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The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen
A well-known personality in the comics world, Denis Kitchen has worn many publisher, founder of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and literary and art agent. But his career as a pioneering underground comix artist has been overdue for rediscovery - until now! The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen, the long-awaited collection of Kitchen's comics, covers, and illustrations, brings Kitchen the artist to the forefront. A comprehensive career overview, this compendium includes approximately two hundred illustrations, most unseen since their original publication in the late '60s and early '70s, and many from regional publications not seen even by serious comix fans. Featuring an introduction by Neil Gaiman, and an expansive, career-spanning essay by CBLDF executive director Charles Brownstein, The Oddly Compelling Art is both a fond look back for underground comix aficionados and an excellent introduction for new fans of Kitchen's body of work!
200 pages, Hardcover
First published July 6, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 8, 2013
This overview of Denis Kitchen's remarkable life in underground comics includes a lengthy biographical essay by Charles Brownstein in the front (copiously illustrated), followed by even more comics, artwork, photos etc chronologically covering Kitchen's output as both an artist and as a publisher.
As a Midwesterner born and bred it was refreshing to hear the story of UG comics and the turbulent 60's and 70's told through the lens of the Midwest (where Kitchen primarily lived), and as a contemporary "UG" cartoonist, it was interesting and heartening to hear about Kitchen's ups and downs as he worked his way through his career.
There are many parallels I think between the mid-70's UG Implosion and today's alt/art-comix glut -- the morass of low-quality material, the lack of appropriate distribution, publishers and artists making great work yet continually hanging by a thread, that I think all current alt-cartoonists and publishers would do well to examine this history.
As a Midwesterner born and bred it was refreshing to hear the story of UG comics and the turbulent 60's and 70's told through the lens of the Midwest (where Kitchen primarily lived), and as a contemporary "UG" cartoonist, it was interesting and heartening to hear about Kitchen's ups and downs as he worked his way through his career.
There are many parallels I think between the mid-70's UG Implosion and today's alt/art-comix glut -- the morass of low-quality material, the lack of appropriate distribution, publishers and artists making great work yet continually hanging by a thread, that I think all current alt-cartoonists and publishers would do well to examine this history.
August 14, 2015
An art book, a cartoon/comic art book. It begins with an illustrated forty-eight page essay before opening into the art of Denis Kitchen, from 1963 high school to the 2009 abandoned cover art for this book. The largest concentration of Kitchen's art happened from 1968-78, with the first five years taking place in Milwaukee. 1969-75 represented the underground years. It is this period that comes across as the most fun, vital and edgy.
Kitchen graduated in '68 from UWM with a degree in journalism. Two years later, he co-founded The Bugle-American, the second of two underground papers in Milwaukee. He liked the East Side, where he became a pillar of the community.
In 1972, The Milwaukee Journal asked Kitchen for a magazine feature to publish in its Sunday magazine. Kitchen drew a four-page fake expose of Milwaukee's underground life and economy. A six-page spread in this book includes the cover of that magazine as well as the original drawings and layouts of the four-page comic. Kitchen was thrilled that his work published 500,000 copies that Sunday.
His brother worked for a new moving company in Milwaukee at the time. Denis drew the cartoon logo for the company and wrote its catchphrase: "The Potentate of Totin' Freight," which still appears on Hernia's moving vans. That's a bonus anecdote that does not appear in the book.
His wife wanted to join the back-to-the-land movement, so the Kitchens moved in 1973 to Princeton, in rural Wisconsin, where he operated Kitchen Sink Press.
Good, quick fun with a detailed inside history of Milwaukee's underground and hippie era as well as interesting tales about comic book publishing. Three and a half stars. This is not for the tender-hearted or the kids. The underground era included drugs and free love, which Denis gleefully depicts.
Denis Kitchen, last month, headlined the opening reception of the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning:
http://overbookedandunderpaid.typepad...
I walked into the reception carrying this book then chatted up Denis Kitchen. He uncapped his fountain pen and graciously asked if I wanted him to sign the book. I said that it belongs to the library. Good, he said. Then inscribed the book with a dedication to the library.
Denis Kitchen made his name in and an impact on Milwaukee. Ironically, the book was published in the other Milwaukie (Oregon) in 2010.
Kitchen graduated in '68 from UWM with a degree in journalism. Two years later, he co-founded The Bugle-American, the second of two underground papers in Milwaukee. He liked the East Side, where he became a pillar of the community.
In 1972, The Milwaukee Journal asked Kitchen for a magazine feature to publish in its Sunday magazine. Kitchen drew a four-page fake expose of Milwaukee's underground life and economy. A six-page spread in this book includes the cover of that magazine as well as the original drawings and layouts of the four-page comic. Kitchen was thrilled that his work published 500,000 copies that Sunday.
His brother worked for a new moving company in Milwaukee at the time. Denis drew the cartoon logo for the company and wrote its catchphrase: "The Potentate of Totin' Freight," which still appears on Hernia's moving vans. That's a bonus anecdote that does not appear in the book.
His wife wanted to join the back-to-the-land movement, so the Kitchens moved in 1973 to Princeton, in rural Wisconsin, where he operated Kitchen Sink Press.
Good, quick fun with a detailed inside history of Milwaukee's underground and hippie era as well as interesting tales about comic book publishing. Three and a half stars. This is not for the tender-hearted or the kids. The underground era included drugs and free love, which Denis gleefully depicts.
Denis Kitchen, last month, headlined the opening reception of the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning:
http://overbookedandunderpaid.typepad...
I walked into the reception carrying this book then chatted up Denis Kitchen. He uncapped his fountain pen and graciously asked if I wanted him to sign the book. I said that it belongs to the library. Good, he said. Then inscribed the book with a dedication to the library.
Denis Kitchen made his name in and an impact on Milwaukee. Ironically, the book was published in the other Milwaukie (Oregon) in 2010.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews