging by Fantagraphics, Jimbo's adventures in the afterlife reached a wider audience. A 2021 reprint of 'Jimbo in Paradise' had a foreword by Ed Ruscha.
'Songy of Paradise' (2017).
'Songy of Paradise' (Fantagraphics, 2017) completed Panter's afterlife trilogy with another descent into spiritual madness. Panter had received a grant to work at the Cullman Center in the New York Public Library for 10 months, where he could consult an official manuscript of John Milton's narrative poem 'Paradise Lost' and all available academic writing about this classic text. Milton's story is built around Jesus' 40-day retreat in the desert, where he was tempted by the Devil. Panter uses the same set-up for 'Songy of Paradise', but decided not to use Jimbo as protagonist, since he would have been too easily tempted. Instead, Panter took Songy, the gap-toothed hillbilly from some of his older short comics. Songy is more stubborn and not so easily misled by strange visions and demonic temptations, even though he is not very bright. Instead of The Devil, Songy encounters Danny the Dinosaur, a character from a children's book by Syd Hoff that Panter remembered from his youth. While Panter was impressed with 'Paradise Lost', he considered the original text very long-winded, with lots of summarisations and back-and-forth arguments that basically repeat itself over and over. He therefore kept his own version more compact.
RAW
In the 1980s, Panter was a regular contributor to Françoise Mouly & Art Spiegelman's experimental comic magazine RAW for which he designed the cover of issue #3. The editors were very enthusiastic about his work, with Mouly describing it as "a sense of what could be happening now and could be the future of comics." Up to that point, Panter had mostly drawn short stories with no regard for continuity. He simply made up scenes as he went along and wasn't concerned whether readers would understand them. Mouly and Spiegelman offered him room for longer stories, but also helped him present his ideas in a more comprehensible manner. At their suggestion, he started to chop up narratives into clear separate sequences. RAW also released two graphic novels by Panter, 'Jimbo: A Raw One Shot' (Raw Books and Graphics, 1982) and 'Invasion of the Elvis Zombies' (Raw Books and Graphics, 1984). The latter book came with a flexi-disk, 'Precambrian Bath' (1984). On this mini-record, a narrative poem 'The Melancholy Roustabout' could be heard, written and composed by Panter. 'Invasion of the Elvis Zombies' depicts Elvis Presley as a living corpse. When the rock legend died in 1977, Panter regarded Elvis as some kind of extraterrestrial alien, suitable for monster movies. His fabulous sex appeal fell in line with goofy B-movies where monsters abduct attractive women.
'Dal Tokyo'.
Dal Tokyo
Panter once described the universe in which many of his comics are set as a postapocalyptic, extraterrestrial mixture between Dallas, Texas, and Tokyo, Japan, which he named "Dal Tokyo". It brings together all of his artistic inspirations, from ancient civilizations to modern-day cities. Jimbo wanders through these strange, alienating settings, where he stumbles upon famous and more obscure pop culture characters. Panter explained that the concept went back to his childhood in Texan desert towns, where he often felt stuck. He imagined that broken tractors out in the back were Japanese space vehicles that could transport him to more exciting places. The name came to him in a dream, in which alternative musician Captain Beefheart asked him: "How is your Dal toe?" (note that Beefheart has a 1970 song titled "I Wanna Find A Woman Who Will Hold My Big Toe', which might be were Panter subconsciously picked it up from.)
'Dal Tokyo' strip referencing the 9/11 terrorist attacks (2001).
While Dal Tokyo appears in several of Panter's stories, it is usually not specifically identified as such, except for one graphic novel: 'Dal Tokyo' (Paris, France, 1992). The first 63 comic strips in this book were serialized in The L.A. Reader and The East Village Eye between 1983 and 1984, evolving from a loose narrative into more surreal territories. In 2007, Panter added new material, drawn between 1996 and 2001, published in 'Dal Tokyo' (Fantagraphics, 2007). The events in 'Dal Tokyo' are surreal and were inspired by whatever Panter was thinking or doing on the day he drew them. Some strips should be read from right to left, again with Japanese readers in mind. Certain stylistic changes occured because he drew with a Rapidograph pen, switching to a Kohinoor art pen - which went out of production - and therefore continued with a Japanese dip nibs pen (G-series), giving it a more old-fashioned graphic look. One particular poignant scene was drawn on 11 September 2001, the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Since he lived in the city, Panter witnessed the burning and collapsing towers firsthand. In 'Dal Tokyo', he interrupts his entire story to include one strip explaining what he saw on that traumatic day. Text and imagery in this one scene are remarkably serious and refrain from using experimental techniques.
