Jim Woodring has been amazing and delightful since 1980. Sometimes called “the Dutch Uncle of Dreamland,” Jim Woodring is a Seattle-based cartoonist, artist, animator, toy designer and user of a 7-foot giant nib pen (nibbus maximus). His work has been described as funny, surreal, spiritual, and as freeform dreams or thoughtful slapstick. He deals with the real, imaginary and hybrid.
His characters — most notably Frank, a purple innocent everyanimal anthromorph; Whim, a devil-like entity with his “whimgrinder” that grinds perceptual reality; the pet-like Pupshaw and Pushshaw; and the villainous and somewhat ridiculous Manhog and and the power crazed Unifactor and many other notable denizens — inhabit and explore vivid colorful dreamscapes in wordless narratives.
His most recent works are Weathercraft (2010), the first Frank graphic novel also featuring manhog, and The Portable Frank (2008). Lute Strings was released in 2005 and Trosper, a faux golden book with DVD by Bill Frisell, in 2002. A new work Congress of the Animals is due in May 2011 from Seattle-based publisher Fantagraphics.
-Don Walsh
Don Walsh is collector and reader of comics.He has been an attendee at SPX since the second one back in the mid-1990′s and is also a long time volunteer.
