The Complete C Comics

Brainard, Joe

ISBN 10: 1681379872 / ISBN 13: 9781681379876

Published by New York Review Books (edition ), 2025

It's a well-cared-for item that has seen limited use. The item may show minor signs of wear. All the text is legible, with all pages included. It may have slight markings and/or highlighting. Seller Inventory # 1681379872-8-1

Synopsis:

“PEOPLE OF THE WORLD… RELAX!”

In the creative hotbed of 1960s New York, Joe Brainard was a whirlwind. He was a maker of paintings, assemblages, collages, book covers, poetry reading fliers, and more. But some of his most exciting work was done with his friends. In 1964, the twenty-two year old Brainard turned his talents to rewiring the lowly comic book form into something new and surprising. He invited his friends Frank O'Hara, Ted Berrigan, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Peter Schjeldahl, Anne Waldman, Ron Padgett, and others—all of them New York School poets—to collaborate with him on comics that they would write and he would draw.

The results were unlike any comics seen before. Previously available only on the rare-book market (at very high prices) but available here under one cover for the first time, the two issues of C Comics still feel as fresh as when the first page rolled off the mimeograph machine over sixty years ago. Brainard’s energetic line and joyful humor charge across every page, illustrating Frank O’Hara's recasting of a cowboy as a mash note–writing lover, Ron Padgett’s experiments with traditional cartoon sound effects (ROAR! GRRR! SKREE!), surprising cameos by Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy, and heaps of Dadaesque delights.

This edition includes a foreword from Padgett and an essay by comics historian Bill Kartalopolous, who details the creation (and creators) of C Comics. A masterpiece of collaboration and spontaneity, C Comics is a testament to the vastness of Brainard’s creativity and his ability to push any artistic form in a new and powerful direction.

About the Author: Joe Brainard (1942-1994) was an artist and writer known for his groundbreaking assemblages, drawings, and paintings, and for his influential memoir I Remember.

Bill Kartalopoulos is a New York-based comics critic, educator, curator, and editor.

Ron Padgett, a prize-winning poet and translator, has translated the poetry of Pierre Reverdy, Valery Larbaud, Blaise Cendrars, and, for NYRB Poets, Apollinaire. Pink Dust, his most recent collection of poems, is available from NYRB Poets. He lives in Vermont and New York City.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Complete C Comics
Publisher: New York Review Books (edition )
Publication Date: 2025
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good