'Crashpad'.
Crashpad
In 2021, Panter released the graphic novel 'Crashpad' (Fantagraphics, 2021), which returns to the simpler narratives from the start of his career. The story centers on a group of dog-faced hippies who go out to trip in the desert, while being followed by a local bulldog sherriff. The book has a strong psychedelic atmosphere, mixed with underground comix elements. Interviewed by Hillary Chute (29 March 2021), Panter described 'Crashpad' as a "meditation on the optimism of the cultural explosion of the 1960s, in which things were tried out by idealistic kids (…) some (…) things worked and were worthy of developing and some (…) were failures or problematic to different degrees." He also made the story as a reaction to webcomics and their clean, smoothed-out look: "In a digital world, it may be important to involve oneself with dirt."
Poster for a 1981 Pee-wee Herman show.
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Among mainstream U.S. audiences, Panter is most recognizable through his work for the children's TV show 'Pee-wee's Playhouse' (1986-1990), hosted by Pee-wee Herman, the comedic alter ego of Paul Reubens. They knew each other since the late 1970s. Reubens was a fan of his comics and asked Panter to design a poster for his stage shows at the Groundlings Theatre. In 1981, Reubens started performing as the eccentric manchild Pee-wee Herman, while Panter designed posters, puppets and sets. Through appearances on 'The Late Show with David Letterman' and other talkshows, the popularity of the character grew, appealing to children and adults alike, on different levels. Panter and Reubens wrote a film script, 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure', which eventually got made in 1985 - with a vastly different plotline - by Tim Burton. Still, it was a box office success and paved the way for 'Pee-wee's Playhouse', a fun, weird children's show on CBS with "It's O.K. to be different" as its central message.
As it happened, Panter had just divorced and moved to New York City, where he later remarried with Helene Silverman, an art director and designer, with whom he has a daughter. In his new home city, he lived closer to where 'Pee-wee's Playhouse' would be recorded and broadcast, so Reubens could ask for his direct participation. In collaboration with Rob Zombie (at the time not yet a shock rock musician), Ric Heitzman, Wayne White and people from Broadcast Arts, Panter designed sets and puppets. Another collaborator on the show was Bill Janocha, who made character designs. Among Panter's personal ideas were the dog chair, Clocky the clock and the exterior of Pee-wee's house. Everything was done in a colorful, flashy, wacky, almost psychedelic style. While they had to follow scripts, they otherwise received tremendous creative freedom. Reubens was such a star at the time that he could protect his crew against executive meddling. He also paid cost overruns from his own pocket and invited many counterculture artists to either appear or work on the show. Many would have otherwise never been given the chance to work on a children's show, like Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), Todd Rundgren, Dweezil Zappa (son of Frank Zappa) and the experimental band The Residents.
'Pee-wee's Playhouse' received good ratings and reviews. The show won several awards, including two Emmy's for "Outstanding Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design" in 1987 and 1988. While it led to Panter receiving more commissions to design sets for TV shows, stage acts and buildings, he put it all in perspective. Most of these projects stranded, because his concepts were considered too odd or expensive. In 1991, Reubens was arrested in a porn theater, which brought unwanted negative publicity to his Pee-wee Herman persona. Many people in the entertainment business felt this arrest was out of proportion and only became a scandal because of Reubens' fame as a children's TV host. While 'Pee-wee's Playhouse' had already ended a year earlier, the sex scandal made CBS cancel reruns for almost two decades. This unfortunately also cast a bad shadow over Panter's association with the show for a while. It wasn't until the late 2000s before Pee-wee Herman was rehabilitated by nostalgic adults who grew up with the program.
1989 advertisement for Pee-wee's Playhouse.
