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1001 COMICS MINI-SITE

Even with 960 pages, I couldn't squeeze all the material I had into my book 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die. This mini-site is designed to supplement that book with updates, additional information and links... but obviously you'll still need a copy of the book!

Introduction | Reviewers | Have Your Say
Titles | Creators | Years | Countries | Genres | Updates

Binky Brown Meets The Holy Virgin Mary

by Justin Green

Original publisher: Last Gasp (USA)
First published: 1972
Reviewed by: Sarah Lightman
Genre: Autobiographical, Religion, Underground Comix

Recommendations:

Justin Green - he’s out of his mind. I love every stroke of his nervous pen, every tortured scratch he ever scrawled. He was among the top storytelling artists of the first wave of ‘underground’ comics, a darkly humorous social commentator, and the FIRST, absolutely the FIRST EVER cartoonist to draw highly personal autobiographical comics. Binky Brown started many other cartoonists along the same path, myself included. Few have come close to him in revealing themselves in this medium. For me, there’s nothing more enjoyable than the confessions of a tortured soul, if the story is well-told, entertaining, honest, and then funny on top of it. If that’s what you’re looking for, and if you like it in comic book form, Justin Green is the first and the best! - Robert Crumb

Thank God that it’s getting harder to imagine a time when comics were a lowly commercial hack-job for illustrators who couldn’t find work anywhere else. It’s even harder to imagine the effect of a comic book in such a cultural climate by an artist who tore himself to pieces right on the page, trying to get at the core of something that was literally consuming him, but this is what Justin Green did. With Binky Brown, comics went practically overnight from being an artform that saw from the outside in to one that sees from the inside out. His internal struggle can practically be felt in the drawings themselves, the style sometimes changing from panel to panel - sometimes even within the panels themselves - all in an effort to simply arrive at The Truth. Comics wouldn’t be what they are today without this book, and this new edition places it in its proper place in the comics literary canon. Thank God for Binky Brown. And thank God for Justin Green. - Chris Ware

Other Editions:

McSweeney’s, USA, 2009

Links:
Justin Green
McSweeney's

 

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Comics Art by Paul Gravett from Tate Publishing





Comics Unmasked by Paul Gravett and John Harris Dunning from The British Library




1001 Comics  You Must Read Before You Die edited by Paul Gravett


All contents © Paul Gravett, except where noted.
All artwork © the respective copyright holders.