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Jules Feiffer and Autistic America
BY R. c. HARVEY IN THEFALL OF 1959,I mademyfiistvisit
Not ,hen.
to GreenwichVill,ge,,hen considered the Bohemiancapitalof artisticandliteraryAmerica.Afterblundering,round the raffishcrazyquiltof iu streeuforseveral houis,I foundmyselfatChristopher Street andSeventhAvenuewithmyb.ickto the old Limelightcoffeehouse,and there,acrossSheridanSqu,re,emblazonedover windowsthat had oncebeenstorefrontdisplayforsome departedmercantile enterprise,wasa sign withafumili,rnameplate- "TheVillage Voice,"itsaid,the"Voice"brgerthanthe lowercase"Village,"whichwasconfined to a box thatextendedbehindthe capital "V" of the free-standing "Voice." 1didn't knowit at the time,but the Voiu hadbeen in thesedigsfor lessthan a ye,,, havingoutgrownthe two-room walk-upabove Sutter's Groceryat 22 GreenwichAvenue that had been its birthplacein October 1955.I had been anoccasionalreaderof the weeklypaper sincesometimein 1957,whena cohort who workedin the referenceroom of the libraryat myalmamaterhad drawn my attentionto i,. So it wassatisfying,
Not now.
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Then, Feiffer'scartoonwas a st:IIdinglydifferentlookingenterprise.No C other cartoonistproducedanythinglike O it. Althoughit consistedof asuccession of imageslike the conventionalsequential "strip,"Feilferscomed thetradition:ll panel bordersof newspapercomicstrips,drop• ping picturC$of his actoisand actresses into an otherwiseunclutteredoceanof whitespace.And insteadof speechballoons,he merelyclusteredthe verbiageof his characters'utterancesaround their heads,asingleslantedlinepointingto the speaker, The comedy of his cartoons was equallyunusual.No v,udcvilli,nboffolas here,nopratfalls or custardpies.No puns, either.Instead.wehadchorusafterchorus of theold "bait-and-switch" asostensibly hipcharacters engagedin eruditeconv<rsationsor monologuesthatendedby revealingtheirself-absorption ,nd culrural shallowness. Feilfer'scharacteiswerealwaystalking. But none of them ever listened. Feilf<r's cartoonshavebeendescribed somehow, to h3vc chanced upon the as "comicnightmares,bitingvignettesof famili,r logotypeand ,o realizethat I contemporary lifeas it isexperienced and was, as I stood there acrossthe street explainedawayby sensitiveadults,beatfromthatbuilding,withinitsaura,so to niks,precociouschildrenand politicians. speak, and breathing the very air of The introspectiveadultsare by far the iconoclasmthat had distinguishedthe mostfrequentlyportrayed,theywho,acVoiusince its founding. cordingto Ncwsu,eek, have 'ralionalized Havingrectntlyescapedthe Boulder HostileGroupattitudC$' andarctrying10 campusof the Univcisiryof Color.ido,I find 1hen1SclvC$." In dramatizingtheir wasin NewYorkmarkingtimeuntilthe search,Feilferrippedaway,he hypocrisy SelectiveServicesaw fit to pounce. In and sham of 1he intellectualfads that thosedays,no molecouldmakea serious preoccupiedso manyof the creativepostartat a c:ireerwhile underthe threatof seursin the Village(and, as it proved, imminentdraft,so I thoughtI'd fillwhat ehewhcre). monthsof libertyremainedto me by Whenthe fim collectionof hiscarfrecbncingcartoonsin 1heBig Apple,I toons was publishedin 1958, Gilbert eventuaUysolda fewbutnoneatthe Voic,. Millstein,reviewingthe book for TI1t Factis, I didn'teven try to sellany- Nt"' YorkTimts,appbudedthecartoonis1 thing at TI,e Villagt Vofrt.In common - "aloneandunafraidinaworldnudeof with manynewly-minted collegegradu- the macrocephalic bromidesof psycho3les,I didn'tknowmuch;but I knewth>t analysis, avant-gardism, progressive schoolmysenseof humorwasn'thipenoughfor ing,thehideousnuancesofcocktail-party this paper.BC$ides, it alre>dyhad a car- conve1SJtion. politics,television,togethtoonist.It wasto•dmirehisworkthat I'd erness,and the carefulconformism of the become•n occasional readerof the Voice, equallycarefuloutrageous." and I knewfora certaintythatI wasn'tin AlShepard,mylibrarianfriend,and I the sameleagueasJulesFeilfer. had workedon the campushumormagaBut then, no one was in the same zine,171tFlntirou, whichhadbeenbanned leagueas Feilfer. in1hefallofl 955-coincidemally,jus,as
COMICSKXJRNAI
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