Musical career
Because of Panter's Mormon background, music was only accepted as long as it was instrumental and didn't involve dancing. As a teen, he once attended a party at school that was instantly disbanded once the kids started dancing. Rock music was therefore a form of rebellion for him. He compensated for it in adulthood by playing and recording music, while designing sleeves for various musical singles and albums.
In 1974-1977, he was a member of the performance group Apeweek, who sometimes recorded music. With Jay Cotton (using the pseudonym Jäy Condom), he released 'Durchfall Frum Der Colahaus' (1978) and 'One Hell Soundwich' (1989). Panter also wrote the song 'Apeweek!' on Cotton's 'Let's Make Lust' (1978). Panter later recorded with Devin Flynn as the musical duo Devin and Gary, releasing the album 'Go Outside' (2008), on which he sang, played trumpet and guitar. In 1981, Panter recorded with the experimental band The Residents, releasing the single 'Tornader to The Tater' (Index Records, 1981), with 'Italian Sunglass Movie' as B-side, while also designing the sleeve. In 1983, Panter's Japanese agent gave him the opportunity to record an album, 'Pray for Smurph' (1983), released on his label Overheat. The title refers to Peyo's European comic strip 'The Smurfs', which was adapted for television by Hanna-Barbera at the time. One of the tracks, 'Alice the Goon', was named after a character from E.C. Segar's 'Popeye', while the two tracks Panter previously recorded with The Residents were also included. Panter made several advertisements for The Residents' record company Ralph Records, with the infamous slogan: "Buy or Die!". He also designed album sleeves for many artists signed to their label, like Snakefinger ('What Wilbur? Kill The Great Raven', 1979) and the 'Subterranean Modern' (1979) and 'Buy or Die' compilation albums (1980-1981).
Frank Zappa album cover art by Gary Panter.
Album covers: Frank Zappa
As an album cover designer, Panter made his name by designing three consecutive records by Frank Zappa: 'Studio Tan' (1978), 'Orchestral Favorites' (1978) and 'Sleep Dirt' (1979). But Warner Brothers' record label ordered him to finish the artwork in a very short notice. 'Sleep Dirt' in particular had to be ready the next morning, which explains why he left the background of the darkened bedroom on the cover white instead of black. He didn't get a chance to listen to the records either. Instead, Panter received vague, and in hindsight sometimes incorrect instructions. For instance, the track 'The Adventures of Greggery Peccary' on 'Studio Tan' was described as a "song about a mouse", while it is actually about a peccary swine. This explains why he drew a muscular mouse on the back cover. Most of his artwork were personal interpretations, purely based on the titles alone. On 'Sleep Dirt', for instance, he drew the Smog Monster from 'Godzilla vs. Hedorah' (1971) near a bed.
After finishing the assignments, Panter felt something fishy was going on. As a huge Zappa fan, he knew the musician was a notorious control freak, so it was strange that he hadn't been able to talk to him personally. It turned out that these three albums were actually chopped up versions of a proposed eight-disc record. Warners had objected to the length and therefore divided some of the tracks over three separately released albums, without Zappa's permission. Zappa instantly sued for breach of contract, while airing the entire eight-disc album on a local radio station, so fans could bootleg it and boycot Warners. This was the reason why the label wanted to get these three records in stores as soon as possible. When Panter learned the truth, he felt exploited, as if he unwillingly betrayed one of his musical idols. His shame grew even more on 21 October 1978, when he saw an episode of 'Saturday Night Live', in which Zappa tore up a copy of 'Studio Tan' to make a statement against Warners. In 1981, Zappa eventually won his case against his former label and the rights to all his recordings back. Near the end of the decade, he re-released 'Studio Tan', 'Orchestral Favorites' and 'Sleep Dirt' with the original artwork intact, while in 1996 posthumously bringing out his eight-sided album too, under the title 'Läther'. Panter's sleepless nights finally ended when Matt Groening told him Zappa liked Panter's album artwork, except for the tiny skeleton on the back cover of 'Orchestral Favorites'.
Album cover art for 'What Wilbur? Kill The Great Raven' by Snakefinger (1979).
Other album covers
Most of Panter's album and single covers were done for alternative rock bands, punk groups and musicians. Among the best-known names are Eugene Chadbourne ('The Eddie Chatterbox Double Trio Love Album', 1988), Bongwater ('Too Much Sleep', 1989) and Richard Hell & The Voidoids ('Funhunt', 1990). His collaboration with Oingo Boingo, for whom he designed the cover of 'Boingo Alive' (1988), wasn't that surprising, since their frontman Danny Elfman had also made music for 'Pee-wee's Playhouse'. Panter also worked with the Hispanic rock band Tito & Tarantula, best-known for their appearance in the cult movie 'From Dusk Till Dawn' (1996). He designed the sleeve of their album 'Hungry Sally & Other Killer Lullabies' (1999) and the single 'Slow Dream'. Among the groups he collaborated with more than once were Mannequin Men ('Fresh Rot' [2007], 'Mannequin Men' [2011]), The Dirtbombs ('We Have You Surrounded' [2008], 'Ooey Gooey Chewy Ka-Blooey!' [2013]) and Live Skull ('Saturday Night Massacre' [2019], 'Dangerous Visions' [2020]).
Other obscure groups he pleasured with album covers have been Steel Pole Bath Tub ('Scars From Falling Down' [1995]), Tagemics ('Chimneys', 1980), The Plugz ('Better Luck', 1981), Renaldo & The Loaf ('Songs For Swinging Larvae', 1981), Half A Chicken ('Food For Thought', 1988), Kray Cherubs/Saucerman ('Rot in Hell Mom/Motor Drag', 1989) That Petrol Emotion ('Chemicrazy', 1990), Cobra Verde ('One Step Away From Myself', 1995), Paul Flaherty/Chris Corsano ('The Hated Music', 2000), Friendly Rich & The Lollipop People ('The Friendly Rich Show', 2006), Monster Island ('The Children of Mu', 2007), Mark Sultan ('War On Rock 'n' Roll', 2012), The Magnificent Pussies ('Mouth to Mouth', 2015) and Spectre Folk ('Vol 4', 2017). Panter contributed liner notes to 'Flee Past's Ape Elf' (2013) by Orchid Spangiafora.
Panter also livened up punk and experimental rock compilation albums, like 'Troublemakers' (Warners Records, 1980), 'Smack My Crack' (Giorno Poetry Systems, 1987), 'Me Want Breakfast – The Dangerhouse Collection' (Dangerhouse, 1987), 'Best Of Freestyle' (Turnstyle Records, 1992), 'Faster & Louder – Hardcore Punk, Vol. 1 & 2' (Rhino Records, 1993), 'Soluble Fish' (Homestead Records, 1993), 'The Big Bang' (Ellipsis Arts, 1994), 'Don't Shoot the Toy Piano Player' (2002). A short comic by his hand, 'Henry Webb Quick To Defend Burlesque', was printed inside the sleeve of 'Like A Girl, I Want You To Keep Coming' (Visionary Communications, 1996) and 'Day of the Dead' (2016). He designed the back cover of the compilation album 'Saturday Morning (Cartoons' Greatest Hits)' (MCA Records, 1995).
While most of Panter's album covers were done for alternative artists, he also designed for more mainstream-friendly musicians in a more conventional style. Among them were Alice Coltrane ('Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana', 1977), Doc & Merle Watson ('Lonesome Road', 1977), Dave Mason ('Very Best of Dave Mason', 1978), Duke Ellington ('Braggin' in Brass', 1979), Jimmie & Vella Cameron ('Song Painters', 1981), Ian McLagan's 'Bump In The Night' (1981), D.B. Cooper's 'Dangerous Curves' (1981), Rod Stewart's 'Guess I'll Always Love You' (1982) and Jaco Pastorius's 'Invitation' (1983). His art adorned two early records by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, namely their self-titled debut album (1984) and 'The Uplift Mofo Party Clan' (1987). At the time, the group wasn't famous yet and the musicians simply lived in his L.A. neighborhood, but Panter liked their attitude. The members often walked around half-naked, not caring what anybody thought of them. For the band Yo La Tengo, Panter designed 'Yo La Tengo Hanukkah Show Mix' (2005) and 'I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass' (2006).
Album cover art for Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano's 'The Hated Music' (2000).
Graphic contributions
In 1983, the year Hergé died, Panter drew a personal homage to 'Tintin', as part of a huge exhibition in Barcelona by the Joan Miró Foundation, 'The Imaginary Museum of Tintin: Homage to Hergé'. In 1990, Panter designed a playroom for children at Paramount Hotel in New York, titled Pee-wee's Compund, but his sketches weren't accepted. Interviewed by Joe Clark (1993), Panter reflected: "It made me really wonder why I wasn't doing the whole hotel. I thought people would like sleeping in a bed made for a thousand Pink Panther dolls sewn together." In Nagoya, Japan, Panter's name and designs are used for a coffee shop. In interviews he confessed not having visited the shop, but friends who had gone there told him it certainly did him justice, while not being as outrageous as some of his artwork. On 28 March 1994, he paid tribute to the recently deceased Jack Kirby in an issue of The New Yorker.
Together with John Carlin, Peter Girandi and Chris Capuozzo, Panter started the company Funny Garbage, which signed a contract to produce cartoons for Cartoon Network's website. Panter and Mark Newgarden also worked on original programming for the network. In 2003, Panter and his comrades from the Apeweek project (Ric Heitzman and Jay Cotton) made the animated series 'Pink Donkey' (2003) for Cartoon Network's website. Panter made character designs, while Ric Heitzman directed and Jay Cotton composed music.
Gary Panter and Joshua White made light shows at the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington D.C. and at New York's Anthology Film Archives. They also performed during rock concerts, including by Yo La Tengo and Bardo Pond. Contrary to other technicians, who use computer light shows, all of Panter and White's light shows were hand-made. While Panter's work is not familiar to mainstream audiences, in 1987 he did make designs for the watch brand Swatch.
Recognition
For his work on 'Pee-wee's Playhouse', Panter co-received two Emmy Awards. In 2000, he was also honored with the Chrysler Award for Design Excellence, followed by an Inkpot Award (2005) and a Klein Award (2012), given by the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. Between 16 September 2006 and 28 January 2007, his comics were subject of the exhibition 'Masters of American Comics' at the Jewish Museum in New York City. Between 21 April and 19 August 2007, his drawings and paintings were also on display at the Phoenix Art Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2008, he was subject of a one-man show at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.
'Jimbo'. The floating robot cowboy is a reference to the film 'Westworld' (1973).
Legacy and influence
Gary Panter's comics have always polarized readers and never rose above a cult following. Their sheer bizarreness, ever-changing graphic styles and lack of conventional plots make him difficult to pigeonhole. General audiences are often put off by the crude artwork, which they misinterpret as amateurish drawing. Some of Panter's lettering is difficult to decypher, while some of his images ask an effort from the reader to comprehend what is going on. Many of his admirers are fellow artists, who are inspired by his bold, inventive graphic experiments. Panter has been praised by veteran artists Art Spiegelman, Robert Williams and S. Clay Wilson. Williams nicknamed him "King of the Preposterous" and used Panter's graphic style as an inspiration while creating the comics 'The Yama Yama Man' and 'Ugly Head' (co-created with S. Clay Wilson). Matt Groening used Panter's Rozz-Tox Manifesto as a personal guideline, while his work on 'Pee-wee's Playhouse' convinced him that an edgy, eccentric counterculture show could become a mainstream success, paving the way for 'The Simpsons'. Groening additionally placed Jimbo on nr. 6 in his personal list of "100 Favorite Things" and credits the character with inspiring Bart Simpson's spiky haircut. Also note that one of the bullies in Bart's school is named Jimbo Jones. Gary Panter additionally influenced Yves Albrechts, Lynda Barry, Christopher Bors, Mat Brinkman, Brian Chippendale, Kamagurka, Ulli Lust, Marek Mark and Tobias Tak.
Books about Gary Panter
For those interested in Gary Panter's life and career, the catalogue 'Gary Panter' (PictureBox, 2008) and books 'The Wrong Box' and 'The Land Unknown (both by United Dead Artists, 2010) are highly recommended. His sketchbooks are available under the titles 'Burning Monster' (Le Dernier Cri, 1998), 'Satiro-Plastic' (Drawn & Quarterly, 2005) and 'Hey Dork!' (Drawn & Quarterly, 2007). His poster art is collected in 'Large Watch Noses' (Aigany and Parsons School of Design, New York, 2005).
Self-portrait.